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Down Time
In six days I will have a new job, which will possibly me more chaotic than this past one. The upshot to this one is that I will be getting paid, and that I don’t have to juggle classes and homework as well. The downside is that there are three shows instead of just the one, and I will probably still end up running about like a headless chicken.
Fortunately, I know more going into this than I did going into “She Stoops To Conquer”. I know what the work habits and rehearsal processes for many of the actors in the summer season are like, and can use that to my advantage. It will be easier in that regard, to work with people. I have this theory: if you know how someone works, and don’t want to try to change that so things are better, change the way you are working so it fits together alright. This is my battle plan, how I intend to stay sane.
Why is my sanity being questioned? Because we will be involved in eight weeks of rehearsal, with rehearsals running from roughly 10 AM until 9 PM, with build times and apprentice company meetings/warm-ups. It will be complete and utter chaos for awhile, I believe, but the ultimate goal is to have all three shows in rotating rep for five weeks. We can do it. I can do it. And, luckily for all of you, I will be providing regular updates on what I’ve found that works, and what I’ve found that does not. Isn’t that exciting?
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And scene.
Another weekend, another strike, another show gone. This is what I love and hate about theatre – it’s always a temporary thing. You put so much of yourself into creating something beautiful and (hopefully) successful, and then in a matter of hours it’s torn down to make room for something else.
I don’t have much to say other than that, so I will resume my massive amounts of studying.
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Tags: Construction
Open!
Well, we did it. Somehow, things miraculously came together, and we had a very successful opening weekend. The audiences are understanding the style of theatre, they’re enjoying the non-realistic acting, and I am pleased as punch.
It’s very strange to come from a busy week, and suddenly not have rehearsal every night. It’s like working for 7 straight weeks and finally having a day off. There’s a weight that is lifted after opening weekend, because the bar has been set, the show is open, and the only thing a stage manager can really do is drop light or sound cues. Since that hasn’t happened quite yet, we’re doing alright so far.
The one thing that kills me is a boring audience. It took awhile for Friday night’s crowd to get warmed up to the whole experience, so for the first hour of the show I was up in the booth wondering why no one was laughing or applauding. I suppose that’s the one thing I don’t really enjoy about theatre – the risk of a kind of bad audience. With this show, I’m hoping that’s only due to the difference in style. In modern theatre, the lights are turned all the way down in the show, and the audience is quiet and reserved throughout the entire performance. With 18th-century theatre, the audience is still lit, and can talk amongst themselves. It’s strange, but people are generally getting the hang of it.
Well lads and ladies, I’m off to enjoy the rest of what has been a very low-key Monday. Wish us broken legs for this weekend!
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Frustration, Anyone?
Every so often, depending on the size of the show we are putting up and the progress we have made, my theatre department organizes “work parties”. This is where we come in at 9 AM on a Saturday and stay until 5 or 6 PM. Usually they’re very productive and we get eight tons of things done.
Yesterday was one of those work parties. I arrived a little late, at around 9:30, and found five other people there working on things. Two of them left at noon for other obligations, and no one else showed up until about 1 PM. There were six students there total yesterday, all at different times. We have our dry and wet tech runs next weekend, and I am not sure how we are supposed to reach that goal if our lights are not finished, if our sound is not done, and if our set isn’t built. I can understand that a couple people spent most of the time in the costume shop; we need costumes as well as set pieces. However, the most common excuse I am hearing is that people were “too tired” or “too hungover” to come and build their set for their show.
Needless to say, I’m a little frustrated with my cast and the other people in the department. I spent six hours on our overheating tension grid, trying to read a light plot that was drafted by hand by our 80-something lighting/costume/set designer. I helped lay out more of our massive drops, and took an inventory of the lighting supplies we needed. Where was everyone else? Why is it so difficult to get people engaged in something that will only serve to benefit THEM? If anyone has that secret, would you let me know?
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Tags: Construction, Miscommunications
Ghost Stories
This evening shortly after rehearsal, I was locking up the building when I caught a glimmer of something white in the corner of my eye. Normally I would’ve passed it off as a reflection from my glasses, but I was in a nearly pitch-black room. I not-so-calmly (and not-so-safely) ran out of the dark mainstage area, tripped over a pile of wood and miraculously did not go flying into anything.
When I finally got outside, one of my actors asked why I looked so panicky, and when I told her, she turned around and looked into the dark entryway of the building. The only lights on in there were the exit lights, so there was this dim, eerie red glow.
Our theatre is legitimately haunted. In the 1970s, a young theatre student, Donna Grady, committed suicide in one of the residence halls. Ever since, the building has had strange things happen. One of our adjunct faculty members tells a great story. During a production of Marat/Sade, when everyone was either onstage or in the audience, a woman’s voice was heard screaming in the back stairway just next to the men’s dressing room. No one was back there. The assistant professor of acting has had things fall and break as she walks out of empty rooms.
My personal favorite came last semester. We were rehearsing Sophie Treadwell’s “Machinal”, and I was sent upstairs to our studio theatre to compose some original music. After sitting and practicing without much trouble, I hear footsteps coming from the prop and light area. I knew for a fact there was no one back there, that it was simply Donna wandering about as per usual. Nonetheless, when I started to hear her moving furniture around I knew it was time to go back to being around other people.
Our theatre is haunted, and chances are that yours is too. Be careful with theatre ghosts, though. If we do not invite Donna to our performances, things will go wrong. Light cues will be erased, instruments will explode… I’m sure you get the picture. It is probably the one part of stage management that I am not looking forward to, because the stage manager has to enter the performance space, turn off all of the lights, and speak out loud that you want her to come to the show. The thought alone makes me want to run away screaming.
If you have any ghost stories, I invite you to share them with me!
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Tags: Spooky Stuff
What’s This?
The call board: That big, ugly thing usually located near the front door of a theatre. Can be found with a lot of papers attached to it.
What a lot of people fail to realize is that IT IS NOT THERE TO LOOK PRETTY. It is a totally functional object, filled with notes and messages for the actors from the staff. For instance, when someone puts a message on the board that says, “Go get fitted in the costume shop, and here are the hours”, most people would, hopefully, go get fitted.
Not my cast. My cast has, until last night when the director and I gave them a talking-to, completely ignored the call board. Of course, they would never admit that. If I had a dollar for every person who came up to me last night and claimed they check the board every day, I would have a happy wad of cash in my pocket right now. Since I am not getting paid to hear excuses, it’s just annoying. If you were checking the call board, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
So, everyone, let your actors know that it’s okay to admit when they’re wrong! Really – we forgive you, just don’t do it again.
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Tags: Miscommunications, Rehearsal
Things to Keep In Mind
There are a lot of things that I am learning and re-learning about the theatre, given this different perspective I have now.
It is nowhere near as easy as it looks to find people to help with shows. When you don’t have anyone volunteering for certain positions, asking them is like trying to pull a disobedient dog in the direction it doesn’t want to go. For instance, I am still trying to find myself an assistant stage manager, and we are set to open in four weeks. This is (hopefully) not normal, and definitely not good. One person cannot DO everything all at once! Perhaps it gets easier when there aren’t other commitments like class, and when stage management is all one does in a day?
The other thing that astonished me was how much trust my director has placed in me this weekend. He is away doing his one-man show on the West coast for four days, leaving the running of rehearsals and everything entirely up to me. It’s really daunting, but if they continue to go like tonight, we will be in great shape and have a lot of wonderful progress to show him upon his return.
The basic message is to get people early on to help with the technical business, because if you don’t have those bases covered, the show essentially cannot happen. Unfortunately I am learning this one the hard way… Wish me luck!
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Tags: Blunders, Miscommunications
SETC, Part One(?)
After spending five days in the south, you BET I have things to talk about.
The first order of business actually has very little to do with the conference itself, and more with the atmosphere of Chattanooga. People were so nice there. It didn’t matter that we were “Yankees” or potentially snooty theatrefolk – we were greeted with smiles and “How y’all doin”s everywhere we went, and it was a really nice change of pace from Cleveland. No offense, but people are generally nicer down south, and I don’t understand why that mentality is so different from the northern parts of our country.
The first thing I did at the conference was go to the “Tech Mixer” on Wednesday night. What do you get when you fill a room with techies? Nothing. It didn’t help that the speakers that evening were all cracking jokes about how unsociable tech people are because… Well, some things aren’t funny when they’re true.
The next couple days were filled with workshops, and unfortunately almost all of the ones I wanted to go to were canceled. The silver lining of the cancellations was the free time I had to help recruit students for my school. I never knew that talking to people for three or four hours was such hard work, but I’m pretty sure that I helped give a good impression of the school. The best part was being able to tell students and their parents that it’s an affordable school even with out-of-state tuition.
I met a lot of really talented designers and actors, watched some great performances, and made some great connections that I can stay in touch with later on in life. I recommend going to theatre conferences, not even for the people you could meet or the workshops you could take, but for the experience of being in a different environment and seeing different sides of the people with whom you go to school.
There may or may not be a more in-depth entry later, but things are going to be picking WAY up with me as far as the school show. We are entering that full-run period, in which props and set and costume pieces start to appear. Thankfully we don’t open until the 17th of April, so we’ve still got a few weeks for all that.
Break legs, everyone, and never pass up a chance to make connections.
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The Plague!
I think the plague has struck our theatre department. Out of the nine leading roles, five have been too ill to attend rehearsals in the past two weeks. This makes scheduling a complete headache, and considering most of us are going out of town tomorrow, this is a big problem. Thankfully, only two people will be missing tonight, so we can still run a bit.
As previously posted, I will be in Tennessee for the next five days. There are some really fascinating subjects being taught, like stage combat, makeup effects, and improvisation.
In closing, take care of yourselves – there are some nasty NASTY bugs going around. Vitamins, medicines, fluids and sleep are the best defenses, so PLEASE do yourselves a favor.
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Tags: Rehearsal
That’s right – I’m off to the lovely Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the South-Eastern Theatre Conference! Since my director is going, rehearsals are being put off until after spring break (which is, conveniently, next week!)
I will probably update at some point to tell you all how fabulous the workshops and adventures in TN were, so until then, surf safe!
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