Messages

1

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROPS: Prop Recipe Exchange

« on: May 27, 2012, 05:42 pm »

How carbonated is it? Most actors I've worked with hate drinking pop onstage

2

Tools of the Trade / Re: Prop: Throwable Real Eggs

« on: May 25, 2012, 03:34 am »

Now if only splat back would realize the theatrical potential of their product and add a real egg shell around it that would be amazing (as is it would be impossible to make those work for the above project).

3

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Prop Recipe Exchange

« on: May 25, 2012, 03:23 am »

Does anyone use peanut butter in their blood? I've done that before, as well as Simple Green (for non-edible), which is an amazing recipe and came out of a white dress shirt every single night without bleach.

Now if i could just find it...

With peanut allergies being so common these days, you;d probably be hard pressed to find a company that didn't have a member with allergies. I found that liquid soap based bloods come out of EVERYTHING - it's just not consumable.

As long as it's not consumed; Liquid dish soap, chocolate sauce, corn syrup and food colouring (red as well as green to counteract the soap) came out of everything it ever touched - I will admit it never got on anything white, but it definitly got all over my personal clothing including light yellow and it came out easily because it's soap!

4

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: MUSIC: How much should I be able to read?

« on: May 25, 2012, 03:14 am »

In school we are lucky enough to have an Opera Stage Management course where we are taught a bit of music theory, but mostly, we are taught what to look for in a score -- knowing when the time signature or key signature changes, and knowing your instruments can be very helpful. I can by no means read music, but I sure can follow it. Part of the exam for this course was listening to a piece of music without looking at the score, and being able to quickly find where in the music you are (when the teaching said 'go'). We learnt that marking scores (in your own unique way) really really made this easy. Thing like knowing that this is when the trumpets come in etc. really helped the blind test. Being able to follow a beat and follow the shape of the music are essential, but not that difficult to pick up. I used to be rather intimidated by the thought of working an opera but I have the chance to work on a couple this coming season and have no reason to doubt myself, you just need to get a score and a copy of the music in advance and listen - eventually you will know the score inside out just like you eventually leanr everyone's lines just from hearing it .

5

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: ahhh

« on: May 25, 2012, 03:03 am »

But I have never seen someone with the script on the right side of the binder with the cues on the left side of the script before.  (I imagine it would be hard to write cues with the rings of the binder in the way.)

I just assumed, and incorrectly so, that a script on the right side of the binder would have the cues on the right side.  My apologies.

I have my script on the right hand side of a binder - but that is just because I am left handed, and it is much easier to scribble blocking notes on the left hand side.

That said, it always has been a bit funny to me when it comes time to call cue because, as Matt assumed, my cues are usually on the right side of the lines (writting on the ring side of a binder as a lefty is next to impossible) -- that said, I write my cues large, circle the cue line large, thus making the cue so noticeable -- and I'm paranoid that I'll miss something so the fact that it's out of natural reading order isn't actually that big of a deal.

But ya, I am definitely the oddball for having my script pages on the right hand side (but again that's because I'm the oddball for being a lefty) - I have only seen one other person not have the script on the left, and she did it landscape with script on the bottom and blocking on the top.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Stage Management Manual - What to Include

« on: May 25, 2012, 02:51 am »

There's a really great book from the CAEA here in Canada called 'Stage Managing the Arts in Canada' it may be slightly out of date (as you should always have extra floppy disks around) but that would be a great book for you to check out to get some tips, as it is actually used as a reference in both the Stage Managing the arts conferences as well as University programs. Other than that it would just be nailing down/outlining the specifics of your theatre, ie. where important things are, who to call for maintenance issues -- all the quirks that only someone working there for years would know.

7

The Green Room / Re: Introducing the Unicorn Rainbow Sparkly Theatre Company!

« on: May 25, 2012, 02:42 am »

Working wireless headsets for backstage

OMG yes please. That don't fuzz, or randomly beep at you, and everyone that needs to be on channel 'A' actually has a working channel 'A'

8

The Green Room / Re: ARTICLE: NYT Jobs Few, Grads Flock to Unpaid Internships

« on: May 12, 2012, 11:05 am »

SMrose

No I am not. For the theatre apprenticeship I am getting an equity credit (the credit/points thing is different in Canada) and in order to receive the equity credit I cannot be getting any school credits for it as well.

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The Green Room / Re: ARTICLE: NYT Jobs Few, Grads Flock to Unpaid Internships

« on: May 07, 2012, 05:02 am »

This is very interesting to me as I am currently working 2 unpaid internships (The ol' standard ones though, 1 in film 1 in not-for-profit theatre)... Obviously I agree with some of the complaints of minimum wage violations in this article, but complaining about the non-educational work experience is a little interesting for two reasons - the first being that when you say intern I immediately think coffee bitch, so why is it so shocking to the grads in this article? The second is because I feel as an intern that it is my job to make it an educational experience - if I don't ask questions how do I except to learn anything. Obviously it would not be my first choice to run company errands, but it's all part of the job. I have found that the more questions I ask,  the more likely an employer is willing to hire me as I am clearly showing interest in the business and the company. It is unfortunate that companies do take advantage of unpaid internships because they are not well regulated, but as I am a current student and not a recent grad, I do not have the credentials to be a paid employee anyway so I'll take advantage of the experience and the connections.

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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Mentorship Program

« on: May 02, 2012, 01:17 pm »

Personally, I would be interested in this just for the ability to have a contact in another country that I was willing/wanted to work in. It would be far less intimidating to move half way across the world if you had a theatre contact that could show you the ropes in their town.

11

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: AEA Membership Candidate Program

« on: May 02, 2012, 01:10 pm »

Hi rgkelle,

I don't know how useful I will be as the equity rules are a little different in Canada. I personally see no issues with beginning the process while you are still in school, the issue I have found, is knowing when to actually get your equity card. Even if you graduate with enough credits to get your card, you are still a recent grad who might find it difficult to find equity work, whereas it is easier to find (what we call) apprentice jobs. However, you have 5 years after getting those credits to get your equity card, which still gives you plenty of time to get the experience necessary to getting equity gigs.