Messages

1

Tools of the Trade / Re: Virtual Callboard

« on: Aug 19, 2013, 10:40 am »

I've looked into it some myself, and while the different solutions all seem interesting, none of them seem to quite match with my style.  I suspect that that is the problem with most of the stage management software packages.  We all have our own style, and our own slightly different way of doing things.  Software packages like this can be made in one of two ways.  The first way is to make it work exactly one way, and force the person using it to work in that way.  For some this may be an acceptable solution, and for others the differences are too great and they won't use it.  The second way is to build the package in numerous small pieces and allow the person using it the option of customizing how it works.  The problem with this method is that in order to have enough flexibility to do things in all the different way stage managers do things, the package becomes enormous, unintuitive, and incredibly complicated to work with. 

My sister works at a Yoga studio, and uses something similar to the second option (For fitness based businesses, not stage management).  I have looked it over, and it is one of the most frustratingly over complicated pieces of software I have ever looked at.  It is complicated enough that they offer a one week seminar on how to use the package.  I can't imagine trying to use something similar to stage manage. 

2

Tools of the Trade / Re: Slapstick scenes involving water gags on stage

« on: Mar 13, 2013, 10:57 am »

Mack and Mabel has a good amount of keystone cops slapstick in it, and even has an entire number (I Wanna Make the World Laugh) which is devoted to among other things a massive pie fight. 

3

The Green Room / Re: Daylight Savings Time

« on: Mar 10, 2013, 12:04 am »

Already reminded my cast.  Thanks. 

4

The Green Room / Re: Weird Dreams

« on: Feb 25, 2013, 10:30 am »

I have a recurring dream when I have a show running.  I normally have it the night before a matinee, and in the dream it is intermission, and it is past when I needed to call 5, but I haven't called 5 yet.  I try to call 5 but I just can't get the words out, kind of like a dream where you are running from something but no matter how long you run it is right there.  When I wake up it all seems so real, when I get to the theatre I feel like I should apologize for screwing up the previous performance. 

5

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Is It Even Worth It?? (Conflict resolution)

« on: Feb 22, 2013, 10:52 am »

I'm a bit confused.  I can't imagine that who stage manages the show is decided by agreement among the students. 

In the University where I teach, faculty makes the decision on which student will stage manage each show in our season (some students SM more than once a season).

As SMRose says, isn't there a faculty member or someone else ultimately in charge of the production who should be making the decision?  You mention talking with your TD, is he the one responsible for the show?  If not, why bring this to him?  If so, why doesn't he want to resolve this, if it keeps going it sounds like it would be bad for the show? 

6

Introductions / Re: Hi!

« on: Feb 05, 2013, 12:14 am »

Welcome to SMNetwork.  What part of the Bay Area do you work in?  Are you working on any shows right now? 

7

The Green Room / Re: Tax Season!

« on: Jan 30, 2013, 03:05 am »

I hope I'm not going to off topic, but I've been looking over my taxes for this year, and I have a question I'm hoping some of you folks can answer.  What IRS Business Code do you use on your taxes when you are filing as an IC working as a stage manager?  I have looked over the list, and it looks like the closest thing would be one of the 711*** numbers, but none of them really seem to fit.  Do you use one of the 711*** numbers?  If so which one?  Do you use 999999?  Has that been problematic for you?  Do you use another number I am completely overlooking?  Thanks. 

8

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop

« on: Dec 30, 2012, 04:30 pm »

I feel like we are looking at this incorrectly.  The contestants are paper and laptop.  While the original December Madness thread states we are voting on what the ultimate SM symbol is, I can't find anywhere we are given specific criteria beyond "favorite".  To me, if we are looking at these as tools then we should really be judging them by what they enable us to do that we wouldn't otherwise be able to do, and what they allow us to do in an easier way, that is after all what tools do.  Tools are only useful given the right circumstances, and the decision you have to make when you cast your vote in this match is to me a simple one.  Which tool is going to be the better tool for the circumstances you find in a production more often?  There is a right answer, but that right answer is only the right answer for your experience and preferences.  This poll should be interesting to tell us how evenly divided the SM community is on the current role of technology in stage management. 

9

The Green Room / Re: What do we do?

« on: May 14, 2012, 02:20 am »

I've found the easiest thing to explain is what I consider the smallest part of the job - calling the show. It's something that most people can somewhat understand. I don't try to explain rehearsals, scheduling, people managing, meetings, etc. But if you just say "Have you been to a show before? When the curtain rises, the music starts, the light shifts and the set moves, that's me telling everyone what to do and when to do it." Most people can grasp that. Getting into the meat of the job can be difficult to explain to a "civilian" - and I generally don't try to do that unless someone is genuinely interested, and we have some time.

If I am talking to someone I don't really know that is typically what I do as well.  If I am talking to someone I know better, or who has a real interest in what I do, I try and explain the basics of the job in terms of organization and facilitation. 

10

Tools of the Trade / Re: How to best use Dropbox?

« on: Apr 28, 2012, 09:18 pm »

I'ms assuming when you say links you mean links to the individual files or 'collections'? As far as I'm seeing all of my files are still connected to their old links.

I mean the links you get when you publish to the web. 

11

Tools of the Trade / Re: How to best use Dropbox?

« on: Apr 28, 2012, 06:57 pm »

Dropbox is spectacular, but another tool you might want to look into is Evernote. It's also free, but it has editing and search tools built into it so you don't necessarily need to go over to word/excel/whatever. You can share notebooks with other team members, and if you use the mobile version you can record audio notes directly with it or take snapshots right into it. If you really got into it, they sell scanners for about $100 that will scan directly into evernote and do on-the-fly ocr - might be a licensing nightmare to do that with scripts, but with all your other paperwork it might be amazing.

On that note, of Evernote, you might also want to think of using Google Docs.  We have a GMail account for our school's Theatre Dept. and we use the Docs portion quite a lot and from the issues listed about Dropbox, I would say Google Docs works a lot better.
Just something to consider.

I use Google Docs for a lot of things with my shows and it works very well for me, but Google Docs just updated to Google Drive which is supposed to compete with dropbox and icloud etc.  Right now I am in the middle of rehearsals for a show, and I am being paranoid about not accidentally updating and breaking links.  Has anyone gone through the update process yet?  Do you know how links are being handled?  Are there any other things to watch out for with the update?  Sorry for kind of taking this off topic but I think this is enough in the vein of the thread to not need a new thread. 

12

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: POLICIES: Responsibility breakdown

« on: Feb 21, 2012, 09:47 pm »

That's a great idea.  Thanks. 

13

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: POLICIES: Responsibility breakdown

« on: Feb 20, 2012, 04:49 pm »

Thanks for all of the responses.  From what I am hearing it doesn't sound like there is a better way to do it than to ask any questions on this subject you can think of beforehand, and to ask questions when anything you didn't think of beforehand comes up.  I am still going to recommend a handbook be created at least as a starting point even if it isn't completely detailed and may be subject to change, I feel having it as a baseline would be useful and certain items should be fairly set in stone such as policies on dealing with children in shows, and how the group runs the house.  I'm glad to hear that people with so much more experience than me still deal with these issues.  It bothered me that I didn't know the answers to these questions already, and I felt like I wasn't doing my job properly.  I appreciate all of your input, and if anyone has anything further to add I would love to hear it. 

14

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: POLICIES: Responsibility breakdown

« on: Feb 20, 2012, 02:11 pm »

In this production, I had two Co-Producers, a Technical Director, a Master Carpenter, a Scenic Designer, a Lighting Designer, a Sound Designer, Costume Designer, and a Properties Designer.  The breakdown of responsibilities between myself and the TD and the Master Carpenter was the hardest for me to figure out.  It felt like every time something came up which I would expect the TD to be responsible for I ask them to do it only to be told that was my responsibility or the Master Carpenters responsibility.  I was asking questions whenever anything came up, I just feel that it would have been more efficient if I had a reference to go to instead of needing to ask whose responsibility something was every time there was a question. 

Since I do expect to work with the group again, I am not opposed to working with them to create a handbook.  I don't think it would be terribly difficult as they already have all of the responsibilities broken down clearly in the individual contracts, the problem right now is that you never see anyone's contract other than your own so you don't have that information. 

15

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / POLICIES: Responsibility breakdown

« on: Feb 18, 2012, 06:27 pm »

I am just about to close my first show as a solo SM, and the biggest headache for me throughout the process has been figuring out who is responsible for which aspects of the show.  This is community theatre so things aren't as organized as they could be.  I don't like to work like that.  I believe in having a clear understanding of what my job entails, and what my duties and expectations are.  To that end, before starting the show I laid out my expectations of what my responsibilities for the production would entail.  The contract I signed covered most of these things, and the things which weren't explicitly covered were easily agreed to since I was asking to do more than they expected.  The problem I ran into during the production was that while I had a clear understanding of my responsibilities, I realized that I had never received a clear breakdown of other peoples responsibilities.  I had certain preconceived notions of what I expected different staff positions to do, and while overall they were close, there were some significant differences which I was only finding out about as issues came up.  Obviously I now know better than to expect every theatre company to have the same titles mean the same responsibilities especially when in community theatre companies may merge positions etc.  Moving forward I would like to avoid having this happen.  I suspect things are different for Equity SMs vs. community theatre, but I would value any input from anyone as to how you typically deal with this sort of situation. 

At the post show feedback session, I plan on bringing this up as a problem I had.  I would like to propose that there be a handbook for all of the staff positions which explains what the responsibilities are.  It may be a bit of work, but I feel it would be beneficial.  What are your thoughts on this?