Messages

91

The Green Room / Re: ARTICLE: Bad career adivce "Doing What We Love"

« on: Jun 12, 2011, 08:30 pm »

As always, I totally agree with Matthew; I would only add that sometimes, when the going gets as rough as it can, my love for theatre and my passion for good stage management is what pulls me through.  And since I will never be able to afford to retire, I'd better keep that love and passion to sustain me until my time comes.  I fully expect to die in harness.

I guess that's my interpretation of "mature love".  I have married this career, it's a vocation (as BalletPSM said); I believe that what we do is good for everyone. 

I completely agree that "do what you love" is horrible advice.  But "love what you do" is, I think, essential; having seen a previous generation stick in careers they actively hated until they could retire.  I think that's a wasted life.

92

The Green Room / Re: Future

« on: Jun 10, 2011, 04:45 pm »

dancer-sm,

Maybe the question you're asking is something like "If I go be the lawyer I've always wanted to be, does that mean I never get to see the inside of a theatre again?"

I have known some lawyers who enjoy doing one show a year at community theatres.  They were all actors, of course, but they did have the time and they really enjoyed the performance.  I don't know if a lawyer could also SM or not at that level, but I suspect they could.  And the theatre would probably be happy to have you.

93

The Green Room / Re: What would you do, with a grant for SMing...

« on: May 29, 2011, 07:49 pm »

Part of my financial aid package in grad school was an expense account (it wasn't $5K, but it seemed like a lot to me).  I used it to create and stock my SM Kit and that's lasted me about 8 years now.

I also applied, after grad school, for a grant that allowed me financially to SM a musical in a community theatre, as my grad school program didn't provide that opportunity that I determined was a necessary part of my education.

94

The Green Room / Re: Any other crafters out there?

« on: Apr 27, 2011, 05:54 pm »

I learned to knit a couple of years ago and had a great time with it, it's a fantastic activity for ASM's in particular.  It keeps you so much more involved in the show when you're backstage than, say, reading, because it's not a language-based activity.

I'm almost through all twenty of the Patrick O'Brian novels and am starting to research model ship-building.  I'm very interested in the detail-oriented fine work involved.  Maybe I can start building my own models in 2012.

95

The Hardline / Re: Periodic Performance Contract

« on: Apr 05, 2011, 09:05 pm »

Heath - funny you should say that. Stephen is actually one of my 3 actors.

I should have known.  If someone's putting up a show for no money in San Francisco, it's probably got Stephen in the cast.

96

The Hardline / Re: Prompt Script Etiquette

« on: Apr 05, 2011, 11:36 am »

BayAreaSM, was the co-production a world premiere?  Rights of first refusal are attached to the first production of new material, aren't they?

That's separate from your prompt-book question, though.  I agree with Matthew, call the AEA rep and discuss.  Or maybe VSM here on the boards would have some insight.

97

The Hardline / Re: Periodic Performance Contract

« on: Apr 05, 2011, 11:31 am »

At first I misunderstood you, and thought you were referring to a BAPP code.

I've never worked under Periodic Performance, but Stephen Pawley knows those small codes and agreements inside out.  PM me if you want his contact info.

98

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROMPT BOOKS - using both script and libretto

« on: Apr 04, 2011, 03:38 pm »

SMWags11,

Your show might have closed by now, but can I ask if I understood you correctly?  Are you saying that the book scenes - the spoken dialogue scenes in between song numbers - were not printed in the piano score?  And that you would have called from the libretto instead - a text document that included all the lyrics and all the spoken dialogue scenes - but some of your designers wanted you to take cues from particular music notes or beats?

What did you end up doing?

99

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Unpaid Interns, Complicit Colleges

« on: Apr 03, 2011, 09:44 pm »

Is there a way to see the results of the poll without actually voting yourself?  I click "view results" and the page just reloads.

100

The Hardline / Re: More on the attacks on unions

« on: Apr 02, 2011, 09:25 pm »

Matthew,  I'll agree that unions are run by fallible people who may just as easily overreach as those on the other side of the table.  However, I'm not going to complain about any concession one of the seventeen Broadway unions has won from the League; I don't know the culture or history of those unions as well as I know AEA.  I just know that I have their back because I assume they have mine. 

It seems to me that whatever comes out of a negotiation IS fair because it was the result of talks between two entities of roughly equal power.  We can't be employed if they don't invest; they can't profit if we won't work for them.  The Fox guest was complaining about the cost of things because he decided he had a profit-making idea before he tallied up the union costs.  I'm assuming the projection-on-the-back-wall thing was a minimum-call situation; a four-hour call for two technicians, or some such thing.  If the producer had been smart enough to include that idea in the build of the show, it wouldn't have cost him a thing; complaining about minimum calls now (if that is what he's doing) is just petty, and evidence of him needing lessons in how to produce theatre.  Complaining about the cost of installing cameras and HD tvs to correct an obstructed view situation just shows that he had no concept of what a major overhaul like that would take.  It reminds me of the director saying to the sound engineer, "Why don't we just buy Bose speakers for the auditorium? They sound great in my living room!" "Well, when we do a show in your living room, we can use those speakers."  There's a complete lack of understanding of the difference between consumer electronics and professional electronics.

101

The Hardline / Re: More on the attacks on unions

« on: Apr 02, 2011, 04:19 pm »

The producer must have come to the negotiating table and lost.  IATSE is very strong, especially in NYC, as we all know.  This is just him whining about losing negotiations.  What are the stats now - 10% of our country's labor force is unionized, and 60% of that is public sector workers?  Producers aren't used to having to negotiate with labor, they offer ridiculously low wages and say take it or leave it - in an unorganized environment and with unemployment being what it is, they'll easily get workers.  But when the workers band together in a union; say we won't negotiate unless you open your books to us; and win a fair price for skilled labor; then it's the union's fault the business isn't making as much money as they want to.

The guy in the video thought he knew better than hundreds of theatrical professionals, simply because he had money.  It's time this country understood where the real capital is - in the hands of its human labor.

102

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: RUNNING: How do you decide when to cancel a performance?

« on: Mar 20, 2011, 12:21 pm »

In London when I was a student I went to a one-man play above a pub - it was only a 25- or 30-seat house, if that.  I paid 4 pounds at the bottom of the stairs to two women (I assume one was the box office and the other was the house manager), went up the stairs and sat down.  About 15 minutes later, the two women closed the doors behind me and sat down in the back row.  I was the only paying member of the audience.

The performer never made eye-contact with me, but played sort of over the audience or to the side of where I was sitting.  I was only about nine feet from him, but had no idea who he was as a person or why he was doing this.  I tried to follow the story, but felt very self-conscious the entire time.

I'm glad it was a one-act, I probably would have high-tailed it at intermission.  I clapped politely at the curtain call, and I think the actor smiled and nodded to me at that point. When the house lights came up, I simply said "thank you" and walked out of the pub.  As an audience member, the whole thing gave me the creeps.

Looking back on it, I think that if the house manager had come up to me before the show, maybe introduced me to the actor face-to-face, and the three of us together had decided whether or not the show was going on, I would have been much more comfortable with the whole situation.  I wouldn't have come back for another performance (I was seeing four other plays that weekend) so I probably would have stayed; but knowing the whole time that I was the only paying member of the audience (if you can call four pounds "paying" - it seemed more like a tip) made me wonder how much the cast & SM wanted to run the show that night.

103

The Green Room / Re: Too big for our breeches: Server update and poll

« on: Mar 16, 2011, 11:29 am »

Jumping off of nmno's suggestion, I think you could easily whip up a decent amount of cash from a "Producer's Ring" of people, particularly those of us with consistent jobs.  I, for instance, would happily donate $100 every year to keep this site up and running (as soon as my paychecks start coming in from my current job).

My favorite podcast, Citzen Radio (www.wearecitizenradio.com, does all of its programming for free and has over 400 subscribers that keep the thing afloat.  They have a tiered subscription model so that people who can only afford $10 a month can still feel like they're contributing, all the way up to $50 a month for those who really support the show - and the premium members get thanked by name every show.  Maybe a moderator can whip up a Café Press t-shirt or coffee mug, and members can get some swag for subscribing? 

Since you're not looking to make a living off of smnetwork, Kay, I bet you would be surprised how much fundraising you could do, just off of us long-timers.  In fact, I was hoping to wait until next month for my own financial reasons, but if you tell us that you need cash right now to alleviate the server problem, I'll do my part with the Donate button (thanks ChaCha!).  I bet others would also.

104

Employment / Re: LA TIMES ARTICLE: Unpaid Internships

« on: Mar 16, 2011, 11:16 am »

I think that was what "The Pursuit of Happyness" was about, wasn't it?  Didn't Will Smith's character go through an unpaid internship while living in bathrooms?

105

The Hardline / Re: SM Subcommittee forming

« on: Mar 09, 2011, 09:03 am »

AEA sent out an e-mail blast this week advertising the March 28th networking event.  I'd planned for 48 stage managers (both AEA and non-union) and at the moment, 42 have applied!  I'm hoping I can start a waitlist this weekend.