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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: CALLING: Stop The Show!
« on: Mar 29, 2011, 05:32 pm »
Telling this one on myself since I have kept shows moving thru light and sound board crashes, injuries, missing props and any number of other interesting occurrences.
Had an interesting experience this past weekend -
As were were going thru the blackout at TOS, a senior audience member refused to be late-sat in the holding section (her seats were in the front row, dagnabit!) and about 1-2 minutes later and she proudly forced the usher to seat her down front, missed that one small step up and fell into the "moat" between the stage and the seats. It's only a one-step drop but she didn't get up right away. As noted, we were about 1-2 minutes into the show at that point and I held an actor's entrance until I cd see whether she was ok - she wasn't standing up - but my light board op (who is the onsite rep in charge and the de facto "dad" for the space) told me to keep going. I took one more moment to scan, all while getting harrassed on headset to continue. So after another breath of making sure the woman was ok, the next 7-10 minutes were spent with half the audience enjoying the show and the other half focused on what the heck was going on down front as 5 patrons helped her up into a seat and the house EMT brought her a chair and ice pack to prop up her leg. At intermission, when I went down to make sure my actors were ok, one said "it's your show you should'a stopped it" - as if he thinks I am this wanky weak SM because the guy in charge overrode me on a judgment call guessing from 4 flights above the house. I was frustrated and annoyed - as much at being ignored by my LBO as the comment by my actor. We finished the show with everything smoothed out (BTW the patron was fine, walked out on her own) but I still think I should have had the last word in terms of stopping and re-starting the show, esp as we were only a few minutes into it - and am thinking of ways it might have been handled better by all, including me, without hanging up the actors and the audience any more than necessary.
Had an interesting experience this past weekend -
As were were going thru the blackout at TOS, a senior audience member refused to be late-sat in the holding section (her seats were in the front row, dagnabit!) and about 1-2 minutes later and she proudly forced the usher to seat her down front, missed that one small step up and fell into the "moat" between the stage and the seats. It's only a one-step drop but she didn't get up right away. As noted, we were about 1-2 minutes into the show at that point and I held an actor's entrance until I cd see whether she was ok - she wasn't standing up - but my light board op (who is the onsite rep in charge and the de facto "dad" for the space) told me to keep going. I took one more moment to scan, all while getting harrassed on headset to continue. So after another breath of making sure the woman was ok, the next 7-10 minutes were spent with half the audience enjoying the show and the other half focused on what the heck was going on down front as 5 patrons helped her up into a seat and the house EMT brought her a chair and ice pack to prop up her leg. At intermission, when I went down to make sure my actors were ok, one said "it's your show you should'a stopped it" - as if he thinks I am this wanky weak SM because the guy in charge overrode me on a judgment call guessing from 4 flights above the house. I was frustrated and annoyed - as much at being ignored by my LBO as the comment by my actor. We finished the show with everything smoothed out (BTW the patron was fine, walked out on her own) but I still think I should have had the last word in terms of stopping and re-starting the show, esp as we were only a few minutes into it - and am thinking of ways it might have been handled better by all, including me, without hanging up the actors and the audience any more than necessary.