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Messages - leastlikely

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121
Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Shout Check
« on: Oct 31, 2012, 01:27 pm »
This seems... inefficient. If somebody is running around and checking all the pre-sets, why shouldn't they be the one with the list?

122
Uploaded Forms / Re: Entrances and Exits Tracking
« on: Oct 22, 2012, 12:39 am »
I've attached a small sample of an entrance/exit plot in an Excel format. As you can see, it's not completed, but I figured I'd show off a couple of the scenes that have a LOT of ent/ex/QC's.

To explain: This set has a total of 17 access points, on 2 different levels, to enter the stage. They have all been assigned numbers (some of them have a direction and number).

There is almost no rhyme or reason to the specific colors chosen. If several actors exit at various points, but then all come together to re-enter as a group, that change and re-entrance is highlighted in the same color for all the actors. Other than that though, it's really just meant to be a quick visual reference. Something that stands out as different from the colors above and below it.

I feel like the actual form explains itself better than me trying to describe it verbally... but feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

123
The Green Room / Re: Article: Finding PHAMALy
« on: Oct 15, 2012, 05:45 pm »
I work with a hearing company just entering our second year in residence at a Deaf school, and part of our residency agreement is that we cast students in our professional productions. Our attempts at being accessible for Deaf actors and patrons has led us to begin working with actors who have other disabilities as well. In my last show with this company we had a legally blind actor (let me tell you - it's really quite scary being the one on deck to hand off a rifle with bayonet to a guy who can't see it) and in this next one we've got a Deaf student actor who is also physically disabled. Actually, we're doing an adaptation of a Christmas Carol and he'll be playing Tiny Tim. We can't get around the fact that he has difficulties walking, but we might as well give him a chance to use what he's got, rather than casting an able-bodied person as a character who is disabled!

124
Tools of the Trade / Re: Backstage pants
« on: Oct 10, 2012, 02:47 pm »
Reading this thread just now inspired me to check out Dickies and right this minute the Women's Multi-Use Pocket Pants are on clearance for $9.00. http://www.dickies.com/womens-clothing/womens-pants/Womens-MultiUse-Pocket-Pant-FP226.jsp I don't know for sure, but I would guess that putting the item on clearance means they're eliminating this style. I mean that's usually what clearance means right, that they won't be carrying this anymore? So snatch 'em up while you still can!

125
Tools of the Trade / Re: stopwatches?
« on: Oct 10, 2012, 02:34 pm »
I would say that it uses the phones clock and then calculates the difference between now and the saved time (more accurate than writing your own counter) - so when you start the timer, it takes the clocks time and saves it to memory - every time you open the app it probably checks to see if there was a running timer and what time it was started and just continues running.

Yeah, I'm sure this is correct, I just... technology is cool, man. :)

126
Tools of the Trade / Re: stopwatches?
« on: Oct 09, 2012, 04:30 am »
I use a free app on my Android phone called "StopWatch & Timer" made by sportstracklive.com. It has two functions - stopwatch and timer (who'd've thunk it?!). It's got nice big numbers and touchscreen controls... and this is a little detail, but you can make it be any color you want. I mean, I just use black background with white numbers for ease of vision in the dark, but it's nice knowing I could make it bright pink if I wanted, haha. I use the stopwatch for timing runs, pressing the lap button to break down the times for acts or whatever else you need times for... And during rehearsals, I use the timer to keep on top of the 80/10s (or 55/5s). The stopwatch functions are all silent, and the timer has alarm options but you can set it to have no volume, so all it does is vibrate twice. It's really non-intrusive. The app requires no internet or data, so it works while the phone is in airplane mode (or as I like to call it, performance mode). Oh, and you can pre-set multiple timers, so as soon as the 80 is done you just switch to the 10 minute one, and then back at the end of the break.

Last week during a performance my book started to slip off my music stand, because I'm an idiot. So I reached out to grab it, and knocked my phone off the counter, and it fell on the floor and the battery fell out. Okay, not the end of the universe, because I already have my up time noted so I'll just figure out what was lost, and it won't be perfect to the second but oh well. Not really the end of the universe if I guess and am off by 30 seconds, right? So I wait til I have a breather between cues, and I grab my phone and start to put it back together. It turns on, but the stopwatch app isn't found, because it lives on my SD card which had also gotten knocked loose during the fall. So I jiggled the SD card and tried again, and pulled up the stopwatch and it was still running accurately. As I was loading it up I wrote myself a note to add exactly ten minutes to the top of the time because that's what was lost... and then I opened the stopwatch and it read 10:22 and still counting.

I have no idea how this happened, and I'm sure if I tried to recreate it, it wouldn't happen again. I mean, the app is stored on an SD card and the SD card was removed! So this is probably some once in a lifetime anomaly, but... it was pretty dang cool.

127
The Green Room / Re: Relief from insomnia
« on: Oct 09, 2012, 03:09 am »
I usually goof around on the computer if I haven't actually gone to bed yet, or, if I'm lying in bed awake, on the phone. I have a Kindle but it's not backlit so I don't usually read it at night... however, there is a Kindle app on the phone, plus all sorts of games and whatnot.

On the computer I use an app called "f.lux" which changes the color of your screen at sundown, so it's MUCH gentler on the eyes. On my Android phone the app I use is called SunSpot which basically does the same thing. That's really helpful for lying in bed playing on the phone... I don't have to turn on the lamp, and I still have enough light to see what I'm doing, but it really reduces eye strain. So when I am ready to doze off, it comes much more naturally because my screen is orange rather than blue. It's something you don't really notice while you're using it, but if you turned it off you would see a big difference. Anyway, it's a huge help!

128
How does he plan on handling dialect coaching - are we hiring an outside coach, should we order CDs, or do we already have a coach on staff? There are of course the obvious major differences in Costumes and Hair & Makeup, so we'll need to touch in with the designers ASAP. If any of the men need to start growing their hair out, I'd like to be able to let them know by the end of this week. Or are we going to wig them now instead? Let's check in with with Set too. In the old version, the men spent the second act trainhopping - we are cutting the boxcar and the setting for Act II will now be city streets. Furthermore, please everyone be on the lookout for script changes, as we're going to be replacing some of the period-specific slang.



New Note: When Sam re-enters at the end of I.5, he should have a new tattoo.

129
It turns out that the designers do already have an electronic copy of the same version I am working with. Something got lost in communication there (that is, it didn't get communicated to ME) but that's smoothed out now.

So far what I'm doing is keeping my own cut list, and including a Line Changes section in the rehearsal reports where I use strikethrough for cuts and bold for additions, very similar to what Becca posted. Mine are looking like: Pg 6 DOC – I’d be happy to take you up if you have money can afford it. But then I also have notes from dates when the playwright isn't present at rehearsal, so some of them are phrased more like a request. For instance, Pg 4 – SHEILA says “...I’m being graded on this interview, you see.” In her next line she says “It’s an assignment, you see.” Could we cut one of the “you see”s?"

I think I am going to follow Matthew's advice and distribute the cut list to the actors on a weekly basis. I'll get them hard copies if there are really significant changes, but beyond that I think it will be best to just make sure they have the most recent list of edits!

130
I'm SMing a new work - rehearsals began tonight. In the months leading up to rehearsals I think I received four different versions of the script, but now that we're in rehearsals the director has put her foot down and the playwright will no longer be distributing new versions of the script. All changes will be noted by me, which you know... is great, on MY end and for the actors. But I'm not really sure what the best way is to keep the designers in the loop.

The playwright/producer handed out shiny new hard copies of the script at rehearsal tonight. Excellent - except for the fact that this is a different version than the most recent edition I got via email. So I suspect that the designers also only have the previous edition as well.

I've got a handful of changes that were made today after the readthrough, but I also have another handful of changes that were made between the last version and this one. The hard copies he gave out today have the changes tracked (...so there are strikeouts and red and blue text). I checked with my director and she asked me to just type all of these changes up as well, so the designers can be on the same page. So that's what I'm going to do, and for right now I'm just including a "Line Changes" section in my Rehearsal Report, because I don't know of any better way to do this.

I've really only done one show in the past that involved significant changes, but it wasn't a new work, it was a Shakespeare adaptation. I was ASM on that and my SM did everything on Google Docs, so her idea was to not change anything in the actual script document, but keep a running list of changes in a separate spreadsheet, and it was nicely color coded and whatnot but the changes were not monitored in the script... and then all of a sudden we're about to go into tech and I'm copying & pasting a bajillion line changes all night so she can have an updated version of the script which could then be distributed to designers, who had no clue about any of the changes because she never mentioned them in reports. Which ... hardly seems like the most efficient way to do things.

Personally I'm much more of a pencil & paper kind of gal, and also I don't have an ASM on this show, so I'll be keeping a list on Excel and it looks like I'll just be including the changes each day in the Rehearsal Report. I think this will work just fine... but I was just wondering if anybody out there has any tips and tricks for streamlining this, if it's possible to even do so.  Many thanks!

131
I've never called projections, but I have operated them. My SM had a really strange calling style, I really don't know how to explain it, you would have to hear it to understand. It was just.. not uniform, very few standbys, sometimes it would be "lights 15 go" and other times it would just be "lights go" and I don't know how the light board op didn't wring her neck to be honest. But it wasn't a very projection-heavy show, so she would just say "projection" and the name of the cue. I can see why this wouldn't work for faster-paced pieces. I will definitely keep "TAB" in mind if I ever have to call projections!

132
The Green Room / Re: Gifts and thankyou cards
« on: Aug 23, 2012, 02:17 am »
I write an individual thank you note to every person involved (just found a bunch of cute blank thank you cards at Target on sale last week! I got 64 new cards for $24!). I give cards to designers and director at opening, and to actors and crew at closing. I've never found occasion to give gifts. Maybe some day I'll see a need for it, if I'm working with a company that seems to do the gift thing. But I love writing everyone a card, and will probably continue to do so even if I also give gifts.

Also, I will usually bring delicious baked goods at least once at some point during the run. My personal favorite to bring for my casts is marbled banana/chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting :)

On my last show, I was ASM... there were 2 actors that my SM hated so much that he ended up deciding to not write thank you notes at all, because he literally had nothing nice to say to those 2 people, so he had to just not say anything to anyone. That made me really sad.

133
Tools of the Trade / Re: Style Question
« on: Aug 16, 2012, 03:42 pm »
On my current show, my director usually wears ridiculous Hawaiian shirts with beer bottles or something on them. I feel totally comfortable and in control wearing jeans and a simple top. I would feel okay being totally dressed down and wearing casual t-shirts, given the environment the director has created - BUT, I'm young and female and have a Problem Actor who is known around town as being disrespectful toward stage managers. I got warnings from multiple people as soon as he was cast. So I'm not going to go QUITE that casual. Last show was a casual t-shirt environment, this one is more suited for blouses and sweaters and solid tees. Also - I keep a plain black danskin hoodie in my car. The rehearsal space has been bizarrely cold, even though it's a hundred degrees outside, so I always bring a plain black button-up sweatshirt in to rehearsals with me.

Another thing I have to keep in mind is that I have tattoos. They're all in places that are very easily covered (feet, legs, torso, back), but... on this show, I wore sandals to an early tablework rehearsal and aforementioned Problem Actor reached out (without asking) and grabbed my foot to look at my tattoo, so... no more sandals, flats, or even heels on this production. Sneakers, boots, anything that covers the top of my foot. And I know now that I will never be able to wear a skirt or a tanktop on this show, because of tattoos. (I'm not terribly likely to wear a skirt anyway, except for maybe opening. But I guess opening for this show will be slacks!)

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