Messages

16

SMNetwork Archives / Re: converting from .pdf to excel and/or word files

« on: Feb 19, 2007, 09:36 am »

My experience with Adobe (and Adobe Acrobat) is that you can convert many files types (such as Word and Excel) into pdf readily.  (That may have been one of the points of the pdf – it makes it difficult to tamper with the original document, like making a copy on a Xerox machine.  And anyone can open the document up to read it.)

With Adobe (and Acrobat), you can convert a pdf document to a .txt or .rtf file that can be opened in Word, but all of the formatting (returns and page breaks) I believe are lost.

You could attempt to convert a table to .txt or .rtf and then open that in Excel, but all of the formatting (column width, formulas) is gone.  I think you will also end up with a spreadsheet 1 row high and many columns wide, each cell occupied by a single word or single number and blanks (in the original) are lost.   Now you could select and move the cells around to reconstruct the table (excluding the formulas).  If it were just numbers, it could be worth it.  Text however, will probably have been parceled with a word in each cell.


Joe

17

Stage Management: Other / Re: School productions.

« on: Jan 19, 2007, 12:57 pm »

A few things to remember about the parents who will be helping.  We mean well, and most of us are motivated by a sense of service.  (But there will be few of us motivated by living vicariously through our kids, or because we have to be there to fulfill some school some demands of the school or spouse.)  But very few of us have any stage experience.  And any experience that we did have was at least one child ago.  We don’t know the jargon and terms of theatre.  And even the few terms we know, we may mix up, so there may be a few glitches in communication, at first.

But you will find there will be enough natural leaders and do-ers among us to see the show through. 


Joe

18

Stage Management: Other / Re: School productions.

« on: Jan 15, 2007, 04:44 pm »

Sorry – this got long and somewhat meandering – and I suspect there are many things that you don’t know already.

I’d agree with philimbesi’s and Canuck’s posts.  Definitely have the teachers control and monitor the kids while they are off stage, in the audience, etc.  My own observation is that the teachers are all you need.  If its all possible, have each classes teacher’s there (But based on your second post, I see that’s not going to be the case.)  (Curiously, during my daughter’s time in public school, this background check for events like this was not an issue.  On the other hand, I think the teachers and teacher’s aides may have run the shows.) 

Bear in mind that the parents helping backstage will want to see their kids acts, so you’ll actually need a few extra people to cover while one watches part of the show.  Same with the people guarding the backstage doors.  You will also find there will be several parents who will be more than willing to take the lead on this stuff and/or more than willing to do whatever you ask of them.  And, likewise, there will be a couple parents who know everyone else, and they will be able to make sure that the correct people get back stage passes.

My guess is that the most difficult part will be getting each group of kids down and back, a place for each group to wait just before they go on, and a place to wait after they go off stage, but before heading to the balcony.  I’d have one parent offstage to make sure that the group that is next is ready to go, and a second parent up in the balcony to tell the successive groups to head down.  (I’d go as far as having the first two groups ready to go off stage or in a classroom off stage about 10 minutes before curtain.  And ask the teachers – they probably have a good idea what works, too, after all they have to herd the kids around for assemblies and field trips.

If there is a PTA or PTG or PTO at the school, see if you can draw on them for volunteers to help.  At the very least, you will find most of the active parents in that organization.

As canuck noted, you should also ask the principal to make it clear well ahead of time that only those parents who have been clear ahead of time are allowed backstage.  This can best be accomplished by sending a note home about it and maybe putting it on their website.  But be prepared for parents who did not receive the notices.

Another thing to bear in mind is that few parents and probably none of the kids know what a stage manager or production manager is.  The only person they have seen for the past few months is the director.

And, at the risk of stereotyping, the problems will be with the oldest kids, particularly the 6th graders, because, well, they just know everything.  Kindergarten and first graders tend to forget things.  And in every grade there will be few kids who just don’t want to be there.  But on the whole, working with a lot of kids like this is a lot of fun.  (A few parents, of course, will cause problems)     

[I might have missed something, but is the “main show” a completely different set of performers?  And are the “Backstage parents” needed for that? ]

Also, I may have misunderstood – am I to understand that even if a parent wants to sit and wait in the audience during a rehearsal [and this is not that unusual], they need clearance?

Joe

19

Tools of the Trade / Re: Trees on stage

« on: Jan 09, 2007, 12:57 pm »

More of a logistics issue, but make sure the doors into the building and the route through the building to the stage are tall enough and wide enough.  Small diameter trunks may get damaged if trying to move the tree horizontally through a door.


Joe

20

SMNetwork Archives / Re: Nutcracker

« on: Nov 17, 2006, 04:43 pm »

I'm just looking for uplifting happy thoughts.... 

[At my daughter’s dance school, at least] – While there is a certain amount of tedium to the annual repetition of the whole production, one remembers that the girl playing Clara has, no doubt, been looking forward to this moment for the last 4 to 6 years.

Joe