Messages

91

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: A Difficult Designer

« on: Jan 31, 2013, 08:37 pm »

How do I respond in a professional tone, considering 1) the schedule was not my making 2) we can't change the schedule at this point and 3) He does tend to complain a lot, and I have heard no complaints regarding the schedule from my cast ?

Insofar as he's whining or being petulant, don't respond at all. You're running a theatre, not a Finishing School for Proper Young Ladies And Gentlemen. It's not your job to set him straight or "fix" his rude outbursts, and no good will come of assuming the responsibility.

Insofar as he's asked for additional information, provide it the same as you would anyone else.

Insfoar as he has valid complaints which go over your head (about the schedule or otherwise), those ought to be referred to the person responsible. (Producer? PM? Director?)

92

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Pointers for handling large numbers of props?

« on: Jan 27, 2013, 01:27 pm »

I would also strongly encourage you (especially if this is community theatre or semi-professional) to really, really drive home that props, generally, are not toys. These artifacts are absolutely vital to the show, and unless you're literally about to walk on stage holding it, you should not be touching, fiddling with, trying on, experimenting with, playing with or otherwise interfering with any of the props.

That is how props get broken, and when actors break props by idly fiddling with them, stage managers get license to break actors.

93

The Green Room / Re: Tax Season!

« on: Jan 22, 2013, 06:30 pm »

One of my old professors had some great advice: get yourself a day-planner. Even if you don't plan ahead, use it as a diary. Track everything you might want to deduct down the line.

For example: "11:30: Lunch with Beth Rowlands. ($11.26, Peach Tree Cafe) Discussed her plans for the next season, was invited to apply for a position."

Such a situation may be deductible (it would be deductible in my non-American jurisdiction), but the receipt alone might not stand up to an audit: the fact that you had spaghetti bolognese with a Sprite doesn't prove it was a business meeting. If you have a meticulously-kept planner with that information, the deduction is yours.

94

The Green Room / Re: Tax Season!

« on: Jan 21, 2013, 05:24 pm »

Do you have any specific questions?

95

The Green Room / Re: Weirdest Item In Your Kit

« on: Jan 20, 2013, 08:22 am »

I keep an old-fashioned tally clicker in my kit. A thousand and one (perhaps up to 9999?) uses, yet nobody seems to carry them any more.

Now I'm curious. What do you use it for?

Aside from the thousands of times I've had to idly count things (the clicker is especially useful when you might get interrupted, need to move around the room, etc. because it keeps you from losing count), I've found it useful as a stress-ball analogue for nerves. (If you can stand the clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick...)

96

The Green Room / Re: Inside the SM Office

« on: Jan 19, 2013, 10:09 am »

1. What is your favorite word?
Defenestration. (n. the act of attempting to kill or injure someone by throwing them out a window)

2. What is your least favorite word?
Yolo.

3. What turns you on?
Growing up, my mother and I would tease each other incessantly. I can only date people who "get" that: who understand that I show affection by teasing, who can dish it out, and who find it all hilarious.

4. What turns you off?
Gratuitous, smug, self-important, disempowering cynicism. I'm not an optimist by any stretch of the imagination, but I have no patience whatsoever for this sort of nonsense.

5. What sound do you love?
The music of Philip Glass.

6. What sound do you hate?
The dim hum of a  fluorescent light. (Compact LEDs? YES PLEASE.)

7. What is your favorite curse word?
Damn.

8. What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?
Theatre journalist/reviewer.

9. What profession would you not like to do?
Stay-at-home parent. (I'm glad that stay-at-home parents do what they do. I do not resent them or think they're wasting their time or anything in that line. But you could not pay me to do it.)

10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
"I've saved you a table with Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman."

97

The Green Room / Re: Weirdest Item In Your Kit

« on: Jan 19, 2013, 10:02 am »

I keep an old-fashioned tally clicker in my kit. A thousand and one (perhaps up to 9999?) uses, yet nobody seems to carry them any more.

98

Tools of the Trade / Re: Backstage Emergency Kit

« on: Jan 15, 2013, 02:56 am »

WRT to painkillers (and, really, any other medication), be very very careful about legal liability. Your heart is definitely in the right place, but people (and the organizations which employ them) have gotten sued when employer-dispensed painkillers and other over-the-counter pharmaceuticals go wrong.

It's one thing to provide, like, a cup of hot tea or a headache compress or a quiet room with dim lighting where they can relax a bit to get rid of the headache. But most employers (and, by extension, the agents of these employers) should not dispense even the safest over-the-counter drugs except under very limited circumstances. (One way to protect yourself from liability is to sell it through a vending machine: that way the employee is paying for the dose and taking it entirely of their own volition, rather than being "issued" a pill by management. From a legal perspective, these are completely different things.)

99

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Groundplan Doesn't Fit

« on: Jan 12, 2013, 01:06 am »

Yes, talk to the director. Depending on the show and how they plan to rehearse it, the director may prefer to omit some features, knock a bit off the staircases, etc. rather than shrink the entire set.

I once worked with a director who, rather than scaling down, wanted to tape out both halves of the set so they overlapped. (One in blue, the other in red, to avoid confusion.) It worked.

100

The Green Room / Re: New Years Resolutions

« on: Jan 06, 2013, 08:33 pm »

1) Now that I have a regular, guaranteed income for the first time in my life (and a union to protect my contract), I'm still living paycheque-to-paycheque as if I were temping and doing shows on the side. And that's crazy, and I can do better. And I will. (Savings, investments, long-term purchases [hey, I have a permanent apartment now where I can buy and keep stuff for prolonged periods, rather than needing to empty it all into my parents' garage whenever I get a touring gig! I should take advantage of this!], all that good stuff.)

2) Cook more. Cook more real food, at that. (Sandwich is delicious, but sandwich is only arguably real food.)

101

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop

« on: Jan 04, 2013, 12:40 am »

We could try drawing straws, but we voted Sharpies off the island.

102

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop

« on: Dec 30, 2012, 02:12 pm »

So we've agreed that we're voting for either laptop-but-just-laptop or paper-but-just-paper?

In other words, a choice between doorstops and origami.

Can I have cell phone back?

103

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: University, Round 7: Binder vs Stopwatch

« on: Dec 23, 2012, 05:53 pm »

Stopwatch can be replaced with any number of tools readily at hand: laptop, cell phone, digital show control, some LX boards, etc.

Binder is binder is binder will always be binder.

104

The Green Room / Re: Dealing with Divas

« on: Dec 20, 2012, 01:57 pm »

This is something of a vexed question.

There's a sliding scale of divas: at one extreme, we have the people who flip out because they are tangential to the production. They aren't all that important or significant, and flipping out is a way of manifesting that urge to feel "wanted". Nobody's paying enough attention to me, nobody cares about my input, I don't know why I'm wasting my time with these losers, so I'm going to piss all over the floor because at least that way people will remember I exist.

At the other extreme, we have the professional divas who flip out because they know they have us by the nads (the author, the star upon whose name the entire production depends, the director, the producer's wife, etc.) and they simply enjoy making the Little People turn funny colours.

Different types of divas require different responses--but it's also important to consider that different directors require different responses.

I'm sure we've all worked with directors who wouldn't want us to intervene even if the actors were literally stabbing each other to death. ("I don't want to take sides! Let's not rock the boat! Just let it play itself out! This is an ordinary part of the creative process!")

And at the other extreme are the directors who throw up their elbows and come out swinging the very second someone looks like they might act out. (Or perhaps they prefer the velvet-glove-iron-fist approach: they won't say anything in the room, but they'll quietly visit the producer after rehearsal and have the offender bounced from the company by tomorrow morning. That'll show the others...)

In an ideal world, here's how I'd hope to address it:

(All of this assumes it's a non-equity show, and that the diva fit is of the conventional TANTRUM TANTRUM TANTRUM FLOUNCE OUT OF THE ROOM style.)

First Offence: take ten, go calm the person down, talk about their fee-fees, fawn over their ego a little (if that's what they need) and bring everything back together as if we've just had a smoke break. We all have bad days, not a big deal.

Document the incident.


Second Offence: if at all possible, the company keeps rehearsing without them. They can take their time coming back, and I won't report the absence unless a higher-up absolutely insists. If they aren't back within 30-45 minutes (enough time for a good proper cry in a toilet, if that's their thing), place a call and find out where they are, but don't go running after them.

Schedule a meeting between the person in question and the producer to discuss their grievances.

Document the incident.


Third Offence: keep rehearsing as above, but this time refuse to re-admit them to the rehearsal hall until they've met with the producer. (They'll be paid for the day, but they aren't welcome in the space if this is how they're going to behave.) This can't keep happening, and if it does, I will recommend the actor be discharged--assuming the producer doesn't do so of their own volition. Final warning, pull your socks up or go back to waiting tables.

Document the incident.
---

As I said above, this approach is only workable in an ideal world. You can't always bounce an actor (seriously, you're bouncing your star after you're already in previews? seriously?), your director and producer won't always back you up, the tantrum won't always take that idealized form (fleeing the room and weeping in the coat closet is quite different from staying in the room and hurling invective at your coworkers), etc.

105

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: Regional Round 6: Headset vs Cell Phone

« on: Dec 19, 2012, 08:15 am »

You know what?

No. I'm really not cool with being repeatedly told that I'm incompetent. I'm done here.