Messages

91

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Remount forms?

« on: Mar 15, 2014, 05:07 pm »

This is super helpful. I'm turning over a show for a remount/tour (the production is traveling to another theater, but I am not) right now, and I've never done this before!

I'll have some more insight in a few weeks once I actually hand over the reins to the other SM, but right now she has come down for the weekend to shadow me & my ASM and get to know the show. Obviously this is not always possible when remounting a show, but it's super helpful! We sent her run sheets, preset lists, my calling script, and photos of all of the presets before she got here, and she is spending a lot of time with us just asking questions, taking her own pictures, and soaking up as much as possible before they tech the show in the new space next month.

I'll check back in once we close & let you know how the changeover went.

92

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Emergency Contact/Medical Info forms for Students

« on: Mar 02, 2014, 05:15 pm »

For those of you who keep the forms in a sealed envelope and don't look at them unless the ambulance is coming, do you have some other way of finding out if people have allergies to detergents or nuts or something? Do you leave that up to props/costumes folks to ask before giving an actor a food prop, or do you trust that anyone with an allergy severe enough to be a concern will volunteer that information themselves?

93

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: NEW WORKS: Script Changes with Colored Paper?

« on: Mar 02, 2014, 05:11 pm »

I did one new work where we used colored paper, but we didn't have enough changes to make it complicated or run out of colors. It was extremely helpful being able to tell without even getting up from the SM table that an actor was holding the wrong version of the scene, though.

94

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PLAYS: On the Verge

« on: Feb 18, 2014, 05:18 pm »

-Giant squeegees! Push the water to the shop vac.

GIANT SQUEEGEES ARE THE BEST! So great for pushing water over a flat surface to a drain.

95

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: On the Verge

« on: Feb 17, 2014, 05:12 pm »

I've never done On the Verge, but I have done Metamorphoses & had rain onstage in a couple of other shows. And also several leaky theater roofs that caused unscripted rain onstage, but that's another story.

Make sure there are a lot of towels backstage. However many you think you need (ie, at least one per actor who gets wet + a couple for crew/spills), get more. Keep them on hand even after tech is done.

Make sure you have bathrobes or some other plan in place for when the actors get wet during tech and then you have to hold or go on break. A wet actor sitting in a chilly theater for hours is a recipe for having the whole cast sick at opening.

I don't know what your method of water capture/containment/disposal is, or how extensive the water on stage is, so it's hard to be specific here, but another thing to watch out for is wet backstage areas. No matter how well you treat the actual stage deck for non-slippage, water will get tracked into the wings and typical backstage black-painted maso + puddles of water is no bueno. If there's just wet shoes but no puddles, I've had success with tacking down carpet just out of sightlines at all of the exits as a sort of reverse-doormat kind of "wipe your shoes when you come offstage" scenario. Another time the scene shop laid water-proof rubbery sheets down backstage in an approx. 8' radius around the rain effect. We would mop the splatter at Intermission & post-show to prevent standing water, but they didn't do a very good job of sealing the gaps between the sheets so there was a bit of a nasty surprise at strike from water trapped under the rubber growing mold that made whole sections of the deck have to be replaced.  There was another show that mixed sand into the paint to give more traction on the deck. 

New, absorbent mop-heads and a wet shop-vac for cleaning up puddles quickly. Water disposal is also important. Where will you dump the dirty water? The dressing room shower is not a good option. The paint sink in the scene shop or the floor drain in the janitor's closet are.

Depending on how wet the actors get, rubbermaid-type tubs that will keep the wet clothes from leaking all over the floor are a better bet than regular laundry baskets with holes in the side.

What are the actors wearing under their costumes? If they get totally drenched, costumes should provide them with underwear to wear during the show so that they are not stuck wearing their personal clothing, wet, for the rest of the day (because you know at least one actor would forget to bring a dry pair). Also so that the wet clothes that become transparent/translucent don't show mickey mouse underwear.

Do you have 2-show days? Or a short turn-around from evening shows to school matinees? If so, make sure that there are doubles of the wet costumes, or that they can go in the dryer (and have enough time to run the cycle!). Large costume pieces, dry-clean only pieces, etc that would normally air dry might not have enough time to completely dry between shows on a quick turn-around.

96

The Hardline / Re: EMC Weeks

« on: Feb 16, 2014, 11:10 am »

You definitely get double points on two separate contracts, because I have done that- started rehearsals for a show at one theater while in performances at another and got points for both.

I don't think you can double up in your situation. Maybe if you have a separate contract for each show instead of one contract for the season? Seconding everyone else- call AEA.

The information they give you when you join EMC is incredibly sparse (in my opinion), but if you call them they're very specific & helpful in clarifying things.

97

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: REHEARSALS: Giving line notes

« on: Jan 16, 2014, 01:29 am »

I frequently email line notes to actors, for a couple of reasons, the main one being that I type really really quickly, and writing by hand at even half of that speed makes the notes illegible. I also sometimes work in theaters where printing things, while not impossible, is inconvenient and requires me to be out of the room for at least 15 minutes- emailing is more convenient, and I will always make the option of a printed copy available- "here are your line notes, if you prefer a printed copy I can print one for you after rehearsal/by tomorrow/on dinner."  The last reason I like emailing line notes is that I started to notice folks with ruffled feathers when one actor gets half a sheet of paper's worth of notes and another actor gets 4 pages... Generally in a situation like that, the actor with dramatically more notes knows they're struggling more than the rest of the cast and doesn't need a sort of physical, visual reminder of it. The way I typically do my notes is by typing everything into one spreadsheet, then sorting by actor's name, and copy/pasting each actor's notes into an email that goes just to that actor.

98

The Hardline / Re: Non-AEA PA pay for tech?

« on: Dec 11, 2013, 03:05 pm »

Stage Management interns at Centerstage get a tech bump... this is clearly not the norm, and it's the only company I've worked for that did that for non-AEA people. Most of my PA and non-AEA ASM contracts have been on a stipend paid in equal installments, not a weekly amount.

99

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / WHAT WOULD YOU DO- Staged Reading Nightmare

« on: Oct 17, 2013, 11:44 pm »

So here's a hypothetical (ok, you caught me, this happened) situation- I want to hear how other SMs would have handled this. What solution can you come up with for this?

You're SMing a staged reading of poems as part of a charity fundraising event. The event begins at 7:30 with speakers and a musician, the reading begins at approximately 8:00 and will last for about 30 minutes.

One of the poems will be read by its author. This particular poem is the final poem to be read.

There is a rehearsal at 5:30- this is the only rehearsal before the event. The author is not there at 5:30, and when you finally get her on the phone at 6:00, she says she will be there in half an hour.

At 6:45 she is still not there and the rehearsal has to end by 7:00 for the house to open, so the director makes the executive decision to reassign this poem to one of the other readers (it cannot be cut from the program entirely, as that would involve rearranging the order of several other poems in order to end on a more positive note). The procedure for bows is walked through with this substitute reader, as the final reader has to signal the others to stand and then lead the bows.

The reading begins at 8:05.

At 8:15, the author arrives. She DEMANDS to be allowed in to the theater and onto the stage with the rest of the readers. She says it is a matter of her reputation, and a grave insult that she is not being allowed to perform. She says that "someone" (clearly not you) told her she didn't have to go to the rehearsal at all and could just show up, so she's here now and why can't she read her poem?!?!  It is in this conversation that you learn for the first time that she is in fact one of the members of the board of this large, international charity organization. She is becoming increasingly more angry and does not seem to understand that the program has started already so it can't be changed now, and here's the kicker- she is flat out refusing to allow anyone else to read the poem that she wrote.

The only way to communicate with the rest of the readers now that the show has started is to actually walk up on to the stage in full view of the audience.  There is no intermission or breaks between poems and none of the readers leave the stage once the reading has begun.
None of the readers know each other, so you cannot make the assumption that surreptitiously sending some woman none of them have ever seen before out on stage will be some kind of signal to the other 6 readers that "hey, she's here, let's go back to the original plan that we never actually rehearsed!"

There are only about 15 minutes before the end of the reading.

HOW DO YOU HANDLE THIS SITUATION??

100

The Green Room / Re: Stage Management Day in the UK

« on: Oct 11, 2013, 03:51 pm »

My twitter feed was blowing up! @Offstagejobs and a couple of UK SM's I follow were retweeting all kinds of fun pictures of casts bringing cake and things for the SMs. From my twitter perspective, it seemed like a success!

101

The Green Room / Re: ARTICLE: Ford's Theatre Affected by goverment shutdown

« on: Oct 03, 2013, 01:35 pm »

One of their PA's is a good friend of mine. She posted some fabulous pictures on facebook of the crew rolling wardrobe racks and shopping carts full of props down 7th.

102

The Hardline / Re: Dear Abby

« on: Oct 02, 2013, 09:30 pm »

Wow. I promise I am NOT the anonymous asker of this Dear Abby, but I am facing this EXACT dilemma right now.

Personally, I am voting in favor of not being listed as EMC. I don't want to rock any boats, and I don't really care at the end of the day either.

What does everyone else think?

103

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROGRAMS: ASMs left out

« on: Sep 22, 2013, 03:23 pm »

Matthew: I did another show with them and was listed on the staff page along with the board ops & carps, etc. With this company, I am the only ASM, they don't use AEA ASMs or have PAs or interns.

I just got an email from the higher ups. Apparently they made an administrative decision to only include full-time staff in that section of the program, which means the ASM just doesn't get listed at all.

Matthew's response has me curious now- is it common for the ASM to not be listed at all? Have I just been lucky in the past with the companies I've worked for?

104

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / PROGRAMS: ASMs left out

« on: Sep 22, 2013, 10:28 am »

I read the program for my current show for the first time yesterday, after 2 weeks of performances, and realized that I am not in it. This is the 2nd show in a row (two different theaters) that I have ASMed and not been listed in the program at all. The first time it happened, I noticed it during the invited dress and the company was very apologetic & had put up a placard in the lobby by the next day. On the current show, since I JUST looked at the program, I have emailed the powers that be and am curious to see what their response is since we're 2 weeks through a 3 week run... (I'm not AEA, so no contract violation.)

This would be easily preventable by sending a copy of the entire program to stage management to proof instead of just the bio pages, but I can't recall that ever actually happening. All we get is the bios and I just have to assume that whoever in the marketing department is in charge of the programs a- knows that an ASM exists at all and b- knows my name, which apparently is a bad assumption to make.

I talked to another ASM in the area who said she has been left out of the program for the last 3 shows she's worked on. Is this a growing trend? How am I supposed to prevent this from happening again if the theaters don't send the whole program to the SM for proofing? I feel like as a non-AEA independent contractor ASM, I am low enough on the totem pole that a request to proof the staff page of the program wouldn't go over very well, but I don't know any other way to make sure that I don't get left out again.

105

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Actors Talking to Designers

« on: Aug 29, 2013, 06:53 pm »

I agree with Jessie_k, but I want to reiterate the importance of keeping the SM & the director informed on any conversations you have with the actor.  You never want to change anything without letting them know, because there will always be that ONE THING that the director decides to be picky about.