Messages

91

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: CALLING: Light Board restart WWYD?

« on: Sep 30, 2010, 04:00 pm »

Similar to normierae, this situation happened for the invited dress of my current show.   However, we did hold the show.  We use SYMTE, and so the light board runs all of video and some sound as well.  We were about to go into a heavy video piece when our light board froze, and without the video, the piece wouldn't really make any sense.  So we held until the board re-booted and then started from the beginning of the piece that we left off with.

In our case, this was the only option, but I could see how in a different show, our options could have varied....

92

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: SCENERY: Video

« on: Sep 25, 2010, 01:18 pm »

I agree with MatthewShiner, most of the time to pull it off you need a large budget. 

The show I'm currently working on is one of those - we have the "video wall" technology being used by the major concert tours.  The upstage wall is a complete LED screen, while we have 4 more smaller video walls that fly in and out, and a hi-res video screen that is automated and can split into three different sections (each section travels horizontally and vertically).  We also have a rear projector to project onto a cyc.  It is really amazing what the designer and programmer made this show into with all the technology, and it works so very very well.  But I've also been involved with much smaller productions where projections were used, and not nearly as efficiently.

93

Tools of the Trade / Re: Running Shoes

« on: Sep 13, 2010, 05:43 pm »

I've had the same pair of black shoes for the last 3 years (well 3 different pairs, but I keep ordering the same ones) and they are great!  Shoesforcrews.com is where I got them, and I have the "athena" style.  I can stand on my feet all day, and do 3 shows in 1 day, and they are still extremely comfy.  Plus they are super slip resistant, which is important in particular for my extremely messy show.

94

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: TOURING: Touring tax question

« on: Jul 01, 2010, 12:49 pm »

Thanks for the advice all.  I am planning on talking to a tax professional (if they ever get back to me, but that's another story), just figured I'd see if anyone else on these boards had a similar issue...

95

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / TOURING: Touring tax question

« on: Jun 20, 2010, 04:48 pm »

I was just hired to go out on my first tour - which I am so very excited for!  I do have a bit of a complicated tax question, and figured I would throw it out to this community and see if anyone had encountered a similar situation. 

The tour is for a year - July 29th 2010 through July 31st 2011.  The schedule is yet to be completely finalized, but it looks as though we will only have about 2 layoff weeks.  I am subletting my apartment In New Jersey for the duration of the tour (my lease ends on March 31st 2011), and will be using my friend's address for my mail.  Obviously, I will need to pay state taxes until I leave for the tour and after I come back, but my question is whether I will have to pay state taxes on my tour income considering I will be spending no time in my home state, and really, after March 2011 won't technically have a 'home'.

96

The Green Room / Re: Tony Awards

« on: Jun 16, 2010, 01:25 am »

Thanks RuthNY for that info, it's very comforting to know that the theater professionals actually do put on a great live show, and that it was just the TV broadcast that was funky!

97

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Labtop vs. Pencil and Script/Notepad

« on: Jun 16, 2010, 01:20 am »

Hey all - though I've been reading posts on this site for awhile, this is my first post....so here goes!

I like FallenRain, am surprised that so many stage managers have such an aversion to using a laptop in the rehearsal room.

I take blocking with pencil and paper, but use my laptop to keep track of notes that come up for the rehearsal report.  At the end of the night, I still review the report before I send it out in case there were changes during the rehearsal, and to put ideas together (like missliz said), but it really cuts down on the time I spend each night putting the report together.  It is also very amazing at helping me to take accurate line notes in the case that I don't have an ASM.

I keep my laptop closed until I need to use it and then close it again (or rather keep it mostly closed so it doesn't take awhile to load), so there is no confusion about what I am doing on the laptop and no problem with not being present in the rehearsal room.  I've never heard any complaints about the keyboard noise as my keyboard is pretty quiet as long as you don't bang on the keys.

As far as getting distracted by facebook or other things, FallenRain said it well.  We are Stage Managers and our job requires us to multi-task and be on point at all times.  If one can't multi-task or avoid distractions while using the computer, then one probably can't do it with pencil and paper.