Messages

901

The Green Room / Re: Should SMNetwork ban all classroom assignments?

« on: May 17, 2010, 08:55 pm »

OK, the poll is now closed and I'll be locking this thread.  Thanks to all for your input.  We will continue to accept student projects, but the methods of doing so will be changing in the near future.  Watch the announcements board for developments as they emerge!

902

Employment / Re: Child Wrangling

« on: May 14, 2010, 02:55 pm »

Usually if there are children backstage, someone is assigned to keeping track of them, particularly in the case of childrens' choruses, etc.  This task is called child wrangling.  I believe it is derived from "animal wrangler" which is, as you might guess, the same job but for animals.

903

The Green Room / Re: Finish this sentence: "If all the world's a stage..."

« on: May 13, 2010, 02:13 am »

... I'd like to have a word or two with the folks in charge of sweeping.

904

The Green Room / Re: New tagging feature

« on: May 10, 2010, 03:31 pm »

Mike - I can't turn off the "add tag" link without also removing your ability to tag the threads that you started yourself.

Ruth - When you make a new thread you can add multiple tags at once.  However, you can only add tags to existing threads one at a time.  I'll look into fixing that, although remember that after this initial push to tag our old posts, we'll be needing to bulk tag on existing posts far less frequently.

905

Homework Help / Schoolwork policies

« on: May 09, 2010, 11:23 pm »

SMNetwork tends to get a lot of requests from student stage managers seeking  professionals to interview or poll for classwork.  Students are certainly welcome here and we are happy to help you learn more about stage management.  However, as our hospitality has been abused time and again by less-than-gracious students, we've had to restrict our help to those who abide by our rules.

1. All school projects must be posted on this board.  This includes interview requests, poll requests, research projects, classroom assignments, graduate and doctoral theses - anything that requires using our member base as your research pool.  Requests of this nature that are posted anywhere else on the site will either be moved over here or be deleted.  If we discover retroactively that you are posting for help with a school assignment, your entire thread may be moved over here or deleted outright, at the discretion of an individual moderator.

2. You will not be able to post here until you've contributed to the site for a while.  We want to help out people who will help us out in return.  SMNetwork is a community based on the contributions of all of its members.  We are not interested in helping people who come in, milk us for answers and then vanish, never to be seen again.  You will need to make at least five valid posts to the site before you will be able to post here.

3. Be polite.  In the event that a working professional agrees  to do an interview with you, please bear in mind that they are doing so out of the goodness of their hearts and are under no obligation to respond within any particular timeframe.  Do not expect to get any answers.  Do not throw tantrums if nobody responds.  Do not bump your post to get it to the top of the board.

4. Don't spam us.  Please do not send email to members of the site with unsolicited requests for interviews,  research contributions or other assistance with your schoolwork.  Keep it to the public boards, or as a last resort, the on-site personal messaging system.

5. Be a good ambassador for your school.  Pros form opinions of a school's theatre department based on the caliber of its students.  If you are disrespectful, we will assume that all students from your school program are equally disrespectful.  We will report your behavior to the dean of students or your principal.  We will additionally ban not only you, but every single user from your school for the next 13 months.

6. Plan ahead and get creative.  We've seen a lot of questions since the site got started in 2000.  Many of them were exactly the same.     Please plan ahead with your questions.  Check the list of questions we don't want to see.  Search the site for answers that may already be here.

7. Be specific. We are happy to provide help with research. However, we are NOT happy with being asked to do your homework for you. The more general the questions, the less likely they are to get an answer.  Slapdash requests that are looking to turn us into the SparkNotes for Stage Managers are ignored and make you look like a lazy dork. Stage managers spend their whole lives planning. We can tell if you do not.

8. Use the template.  (It's pretty difficult to avoid.)  New questions here Homework Help use a standard template, which gives us the information we need to properly format our replies.  When you create a new topic for this board, the posting page will look very different.  That's deliberate.  You may also see posts here that do not use the template - these were accidentally posted to other boards, or posted to the site prior to the creation of the Homework Help board.

906

Homework Help / Please do not use these questions.

« on: May 09, 2010, 11:04 pm »

We've been helping students for over a decade now.  Many of our members have been with us all the way along.  We have seen certain questions from students over and over again.  If you want answers for research help, your best bet is to be original, creative and resourceful with your questions.

The following questions have all been asked on SMNet before - many of the multiple times.  They will probably not get an answer here.  They have either been done to death, are too broad, too personal, or are answered elsewhere on the site.  If your help request is filled with questions of this nature, it will not be approved.

This is not a job interview.  Don't get too personal.
How long have you been stage managing?
What was the first show you SMed?
What companies have you worked for?
Where else have you worked?
What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome?

Job Description
What is your personal job description of a stage manager?
What are the basic tasks/responsibilities of the Stage Manager?
What forms/paperwork do Stage Managers usually fill out?
How many shows do you as a stage manager typically handle at once?
What does your job entail?
What is the best part of your job?
What is the worst part of your job?
What does a typical work day look like for you?

Lifestyle
What is your lifestyle like? 
How many hours a week do you work? 
Do you take work home? 
Do you travel?

Techniques
How do you distribute your duties to your ASM(s) during the rehearsal period?
How do you handle pre-production?
How do you handle tech and tech week?
How do you keep stress down during production work?
What do you keep in your kit?
How do you call a show? Do you give warnings and standbys? Just standbys? Nothing?
What is the typical rehearsal process for (a play/musical/opera/ballet/etc)?

Career choices & training
What are some personality traits that make a good Stage Manager?
Why did you decide to go into this field? 
What did you do to enter the field? 
What did you study? 
Where did you go for training/did you go anywhere for training?
What college did you go to and what was it like pursuing technical theatre in College?
How long have you been involved in theatre?
What do you wish you had known before you entered the field?
What   made you want to pursue stage managing?
What advice do you have for   someone who’s thinking about entering this  field? 
What advice   would you give to someone looking to pursue technical  theatre?
 
Getting started in SM
What were some of the challenges getting into and succeeding in the field?
When is it a good idea to become an AEA Member?
How did you get started as an SM?
Have you worked in other technical departments before or while SMing?
 
In retrospect
Did this field turn out to be what you expected?
Would you make the same choice again?
How has the field changed since the time you entered it?
What was your most memorable/favorite/hated show?
What are the main pros and cons of the job?

Too vague or too broad
Any advice? Tricks/tips? Anything that might be important to include.
What do you like about your job?
What has been your best experience so far in the field?
Are you happy with your job?
What kind of people do you get to work with?

Crisis management
Have any crisis situations come up in pre-production/rehearsal/tech/performance? How have they been handled?
Favorite production crisis or issue that has arisen?
What is the worst issue or crisis you had to handle in your sm career?
What is the most embarrassing moment in your sm career?

Special situations
What is the background of most SM's working in (Vegas/cruise lines/Cirque du soleil/Broadway/etc)?
What are the requirements to be an SM working for (A cruise ship/Disney/Cirque/Opera/etc)?
What is it like to be an SM working on (a cruise ship/a tour/an international production/etc)?
What are the main differences between working in (Broadway/repertory/regional/community) theatre?
What are the main differences between working in amateur vs pro theatre?
What are the main differences between working in musicals vs. dance vs. straight plays vs. concerts?

No, No, a thousand times, no.
"I am writing an SM Handbook for my school.  What should I include?"

907

The Green Room / New tagging feature

« on: May 08, 2010, 10:52 pm »

We're experimenting with a new topic tagging feature.  It's still in its infancy and will take some time to be fully implemented.  When it's up and running completely you'll be able to sort the entire board by popular topics by going to the "Tags" link at the top of the site.
 
Until we figure out exactly what we're doing here, the ability to add tags will be restricted to moderators and admins.  Once we get a good raft of tags established, we may expand this ability to established contributors with higher post counts.

Questions, comments, and "bloody well about time"s are welcome below.

EDIT: After mucking around with it a bit, I've decided to open it up to folks who are familiar with how we roll around here. 

If you have made at least 100 posts, you can now add keyword tags to (and delete tags from) conversation threads that you started.
If you have made at least 200 posts, you can add and edit tags for every conversation thread on the site.

You can add keyword tags in bulk when you create a new conversation topic.  You can add them one at a time to existing conversation threads.

Please help make SMNetwork easier to browse, expert peeps! Put those organizational skills to work!

908

The Green Room / Re: Should SMNetwork ban all classroom assignments?

« on: May 03, 2010, 05:02 pm »

I would not say that the trend is overwhelming yet.  The poll has another couple of weeks to go, and we have only seen about 30 votes out of a membership of over 3000.

909

The Green Room / Should SMNetwork ban all classroom assignments?

« on: May 02, 2010, 02:32 am »

I am faced with a dilemma and am seeking the advice from other members of SMNetwork to help guide the direction of the site.

SMNetwork has always been open to stage managers with all levels of experience.  However, certain members have abused the resources available here year after year, creating topics (frequently at the last minute) requesting that members do their homework for them.  I am aware that many other technical resource bulletin boards online do not permit student members at all, and as such I have left means available for such projects to be completed if the students abide by our rules.  I have tried to construct an environment that allows students to get their work done, while also also creating a safe and respectful place for our professional members to discuss the craft in peace.  We have done the best we can to make these rules plainly visible in multiple places around the site.  However, these "hit and run" students continue to visit us, post once with their interview questions, and then never return to let us know the results of their projects nor contribute to the ongoing development of the community.

With a decade of information stored on these boards, there is already plenty of research material available for those who know how to use the search function.  While it does not provide the one-on-one first hand information that many school projects require, it is certainly sufficient and in many cases goes far beyond the scope of the standard student roster of interview questions.  Creative students with some amount of forethought could very easily create a new topic of interest for their research and carry it through their term if they would like to learn something new from our members.  However, it is my opinion that if someone is going to pester a working professional that they have never met before for a classroom project, they should at least pay for dinner first. 

On the flip side, I realize that new stage managers have to come from somewhere.  While many of the SMNet members who are alums of the School of Hard Knocks might discount university theatre programs, one cannot completely deny that they are currently creating the bulk of our intern staffs, our novice pros and our good fresh blood.  We do occasionally get the members who do read the rules and who do respect our members in approaching us for academic help.  I am grateful for them and always happy to see them.  In every class there will be some who do the reading and some who reach for the SparkNotes.  I do not want to shut out the good students entirely on account of some of their less respectful peers.

Bearing this in mind, I would like to know your opinions on banning homework, classroom projects and requests for interviews completely.  This does not necessarily rule out the discussion of stage management from an academic perspective, but it would prohibit all future homework-related postings and allow moderators to delete such postings immediately.

Please contribute your vote to the poll above, and feel free to discuss it below.  Let me know how you think we should proceed.  The poll will remain open until May 17 or so.

910

SMNetwork Archives / Apologies for the spammer!

« on: May 02, 2010, 01:48 am »

To all members who were recently spammed by a student at Belmont University - I am very sorry. There is absolutely no way that I can apologize enough.  There is unfortunately no way that I can disable the in-site email function at this time.  I have, however, banned the entirety of Belmont University from registration on SMNetwork for the next 13 months.

The staff of the Belmont University theatre department have been notified that students are not to use SMNetwork in that manner again.

If you do not wish to receive emails from other SMNetwork users, you may take the following steps:
1. Hover over the word "Profile" at the top of the screen, and select "Account Settings."  About halfway down the page, you will see a line that reads "Allow users   to email me."
2. If the checkbox next to this line is filled in, uncheck it.
3. At the bottom of the page, click the "Change Profile" button.

Again, many apologies.  I have dealt with this spammer as strongly as I possibly can.

911

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: ASPIRATIONS: ASM for AEA vs. SM for NON-AEA

« on: Apr 24, 2010, 12:33 am »

I would agree about the reputation of the Non-AEA theater in question here.  I have PMed some links of interest to the original poster, including a link to the Cook County Clerk of Court's website listing all 17 of the breach of contract suits that name the company as a defendant going back to 1994. 

A search of the name of the former Artistic Director of the Non-AEA company shows another handful of lawsuits.  Interestingly, I see that the Equity company in question here filed suit against him back in 1989.

It should also be noted that the Non-AEA company has also done Equity level shows.  I see that the Equity Pension fund has also sued them.

912

Stage Management: Other / Re: Transitioning from theatre to opera

« on: Apr 19, 2010, 12:48 am »

Thank you SO much, t_g!  This is fantastic, and should be read by anyone trying to shift into opera!

913

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Student SM Challenge #10: Graduation Day

« on: Apr 16, 2010, 01:19 am »

Student SM Challenges present puzzles for our members who are taking classes to become stage managers.  They are open-ended situations with no absolutely correct answers.

As a reminder to our pro SMs out there: The Student Challenges are primarily for students.  While they may be fun to think about, let's leave this to the students and novices for at least the first week! Thanks!

It is graduation day at your college.  You have been assigned, along with your team, to coordinate and manage the graduation day ceremonies.  This is the culmination of a full week of festivities on campus leading up to the big event.  There will be a graduating student body of 3000 undergrads, 1500 grad students, 400 doctorate students and 7 honorary degrees for a handful of celebrities.  There will be a private graduation service in the campus church for the students only, followed by a procession from the church to the campus lawn for a mass gathering of all students and their families.  The lawn event will feature speeches from the college president, an elected student speaker, and an invited guest speaker - the Prime Minister of a country in the Middle East.  Following the speeches, the student body will disperse to their various departments for the actual distribution of degrees, and your portion of the event comes to an end.  (For the record, this was pretty much how my graduation went back in 1998.) 

Planning for this type of event usually starts months, if not a year in advance.  Given that timeframe and the ability to choose your own staff, how do you plan your course of action? How many people would you want on your planning team? How would you delegate the various tasks required?  What sort of things would you need to consider to make sure this major event goes off without any flaws?  What sort of contingencies would you need to have on hand for security, weather, crowd control, transit, cleanup and handling of your celebrity guests?

914

The Green Room / Re: smnetwork.org Board Layout

« on: Apr 06, 2010, 04:03 pm »

I can bring back Core (the old Blue layout) as an unsupported layout.  It will not integrate many of the upgrades and will not be upgraded going forward - things like the site rules & staff list will be missing, but if you really want it back I can make it an option.

Bear in mind that the current bulletin board code is not written by me - it is only implemented by me.  This means that I am at the mercy of what the actual developers choose to do.  They have replaced the old blue layout with the new blue layout (Curve).  At the current time, Core is not too far behind in terms of security, but if it gets to the point where it is an exploitable vulnerability I will need to remove it, and will not have much chance to notify you guys beforehand.

915

The Green Room / Re: smnetwork.org Board Layout

« on: Apr 06, 2010, 11:48 am »

As much as I'd like to have a tactful answer for this, I simply got rid of all of the layouts that I don't like.