Messages

961

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: call times

« on: Nov 01, 2011, 05:12 pm »

I often call places, with not so steller response and then call "Second Call for Places".

Somehow that gets them to light a fire under the butts.

962

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: call times

« on: Oct 31, 2011, 07:44 pm »

And orchestra places is sometimes a minute or two before cast places . . .  depends on your theatre, conductor and contractor's wishes.

963

Employment / Re: Rejections

« on: Oct 31, 2011, 05:09 pm »

The market is flooded.  Flat out, there are probably 40-60 people qualified for every job posted.  In NYC there perhaps 1,000 stage managers competing for the 47 or add jobs in commercial theatre.  It's a fact of life.  Too many schools are putting out too many stage managers, many of them not prepared for the hard reality of this job market.

And regarding bigger size and acting - well, theatre quite frankly is a visual medium - and your size says something about you when you are put on stage.  Can you imagine a production of Romeo and Juliet, where the Romeo weighed 400 pounds, and everyone else was normal weight?  It would say something, you can just slip it in.  The rough part about acting is it is based on looks first, talent second . . . hundreds of headshots may be soured before scores of auditions are scheduled.   Like it or not, that's the medium. 

Show Business is an EXTREMELY hard business to make it in.  It requires a lot of hard work, patience, drive, commitment, education and schmoooooozing.  It's not a fair business at all - NOT AT ALL.  99% of the jobs are never posted, never advertised never take cold submissions.

964

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: call times

« on: Oct 31, 2011, 05:00 pm »

I would agree with Maribeth, but I cheat.

I call half-hour at 30 minute to posted show time.
Announce House open when it's open.

I call the 15 minutes call at 15 minutes + what ever time it will take them to get to place from the dressing room.  So, if it is two minutes, I will call 15 minutes at 17 minutes until posted show time.  So, it's 15 until places.

I call the 5 minute call at 5 + what ever time it takes them to get to deck, so in this example I call 5 at 7 minutes.  So, it's 5 minutes until places.

I call places, in this example, 2 minutes before the post start time, so that people are ready to go at places.

Now, if I am going to hold.  I announce at 5 minutes we are going to hold, so the next call will be places . . . and I adjust the places call.

It has worked for me.

965

The Green Room / Re: How to deal with an unruly ASM

« on: Oct 31, 2011, 07:24 am »

End of the day, you are going to work with ASMs you just don't like or get along with - and it's our job as SM's to figure out how to make it work as a team.  But you are going to run into people who have little or no business being in stage management that somehow end up being on your team, and you have to figure it all out.

Letting someone go is often not a possibility.

I am worried that perhaps there were so lines blurred, and some of this is personal and petty - I would love to hear his side of the story.

It you can't figure out how to work with him, and you can't let him go, then it's not time to figure out how to work around him.

My hopes are now with the added responsibility of tech, he will rise to the occasion.

966

The Green Room / Re: One of those days.

« on: Oct 30, 2011, 03:21 am »

"This too shall pass."

967

The Green Room / Re: How to deal with an unruly ASM

« on: Oct 28, 2011, 12:17 pm »

It's always hard to give a solution to a long term issue that has been festering . . .  but it does seem like a major conversation needs to happen, and maybe not with just you, but the next layer of management.

968

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: "Senior Showcase"

« on: Oct 25, 2011, 02:51 pm »

The resume is the obvious answer, but the resume gets you a face to face interview - where you can chat, and sell yourself in person.  So, unless you are standing by the table, shaking hands, handing out business cards, etc . . . it may be an odd situation.

You can always put out calling script samples, samples of paperwork - but to be honest, people hiring understand that all of that can be faked, and paperwork is stolen and rehashed and reused.

It actually throws back a more serious question to the senior stage managers, how does one sell yourself as a stage manager?

969

The Hardline / Re: AGVA contract that follows AEA Off-Bway Rulebook: FMLA?

« on: Oct 21, 2011, 01:23 pm »

Which only goes to prove, that regardless of whats in the rules, sometimes working with the producer might result in the outcome you want.

970

The Hardline / Re: AGVA contract that follows AEA Off-Bway Rulebook: FMLA?

« on: Oct 20, 2011, 04:53 pm »

We had a lengthy discussion about the maternity leave here

http://smnetwork.org/forum/index.php/topic,6390.msg39463.html#msg39463

and some of the same case can be made about family leave.

We are a different industry then the rest of the world.

Let's take it out of context

Let's say a costume designer had a family emergency and couldn't do three weeks of fittings or tech . . . how can the job be held for them?  Can they show wait? 

We are a time based position (we have to get the show open in time, we have to perform a show at 8:00p) - we don't have some of the same flexibility as other industries. 

Our entire career is a free-lance, temp, contract employees, and we do not get the same benefits as other types of full-time, regular employees. 

There is a trade off, and often it is not in our favor.

971

Self-Promotion / Re: Candide in Boston (FINAL CURTAIN CALL

« on: Oct 16, 2011, 11:25 pm »

So, curtain call over, house lights up . . . but the house would not stop applauding . . . had to call the cast back up from the dressing rooms to say "BON VOYAGE" to Boston . . .  what a wonderful way to say goodbye to Boston, a wonderful way to say goodbye to a fantastic show and cast.





http://blog.huntingtontheatre.org/2011/10/candide-closes-audience-wont-leave.html

972

Self-Promotion / TITUS ANDRONICUS

« on: Oct 16, 2011, 11:21 pm »

So, Leaving behind the "best of all possible worlds" and into . . . well, my fifth production of  TITUS ANDRONICUS.




TITUS ANDRONICUS
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Michael Sexton
Featuring Jay O. Sanders as Titus Andronicus
 
November 29 - December 18, 2011
 
Titus is Rome's greatest general and the head of a noble Roman family. When his armies vanquish the Goths, their defeated queen unleashes a fury that rocks Titus's city, devastates his children, and shatters his sense of self. The cycle of revenge is shocking, bloody, and all-encompassing, but expressed through poetry and theatricality as vivid, energized, and thrilling as anything in Shakespeare's later works.
 

973

Employment / Questions to start a relationship with new general management

« on: Oct 13, 2011, 12:00 pm »

One of the the things about working freelance is working with new producers / theaters / management teams - especially general managers.

Something I have very quickly learns - general managers tend to be suspicious of stage manages, especially stage managers who call AEA or question their way of doing things.

I am begging to put together for myself a checklist for a meeting with the representative of General Management, and wondering whta other stage managers like to discuss.

My questions are . . .

to whom do I get overtime approved from?  what things do you pay overtime for?  can I get  a bank of overtime pre-approved for things like costume fittings since I will scheduling outside of office hours?

how do you handle press/marketing events?  do you include in the work day or week hours?  do you pay overtime for them?  who will be communicating these with the actors and creative team?

if an AEA issue arrives, that is not confidential in nature and would require me to go the business rep directly, to whom should I contact within the organization?  (What I find is even the simplest of rules that I think can only have one reading, often have more then one reading . . . nice to know who in the organizations the “AEA” expert.)

Who will be responsible for all AEA-required postings - photo calls, recordings, closing notice etc?

And give them an opened ended question like what do they expect from their stage managers?  Good, bad, indifferent issues form the past?

THOUGHTS?

974

Tools of the Trade / Re: 5 fingers

« on: Oct 10, 2011, 11:09 am »

I would chime in as well - not closed toed, protective footwear seems an odd choice for backstage.

975

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Designer Cue Lists

« on: Oct 07, 2011, 11:37 pm »

I paper tech on my own, add cues as we go along . . . I NEVER get designers and director in the same room before tech.