Messages

211

Tools of the Trade / latest toyes...

« on: Jul 30, 2005, 08:55 am »

Okay, so pardon my Australian ignorance, what exactly IS a sharpie?

212

SMNetwork Archives / Cruise Ships

« on: Jun 15, 2005, 09:53 am »

I have a friend who had an interview for a job as a sound/LX tech (though her background is stage management) with a cruise line. the interview was in London, they rang her while she was on the bus on the way home from the interview and asked her to fly out to Brasil the next day to join a ship for 6 weeks. if she liked it she could then go back to London for a few weeks before taking up a longer contract -6 months or a year i think. I cant recall which company Seabourne  maybe? She seemed to quite enjoy it and learned a lot about tech stuff very quickly! She only sent brief emails from shipping offices around the globe for some years anyway!

Good luck!
ChaCha

213

SMNetwork Archives / Re: punctuality

« on: May 25, 2005, 10:37 am »

Stage Mgrs have a whole load of people trying to make them super-human - don't give them any help.

I love this line! So true!

214

Employment / SMs in other roles

« on: May 25, 2005, 08:43 am »

I'm always happy to help out (and in general we are not as confined to particular (union) duties in Australia) in other departments, but have to say as I've gotten 'older' as a stage manager I've enjoyed jobs more where I just get to focus on stage management . Without your stringent union protection it is way too easy for the employer to take your cheerful help as a precedent. And I guess by now I know as much as I want to about lighting, sound, props, etc in a day to day way!
ChaCha

215

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / differance between mucial theatre SM and ordinary theatre SM

« on: Oct 05, 2004, 07:11 am »

There tends to be a lot more emphasis on sound ...all those radio mics....

foldback, etc but unless its a  very small show you will have sound people to worry about it.

The relationship between the director and the choreographer can be very central to the process and hence to your experience...do they get on/talk & communicate/have the same vision or do you have to be an intermediary?

Big commercial musicals can have a lot of understudy calls after the show opens to keep the covers at performance rediness as if the singers have sore throats they cant perform as easily as an actor can. The stage manager may well run these, so lots of hours a week even after opening.

216

The Hardline / Re: When do you claim overtime?

« on: Sep 17, 2004, 03:09 am »

She was telling me how they were putting in very long hours during the end of the rehearsal & tech period and felt that they were at a point where claiming overtime would be appropriate.

To me, this is the key to your question. When THEY felt it would be appropriate. In my experience if I feel I have finally been pushed past the point of acceptable unpaid overtime, then it is almost certainly now appropriate to start claiming it. It usually means that the production has arrived at the point where better planning, better resourcing, or better staffing would have eliminated the need for the extra overtime. So if I do it for free, then I am  
1. making it harder for those who come after me (or those who work along the hall as in your example) to claim it
2. encouraging/rewarding the employer's poor planning/evil strategy
3. making it harder for myself to stay in the industry without burning out.
4. being an 'invisible' martyr ...and usually turning into one of those grumpy people that are so detrimental to the creative process

I think stage managers are all brainwashed/genetically dispositioned to give that bit more everytime, so if WE feel its time to draw the line, it almost certainly IS time to draw the line.

I once went into a contract with a company reknown for their exploitation of stage managers, with a clear understanding that I did NO overtime that wasn't paid for (I had given blood for this company in the past so I didnt feel at all bad about this...just doubtful whether I could make the agreement work) In the second week of rehearsals it became obvious that I couldnt get through the week without running out of hours, so I agreed with the production manager that I would miss Thursday morning's rehearsal. She and the ASM were to cover for me. Well, Thursday came and I showed up after lunch only to hear that the Director had hit the roof, and that in future I would be paid overtime and be at every rehearsal! I was very happy with outcome, but even happier with myself for standing up for what was, in this instance, right.

Of course there are always times when for many different reasons I just get on with it and do the 90 hours for the price of 40.

ChaCha

217

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Never happened to me before...

« on: Sep 10, 2004, 03:37 pm »

that's just cruel, keeping us in suspense like that!!!

218

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Actor hatred on tour

« on: Aug 31, 2004, 03:30 pm »

I'm not sure I have any words of wisdom...only empathy for your situation. There is NOTHING worse than leaving on tour knowing that the group dynamic is broken before you've even left. I was lucky though that the tour I did in those circumstances was WAY shorter than yours evidentally will be.
Advice? Only that you need to look after yourself while you are away much more than usual. It isnt something we tend to be good at on the whole...there's always someone/something we need to spend time an energy on more than ourselves....remember YOU didnt do the casting, and whether the company is happy or not, if the show looks OK onstage you REALLY are not responsible for what is going in the casts' heads...
May the Force be with you...
ChaCha

219

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Copying scripts

« on: Aug 10, 2004, 08:59 am »

personally, Id say this is one to fight about with the producer! You can't do the job with those criteria in any sensible way (not  without being unbelievably inefficient  and without it consuming masses  of your time anyway). so either you dont do blocking ?!
or they buy you 2 copies of the script to break up and paste on blank pieces of paper  as decribed here by previous correspondents. Perhaps your employer dosen't  really understand your role/ the role of the prompt copy and will see reason if you explain the problems.
If they say no deal and that that's how their last stage manager did it, then perhaps you should ask to speak to that person and see how they coped.
Good luck!

220

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Blocking notation help, anyone?

« on: Aug 09, 2004, 12:45 pm »

Ah yes, and when they've given me lots of pre production time, I've even been known to photocopy the mini diagram and a central dividing line(to give me a column for blocking and a column for writing calls/cues etc) onto the back of the script pages, thus avoiding the tedium of gluing and ruling, and the hazard of all the glued in mini diagrams making the top corner of the prompt copy bulge...

I always put the script on the right, but its just habit and I concede that if you are right handed the reverse would be simpler....

221

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Blocking notation help, anyone?

« on: Aug 08, 2004, 09:10 am »

I usually use numbered blocking...In fact I'm not really aware of another way of quickly notating exactly where the action relates to in the script ?

Sometimes with an 'evolving' style of direction I've done one set of numbers, one set of letters, or even started numbering at say, 50 at the top of the page, until things settle down

Incidentally...and even further off the original question...When I trained we also had classes in dance notation, and worked out with the lecturer ways to utilise it for blocking notation. Obviously the main drawback being the need for a key so someone else could understand it...so i think most of the class stopped using it. But a few symbols have become part of my standard 'repetoire'

Actually, recording blocking is the part of stage management that i really hate. Give me a video anyday!