Messages

31

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Question about entrance and exit flow charts....

« on: Aug 14, 2008, 04:34 pm »

I've always formatted top to bottom because it works more naturally for me, and that way it's portrait-oriented rather than landscape, which makes it easier to read from a clipboard/in my book.

32

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Gratuitious Paperwork

« on: Aug 14, 2008, 02:13 pm »

I don't create too terribly much "unnecessary" paperwork, or at least I end up using everything that I create at least a couple of times.

My paperwork tic is to re-do the same paperwork daily-- I can't stand to have things in my promptbook that have lots of handwritten notes/changes on them-- it feels unfinished until I've typed it up. Which probably makes for a lot of unnecessarily wasted paper... but it also makes it a lot easier to find things at a glance.

33

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Question about entrance and exit flow charts....

« on: Aug 14, 2008, 10:28 am »

What I generally do is a chart in word or excel that has page ranges or scene indications (or whatever is appropriate to the show) down the side, character names across the top. Then I shade cells where the actor is onstage, and put any cue notation in the first and last cells.

I always keep a copy of this on my clipboard during rehearsals-- it gets a lot of use in setting calls, etc. Right now the shows I'm doing are fairly low-tech, so they don't get much use aside from that.

34

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: I am a Theater Generalist....

« on: Aug 13, 2008, 10:59 am »

You might want to find out how much the kids know/how technical the school's program gets.

Personally, I went to a highschool where we were taught -nothing- about tech beyond running the boards, and the words "stage manager" were never even uttered, but when I transfered from my community college to my university, some of the incoming freshmen had gone to schools that had tech programs better than most professional theatres. You don't want to go in there with lessons dumbed down too far.

35

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: When to give an actor a note...

« on: Aug 09, 2008, 06:53 pm »

Is the director supposed to be maintaining the quality of the production and giving performance notes?

Nope... or if he is nobody ever told me, and he hasnt been to see the show in about 2-3 weeks!

I ended up shooting him an email asking him to come watch the show and then compare notes with me afterwards. That way I'll at least have the backing of "Director says this," which seems to carry a lot more weight than "23 year old SM says" to my cast.

36

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: When to give an actor a note...

« on: Aug 08, 2008, 11:00 am »

Smoke on the Mountain, Homecoming is long enough without too many ad-libs!!!  Have you tried explaining that the timing of the show needs to be within reason each performance?  Did you and the director establish your authority during rehearsals and that the director backs your authority for the run?  How about having the artistic director watch the show if it's getting out of hand? This person is very influential in whether an actor is invited back to perform in future productions.
Good luck!!

The ad-libbing wasn't a problem during rehearsals because we'd spent so much time on music that the actors weren't expected to be (and therefore weren't) off-book until just before tech. I may ask our director for some backing, he's been sick and hasn't been in for a run in a while. As far as the artistic director goes, let's just say that that probably wouldn't be particularly helpful. She views the individual creative process of an actor as something sacred, and when she's in a show you cannot give notes to anyone because she will change a scene every night all the way to closing.

Agh, the joys of a resident company where nobody's in danger of being fired! lol

37

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / RUNNING: When to give an actor a note...

« on: Aug 08, 2008, 12:05 am »

So on my current show, I'm in kind of a conundrum about giving notes to my actors. It's Smoke on the Mountain: Homecoming, and since the show seems to get a lot of fuel from ad-libs, I end up giving a lot of notes to remind the actors not to get too caught up in their additions and change the moments the director put into the show, etc. I try to keep it the notes I actually give to a minimum, but it's at least once or twice a week. Whenever I give these notes, though, I get a general attitude of "why are YOU giving me that note." I even had an understudy tell me to my face that she would change what I'd given her the note about "if the director says something about it" but that otherwise she was the actress and it was her perogative. (Her note was adversely affecting the way the rest of the cast was doing a scene.)

Up until now I've shrugged it off since at my company most of the SM's were never trained and are viewed as glorified board op's, and told myself to keep giving the notes when necessary because that's what an SM should do-- maintain the show as it was put together in rehearsal.

Tonite, though, I had a reaction that made me really wonder. One of my actors added a line that had been bugging me for the last week. It's just after a song, and he was saying "Very nice, very nice." In his Carolinian accent, it ended up sounding very, very Borat-ish. When I let him know this, he got very flustered, said that he didn't know who Borat was and that he therefore couldn't do anything about it. When I tried to explain to him who/what Borat was, he got even more agitated and said that since our audience is mainly older and since he had no clue about it, he couldn't and shouldn't change it. (I never asked him to change it, I just phrased it in an FYI way.) I finally just dropped it-- he can either keep it or not.

So, what are y'alls criteria for giving notes to actors? And do you keep pop cultural/generational differences in mind in that, or is it something that should be noted whether there's a generation gap or not?

38

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: calling cues? (warning vs standby)

« on: Aug 05, 2008, 11:22 am »

I'd never even heard of giving "warning" until at my current company... one of the carpenters in our shop (who has taken over for me on one or two occasions when I had to be gone for a performance) apparently always says "warning" instead of standby... I always just thought it sounded weird to me.

My sequence is "Whatever Q 1 Standby"/response/"1 Go."

For the current shows that I do it's just me operating one board and my ASM operating the other one, so I don't do responses so much... but on other shows where I don't have a direct line of sight to all my ops, or where there's more than just lights and sound, I give standbys to keep things from getting nuts.

39

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Taping the Prop Table

« on: Jul 26, 2008, 01:00 pm »

I generally go smallest in front to largest in back, with breakables, especially easily-knocked-over things like vases, more towards the center. From there, I try to group things by scene or with like objects.

Since at my current gig I rarely have someone backstage, I don't actually "tape" the table until we've been running with props for a while. The actors often will rearrange things in ways that make it easier for them to grab what they need, and I'd rather have them feel free to do that. I just leave post-its in each position so they know where I originally set stuff, and then I tape it out once I see what they'd prefer.

Once I do tape, though, I use white spike tape and a sharpie and label everything. I've used the butcher paper method before, but in a cramped backstage space it's way too easy for that to get detatched/ripped/bunched up... taping just seems a lot better for a long run IMO.

40

Tools of the Trade / Useful iPhone apps?

« on: Jul 24, 2008, 10:46 am »

So I'm in the process of inheriting my husband's iPhone, since he just *has to* have the new 3G one, and I'm wondering if anyone else has one and can suggest some useful applications to put on it? With all the various types of apps they've come out with for iPhone lately, I'm sure there must be something good for us out there!

(Stuff that's particularly fun and/or useful in a non-SMing-way also appreciated!)

41

Tools of the Trade / Re: Scheduling and Calendar Applications

« on: Jul 24, 2008, 10:43 am »

Just putting another vote in for Google Calendar!

The only thing that annoys me about it is how difficult it can be to turn what you have on it into something printable. If there was a button to push that would turn it into a Word document, it would be perfect.

42

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Stage Director AND Stage Manager?

« on: Jul 22, 2008, 07:17 pm »

One of the problems I've seen when a director watches the show a lot once in performance (a problem with some of the directors at my company) is that they never let the rehearsal process end-- something that I as SM have to be very vigilant about. The director for my current show has had a few times where he's tried to give notes/change blocking/etc well into the run of performances... which can be very frustrating for the actors, etc, and makes it hard to keep the rhythm of the show consistant. If you can keep yourself from doing this, no problem, but I don't know very many directors who can in effect stop "improving" the show after it's up.

43

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: What to do?

« on: Jul 20, 2008, 02:49 pm »

If you can't do college, I suggest to you to get on ArtSearch, etc, and start looking at summer positions and internships. Four years of interning, etc, is going to count for as much or more as a degree, and will put you out in the professional world with lots of great experience. I went to the only school in my state that had a BFA in Stage Management, and took tons of classes, etc, but it still didn't prepare for everything once you get "out there"!

You don't say why you can't go to college, though. If it's an issue of relocation or anything like that, you might have a problem.

44

Employment / Re: Should I quit my day job?

« on: Jul 20, 2008, 02:47 pm »

I don't really have much advice, but I sympathize-- I too have a husband who sometimes has difficulty "getting" the things we have to do to be in theater. There are a lot of big compromises that have to be made, and it's not fun. Not that it would be fun even if you were single, but having that extra person there/the possibility of strain on the relationship is a tough extra variable.

45

Tools of the Trade / Re: Headset Headaches?

« on: Jul 20, 2008, 02:29 pm »

I get really bad headaches from headsets, but for me it's more because I have a really big head, and wear glasses that get in the way, and the headsets never adjust to be quite big enough for me. 2-muff headsets are more comfortable for me, the one-muff kind just kill me!

While I hate it that my current gig is completely ClearCom-less and we run off walkies from Radio Shack, the best thing about it is that they came with the option of earbud-style headphones with mics that clip to your shirt. Some of the other SMs/ASMs here have said that they're awful, but I -love- them! SO much easier to deal with!