Messages

961

The Green Room / Re: Trivia Tournament II: Electric Boogaloo

« on: Nov 04, 2009, 05:28 pm »

October is over! Our outstanding occupants of the October hall of fame are:

16 players played during the month.

1. ScooterSM (248 points, 4 wins)
2. killerdana (234 points, 0 wins)
3. scott (228 points, 3 wins)
4. blantonrk (223 points, 5 wins)
5. rvhead (219 points, 4 wins)
6. ruthny (215 points, 2 wins)
7. stagebear (208 points, 5 wins)
8. Lizzie (188 points, 1 wins)
9. kiwitechgirl (153 points, 4 wins)
10. wtcsrstaph4life (151 points, 0 wins)

The only person on the list who has not yet chosen is finalist #10: wtcsrstaph4life.  Keep an eye on your PM box for the category list!

962

Tools of the Trade / Re: Google Websites

« on: Oct 22, 2009, 12:30 am »

I have removed the link for the protection of the OP and her cast members.  One must remember when posting links on SMNetwork that all but a handful of our boards are publicly visible to every single person on the web.  As I noted in my edit above, only 1 in 10 visitors to the site daily are registered members.  The rest could be anyone from students to agents to union members to spammers.  If you mean for a link to stay private, please do not post it here.

If you manage to put together a sample version of a similar site using google sites that uses dummy information, I would love to see it and I'm sure we could have some wonderfully productive discussions of how such tools can/cannot and should/should not be used.  However, the live version that the OP is is not safe for our review at this time.

OP, if you work something up and would like to post a new link, please contact me by PM.  Until then, I'm locking this thread, as without the link we really cannot accomplish much here.

EDIT: As the OP has deleted her account, I have removed all instances of her name and her university from this thread.

963

The Green Room / Re: Trivia Tournament II: Electric Boogaloo

« on: Oct 02, 2009, 02:55 am »

OK, stagebear has chosen!

Mixed Bag
Theatre
General Knowledge
Hobbies
Movies
Sports
History

Don't forget to also try "Team vs. Team" and "Team heroes" games over at the main funtrivia.com site as well if you're a member of the Stage Managers team!

964

The Green Room / Re: Trivia Tournament II: Electric Boogaloo

« on: Oct 01, 2009, 04:52 am »

Et voila, September is over!  Thanks to the 16 people who played this month, and congrats to the top 10 folks who hung in there!

16 players played during the month.

1. PSMKay (287 points, 16 wins)
2. killerdana (244 points, 2 wins)
3. ScooterSM (236 points, 2 wins)
4. scott (235 points, 1 wins)
5. blantonrk (230 points, 1 wins)
6. Lizzie (227 points, 3 wins)
7. ruthny (220 points, 0 wins)
8. kiwitechgirl (217 points, 4 wins)
9. rvhead (211 points, 1 wins)
10. stagebear (162 points, 0 wins)

Stagebear gets the picks for October.

965

The Green Room / Re: Trivia Tournament II: Electric Boogaloo

« on: Sep 04, 2009, 03:52 am »

Uh oh, it's back and it's bad, it's the Theatre topic.

Here's what kiwitechgirl has chosen for September:

Monday - Animals
Tuesday - Theatre and Performing Arts
Wednesday - General Knowledge
Thursday - History
Friday - Science and Technology
Saturday - World General
Sunday - Geography

Happy gaming!

966

The Green Room / Re: Trivia Tournament II: Electric Boogaloo

« on: Sep 03, 2009, 01:38 am »

Alright all, Dr. Who or not, the August tournament is over!

Congrats to our top 10:

19 players played during the month.

1. Lizzie (252 points, 8 wins)
2. ScooterSM (251 points, 3 wins)
3. ruthny (236 points, 3 wins)
4. scott (235 points, 4 wins)
5. blantonrk (223 points, 5 wins)
6. kiwitechgirl (213 points, 4 wins)
7. killerdana (203 points, 2 wins)
8. stagebear (202 points, 1 wins)
9. rvhead (179 points, 0 wins)
10. wtcsrstaph4life (125 points, 0 wins)

Picks for September go to kiwitechgirl, yaaaay!  kiwitechgirl, watch your PM box for your options.

As a reminder, if one trivia game isn't enough for you, SMNetwork also has a team on the main funtrivia site.  There are two worldwide team competitions each day, where we can go head to head against trivia buffs from all over the world.  If you'd like to join, head over to Funtrivia.com, register for an account (if you haven't already) and join team #13380.  We've got 17 team members already, although not everyone is active over there.  It takes 7 players a day for our efforts to count towards the team score, so come on over and give it a whirl!

Oh yeah, and as an added incentive, I've written a whole quiz about stage managers over there, as there wasn't one.  You can play that one without registering if you like.

967

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Student SM Challenge #8: Running Late

« on: Aug 26, 2009, 01:27 am »

A simple challenge to start off the school year.  Sometimes, despite the best of our intentions, plans and maps, we wind up running late to rehearsal or to our nightly call time.  As much as we warn our actors and scold them, it happens to us too.  The train gets delayed, or our partner gets ill or our bag gets snatched and we have to call the police.  It happens.

What do you do if you know that you will be late to your call time?  What backup plans do you have in place?  Who would you call?  Would anyone be able to cover for you, or would the show come to a standstill?

As a reminder to our newcomers - the Student SM Challenges are generally designed for folks who are just starting out in the industry, working on either school shows or their first couple of productions outside of school.  Pros are welcome to kibitz, but please leave the bulk of the exploration and discussion to the new guys.  There are no 100% correct answers here.

968

Stage Management: Other / Re: 15 vs 30 second timings

« on: Aug 02, 2009, 09:19 pm »

Actually, with good and consistent actors, French scenes wind up being very close to the same length every night.  It isn't exact, but usually similar within 30-45 seconds!  I used to time French scenes nightly to track any major deviations from opening night.  If someone changes a beat it will show up very clearly as a timing variance.

969

The Green Room / Re: Trivia Tournament II: Electric Boogaloo

« on: Aug 01, 2009, 11:44 pm »

Yay! July is over!  Congrats to the July top 10 winners!

23 players played during the month.

1. killerdana (288 points, 4 wins)
2. rvhead (283 points, 3 wins)
3. scott (282 points, 6 wins)
4. ScooterSM (266 points, 4 wins)
5. Lizzie (265 points, 2 wins)
6. blantonrk (253 points, 1 wins)
7. ruthny (252 points, 4 wins)
8. stagebear (220 points, 1 wins)
9. kiwitechgirl (218 points, 3 wins)
10. wtcsrstaph4life (179 points, 0 wins)

Lizzie is the highest placing member of the top 10 who has not yet chosen topics this year.  Lizzie, watch your PM box for your topic options!

EDIT: Lizzie has chosen the topics!

Sunday: General Knowledge
Monday: Animals
Tuesday: Geography
Wednesday: History
Thursday: Religion
Friday: Science & Technology
Saturday: World: UK

A leg up to the British folk this month, but no Celebrities and no Theatre category.  Thanks Lizzie! Enjoy, all!

970

The Green Room / Re: Trivia Tournament II: Electric Boogaloo

« on: Jul 07, 2009, 03:37 am »

Alright, late again, these things happen to me during the summer.

Congrats to the top 10 winners in the trivia tournament for June!

24 players played during the month.

1. scott (280 points, 3 wins)
2. ruthny (267 points, 4 wins)
3. rvhead (263 points, 3 wins)
4. blantonrk (255 points, 1 wins)
5. ScooterSM (249 points, 4 wins)
6. stagebear (231 points, 1 wins)
7. killerdana (223 points, 3 wins)
8. Lizzie (218 points, 2 wins)
9. kiwitechgirl (204 points, 2 wins)
10. Thespi620 (183 points, 2 wins)

Choosing topics for this month will be 2nd place finisher ruthny.  Ruth, keep an eye on your PM box!

EDIT:

Ruthny has chosen:

Monday-Literature 2
Tuesday-Celebrities 2
Wednesday-Hobbies
Thursday-Theatre & Performing Arts
Friday-Movies 2
Saturday-History 2
Sunday-General Knowledge 3

971

The Green Room / Re: Prompt Book

« on: Jul 04, 2009, 03:46 pm »

Dramaticca, if you had read the rest of the thread you would see instructions on how to send a PM.  If you had read the board instructions and rules in Announcements you would have learned that only members with at least one public post get the ability to send PMs at all.  I would suggest that you go read the rest of the site rules right now.

Wandering Ninja has been very generous in offering his work.  He is absolutely entitled to share it in the manner he chooses, with only those folks who show him proper respect.

972

Employment / Re: Lowering your expectations

« on: Jun 29, 2009, 06:12 pm »

I cannot offer any solutions here, which is one of the reasons why I started the topic.  I can definitely contribute a history and series of decisions that did NOT work for me.

My situation is far different than loebtmc's.  The need for adaptability that was not stressed enough during my education.  I never got over the culture shock of going from the big houses that I trained in down to the little piddly companies that I ended with years later.  By 2003 the inability to adjust to life without job descriptions ... and the sheer contrast of that life with what I had been trained to expect ... was what led me to leave SM altogether. 

In my new job (outside of theatre) I wear four hats, have no direct report, no set hours and no set paycheck, but I am happy because it has been like this all along since the day I was hired.  I had no expectations of anything else.

I trained at a college with three dedicated stages plus a student black box, a well-appointed scene shop, at least two assistants on every show. I only had to tape out a set twice in four years.  I never needed to pull rehearsal props because we were working with the real things within 2 days of the request appearing on the reports.  Every instrument was grounded and every house had permanent catwalks.  I was ripped a new one if I either tried to do someone else's job or didn't do exactly every single detail that was included in my job description. 

I did do two summers at "stock" theatre. I had been warned that stock was about pushing yourself as far as you could rather than about production values, so I wrote off the quality of the environment figuring that it was atypically poor.  I absolutely loathed stock, but figured that it was a rite of passage and things would never be that bad again.  It turned out that the rest of my career was in houses far more like the stock environment.

My first gig after college was a year spent interning at a company with even MORE support and established systems than the university had.  I was an intern and I was treated like chattel.  I accepted that as "paying dues."

By the time I started freelancing in 1999 and had the squishy mat of financial endowment pulled out from under me, I was 22 and had done 25 massive productions in VERY elaborate environments.  From that point forward I never again had an effective assistant, I never again had a rehearsal space that even approached the size of the actual stage, and I never again did a show where I was the stage manager and ONLY the stage manager.  After four years of trying to adjust I never really did.

In some ways my personal beliefs contributed to this inglorious end.  I saw how union contracts affected decision-making in the larger companies and opted not to join.  I am not the kind of person who asks for help - if I see a problem, I'll certainly try and fix it but I generally assume that nobody else is interested in trying to fix it along with me.  Collaboration is not one of my better skills.  I am more competitive than cooperative.  I am selfish.  All of these traits serve me very well working as a solo real estate agent.  They did not blend well with stage management.

While I did draw the line in certain places I probably didn't draw it in the right places.  I did quit shows for racial harassment and sexual harassment, but I had no problem doing laundry alone at a laundromat six blocks away (without a car) for casts of 20 without extra pay.  I threatened to quit (but didn't) when ASMing for a supervisor who regularly called me a "useless piece of !@$#" and threw props at me, but had no problem doing preset for a 3 story tall set on two sprained ankles.  I have numerous physical problems now that trace back to the theatre years and may never heal.  I am no longer able to run, jump, dance or climb ladders because of 18 sprains between 1998 and 2003.  I cannot sit in the same position for more than 20 minutes at a time because I shattered my tailbone during a load-in while trying to lift and preset a couch alone.  Some of you will read this and laugh and call me a baby.  Others will be horrified.  In retrospect after several years back in the real world I certainly am.  I drew the line at the wrong place - perhaps I adapted too far or expected too little by the end?

So yeah, windy as usual.  But what you see above should be an abject lesson in how NOT to do it.  I don't know what I should have expected, but it wasn't what I got.  I don't know how I should have adapted, but I didn't.  I don't know if I had the right personality to be a stage manager or if it was just the wrong choice all along.

973

Employment / Lowering your expectations

« on: Jun 28, 2009, 07:25 pm »

As the economy struggles onwards, many SMs are having to take a step down in terms of production quality.  Whether it means taking contracts with newer or less organized companies, taking smaller contracts, or in the case of AGMA members, taking non-union contracts for the first time in many years, there is a common thread of having to readjust to environments that may not be up to our normal standards. 

When you've grown accustomed to the niceties of a "professional" environment - production offices, relatively modern equipment, board ops, established communication channels and/or working relationships - it can be pretty frustrating to go without them.  Likewise, students who have been working in well-equipped university theatre departments can get a bit of culture shock when they're thrown into a show with no budget, no rehearsal hall and no dressing rooms.

What tricks have you learned to keep yourself from getting too annoyed with this kind of a move?  How have you learned to cope?  Have you managed to "encourage" your new company to step up?  Have you just grinned and bore it?

974

The Green Room / Re: Trivia Tournament II: Electric Boogaloo

« on: Jun 17, 2009, 11:59 pm »

Ok, as part of the email backup (see the alert at the top of your screen for details), blantonrk didn't get his PM notification until today.  So, he has chosen a different topic (or difficulty level) for every day between now and the end of the month.  Woohoo!

Here's what's coming up:

Trivia for June
18 - Religion 1
19 - History 2
20 - Music 3
21 - General Knowledge 3
22 - Mixed Bag
23 - Theatre/Perf. Arts
24 - Music 1
25 - History 1
26 - People 2
27 - Religion 2
28 - History 3
29 - General Knowledge 5
30 - World General 1

975

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / ESCRIPTS: Post your requests for electronic scripts here! (Archived 7-3-14)

« on: Jun 11, 2009, 01:23 am »

Escripts are useful, and we are OK with you sharing the work you've done in digitizing scripts for stage management purposes.  However, it is a VERY touchy legal ground and as such we have some very strict rules that must be followed.  If we see repeated violations of these rules, we will have to put an end to the escript exchange.

OK.  Here's the rules.

1. If you (or your company) don't have the rights to produce a show, don't ask for the script.
2. You may only request copies of scripts here.  No audio.  No video.  Just escripts for use in setting up prompt books.
3. If someone asks for an escript and you have it, do NOT post it here publicly, nor admit here publicly that you have it.  Offer your copies by PM, email or instant message.
4. If you have received a script from someone, do NOT thank them publicly here.  Do not acknowledge that you have received it in the thread. Do not cross them off your list or edit your post to say, "Got it, Thanks!" Just leave it alone. Thank the sender profusely and eloquently off site via email, send them flowers & liquor, but do it off of the SMNetwork servers.
5. No unsolicited offers of escripts, please.
6. (New rule added 5/31/2012) Please do not request an escript as your very first post to SMNetwork.

UPDATE May 31, 2012: Old thread reached 10 pages, I'm truncating and rebooting as it was getting really unwieldy. Also because I think everyone needs a little refresher in the rules. Thanks.