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Messages - sgoldsbo

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1
The Green Room / Re: Kids say (and do) the darndest things!
« on: Sep 07, 2010, 12:16 pm »
Quote
I've called whole shoes

this made me laugh - and I assume you meant whole SHOWS?

haha, opps! yes, yes. I meant shows!

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The Green Room / Re: Kids say (and do) the darndest things!
« on: Sep 01, 2010, 06:51 pm »
To make a surreal sitation stranger, passing truckers on the highway kept picking up our wireless coms on their CBs and hitting on the SM

I think this is the funniest part of this story! I've called whole shoes with my com picking up Mexican radio but never had anyone but my crew respond on com! Hilarious!

Post Merge: Sep 01, 2010, 06:53 pm
We've had to change lines in our kids show because the kids get too upset about the antigonist hiding onstage when the hero enters. They'd shout at the hero about the hiding antigonist until he'd have to make them be quiet.

Also have had a little girl (maybe 5?) walk ONSTAGE during a show to ask a rat puppet if he was an elephant. I guess his nose was a little too long for her to understand what was going on.

Gotta love live theater!

3
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Talk Backs
« on: Aug 30, 2010, 06:37 pm »
Wow! This is so awkward! I can't imagine how jarring it would be to have this happen unannounced in the middle of a show. Yeesh.

Personally, I really feel like the show should speak for itself. If you need a legnthy directors note, or a talkback, then the director hasn't done their job correctly. Talkbacks should be for talking about the process, not about what's actually going on in the show.

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Tools of the Trade / Re: Excel tips
« on: Aug 30, 2010, 06:29 pm »
I work in a day job where I have to manipulate a lot of data in Excel - and I have found vlookup to be invaluable. Basically you tell Excel to look for a certain value anywhere in any table and pull corresponding data into the cell with the forumla.

For example, if I had one spreadsheet with prices, and one spreadsheet with quantities I could tell Excel - look for this Widget in the prices spreadsheet and pull that data into the spreadsheet I am currently working on.

There are some great tutorials online. I haven't yet found a use for it in my SM duties but I use it almost daily at my real people job.

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Tools of the Trade / Re: SOFTWARE: Adobe Story
« on: Aug 28, 2010, 06:52 pm »
NormieRae - Good point! Do you know if Final Draft can update in real-time? I think that's the major appeal of this program.

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What do you consider to be your duties during rehearsals mainly focused on movement work or acting exercises where there is no blocking involved?

These are my thoughts:

- Take attendance, call actors who are late
- Call breaks if the person leading rehearsal does not do so themselves

Anything else? Do you feel free to sit in the back of the room and work on paperwork/catch up on emails? Would you try to leave the room and just pop in to check on things every once in a while?

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Tools of the Trade / SOFTWARE: Adobe Story
« on: Aug 28, 2010, 02:43 pm »
Hey! Just wanted to share this, as I think it's pretty fabulous!

Adobe is developing an interactive script writing program called Story. It has both an online and offline component - basically it's just like Google Docs except specifically for film projects and waaaay more powerful/sophisticated.

I'm currently involved in a show in development and have found it to be super useful.

Check it out!


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Employment / Re: When is it OK to work for free?
« on: Aug 23, 2010, 01:23 pm »
Excellent, post, Matthew!  Thanks!

I second that. Thanks, MatthewShiner! Some really great information.

9
I worked on a show where one of the actresses knew and invited several big names. She took the liberty of informing the cast herself when there was a VIP in the audience.

Personally, I would agree with the general consensus that it really shouldn't matter who is in the audience or how many seats are filled, everyone paid the same price for their tickets and every audience member deserves a great show. I usually don't share information about VIPs or house size with the cast before the show.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROPS: Cake
« on: Aug 04, 2010, 11:21 am »
Hi all! Thanks for the great ideas!

If I'd had more time to dedicate to finding materials/building the prop I definitely would have gone the shellaced foam/shaving cream route. Or I would have even used that foamy kids bath soap for icing.

Unfortunately, I just got pulled onto this project last week and I think that with the time constraints, baking was just the way to go! I bought some mixes and frosting from the 99c store (ugh, it was NOT tastey), baked the cakes, and let them sit in front of a fan overnight. This morning I put them uncovered in the fridge. I’m most concerned about them molding before Sunday’s performance.

The foam cake would have been such a great option though! I wish that I could have dedicated more time and energy into the project.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROPS: Cake
« on: Aug 03, 2010, 01:44 pm »
NomieRae - Do you think the florists foam would look okay before it's frosted? I'm all for reusable props, I'm just concerned because the cake needs to come out clean and gets frosted onstage each night.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / PROPS: Cake
« on: Aug 03, 2010, 01:22 pm »
Hey all!

I'm currently working on a dance show where a whole, unfrosted cake gets brought onstage and frosted; then a slice is cut and plated but not eaten. I need enough cakes for 3 nights of rehearsal and 2 performances, plus an extra in case anything goes wrong.

I was toying with the idea of building something in foam and shellacing it, and then using either real or fake frosting, but I really only have tonight to dedicate to getting this done and I’m just not really that confident in my prop making skills.

I am, however, confident in my baking skills. I was just going to go ahead and bake the 6, double layer, 8” round cakes myself tonight.

Which brings me to my question: any thoughts on ingredients to add or ways to bake the cake to make them a little hardier? They only need to last for 6 days, and they don’t need to be eaten, but they do need to be cut onstage.

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The Green Room / Re: Any other crafters out there?
« on: Jul 29, 2010, 01:22 pm »
Hooray crafters!

I'm a pretty avid crafter of anything involving fiber - embroidery, crochet, some knitting, some sewing. I'm a member of a "Ladies Crafting Circle" comprised almost entirely of techies. We always have awesome conversation over yarn!

Anyone seen these? They're amazing for crocheting during backstage downtime (if you ever get any....). I bought them while I was run crew for a 2hr show with 1 set change. I think they also make knitting needles.



Ravelry is fabulous! I'm blackbird5685 there. Craftster is also a pretty awesome website for crafters. It's been one of my favorites for years.

14
Tools of the Trade / Re: Paperless World
« on: Jul 23, 2010, 01:00 pm »
At the end of the day it's about evaluating the needs of the company and choosing the right tool for the job.

Hear, hear!

15
The Green Room / Re: Best one-liner from a performance report
« on: Jul 23, 2010, 11:32 am »
Accident/Injury- [Actress] punched self in the nose during pre-show dressing room ABBA dance party. Suitably embarrassed but otherwise fine.

HAHAHA! Oh man, that's awesome.

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