Messages

1

The Green Room / Re: Food, Tech Dinners, etc (Merged Topics)

« on: Mar 16, 2007, 04:01 am »

This might be a completely different topic, but I just hit on the best snack idea I've ever had for my cast: I've set up a tea station in the green room.  I have about six 1.5 liter bottles of water (the theater doesn't have potable water), a selection of green and black teas, a small container of sugar and creamer and I also bring along an electric kettle.

The cast has been completely in love with it from the first night- hooray!

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The Green Room / Re: Food, Tech Dinners, etc (Merged Topics)

« on: Feb 18, 2007, 03:24 am »

Laurs:

I think the solution to your problem lies in the kind of accommodations you have on hand:

Ultra-plush luxury (access to fridge and microwave):

If you're looking for something healthy and cooked, what about frozen veggies / fruit?  All the health, but the veggies are already cooked (avoiding the raw food allergy).  I have an SM friend who loves to keep frozen strawberries on hand, because they pack a nice healthy boost of energy, and she gets a bit of a cool snack; it's almost like having sorbet on hand.  The other food to try might be microwavable popcorn- without butter it's still in the healthy arena.  You can even get them in the single serving packs now. 

Some luxury (access to a microwave):

The microwaveable popcorn is still definitely possible, as well as pretzels or animal crackers.  They list a little more to the junk food side of things, but if you eat them in small quantities it's not too bad.  You can still go for the frozen veggies if you plan ahead and pack them into a cooler with an ice pack (they can even work as the ice pack for your dinner....)

No luxury (no access to kitchen amenities):

When you get down to this level, it's really all in the planning.  But that's what stage managers are best at, right?  Organize yourself so that you've got a cooler packed with all of your goodies the night before.  Frozen veggies, licorice whips, animal crackers, pretzels, pre-popped popcorn (the stuff they sell at the grocery store in the chip aisle...) or any other snack can all get loaded into a bag or cooler for the day.  Make sure to bring along a liter or liter and a half bottle of water so that you don't get dehydrated- and also to wash off hands as needed!

Good luck

3

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Humor: Stage Managing the World

« on: Aug 18, 2006, 12:21 pm »

Does anyone else find themselves, in the quiet off hours between shows, doing little things like calling light cues at traffic lights?

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Backstage or Booth?

« on: Jun 13, 2005, 05:41 am »

I've called from backstage and from the booth, and I prefer the proximity to my actors.... it's a control freak thing, I guess, but I prefer to be right there with them to lend them support and render aid.  I also do a lot of amatuer theater work and rock concert type events, and I prefer to be backstage so that I can control who's on my stage.  I keep joking that I'm going to switch over to a career in bouncing.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: how to call other things...

« on: Mar 19, 2005, 12:39 am »

I also check, though, with my deck crew about what language they respond to and adjust accordingly....

I write up scene shift plots detailing who moves what when and to where.  I then call a scene change.  I don't negotiate on this part, and I've found that most of the shows that are travellers that I've crewed will post similar sheets.  It makes life easier.

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The Green Room / Food

« on: Mar 16, 2005, 07:58 pm »

So................. is it a good thing or a bad thing if you find yourself trying to put together your regular dinner based on what people have posted that they eat during a tech weeks? :?

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Actors who direct....

« on: Mar 16, 2005, 07:47 pm »

I've got two who are such major primma donas that they think they run the world just because they're onstage the most... And I can't get them to understand that their behavior is innappropriate!

Bash them over the head with your multi-tool.    Just kidding.  I usually mitigate diva-ism by baby-ing the actors, or if this doesn't work then by becoming a uber-dictator and cutting them off before they can make any comments.  Sure they're upset, but the rest of the cast is happy.  And really, is there ever a way to make a diva truly happy?  

P.S.  I think your situation might be a new discussion thread.  

8

The Green Room / Food

« on: Mar 08, 2005, 01:41 pm »

I carry carrots and cookies (the very crunchy kind) and sometimes chips... usually not, though.  I find that these things make excellent chew toys for me during tough rehearsals (i.e. I bite into them rather than the director).  Other than that, the food that I carry varies.  If I have access to a fridge and microwave (very rare treat in the spaces I'm sm'ing) I'll try to pack a sandwhich or soup or a salad.  Fast food can get old really fast.  Is there a natural food store or a grocery anywhere near you?  I've found that these places (at least here) are starting to put in sandwhich counters for the grab and go crowd.  It's still spending money on food, but at least you're not left saying "Ewww, that soybean paste that taco bell uses as it's deep frying oil is oozing out of my pores...."

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SMNetwork Archives / Re: resume...

« on: Mar 04, 2005, 02:15 pm »

I have a one page resume that I send out, really basic...The big thing I do is add a link to my website, which serves a my entire resume...Ever call/e-mail I've gotten back from a potential job has takn the time to look over my resume online.

I'm so glad that you've come up with this idea- it's a great one.

I was actually going to recommend that you can send in a detailed resumee, but always include a one-page summary that goes on top covering the major points.  

(I've spoken with interviewers about what they look for in a resume, and they have all said that they dont' go past the first page.  If you include a summary they will just read that, and be incredibly grateful to you for not making them go through the rest of it to find out the important bits.  )

But using a website link is a great way to streamline the process even further.  Hooray for the ethical application of technology!

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SMNetwork Archives / Interviews?

« on: Mar 04, 2005, 02:05 pm »

I'm sure they wont think it's ODD that you're employed at one place and interviewing for your next job... dont feel silly about saying what you do now and where you plan on getting to.

I completely agree.  You can interview through alternate media or try and find a way for them to come to you for the interview.  Most theater companies / intern programs understand the constraints of travel conditions, and really if they don't, do you want to work for them?  Also, find ways to spin your experience.  Right now you seem to be making excuses for your experience.  Don't.  Instead say something like "I've committed to such and such project until this date" even if it's just volunteering or an unpaid internship.  (It shows that you honor your commitments.) Potential employers will respect you more for a statement like that, and it'll make them want to hire you because once they have you committed they know that you'll honor your commitment to *them* as well.  Hooray!  And good luck on the interview process!

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SMNetwork Archives / Re: Don't leave home without...

« on: Feb 27, 2005, 01:51 pm »

condoms!

I'm so glad to hear that someone else carries condoms in their SM kit!  But make sure that you're using the non-lubricated ones.  We did a show which involved a lot of blood effects, and one of my actors nearly swallowed a condom full of stage blood because it was a lubricated (and thus slippery) condom.  Icky, icky, icky.  And explain that one without getting some kind of police report generated at the emergency room!

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: paper techs are...

« on: Feb 27, 2005, 01:44 pm »

...a waste of time.  College and Uni's spend far too much time focusing on something that most professional theatres do not do.  Focus on learning how to run an actual dry tech (which is sometimes confused with "paper" tech).

Maybe it's just that most of the director's I've worked with all come from the University, but I still find that the paper tech is an important element of the tech procedure.  It's usually done the day before the first tech rehearsal, and is attended by myself, the director, and the lighting designer.  It's hooray for me because I get to stay up all night reorganizing my damn prompt book (which reminds me, I'm thinking up a new system for that).  

I have to say, though, that there is a certain amount of flow that happens when you go from paper tech to dry tech to wet tech.  I worked a renegade circus show that had three dress rehearsals in a row which *should* have been dry tech, wet tech, dress but they had other ideas about how a production should be managed.  I think it all depends on the director and their style.... and their organization.

I don't think that paper techs are a waste of time though... I'm trying to conceptualize how else you would get your cues.  Do you meet with designers on the side?  That might go so much faster since the director often just gets in the way... er, I mean, has a change of vision...

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Leaving the booth??!!?! (part 1)

« on: Feb 23, 2005, 03:07 am »

I always make sure that I have either enough chord or a wireless headset so that I can get anywhere I may be needed on my side of the stage.  I think ultimately it's another judgement call.... but you have to know that you can trust the people who are working around you.

In a recent show I had a little girl completely freak out, melt down and lose it.  She was wearing stilts when she lost it and I was truly and sincerely concerned that she would break her leg in her panic.  We got her out of her stilts and she tore off across the backstage.  The last I saw of her she was running toward the SL side of the stage in order to get to her mom in the audience.  From the reports I got from my SL ASM and my light booth, she apparently ran across the stage crying (it was an interesting setup for the show wherein I had no view of the stage) and running into things before running back into the backstage area.  My major concern was that she was going to be sick because she was so upset.  All of this happened in the middle of a major scene change.  

I never left my headsets or my side of the stage during this, I felt that I would only add to the press of people on the SL side of the backstage.  I guess my feeling at the time was that I trusted my SL team, and that I needed to be SR in case she came back to my side so that I could catch her before she got back out onstage in search of mom.  It was also a situation wherein I could designate runners to go and get different people (i.e. the backstage mom) to calm the girl down.  My job, I felt, was to issue orders and trust that they would be followed.  Hooray for solid tech crews!

14

SMNetwork Archives / The Cardinal Sin

« on: Feb 21, 2005, 08:52 pm »

I think that you can be forgiven for being late once (well, once a year maybe if the car breaks down in the rain while you're rushing to the hospital to recieve care for the broken arm and ruptured spleen you fought your way through during the first half of a full day rehearsal......) You can still get some credibility back and chastise actors for being late by saying things like "Don't be like me, get here on time..."  I really can't forgive a stage manager who hits an actor, though.  I never have, and really don't see that there would ever be a need for it.  However, I was informed by an actor in another show that they had been kicked in the knee by their stage manager.  That really upset me.  I think that might be the true cardinal sin.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Costume Change Problem

« on: Feb 14, 2005, 02:10 am »

You could just kick your director for making life so difficult.  What is this play and why pick it with all of the restrictions?  Bad cast switching!  No cookie for director!  Seriously, have you considered masks?