Messages

1

The Green Room / Re: Thread to vent about / Actors behaving badly / As haiku only

« on: Feb 19, 2011, 06:37 pm »

Dearest cast and crew
How is it I must tell you
Ev'ry single day

Show call: one hour
Space open: one hour more.
As it's always been.

Costume designer:
Texting me to ask me this
You know they cost me!

You have done shows here
For the last three #&$*ing years
You know the answer!

2

Stage Management: Other / Re: Inexperienced conductor, last-minute score...

« on: Feb 16, 2011, 12:27 am »

They tend to blow the number due to someone getting lost (at times this is the conductor - I watched him lose the beat during a piece today yet the musicians and singers kept going).
They've been good(?) about not always messing up the same thing. IE what they messed up Sunday was good today, but they messed up things which were fine on Sunday... So it's about individual mistakes rather than being bad with a particular piece.

But today (thankfully) went better overall.  I spoke with the conductor afterwards and essentially told him it was in his hands during shows. I'm there if things get really wrecked, but he's getting a better sense of where to pick up from and I've told him to "sing along" if one of the singers is really lost which helped in previous rehearsals.

I'll see if I can grab him for a few moments to go over good re-starting points for the singers (they worked with canned music for weeks and we tended to go back to the same spots in rehearsal), and he's close enough to the handful of musicians that he can whisper/mumble out a bar number if necessary.
Thanks for the tips!

3

Stage Management: Other / Inexperienced conductor, last-minute score...

« on: Feb 15, 2011, 01:57 am »

Working on an operetta, we have one final dress rehearsal before we bring in a live audience, and last night's run with the ensemble was rocky (went over the same piece 3 or 4 times, several others needed to be restarted due to wrong tempo and/or musicians getting lost). I had been given instruction from the PM to take control when things derail, so I either gave the line leading up to the music cueing in, or gave a vocal line in the piece (the singers wouldn't know offhand where we would be going if given a bar number).

However, if this happens during a show, I am uncertain what to do - do I let the conductor pick things up and hope the singers figure out where he went back to, or do I break the fourth wall and do as I have been?
I am very reluctant to do the latter, but wonder if it is better for the audience to know there was a mistake but we got back on track rather than have them witness a fumbled song or two.

Opinions?
Thanks in advance.

4

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: How to tape out a staircase...

« on: Feb 11, 2011, 02:37 am »

I just finished a "staircase" show. Except, it was a bunch of risers at varying angles with books piled on them. So even using the floor plan to tape out each step very carefully in a series of colours, it was nothing like the real deal with varying levels and the occasional wobbly book or cracks between books for heels to get caught in. (600 books, 500 of which made from plywood for sturdiness... 6 week build)
The rehearsal space was also a daily-used classroom. Storage space would be awkard. I didn't have 2hrs/day to waste in setup/takedown. So we just guessed away with our little bits of tape and spent an entire day in the shop as soon as the "staircase" was finished, working on adjusting blocking etc. (also discovering some unexpected vertigo).

Other step units I've had to tape out I just put stripes of tape where the edges of the steps went and told the actors what they were looking at. Too many designers like to make "unique" steps that look very odd when flattened, which is part of why we generally try to have the 3D scale model present at the first rehearsal and as frequently thereafter as possible.

5

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROFESSIONALISM: What to do when you're sick?

« on: Feb 11, 2011, 02:03 am »

From day one for me the mantra has been "If you get hit by a bus..." (the show must go on). Which is why all LX/Sound/Video cues are hard-copy saved and stored at the theatre, and my book lives at the theatre as of tech week unless I absolutely need to work on it elsewhere.
And for most cue operation the plan is to make it idiot proof so anyone can just sit and listen and hit the Go button, or to run it with a very brief explanation.
ASMs are told to make detailed check lists for setup and lists of their own cues and leave copies at the theatre, and they are also our spare bodies lest something happens to someone - having been on headset, lived through the rehearsal process, attended meetings, etc they are most likely to be able to jump in and run the show for anybody (including actors). Meanwhile their jobs are often necessary but easy to take over by anyone.

Now if the theatre burned down all our lovely backups would be ruined. But I think it would be cause for cancelling/delaying the show anyway.

Last weekend the director was very ill and he left the rehearsal in my hands to continue as scheduled, with his ADs pitching in here and there. I was touched that he trusted me, but it also made me reflect - after a few weeks I get to know my colleagues and have faith that they could keep the ship going without me (at least... for a little while. In an emergency. If they were that good all the time I'd be out of a job)

6

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROFESSIONALISM: cell phones onstage

« on: Feb 11, 2011, 01:38 am »

Fortunately in the shows I've worked, many of the costumes didn't have pockets for the actors to sneak their phones on with and the ones who may have been troublesome had plenty of time off stage to text/call/etc back in the green room.

However with tech crew I've had to whisper-yell over headset a few times to move their cellphones away or turn them off due the beeping/buzz/whatever-that-is-sound. As for telling them to keep it off I've given up. The only ones who are bad about it are students, and I make sure to let their supervisors know if they cause problems.

My habit of keeping my cell with me during shows bit me in the rear on my last production when one of the actors decided to call me from the green room at the top of the show.
As it registered as a university number I answered - Security has my number and will call me if a show is running before they activate their incessant "we are investigating a fire alarm" message. What I instead got was what I (stupidly) believed to be an exchange professor asking about tickets. Horrendously confused and not wanting to harm inter-college relations I lost a few minutes off the top of the show with the audience sitting in half-house. It never occurred to me that the green room phone would register as a university number until the actor pushed his joke too far and called me back after show with the same shtick.
Admittedly it was a good prank. But it has taught me to be a little less gullible and to ignore phone calls when I'm in the middle of something important even if the call may be important.

7

The Green Room / Re: Thread to vent about / Actors behaving badly / As haiku only

« on: Feb 11, 2011, 12:36 am »

Cannot find intent
So the actor wants a prop:
Bun and a napkin.

But you have to sing
And your voice already cracks
Crumbs would make you worse.

You are a captain
In the tropics - someone asks
"How 'bout a mango?"

Now you act better
With the fruit than your scene mate
Do you suck that much?

And the mango rinds
In your pants pockets. Really?
You'll stain the costume!

The props designer
Is going mad over this
Director - CUT IT!