No Director Present

[lydiaelaine]

So, I could use a little advice. I'm working on a show, a new work, Who the F**k is Dan Smith?, at my university. The school is flying down a guest director, who is an alumni of the school, and who also happens to be my best friend. However, she was only down for the auditions/casting/1st read through, and won't be back again until rehearsals officially begin, on March 26th. However, the actors have requested to meet with me as a group once a week. Most questions/duties/etc that normally would go to the director, are going to me. I'm emailing/texting/calling her constantly to get her input, but lately she's been slow to respond. I've tried discussing it with her, and she says she trusts my judgement, however, I am very worried about stepping over the line. Issues we are having are things such as: script changes she's emailed me that contradict each other or do not fit well when read aloud, actors having issues with the scheduling, production team members not responding to me, etc. At what point am I in over my head? Because I'm starting to feel like I can't touch bottom. *SIGH*

[DeeCap]

I think there are a few ways to handle this

-Inform the actors that you are not comfortable answering questions that the director should answer.
-Talk to your director saying that you feel uncomfortable answering the questions and that you feel you are stepping over the line. Perhaps the actors can call her directly if they have questions about their particular character.
-Are you a student?  If so,  talk to your adviser about this.  I'm curious as to why the production team isn't responding. Maybe they think that since rehearsals haven't started they don't need to pay attention. 
-If you were hired by the university, talk to whoever the head of production about this.

[Maribeth]

I agree with what DeeCap said.

I wouldn't accept responsibility for things that are not my purview- just because the director is not in town does not mean that you have to make decisions that are her responsibility. I'm not sure why they would need a weekly meeting with you before rehearsals start and if it was me I probably wouldn't go for it. If they have scheduling questions, they can contact you about them separately, and you can contact the director. If it's a question about character they can wait until rehearsals begin and speak to the director about it then.

Is it possible that the director is receiving too many emails/texts/calls about small questions and is overwhelmed? Maybe it would be better to write one email each week that covers multiple questions, or have a weekly check-in by phone. It's possible that when you actually begin rehearsals, some of these issues will naturally smooth themselves out, like script changes.

Have you tried getting in touch with the production team in a manner other than email? Sometimes a phone call or a visit in person is a more direct way to get someone to answer. Do you have any production meetings scheduled? Depending on what the questions are, you can keep a list of questions and get them answered all at the same time, while everyone is in the room. I second the recommendation of talking to your adviser- or cc'ing them on future communication. 

[Mac Calder]

Are the production team students dedicated to this show, or are they professionals?

Back "in the day" whilst I was doing theatrical work (as opposed to corporate), I would have a couple of shows on at a time, if not more - one in active design (ie rehearsals and production meetings etc), one being installed and in tech and usually one in the wings that I am thinking about on the side, I would often have the next few months booked too.

When I got emails about shows that were outside of my current window of interest I would tend to ignore them - or  send a short email stating that I was currently looking after a number of shows, when I get a minute I will look at their questions and respond. If there were urgent issues, then phone was the way to reach me.

You are pre-rehearsal, so there is a good chance that your show barely registers on your production teams radar.

Scheduling issues I would not worry about too much - collect the data, make sure the first few weeks of rehearsals are fairly incident free and have all the data ready to discuss with your director friend once you are in the flow of things.

The script changes are a harder one, all you can really do is highlight them to her and see how she takes them.

[hbelden]

I would say, don't rehearse until rehearsal starts.

Stage Managers are problem-solvers, by definition.  Bringing us into meetings with the actors before rehearsal starts means we start working on problems; but the solutions can't be found until rehearsals actually start, so it's like banging your head against a wall.

If you step back and just attend their meetings to capture information and make lists, great.  More information is always good.  But don't take responsibility for moving their meetings forward.

Just my two cents.

[BARussell]

I had the same exact situation about a year ago.

Here's what I would do schedule one meeting before rehearsals  with the actors and director on skype or speakerphone if you can that, way you can give them all the info they need they can ask her questions and you can get everything in at the same time.

Before that schedule in advance a good thorough  chat with the director and get stuff out of the way. You can try to predict what people will ask/ answer questions they have already asked or want to know that way you won't have to "get asked, then ask her, then wait for her response, then respond to the person."

It's just like when you get a million little emails and you could answer them as they came in but sometimes it is just less overwhelming to sit down and answer all of them at the same time when you can actually focus on them. If you get her to go into the mindset of answering question and communicating with you it will be much easier to get the info you need.