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Topics - kiwitechgirl

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http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/opera-australia-sacks-soprano-tamar-iveri-over-gay-slurs-20140623-zsiol.html

It's been an interesting start to the week.  My personal feeling is that there was never going to be any other result but this one - there couldn't be.  I was ready to walk out with the orchestra if it came to that. 

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This really only applies to those who work full-time with one company, as I do.  We have two spaces and 3 SMs, occasionally augmented with casuals for kids' school holiday shows or when someone is on leave, and yesterday one of the other SMs and I sat down with the production manager to sort out scheduling for next year, now that the season is almost completely locked down.

It struck me as we were doing this that we somehow manage to be very relaxed about it, yet everyone seems to get almost all that they want very amicably.  We have one "fixed point" in the year which is that I do the musical, and take it from there; some of it is logical in that you can't do show B if you're on show A, but other than that it's all worked out by discussion and agreement.  How do others do it?  Does your head stage manager or production manager simply decide who is doing what, or do you get a say in the shows that you'd like (or not like!) to stage manage?

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I'm currently in rehearsals for a play which is going to cause more controversy than any other show I think I've ever worked on.  It's a (wonderful!) New Zealand play called Saving Grace - we open in a fortnight - and the entire theatre is bracing itself for the letters, e-mails and phone calls we're likely to receive.  We're producing it in our second space, which is programmed with more challenging groundbreaking works, and the audiences are aware of that, but I still think we're going to have offended punters. 

Essentially one character believes that he's Jesus Christ reborn (the play is very ambiguous and leaves the audience to make up their own mind about whether he actually is or not!), befriends an eighteen-year-old (mentally unstable and very disturbed) street kid, takes her in, convinces her he's JC (then goes to bed with her!) and persuades her to crucify him, onstage.  I cannot bring myself to watch her nailing him to the cross - and I've been there since day one and know how they've got to where they are and what they've been through to get there - and if I can't watch it, how many of the audience aren't going to be able to watch it?!

So what's the most controversial show you've worked on - and what did the public think?!

Edit added label to subject line-Rebbe

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I'm reaching the end of a 12-week run and have been having issues with one actor who constantly upstages, pulls focus, ad-libs and while his character is an alcoholic, he plays so drunk that you can't understand what he's saying.  I've had words with him, the director has had words with him and it's now at the point where it's going up to the CEO and artistic director (he's through-cast into the next two plays).  The rest of the cast are all incredibly frustrated with him, because it's all about him - no sense of ensemble or company, plus his backstage behaviour is less than satisfactory - we're constantly having to stop him singing along, talking and laughing loudly.  There has also been some other inappropriate behaviour but I can't go into details about that.

He's also auditioning shortly for a production with another company; the musical director is a good friend of mine and so I've e-mailed him to let him know of the issues we've been having because I think that if they're considering casting him, they need to know what he's like.  Of course, now I'm having second thoughts about whether I have overstepped the mark in passing this information on.  It's true that if you asked anyone in the company you'd get exactly the same story, but I'm still having doubts....what do you think?

Edit added label to subject line-Rebbe

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I had a gig this week followspotting a massive production of A Midsummer Night's Dream - eleven actors performing a fairly severely cut-down script, full symphony orchestra playing Mendelssohn's incidental music and eight young ballet dancers - and for various reasons was early to the tech rehearsal.  I was killing some time chatting in the dressing room corridor with the actor playing Flute, who happens to be a good friend of mine, about a different (and wonderful!) show which I've been doing a bit of work on.  The director came along the corridor, heard what we were talking about, and proceeded to tell me off for discussing the different show with the actor!  Apparently it's a "psychological thing, they must be allowed to concentrate on their own show and don't need distraction."  Sadly I was too gobsmacked to retort "excuse me, this is a private conversation and you have no right to regulate that."  I've worked with this director before, and while he is undoubtedly a brilliant man, he can also be one of the most difficult, picky, controlling, nasty people I've ever met, but this is a new extreme!!  The actor in question was as stunned as I was - and pointed out that he had about three lines, so it wasn't like he was struggling to remember them all; it wasn't like I'd barged into the dressing room of an actor I didn't know and started banging on about how wonderful the show was, it was simply an idle conversation with a friend!  I have never been told not to discuss other shows with actors before - has anybody else?!

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The Green Room / Where and when are you at your best?
« on: Jun 29, 2009, 10:01 pm »
This is something that I've been thinking about for the last couple of days, after a conversation with the two other SMs in the company that I work for - we all three have totally different strengths and things we're good at, which makes us a very well-rounded department and we can assign people to shows according to the needs of the show and cast.  So, where are you at your best, where do you do your best work?  Personally, I'm at my best on musicals; our musicals are unique in that we have a small, oddly shaped space with no wingspace and no flying which makes shows like The Producers a huge challenge.  I do best when I'm coping with a big cast, a director and MD who are relying on me to make everything happen, not enough time or money, hundreds of costumes, props coming out my ears, massively complex technical requirements and lots of pressure.  Put me in that situation and I thrive!

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A bit of background: I'm currently involved with a production of Miss Saigon which a local (well-respected) amateur company is producing.  It's obviously primarily amateur actors, although quite a few of them are drama school graduates who are now in other jobs because they can't find paid work as an actor, so they're doing the show to keep their skills tuned up.  Kim, the Engineer and John are professionals who are all being paid - basically they couldn't find anyone who could sing it well enough and was prepared to do it for nothing.  The director has directed a lot of big shows around the country - although all for amateur societies as far as I know.  He's also choreographing; I don't like the way he works, but I can get past that - everyone has different methods, right?  Anyway.  We were rehearsing The American Dream tonight when one of the chorus (a drama school grad - very smart kid) said "I had a costume fitting the other day, and I showed Wardrobe this move (it's a bend at the waist, as close to heads on the ground as they can get) and they said that our costumes won't allow us to do that."  The response from the director was "Don't ever say things like that to Wardrobe.  They don't need to know about things like that, we'll sort it out when we get to the theatre."  I had to be restrained by the other two ASMs who were sitting either side of me, as I was ready to jump up and beat him around the head with my script - that is, when I'd recovered from the shock hearing him say that!  As the evening continued, people were asking questions which were quite logical, sensible questions I'd normally expect to be answered very quickly.  His response every time?  "Don't worry, we'll sort it out at the theatre."  It's going to be one hell of a tech rehearsal, and I'm starting to be rather scared!  How can you leave the cast not knowing how things are going to work before the tech?  They're all going to be incredibly insecure when we get to the tech and it isn't the director who'll have to pick up the pieces, it's me and the other SMs.  Thank goodness for a crew with fantastic heads of department (I couldn't have asked for a better team) and two full days to tech the show, but it's still going to be long, drawn-out and painful.  

Just needed to rant!

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I have a bit of a situation on my current show, and I'm slightly at a loss to know where to go next.  In a nutshell, I have an actor in his early to mid 40s who has developed a relationship with an actress who has just turned 21.  The fact that the actor in question is married doesn't really concern me - his relationship with his wife is entirely their business - but I am extremely worried about the girl, who is fresh out of drama school and is obviously completely under this guy's spell.  The whole thing feels to me like he has taken advantage of her - he's a very experienced actor with a lot of knowledge to impart, as well as being the worst flirt I have ever met, and is in a senior position to her with the company - and much as it's a horrible word, it seems predatory to me.  I'm worried that the whole thing will turn ugly and she'll have a complete meltdown, jeopardizing not only her sanity but the show - we have no understudies and 10 weeks left to run.  My problem is that I can't really step in until the show becomes affected, but I feel very uncomfortable standing on the sidelines and watching; my sister is the same age as the girl, and if it was her I would be out for blood.  The director is aware of the situation, and has already ripped the guy to shreds about it, but it's had no effect.  I've spoken to one other cast member about it - she's a girl who I trust completely - but she couldn't really say much except that there is definitely something going on, and that she doesn't like the attitude the actor has towards women, from what she's gathered in the dressing room.  I'm not a big fan of intra-cast relationships anyway, but this one just has the feeling about it that it could all turn very, very pear-shaped extremely quickly.  Anybody have any suggestions about what I could do to try and ease my mind?  

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / ESCRIPTS: The Producers
« on: May 14, 2007, 11:56 pm »
I start on a production of The Producers in the not-too-distant future (the New Zealand premiere production, no less!), and was wondering if anyone has an electronic copy of the script which they'd be happy to send me?  I hasten to add that of course we have legit scripts and everything, but I want to re-format the script for my book and if I can avoid re-typing the entirety of the script it would be great!

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