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Messages - Thespi620

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31
I've never been so grateful for fight calls as when I was doing the Pillowman.

In one sequence, our Tupolski picked Katurian up and threw him down, on his back, onto the interrogation table. Fight call consisted of this sequence as well as a few other small fight sequences. The 2nd performance night, I get to fight call and the guys are ribbing me about not needing to practice the fights because they "know them cold." I get them to do the smaller sequences, and then we move to the table. In our first run of the sequence, Tupolski picks up Katurian, gets him on the table, and as he steps away the table collapses underneath Katurian.  Immediately, the guy playing Ariel and I bolt off of our feet and rush over to him--he was fine, just a little stunned, and we (luckily) had a spare table backstage which held up when we ran the sequence again, and during all subsequent calls & shows.

Needless to say, I never got any flak for fight call again--and, in fact, two years later, the guy who played Ariel still occasionally mentions it in conversation.

32
The Green Room / Re: Exercises & Warm-Ups That Don't Suck
« on: Mar 07, 2011, 02:45 am »
I learned a new one a few weeks ago called Typewriter that struck me as clever and a really fun game when it goes well.

Best for groups of about 13 to 25/26.

Players sit in a circle on the floor, hands in the center. Go around the circle and assign each letter of the alphabet to the players--start with A and continue clockwise around the circle until you reach Z, as many circles as it takes. (This is where groups of less than 13 get tricky, too many letters per person gets difficult. With larger groups, consider including punctuation marks and capitalization). Then, pick a phrase. Start off really simple, like "I am cold." The idea of the game is that the group is a typewriter. Each hand in the circle is a key on the typewriter. The object is to type the phrase without speaking. To start a phrase, the whole typewriter taps their hands twice on the ground. Then, each letter is tapped by its player, with another double tap (spacebar) in between each word and at the end of each sentence. Try to get as fast and accurate as possible, and get creative with your phrase choice--sometimes a line from the show, other times a famous quotation, etc.


33
The Green Room / Re: Do you add a personal touch to your booth?
« on: Feb 25, 2011, 02:44 pm »
I tend to bring something small that either relates to the show or to something going on in my life--for my most recent show, the lead actor gave everyone a little, 2'x3' picture frame with a clip art of flowers in it--that sat right next to my notebook. Another time, I taped a lucky poker chip from a production meeting to the top of my call box.  I tend to work in black box or other non-conventional spaces, so I rarely have a real booth per se--but those little trinkets are always comforting to have around, I find.

34
Having the sign-in sheet next to me works solely because I work in an environment where everyone is called at the same time.  If there were staggered calls, I would likely put the sign-in sheet elsewhere, as appropriate.  In the educational setting where I'm currently SMing, the full cast has warmups together and then the rehearsal begins with most cast members working in the room with myself and the director, and others running lines or smaller scenes with ASMs/each other. In this environment, having a sign-in sheet at my table and easily accessible to me & my team at 2 minutes prior to start is essential and useful. 

35
I make it a point to have actors sign in, even in rehearsal, to train them for tech/performances. I keep the sign-in sheet in my book, and put it on my table when I arrive. This way, the cast has to see me and sign in, in case there are any announcements.  Then, by the time rehearsals get to be more set-up heavy and I'm away from the table, the cast knows to sign in and I can type up any necessary announcements to post with them. This also allows the sign-in method to work even with multiple rehearsal rooms in one process.

My most recent cast decided initials weren't fun, so they started leaving me messages, two letters at a time, on the sign-in sheet. Made it fun for them--they had to sign in with the next piece of the story every night, which was a great motivation for being on time!

36
Agreed with the above comments--double check with the director, and shrink what you can.

It sounds from your first post that the whole set is a staircase--if that is the case, and if a lot of action happens on the staircase, make sure that you have height/depth information ready for the first blocking rehearsals so that the actors have a sense of how much room they have on each step & how high they are stepping each time. 
I have had numerous actors ignore the taped out staircase and then get completely thrown off once the set is built, and that can affect timing/Qs.  Shame on them for ignoring the tape, but it's helpful to be able to say early on "remember you just stepped US onto the 3rd step which is 1.5' off the deck"--tends to help them realize what will eventually exist in the room before it's there.

37
The Green Room / Re: Life (As Seen Through Performance Reports)
« on: Dec 25, 2010, 11:56 pm »
Last night's annual performance of Children's Christmas Eve Mass was halted briefly at 1 minute to Go when, suddenly, the crucifix panel fell off its pole. Crew were unable to reaffix in time, so actor playing Altar Boy 1 joined his compatriot at the end of the processional. Was not an issue as technically speaking Christ had yet to be born, however Props should reaffix as soon as possible, certainly in time for Easter Sunday at the latest.

38
The Green Room / Re: Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark
« on: Dec 21, 2010, 10:17 pm »
Just curious as to how the Times came to have this video - the caption states it's a reader video.

Doesn't diminish the injury at all. Or the issues. Just an observation.

Someone in the audience last night was video taping and gave the video to the Times.  I'm curious what--if anything--will be done about the inherent problem there once the dust settles around injuries/safety.  It's interesting that none of the articles so far have mentioned the fact that video recording is illegal in Broadway houses. 

39
Stage Management: Other / Re: Backstage at the Nutcracker
« on: Dec 18, 2010, 02:32 am »
JMagill, I know how you feel.  I grew up acting in community theater involving 200+ children ages 8-Adult, and have returned to wrangle in years past, it's quite the task.  They don't work with a typical SM/Director/Wrangler setup (thank goodness...that SM would have to be absolutely insane) but the cast is almost 95% kids and it's over 200 people every summer....so scenes like these backstage at the Nutcracker aren't that odd to me.

40
Anyone have Book of Days by Lanford Wilson? Am beginning a fully licensed production in January and would love an e-copy.

PM me if you do. Thanks!

~D

41
Homework Help / Re: Hello! I could use your expert help.
« on: Dec 08, 2010, 06:09 pm »
Look around the boards and get a sense of which members' stories interest you--is there a show someone worked on that you have worked on as well? Is there a story about a certain problem arising in rehearsals that interests you?  If you contact a member with more specific questions about their experiences as referenced in previous posts, they're much more likely to talk to you, and you'll probably have a better interview experience.  Formula homework help requests get you nowhere on this forum, but show some effort and curiosity about specifics and we're all happy to help.


42
Another one from Spider Man, not necessarily an SM: "Spider Man took off just a little bit, and got stuck....three rather large stagehands, with their little technical things on their heads came out and tried to grab his foot to bring him down"
~From Today Show Video http://www.playbill.com/playblog/2010/11/today-looks-at-spider-mans-first-preview-video/


"little technical things"? I believe, sir, those are called headsets.

43
My TD, after a particularly stressful tech/dress, stopped me before I left the room and said "you're a professional."  He doesn't like to give compliments, and as the LD for this show as well, had a ton on his plate, but the fact that he took that time to stop me meant everything.

44
The Green Room / Re: Rehearsals are Like Relationships
« on: Nov 15, 2010, 01:05 am »
The Trophy Wife: It may not be the smartest show around, but it'll make me look so good!

and, the opposite of that...

The Nerd: Intellectually a very clever show that is rather rough around the edges, aesthetically.

45
The Green Room / Re: BEST ADVICE YOU CAN GIVE
« on: Sep 28, 2010, 11:07 pm »
Another one I have been finding particularly relevant lately?  "Try not to suck..."

Oddly enough, the one my director keeps using right now is "dare to suck." 

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