Messages

676

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: FORMS: shows with lots of props

« on: Apr 29, 2011, 10:58 am »

ahh - I get it - back a million years ago when I toured, all the folks who moved things came from the carps team, with those assigned to props then so named rather than there being separate props vs carps departments. But I know backstage at CTG the folks who move props are the props guys etc - don't know if I was misinformed or labels have changed, but either way, yes in a union show specific people who are not stage management handle setting/handing off etc so the running paperwork has to be supremely detailed.

677

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: FORMS: shows with lots of props

« on: Apr 29, 2011, 03:03 am »

in reviewing the responses - to clarify, you are asking abt performance and not rehearsal, yes? Because of course in rehearsal you are developing scene by scene and all those other things mentioned by megf and others. For me, making two lists (the master and the running chart w presets and props per scene) which get rebuilt until we open (and sometimes longer) makes my brain less tired, that's all - and helps me make sure everything is on the list.

Ruth - my experience w larger IA houses is that I provide the lists but the carps handle the props and furniture themselves - all the hand-offs and sets and clears, other than those preset in costumes which is handled by wardrobe. We have had the occasional compromise but mostly in emergencies or special circumstances. Do you have other experience to share?

678

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROPS: Is there really an easy way to break glass on stage?

« on: Apr 28, 2011, 03:44 pm »

Breakaway glass is expensive and sharp, but far less dangerous than real glass.

I have had to break glass and plates onstage in small houses on a couple of occasions. I highly recommend thick glass/ceramic and pre-scoring whatever is to break. Ideally, it breaks along scored lines and you can glue it back together each nite, so it continues to break in the same place over and over again. You will need tons of back-up but we had plates and a few jars done this way last a week of shows. And we had enough to replace nightly if it didn't break cleanly. IMPORTANT: Make sure the toss is way upstage - I did a play in an 80 seat house which had a gunshot "breaking" a prescored bottle sitting on a rigged spot about 4 feet from the downstage lip. One night a piece exploded into the house - a direction it had never gone after over 100 tries over performances and rehearsals. Anything is possible, and you certainly don't want to kill your audience members!

679

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: FORMS: shows with lots of props

« on: Apr 28, 2011, 03:37 pm »

spreadsheets are your friend

I build a master prop list, then break it down by where it lives before the show (and, eventually, where it ends up) and then divvy up by that - routing the most convenient way for all.

Of course, in a large union show this is done by carps, but for those of us still doing it on our own, it depends on how much help you have. If I have no crew (or only one person) the breakdown will be different than if I have SR/SL and board ops. Maybe one person does onstage and SR while another does SL and costume props. For one really big show, my sound person built food props while my two crew members were setting everything else. And even tho it's proscribed, I often lend a hand - and I always do the final onstage check after I make sure all crew have eyeballed as well. You'd be surprised what gets overlooked without that 2nd or 3rd set of eyes.

680

Employment / Re: Civilian Jobs?

« on: Apr 25, 2011, 02:48 am »

I apologize for not remembering the specific words that would allow me to search this, but we have had a couple of lengthy discussions on this topic, from things folks do for fun to jobs SMs take to keep a roof over their heads while working in theater (community or union). You might do a little wandering (I will continue to see if I can stumble on the magic combination of words as well) because there were some great responses you might want to read. Here are two links I found that may be useful as well -

http://smnetwork.org/forum/index.php/topic,5748.msg35187.html#msg35187
http://smnetwork.org/forum/index.php/topic,5293.msg35092.html#msg35092

681

Employment / Re: Civilian Resume?

« on: Apr 21, 2011, 01:48 am »

I will see if I can find the link to a workshop I saw about translating SM skills into "civilian" resumes, but start by thinking about your skills the way, say, women who run households and raise kids translate skills. Time management, multitasking, handling challenging situations, teamwork, leadership, problem solving. Scheduling. Dealing with egos and emergencies. Not counting detail oriented, finishing what you start and even basics like writing reports and math! Remove the stage aspect and take a look at the bigger picture, and you will be able to see the skills you can offer and start thinking about where you want to apply them.

682

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: SAFETY: Food allergies in rehearsal

« on: Apr 20, 2011, 01:09 pm »

It shd never, ever affect casting. But it can make life ... interesting for props and backstage crew.

683

Employment / Re: To Break or Not to Break

« on: Apr 20, 2011, 12:34 am »

well, once again presuming congrats on what ought to be exciting and fun and a new adventure (I love musicals most of all)

684

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: COMMUNICATION: Giving notes to young actors

« on: Apr 18, 2011, 01:33 am »

This topic has been discussed at length, and I don't think we need to rehash what's already been said. However, I keep seeing people assigning the ASM to care for the kids - this concerns me. I want a kid wrangler to handle the kids (or assigned parents), but I want my ASM to be able to do ASM duties and be backstage, not responsible for watching kids.

685

Tools of the Trade / Re: Fight certification

« on: Apr 15, 2011, 08:36 pm »

I am grateful for my dance and (albeit limited) fight background, because I end up being the person who watches nightly and sometimes has to correct things in the preshow fight call - not that I shd be the fight captain, but good that I know enough to see there is a problem and have some idea how to fix it - OR if we have to reblock for special circumstances I can help adjust safely.

686

Tools of the Trade / Re: Prop Wine Recipe Needed

« on: Apr 15, 2011, 03:51 pm »

sorry I don't have link and running, but there was a huge discussion online you can search....

687

Employment / Re: Websites

« on: Apr 15, 2011, 01:19 pm »

My issue w stagejobspro is that you can't attach or upload a resume; rather, you have to type in show by show. This is fine if you are a newer SM with fewer credits and sites to add. It's a pain if you are even a little more experienced. And so far, I haven't seen a lot of really great jobs on the site. But (of course) that could change....

688

The Hardline / Re: More on the attacks on unions

« on: Apr 14, 2011, 09:33 pm »

(I know Fox will never retract, just feels like...well, preaching to the choir - I would love to find a way to make the folks they are pandering to sit up and take notice)

689

The Hardline / Re: More on the attacks on unions

« on: Apr 14, 2011, 07:16 pm »

they need to read this on FOX, not on Broadway World where we all know this already - appreciate the gracious and thoughtful (and relatively non-incendiary) reply, but it needs to go to the folks who need to hear it!

690

The Green Room / Re: How to recover from mistakes

« on: Apr 11, 2011, 09:56 pm »

yes, we have a book and call the cues, but even the best folks make mistakes occasionally - my best board op has, albeit only 1-2 times over 10 shows, anticipated or oops'd a GO - not counting the times computers have crashed, props have broken at the last moment or gone missing, etc and we take the blame - I got yelled at recently for missing a cue sequence that happens during a line the actor jumped.