Messages

31

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PROFESSIONALISM: cell phones onstage

« on: Apr 17, 2011, 11:10 am »

The bucket idea sounds like an excellent one - I think I'll start enforcing that at my rehearsals. I'm amazed at your case, little_owl - didn't someone tell them to stop it?  The biggest issue I've seen is techs on phones, personally. More than once I've actually whipped out my own and sent them a text that says "Do some work". Doesn't matter whether they're next to me or just ignoring me from the desk - hasn't failed yet!

32

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

« on: Apr 17, 2011, 11:02 am »

Interestingly there's been very little mention of what to do when allergic cast have a reaction... When you deal with allergic cast (of any age), do you know where they keep their epi-pen/ana-pen while in the theatre? Do you (or first aid) keep a spare handy? Of course it's much better if they take care of themselves, but given the speed of some anaphylactic reactions it's better to be safe than sorry.

(As a person with a severe nut allergy myself, though, I'm inclined to say that the onus does fall on them... but as a SM, I do prefer not having to deal with corpses.  )

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: PEOPLE: How to keep kids *quietly* busy at rehearsal?

« on: Apr 17, 2011, 10:52 am »

I annually SM a primary school show where all of them perform in their classes. 10 minutes of performance + >90 mins of waiting around backstage = chaos. Like everyone else has said, having some parents/older people around can be a big help. I usually procure a TV (last year we used a projector - that was popular!) and put the video relay on it. Because the kids don't get to see any of the other acts, it usually keeps them pretty enthralled.

'Divide and conquer' is useful, if you can make it work. Give some of the mature ones responsibility over some younger ones and it usually works well.

34

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

« on: Apr 17, 2011, 10:04 am »

In regards to taking blocking down using a laptop, If you can get your hands on a tablet laptop, give that a shot. I've found that using a combination of 'inking' and typing gets down everything fairly easily with a minimum of mess. However, if you don't have a tablet of course it won't work for you, and to be really honest I'd much rather stick with a sketchbook and a set of coloured fineline pens - it doesn't need a power cable for a start!

35

Tools of the Trade / Re: Using VoIP/PBX for Comms + streaming video relays

« on: Apr 17, 2011, 09:45 am »

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Chris; I've performed in an amateur show where the sound team often used MSN for dealing with radio mics, but they also cursed it. So definitely not going there. You've got me curious about matrix systems, now, Mac - but definitely not to install in a 600 seat auditorium!

I'll see if I can wrangle some money for something from Production Intercom, but given that we've just purchased a few new (high-quality) UHF radios, chances are all I'll get are funny looks. Ah well... one can only hope!

Jonas

36

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Trash, missing tools and other dilemmas

« on: Apr 01, 2011, 09:32 am »

We have similar issues in my school theatre when the bands/orchestra use the space and move everything with reckless abandon. After damaging a few set pieces and making for some very tense moments pre-show, I ended up meeting with our TD and she took it up with the Head of Music. End outcome: Band conductor suitable chastised, but by his boss - not anyone from Tech.

stgmngr is right; getting angry doesn't get much done (although does feel good!) Certainly taking it a level above the Band Director might be worth a try.

Hope it works out for you

PS: Have you had someone from your crew/your TD sit in on the band rehearsals? Knowing they're being watched often helps make people a little more responsible around equipment.

37

Tools of the Trade / Using VoIP/PBX for Comms + streaming video relays

« on: Apr 01, 2011, 09:04 am »

Just wondering if anyone's used PBX/VoIP for stage comms in some form - I'm SM'ing in school theatre and we've finally decided that cheap UHF radios won't cut it any more. The money's not there for  proper a comms system, so we're looking at other options.

All we need is a system for the SM (who we keep on the deck to keep the staging crew in line) to occasionally talk to our self-managing desk op. Yes, poor practise, I know, but it's how they've been doing it for years and changing it will be more trouble than it's worth for this show.


While I'm at it, has anyone used Windows Media Encoder/something else to make a video relay for their show? Again, no money for a proper relay and because the show is only on for a fortnight, making a streaming video feed and having people access it in dressing rooms from the school server seems like a workable idea, but if anyone's done it I'd love to hear your experiences with it.

- Jonas