Messages

31

Employment / Re: ARTICLE: Stupid Things to Put in Your Cover Letter

« on: Jul 14, 2011, 05:31 pm »

Case in point: I'm currently trying to broaden my career choices by exploring the field of broadcasting and am soon applying for an internship. Although there is a "stage manager" position at many local news stations, it is hard to find the words to prove that being a stage manager for live theatre directly relates to success at directing the local news program, especially when you don't have the journalism, broadcasting or communications degrees traditionally expected.

Hopefully someone in charge of hiring will be at least somewhat familiar with live theatre and the vital importance of the stage managers work.   When I interviewed for my current "real world" job I found it very difficult to try to explain what a stage manager does, why it's important, and how those skills transfer over to "real world" jobs to the manager who had no interest or knowledge of theatre.

32

Employment / Re: Honest Opinion: Can I Make This Happen?

« on: Jul 10, 2011, 11:22 am »

YES!  Of course you can start a career in stage management. 

A freshman in college is not too late to start stage managing.  I didn't start stage managing until my 3rd year in college (granted I spent six years in college).  Also, you don't need a degree in stage management (or even a degree in theatre) to be a good stage manager.  Sounds like you're jumping deep into the waters and have a passion for getting practical experience, which is what you need to make it in theatre.

Do some searching around the boards.  You'll find a lot of similar topics talking about peoples backgrounds and how they got into stage management.  You'll find many replies stating that people came into stage management from varied backgrounds, some with no formal education in theatre at all.

33

The Green Room / Reading Plays

« on: Jun 30, 2011, 08:56 am »

Hi Everyone,
I'm setting a goal for myself over the next year (and by year I mean August to August - After 16+ years of school, I still run on an academic calender) to read at least one play a week.  Not since college have I read a play that I wasn't either working on on considering working on and I would like to change that.  So I would like your opinions.  What plays do you think are important for all theatre people to have read, or what are some of your favorite plays that you have read?

Thanks for the input!

34

The Green Room / Re: gaining new perspective

« on: Jun 29, 2011, 05:23 pm »

A couple years ago I took a hiatus from stage managing.  I felt an inevitable "snap" coming so I knew i had to.  Since then I've designed lighting and/or sound for a dozen and a half shows, worked as a costume technician, took a job as a house manager, and of course held down "real" jobs through all that as well.  I'm finally getting back into stage managing this coming september (which I'm completely thrilled about) and I definitely feel that these experiences will make me a better stage manager.  As a designer I could view the job from a different perspective and evaluate the stage managers I worked with in comparison to myself.

35

Tools of the Trade / Re: Multiplay Sound Cue Software

« on: Jun 08, 2011, 08:27 pm »

Here is a link to their webpage:

http://www.audiovisualdevices.com.au/software/multiplay/index.php

Thank you for the link plutosams!

36

Tools of the Trade / Re: Multiplay Sound Cue Software

« on: Jun 08, 2011, 02:39 pm »

I've never heard of this program and can't find any info on it, but I'm interested in checking it out.  Does anyone know the website for the company that manufactures it?

37

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Re: ESCRIPTS: Post your requests for electronic scripts here!

« on: May 06, 2011, 04:40 pm »

I'm looking for the following scripts.  Any format is fine.  As of right now, I'm just looking to get a hold of copies to read to decide whether I'm even interested in applying for any of these shows.

Dead Man's Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl
Frozen by Bryony Lavery
Pinkalicious, The Musical by Kann, Kann and Gregor

Any help would be much appreciated.  My email address is jdstewart83@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

38

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Labtop vs. Pencil and Script/Notepad

« on: Apr 26, 2011, 02:19 pm »

I bring my netbook to rehearsals and type up my rehearsal report as the rehearsal progresses.  The main reason I do this is because I can type a whole lot quicker than I can write, and when I am trying to make a note detailed, I can get that information down a lot faster and won't have to ask anyone to repeat themselves.  I usually will take 10 minutes or so after rehearsal to clean up the notes and turn short thoughts into real sentences.  This ultimately makes the notes more accurate and saves me time at the end of the day trying to remember all the details of a note.

Since I stage manage mostly for community theatre, I don't have an office to work out of and use mostly my own supplies.  Because of this, I don't print out every draft of my paperwork (especially when I know there are going to be many more drastic edits soon to come).  Having my netbook with me allows me to access the most current paperwork for reference when needed. 

All in all, I think laptops are an important tool.  They can be a distracting tool if you let them, but then again, I feel the same way about my battery operated pencil sharpener.

39

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: SOUND: Working with a sound op.

« on: Apr 20, 2011, 07:56 pm »

As usual, it all depends on the situation.  When I design or run sound for a show with lots of mics involved (especially musicals) I don't want to be on headset because I want both my ears free for live mixing.

40

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: SAFETY: Food allergies in rehearsal

« on: Apr 20, 2011, 03:09 pm »

Part of me says that no it shouldn't affect casting, but part of me wants it to.

When I did the wizard of oz, we cast a munchkin that after the fact we found out had a peanut allergy.  This kid freaked out almost every night he was in rehearsal because he thought he was having an allergic reaction (he never once actually had an allergic reaction).  I would have no problem if I would have had to stick him with his epi-pen, in fact, as much as this kid pissed me off i would have been kind of happy to cause a bit of discomfort, but every time he would tell me he thought he was having a reaction, i would ask him where his epi-pen was and he would freak out and start talking about how maybe he wasn't having a reaction.  I finally got to the point where I spoke to his mother and told her she needed to be present at rehearsals so that if he was thought he was having a reaction, he could go to her.  I wish I hadn't done that. 

The mother freaked out way more than the child ever did and started making ridiculous demands.  While the company was very good about doing everything they could to accommodate his allergy such as making sure none of the food we had catered in or snacks we provided contained nut products, with a cast of nearly 50 individuals, there was only so much I as stage manager could control.

Examples of things she freaked out about and demands she made:
-She wanted any nut containing products removed from the vending machine at the theatre.  The vending machine of course is controlled by an outside company, so it's not like we could just open the thing up to remove said products.
-One night both her and her son freaked out and started yelling because he smelled peanuts on one of the other munchkins breath.  Mom started going off on this poor kid because "she should have known better than to have peanut butter before coming to the theatre."

Obviously this kids paranoia is all learned from his mother, and I feel bad for him, because I'm sure that as long as any staff member that was at that theatre at the time is still there, he will never be cast again.  If we had known about his allergy before hand, he probably would have been passed over, because any kid off the street could have been just as talented as this kid, but a lot less frustrating.

41

The Green Room / Re: Stage managing and relationships

« on: Apr 18, 2011, 11:06 am »

I'm actually not working full time in theatre because of a relationship.  We met while I was taking some time away from stage managing and had moved back closer to my home town.  Now, I'm more than ready to get back to it, but there are no paying gigs in town.  He's a teacher and absolutely loves the school he teaches at currently, so I'm remiss about asking him to move with me at this point. 

I house manage part time for a venue here in town and also do freelance design work occasionally, so that has fed my theatre bug a bit.  I also am hoping to rearrange my "real job" situation so that I can volunteer to stage manage for some of the community theatres in town, and then hopefully in fall 2012 I can start the MFA program in Stage Management at the university here, so that at least I will be doing something to further my career while I'm "stuck" here.  Four years from now (god willing we're still together) I think I'll be able to say to him "listen, I can't work here" and convince him to move with me.  After all, teaching jobs are everywhere, stage management jobs are not.

As for the actual dynamics of the relationship, well, he's a music teacher and MD's 3 musicals at his school and one every summer, so he knows how busy you get doing a show. 

42

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: RUNNING: No stage manager?

« on: Apr 07, 2011, 09:46 am »

Before I entered college, I never knew what an SM actually did.  In high school we had a stage manager who did nothing but pulled the curtain.  In the community theatre I worked with, we didn't have stage managers, but the responsibilities would be delegated out to other people.  The production manager took care of things like contact lists. If there were an AD, they would take some of the responsibility of helping keep rehearsals organized and running smoothly.  The director usually kept track of their own blocking.  The lighting and sound board operators (usually 1 person) had a book and took their own cues.  There was never really anyone keeping things running backstage...  everyone just managed to be where they needed to be and do what they needed to do (granted, this was a small space and set changes were pretty limited).  It is certainly possibly to do a show without a stage manager, but it's a heck of a lot easier to have one.

43

The Green Room / Re: Sanity is Evasive

« on: Mar 26, 2011, 05:38 pm »

If I've had a really really bad day, I'll meditate when I get home to push all the thoughts of the day out....that is if I'm still able to concentrate.

I've also recently become a mod/admin of another forum about a zombie apocalypse radio drama and I've found that heading over there and talking about theories and what not helps me decompress.

I don't expect that last one to be helpful to anyone but myself...

I think I know the podcast you're referring to.  I started listening about 2/3 of the way through season 1 and quickly caught up.  I had to take a break for awhile though and let new episodes pile up because I found that I don't like waiting a week between episodes.. I tend to forget what happened last pretty quick.  I'd rather have them all downloaded so I can get through season 2 in a shorter block of time.

44

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Humor: Stage Managing the World

« on: Mar 03, 2011, 04:16 pm »

I'm currently working in one of those big box retail stores, and I constantly use stage directions when directing guest where items are at.  I can't seem to break the habit.  Get some weird looks..  that's for sure.

45

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

« on: Feb 20, 2011, 09:40 pm »

I'm not advocating that you sit back and let the performance fall apart.  You have to do what you can to keep the show going, and so does the conductor.  I just think there are better ways to fix problems then simply stopping, saying "lets go back to the chorus" and starting over.