JOB DESCRIPTION: When the show is going bad

[ScooterSM]

Step back, try to look with an objective eye and see if you still feel the same. If you do, try to find the threads you can weave into a safety net. Then invite the producer to watch and hope for the best.

That is very well put...

[DeeCap]

Scooter's analogy is an extreme example of the situation, but oddly I have been in very similar situations - unsafe set design and inappropriateness on a show that is schedule to have multiple school performances.

I think the core question at the heart is, is there ever a point when you are watching the show where it might be so BAD, so different then what is being advertised, so different then what the artistic director/producer are expecting - do you feel have the responsibility to speak up?  How you speak up is the next step - and most of agree, that really want you would prompt is either the artistic director/producer coming to rehearsal, or, at the very least, starting a conversation.

Now, there may also be a situation where both you and the director agree the show is going bad - wrong casting - bad scenic design - not enough rehearsal time - whatever - it may not be a situation where you are "snitching" on the director . . . .

(I know that I come from the perspective of being NOT a free-lance SM, but a resident SM, and have a very big investment in the theatre, not always the director.)

I worked on a production where the director was, to be blunt, bad. The actors hated him, and expressed this to me.
The producer on the show had a really bad experience with another stage manager, so he said to me "If there is any problem, any problem, please let me know." So I invited him to a rehearsal.
Right before tech they fired the director.
I was a young stage manager, and if the producer didn't speak to me I probably wouldn't have said anything. I think if the actors are really uncomfortable, there is plenty of tension and they talk to you about it, it might be best to talk to the producer.

Another experience was with an actress. She was bad. The director hired her mainly because she was pretty. He gave her lots and lots of notes after every preview. He knew she was bad. The actors knew she was bad. After the director left I gave her plently of notes after each performance, and I scheduled a brush up rehearsal with the Artistic Director (after I got permission from the director). That's all I could do. The actors did their best, and counted the days til closing.

[crazylady]

I worked on a show once where I knew the director was not doing his job. The actors had started staging themselves and the director was just kinda all over the place. I sent an email to my artistic director and was very careful about how I worded everything. I also sent an email as a way to cover my butt so that later on, someone couldn't try to add words to what I had said. But basically I told the AD, please come to a rehearsal and if you do not have any concerns then I don't either. But that has only happened once.

I try very hard not to give my opinion about the show I am working on. They are not paying me for my opinion in that area. They are paying me to do a million other things, but not that. A few directors whom I have worked with extensively I am more comfortable doing so, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what YOUR opinion is about a scene. Sometimes I will say something pretty close to that to the director if I am uncomfortable or sometimes I will say "Oh, i don't know if I am the best person to ask, because I am caught up in the technical side of it right now." that usually works. And quite honestly when you are taking down blocking, you aren't really watching the scene, or even calling a show. You can't REALLY sit back and watch because you have to be aware of the cues.

[MatthewShiner]

I guess there are different theories about what our job is . . . I think of myself as a part of an Artistic Team, as well as the production team, regardless of my being a resident SM or just a hired gun - I am hired by the producer to mount a production and get it open on opening night.  If, for any reason, there is something that might prevent that issue, I feel like it would be sort of negligent on my part not to bring it to the producers light.  And this can be for what ever reason - director's incompetence, not enough production support, etc, etc.  Who I talk depends on the situation, and based upon your experience.

I think a lot of this has to do with you experience level and comfort level.  I mean, you have to sort of know what an extreme situation is and when you should raise a red flag. 

At some point, they are going to trust me to maintain the show artistically, so why not should I have an artistic opinion about the product I am working on?

NOW . . . again, I am a staff member of a large regional theatre, head of my department, and report not only to the production manager, but to the artistic director.  I know my situation is not a typical SM.  As far as experience, I just pasy my 20 year mark in the business.  (Sigh, I am old)

[stagegal1]

I have to say, I know I am paid for my opinion.  I work for the same handful of directors and producers all of the time, and they want and expect to get my opinions.  Then again, I have been working with these people, on and off, for the last ten or twelve years.

Allison