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September 20, 2010

On the Clock

I call this: On the Road Again,theatre — Posted by KP @ 10:25 pm

Today marks the official start of my contract for The Acting Company 2010-2011 tour. We start rehearsal a week from today. I celebrated by getting up at 6:30 for a day in the office. The good news is, I’m actually getting paid now. The other good news is that it’s pumpkin spice latte time at Starbucks, and that made the second half of my day awesome.

In the Office

Almost the entirety of my day today was spent on the script. What is believed to be the final draft of the first rehearsal script came back from the director early this morning. So with something we think we might actually be distributing, I went through it with a fine-toothed comb, removing all the multicolored notes and strikethroughs from all the people who had been collaborating on it, renumbering the pages, and making the formatting absolutely perfect, checking every single character, space and margin, as well as reading every word for content to make sure there weren’t any obvious errors.

I’m very happy to know that is under control, and it’s exactly how I want it set up. I initially lobbied to keep the old page numbers in case our returning actors and staff wanted to use their old scripts, but I was convinced that we should encourage people to start from scratch. Both scripts have the act & scene number as part of the page number, so even if people are using their old scripts, they can still turn to the correct page or very close to it, as most scenes are only a few pages long. Some cuts have been put in, but they’re relatively small. It should make the show feel a little faster without removing too much content.

I was given control of the contact sheet today, although with the priority put on getting a final script ready today, I wasn’t able to finish double-checking the contact sheet I’ve been working on in my database against the final one from the office. Other than a little bit of work on that, I participated in a few discussions about travel, the early rehearsal schedule, and the technical education workshops I’ve been trying to get going this year. It’s nice to be in the middle of the action as things are coming together.

Remounting

This is the first time in a long while that I’ve remounted a production I’ve done before. Definitely the first time on a production of this scale, keeping the same design elements, and on which I knew at the time of the previous production that I would need to recreate the show again. It’s kind of fun.

When I found out that I would be spending the day on the script, it was pretty daunting to get started. Since April I hadn’t done more than glance at the script when I’d been asked to submit my copy of the final script about a month ago. This is a three-hour show that I did 82 performances and 30 days of rehearsal of within the past nine months. I thought I would be sick of staring at those words. But it was actually very comforting. There’s definitely something nice about doing a show you know. As I read through the script, I heard the whole show in my head as performed by my friends from last year, and enjoyed the memories of my favorite moments, or funny things that happened during the process surrounding certain parts. I was sad to think that some of those people would be gone, but curious to see what new people will bring to those roles. And I’m looking forward to seeing our returning actors’ performances again, and to see what they may discover that’s different this time.

After reading literally every word, I definitely feel like I have the show back in my body. The more I can remember and see the show in my mind, the easier my job will be, and the less I’ll have to worry about being able to make sense of my paperwork!

After Hours

Tonight, theoretically I’m watching football, but I’m not really, I’m working and blogging. I’m scanning a few paper documents that I was given today: the rules packet for New 42nd Street Studios, and the Letter of Agreement (LOA) between the company and Equity, which modifies our rehearsal rules (which are based on the LORT agreement). I have never in my years of stage management been able to get a digital copy of an LOA. No general manager I’ve worked with has ever been given one in their lives. So I always have to scan it, because having the printed copy with me when I need it never works out. Needing it at the bar at 1AM is just as likely as needing it in rehearsal or at my apartment when I wake up in the morning. When I’m done scanning I will upload the PDFs into Evernote and put them in my DropBox, where Meaghan and I can reference them.

By the by, I really wish I had a scanner that was less than 8 years old, and that I didn’t have to use Windows to use. But it’s just one of those things that I’d hardly ever be home to take advantage of. We do tour with a printer/scanner combo thing so I’m pretty well covered as far as work goes right now. Maybe someday when I stop all this touring. Or if I get a production contract.


September 14, 2010

HeadsetChatter Live!

I call this: On the Road Again,theatre — Posted by KP @ 6:08 pm

Over the summer, I wrote an extensive post about my day giving master classes at Reagle’s summer theatre camp.

As I said in that post, after I got home from the master classes I started thinking about the upcoming Acting Company tour, and how I could better do my part in its educational mission. Nick and I always had a saying, “It’s the Acting Company, not the Stage Management Company!” and understood that naturally the workshops, talkbacks and other educational programs focus heavily on performance-related topics. If a school requested a talkback or seminar on technical or theatre management matters, or to have a student shadow us, we were happy to provide it, but they were very rare.

So this year I approached the education department over the summer to plant the idea that whenever I had the time I would be willing to offer educational opportunities for technical theatre students, and that they should feel free to present this option alongside the other workshops offered for actors.

Now that things are really getting rolling for the tour, those kind of arrangements are starting to fall into place. I was in the office today for a meeting, and was told that there’s already one school early in the first leg of the tour that’s interested in doing something.

This program has been humorously coined “HeadsetChatter Live!” Unfortunately we’re forbidden from mentioning websites in our bios, but I will be happy to take the live version to the populace!


September 13, 2010

Event Management and Me

I call this: theatre — Posted by KP @ 1:29 pm

My Weekend

I had been awake for about 10 minutes on Friday morning when I got a call from a friend. A stage manager he’s worked with needed to find a replacement to do a festival over the weekend. Everything about that sentence was unpleasant to me, especially when I’ve just woken up.

But as soon as I could wipe the sand out of my eyes and take some more sips of my energy drink, I called said stage manager and learned what the deal was. Actually it was a bit different than I pictured.

When you stage manage a show as part of a festival, it almost always means the pay is absolute crap. I’ve done shows early in my career that paid less than a dollar an hour. I don’t care who’s doing those kind of shows, I just don’t do them anymore. Higher-end festival shows might make it a little more worth your while, but are still too low on the work vs. pay scale to be something you really look forward to having to do. Generally you do it out of absolute financial desperation, or getting to work with well-known actors or directors, or doing a show that you have somehow deluded yourself might go somewhere — more accurately, you may not believe it will go somewhere, but enough people are saying it will that you would feel stupid if you turned it down and a year later it’s on Broadway.

Anyway, as it turned out, this job had nothing to do with that kind of experience. It was not a festival of shows, but an outdoor festival of poetry, performance art, music and just a tiny bit of musical theatre. And I wasn’t managing a show. I wasn’t even managing one of the two stages at the festival. I was managing the festival. So it wasn’t stage management at all, it was event management.

My feelings on Event Management

I’m not one of those stage managers who really does event management. I know some people who have fallen in with the right crowd, and do so many high-quality events that they hardly ever do shows. The point of event management is that you can make inconceivable amounts of money in a very short period of time. Whether it’s actually “less work” is debatable, but I would guess at the very least, it allows you more free time because you do tons of work over the span of a few days, and then you’re done and can leisurely roll around in all your money for the rest of the month before you pay your entire rent with it.

For example I have a friend who went to Costa Rica for something-or-other for like a week, and in addition to getting a trip to Costa Rica, was paid very well for the experience. Another friend once worked an NBA event. He’s probably 5’10” and incredibly skinny, and at one point had to hold the players in a certain area. His claim to fame is that when Shaq wanted to go somewhere, he very gently lifted my friend up in the air and deposited him somewhere else so he could get by. Anyway, a number of my friends really like doing events because sometimes they’re easy, and often take you to interesting places or among interesting people, and pretty much always pay very well.

I’m not on anybody’s list to get called for really amazing events, nor have I ever particularly tried to be when I’ve had the chance. I like money. I like money a lot. If you click on any of the tech- or computer-related topics here you’ll see I have a thing for expensive electronics and software. Money would allow me to enjoy my hobby more. But I also have a thing for theatre, particularly musical theatre, and if I knew I could pay the bills either way, I would take an average-paying show over a paid trip to Costa Rica.

I have been thinking about this since Friday, and I think what it comes down to is that in my mind, an event is work. You do work, you receive money. It’s like what most people think of as work: not necessarily fun or pleasant, but you get through it and at the end of the day you have money, so it’s worth doing. And I realized that as much as I think that I think of stage management as work, as in “Aw, why do I have to go to rehearsal? Can’t I just sit in my pajamas and play MMOs all day?” it actually is something different in my mind from real work. I have this expectation that a job should be something exciting and inspiring, in addition to being someplace you go solely for the purpose of coming out with money at the end.

The entire theatre industry is also constructed to beat into you that you’re an artist and should expect sub-par pay for your skills because the producer is doing you a favor by giving you an opportunity to practice your art. This is why we have unions, by the way — to say “No, actually it’s also a job, and you have to pay people.” Stagehands generally fall in the other category — of people who are there to do work and get money. Somehow producers understand this in a way that they don’t understand it about actors and stage managers. Which is why it’s not unheard of for the guy running the light board to make more than the PSM.

My point being, that event management is the way that stage managers get to be a part of that “I’m not doing that unless you pay me what I’m worth” thing that most of the world inherently understands. But to me, it uses the same skills of organizing people, solving problems, being diplomatic, and keeping things on schedule, but without the “let’s put on a show!” payoff at the end. You’re always putting on a show of some sort, whether it be a wedding, a concert, a sales presentation, or an NBA halftime show, but it doesn’t strike a nerve with me in the same way as the legitimate theatre. I’m sure somebody who does rock concerts, like Nicky, who was my stage manager on the mainstage at this festival, would be bored out of his mind stage managing a production of Romeo and Juliet. I get that. I may, perhaps, in a theatre with a very quiet stage right, have once called the entire balcony scene while lying on the floor, just for a change of perspective. But you will also note that I am about to remount that production and take it out for another seven months, and I wouldn’t be doing that if it wasn’t rewarding in other ways besides money.

Being on the Outside

I don’t do a whole lot else besides stage management. Honestly, I could probably name on one hand the number of jobs I’ve done in the last 5 years that were not stage managing legit theatre productions.

I was the production coordinator for Bingo in Florida, and did a little bit of preproduction on the Chicago premiere as well. That was sort of a hybrid of long-distance stage management and company management. It was immensely educational to sit in a general management office that was busy producing several shows, to see what goes on on that side of things during production. After two months, I was more certain than before that unlike some stage managers, I have absolutely zero interest in ever being a company manager or GM. It was also the first and only time I’ve ever worked in an office. It was kind of like playing “grown-up” for the first month, then it started to get old. It should be noted that the reason I was asked to do the job was that I had been ASM of the Off-Broadway production (and had also called the show many times). I was even offered PSM of the Chicago production when they had somebody back out during pre-pro — and I would have gladly taken it, but they couldn’t provide housing for me.

I subbed on followspot (by which I mean a Source Four with handles on it) for the Off-Broadway production of My Secret Garden for a day or two, before later replacing the PSM (I had been the ASM for an earlier workshop, so my main association with the show was stage managerial). I have always liked running spots. I haven’t run a real spot since I was in high school, with the exception of a photo shoot for a production on which I was PSM, because the spot ops weren’t called for the photo call, and I really wanted to.

A friend was the ASM on the Off-Broadway play Substitution, and his crew person bailed on the first day of tech. He called me desperate for a warm body wearing black to appear at his theatre by the end of their dinner break. As I had nothing to do for the rest of the day, and welcomed the opportunity to hang out backstage with my friend, I changed into blacks and got down there as fast as I could. I worked the show through tech and first preview, until a new crew person was hired and trained. During that time, the PSM got another gig and would have to leave the production in the middle of the final week. Since I already had at least a crew member’s familiarity with the play, the fastest way to cover that situation was for me to learn to call the show, since I would only need to watch it once. I was technically just an ASM sub, but I got to be the calling SM for the end of the run. I also got to work with the amazing Jan Maxwell, so that was a fun experience.

Same friend, same situation: crew member quit. We were both PSM-ing shows at the NYMF Festival, both in the same venue at the same time. He lost his crew person, and I filled in for the last week of the run, since I was sort of already there, and had no conflicts since our shows were on the same stage.

And… that’s all that’s coming to mind as far as non-stage-management jobs, and as you can see most of them came out of or ended up resulting in real stage management jobs anyway. My career has always been pretty narrowly focused on stage management. Some of that is personal preference, and some of it is just the way it’s happened.

Advantages

The nice thing about doing events is that they take place in a very short period of time, and don’t really require you to clear your schedule much. I lost most of the day Friday (going down to the park to be shown around by the outgoing production manager), and all day Saturday and Sunday, but now I’ll most likely be starting the tour with my debt already paid off. Yay!

I missed a whole lot of football over the weekend, I didn’t get any preproduction done for the tour, my favorite vest is covered in soggy dirt, and I can barely walk from standing on uneven pavement for 12 hours a day, but now it’s over and it would have taken me months on tour to save up that money.

Events are good things to have access to when you need them. I’m glad that I have steady employment as a stage manager coming up, but this is a great example of how you can throw a few days of work in between your “real” commitments and supplement your earnings. Also, in this crazy business, sometimes you have to lose money to make money — taking a lesser-paying job in the hopes that it will lead to a greater-paying job. Any money you can save gives you more flexibility to take a chance when faced with those situations. Or you can buy an iPhone every year, or find out what the hell a $50 mouse pad feels like.


September 7, 2010

Pre-Production Progress

I call this: On the Road Again,theatre — Posted by KP @ 10:03 pm

Days till first rehearsal: 20

Currently working on: just tidying up my files & notes while watching TV before bed

Upcoming projects:
Clean up last year’s R&J script
Put contacts in address book
More database work

Recently Finished:
putting performances / cities / travel into Google Calendar
Contact sheet (still have questions)
Entry of performances & venues into database


August 29, 2010

So You’re Going on Tour

I call this: On the Road Again,theatre — Posted by KP @ 11:50 pm

I guess this is the first edition of Season 3 of “On The Road Again.” Click that picture at the top to see all the posts in this series. It follows my progress on tour with The Acting Company. This year we’ll be remounting Romeo and Juliet and rehearsing a new production of The Comedy of Errors. The tour will exist in two phases. First we’ll rehearse R&J at New 42nd Street Studios in New York, which is an awesome place to work, and conveniently allows me to live at home through production. We’ll tech R&J here in New York at Pace University (where Nick worked this summer and says it’s nice). Then we take it on tour, focusing on the west coast, where we didn’t really spend any time last year. After almost a month of that, we return to the Guthrie in Minneapolis, where we go into rehearsal for Comedy. Then we open Comedy at the Guthrie. During the tail end of that run, we will start playing in rep with R&J. For the rest of the tour we’ll play both shows in rep, until we end our run back in New York in mid-April.

So that’s what lies in store this year. The big news is that I’ve created a big page on the site called So You’re Going on Tour, in which I describe everything that I take with me on tour and why. As much as I love you, my anonymous readers, I’m also doing it for a more practical reason: I have a new ASM, the awesome Meaghan, who you heard a bit about during Season 1 of “On the Road Again” (before it was called that, cause there was no “again”). Meaghan was our indispensable stage management intern at the Guthrie during the first year there. With Nick getting married this coming year, and being all grown up and stuff, he’s not going on tour. Meaghan has been the heir apparent for a long time, and I’m really excited that it worked out for her to do the job. She’s also getting her Equity card, which I’m totally psyched about. I like it when the business works like it’s supposed to: you start out small and prove that you’re capable of better things, and you will be rewarded with better jobs.

Anyway, this is Meaghan’s first tour, so naturally like all good stage managers should, her first reaction to getting the job was to head over to HeadsetChatter and read up on what she should be prepared for! The only thing is, while I’ve done some posts about how I’m preparing or what I’m packing, there was no definitive place on the site that says “these are the things you need on tour.” Until now.

I just got home from the summer season, and we start rehearsal in a little less than a month. Meaghan and I exchanged some emails today, and I’m starting to seriously pull together the information I need. So stay tuned for another busy season!


August 15, 2010

Crazy Sunday Afternoon

I call this: summer stock,theatre — Posted by KP @ 7:38 pm

All we had to do today was a Sunday matinee. After that we have no show until next Thursday. Things have been running smoothly, audiences have been leaping to their feet. When the sun rose this morning, all that stood between us and three-and-a-half days off was two-and-a-half hours of awesome musical theatre.

9:30AM

I’ve already been awake for a while, because somehow I’ve become an early bird like that. My phone rings, and it’s our star. She’s not calling me at 9:30 on a matinee day just to say hi. As I suspected, she wasn’t feeling well. She was calling me to get our producer’s home number to see if she could be rushed in to see a doctor so she could get a prescription before the show. Much to my relief, that was the extent of my involvement, and she was indeed able to see the doctor, and was feeling OK for the show.

12:15PM

I’m about to leave the house. Like packing my stuff. And I get a call from one of the Dynamites. It’s obvious right away it’s train trouble. A large portion of our actors commute on the red line from Boston, and need rides from Alewife, which is the last and nearest station to the theatre. There are two regular pickups: an hour-and-a-half before the show is the Ednamobile, which is driven by our “Edna,” Dan. 15 minutes later is the scheduled departure of the Musicmobile, driven by our music director and keyboard player, also Dan (which is why the two cars have names, instead of “Dan is driving me.”) Anyway, I find out that it’s not just the usual Sunday delays on the red line. Apparently the entire T has been shut down for about 40 minutes due to a power outage. Part of my dismay is that, not being from the area, I really don’t know how to help people when they have train trouble. But I do know that somebody even being slightly delayed on the train can really mess up my day, so all the trains in Boston being shut down less than two hours before a show doesn’t sound good.

I decided that getting to the theatre was not important at the moment, and stayed on my computer trying to reach people who could potentially offer rides, while checking Twitter to see what other Bostonians were reporting about the outage (the MBTA website showed all trains happily running with a green checkmark. Thanks!) Shortly after that, the trains started running again, and our actors (and one of our other keyboard players) made it on, and slowly towards Waltham. The Musicmobile would stay behind for them.

Act I

So finally everybody arrived and the show started without incident. Marissa wasn’t having problems, and I soon stopped worrying about her completely. We had almost gotten through act I when everyone kind of noticed at once that there was something in the air in front of the house right light tree. With all the fake hairspray hanging in the air, seeing particles in the beams of light isn’t anything unusual, but as our board op, Jess, pointed out, there hasn’t been any hairspray sprayed in that area in a really long time. So then the only explanation is that something is burning.

Thankfully this happened at the single point in the show where we have lots of time, during the last scene of the act. There was definitely steady smoke, but even with people looking from all possible angles, nobody was able to tell which instrument it was coming from. The light trees are just in front of the front row on either side and probably contain about 12 instruments each, from about 15-30 feet in the air. We spent the last 10 minutes of the act trying to narrow down the offending equipment, and praying it wouldn’t set off the fire alarm before we could examine it more closely at intermission.

We made it, and soon a good portion of the crew had gathered with flashlights to look at it, and saw nothing. After some debate, we decided it was time to take the inelegant step of bringing a ladder out into the audience. Taking a chance, we got the 16ft. ladder, which was much less disruptive than the A-frame, but wouldn’t be able to reach the top rows of lights, if that’s where the problem was. Basically we just wanted to figure out which light it was so we could unplug it or turn it off at the board.

Most of intermission went by and still no luck. We had our deck electrician on the top of the ladder checking all the connections. We brought all the lights up at 20 percent and he saw no sign of smoke. Finally I said that if we couldn’t find anything we’d have to give up, and suggested we put everything on that tree at full in the hopes that the offending light would show itself. Soon after, the smoke began again. After more looking with multiple sets of eyes on the ground and on the ladder, they found it was coming from a damaged connector. Jess quickly took all the lights out, and the connector was unplugged, and traced to the lights it controlled. That channel was parked out on the board, and soon the ladder was being spirited away backstage.

After the Show

We were pretty exhausted by the time the second act started, but everything went very smoothly for the rest of the show. Then as soon as the show ended, or perhaps as it was ending, the stage right toilet started flooding. Not like kind of backing up, or leaking a little bit. It was gushing water like Niagara Falls. By the time I got there there was at least an inch of water on the bathroom floor, so I wasn’t going in to see exactly what was happening. Two of our stagehands were inside trying to do something, and succeeding mostly in getting soaking wet. Wardrobe, who are based in the room next to the bathroom, and props, who have their tables set up just outside in the hall, produced several tubs filled with towels and we began laying barriers to contain and direct the water away from the props and costumes. The janitor arrived from the lobby, and splashed bravely into the bathroom. Soon we heard cries of, “Leatherman! Leatherman!” coming from inside. I dug into my bag and passed my Leatherman forward. Several seconds later, the sound of rushing water stopped, and the three intrepid plumbers emerged from the bathroom, mission accomplished.

Remarking that in one day the theatre had been attacked by both fire and water, I was getting out of there before the plague of locusts showed up.

I did, however, make a movie about the end of our harrowing day.


August 13, 2010

Hairspray Reading Material and the Joy of Live Theatre

I call this: summer stock,theatre — Posted by KP @ 1:09 pm

Just wanted to share a link about my current production of Hairspray at Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston.

The Globe ran an interview with Marissa Perry, who is our amazing Tracy Turnblad. Her story of how she got to Broadway is really inspiring, and actually involved many more twists and turns than described in the article. I described her yesterday during the show as a “quadruple-threat” — acting, singing and dancing, of course, but the threat that’s important to stage managers — she’s really smart and aware on stage, and can recognize and solve problems (like picking up a prop that’s been dropped on the floor, or figuring out how to casually set a brake on a set piece that’s sliding around).

The thing about live theatre that’s tricky is that you can’t always control what will happen on stage, and once it’s in view of the audience, there’s often nothing the crew can directly do to fix it, especially in a show like Hairspray that only has one or two blackouts. Things that get out of place or left on the floor create hazards for dancers, or can cause scenery to get stuck on them. An actor who can be counted on to notice these things and quickly remedy them before they become a problem is incredibly valuable for the smooth operation of the performance. To have a star with that ability, especially one who is almost never offstage, is a great blessing for me.

And I would add to my “quadruple-threat” comment from last night, that she is also a “quintuple-threat,” because on top of everything else, she’s everything you want a performer to be on stage, and she’s nice! It really doesn’t get any better than that.

On the subject of technically-aware actors:
I’ve also been kind of surprised to work with a few directors lately who have specifically taken a moment in rehearsal to talk about the importance of this, by saying things like, “If a prop falls on the floor, don’t ignore it, stay in character and find a way to pick it up. There are other things that need to happen besides your performance, and it’s important that that prop be where it’s supposed to be. You bending down to pick up the prop will not look as bad to the audience as any later problems it might cause.” So I’m grateful for that.

And I will share a story of the best case of an actor saving the day I’ve ever seen:
When I was in college I was the merchandising manager for Jane Eyre on Broadway. There was this scene where Rochester takes Jane out to the garden to propose to her, where there’s a bench on the turntable, and the bench turns off left while Rochester and Jane are kind of walking alongside it, and a scrim flies out revealing the garden. Well on this particular day in previews, I guess maybe the bench had gotten knocked out of place a little on the turntable, and as it spun and the scrim flew, the bottom pipe of the scrim went under the arm of the bench and began lifting it up off the floor by one end. James Barbour, walking slowly past the bench, arm-in-arm with Marla Schaffel, reaches out with his free hand, and casually lifts the arm of the bench off the pipe and deposits it back down on the floor, without missing a step. The combination of reaction time, calmness, and willingness to interact with something (flying benches in his backyard) that was completely out of the realm of the reality of the scene was really amazing.

And finally, if something goes wrong and you can’t fix it, at least come up with a good ad lib, like our Edna, Dan Dowling, did last night:
Somehow he lost a shoe during “Big Dollhouse,” and somehow the shoe ended up in the pit. At the end of the scene, when everybody is released from jail, Dan says his line to the Matron, “You touch one hair on my little girl’s head and I’ll be back to teach you a whole new meaning for split ends,” and then adds, “…and you can mail me my other shoe!” I’m not sure how much the audience laughed because I couldn’t hear anything over the laughter on headset, but suffice it to say, there was laughter all around. He also referenced it again in the next scene where he has an ad-lib spot in the phone call with Mr. Pinky. I think he said something like, “I’ll be right over. But I’ll be minus one shoe” (in that scene he’s wearing slippers). Of course not every show affords such opportunities, but we are lucky to have a show that was intended to have certain spots for ad-libs, and more importantly — a brilliant cast that spends time thinking up good ones, and can also come up with new ones on their feet. It definitely keeps things interesting instead of watching exactly the same show over and over.


July 19, 2010

Stage Management Master Class

I call this: summer stock,theatre — Posted by KP @ 2:34 pm

Today was one of my favorite days in my yearly summer stock ritual. Reagle runs a Musical Theatre Camp for about a month in the summer, which always gets a surprisingly good turnout (this year they have about 100 campers). The kids take all sorts of classes mostly related to the performing aspects of musical theatre, but in addition to that they have a series of master classes where various guests come in to work with the kids for a day and talk about and teach them a variety of topics. The full-time teachers and guest artists are largely pulled from the performers and creative teams of the summer shows. Since the camp was started in 2006, I have always taught a stage management master class at some point in the season.

Basically in my case it’s more of a question-and-answer session where I talk about the job of a stage manager — what’s involved, how I prepare for a show, what my duties are during the show, what my training is, and how I find work. Then I also field questions about the particular show we’re doing at the time (usually I have the class soon after the kids have seen the show), as well as questions like, “What’s the craziest thing that’s happened while you were calling a show?”

The kids vary in ages — in the past I’ve had two large groups divided by age. This year I had four separate classes, starting with the youngest kids (probably about 8 years old) and ending with the oldest (who I think are about 13). It’s always interesting to figure out what topics to focus on based on the age group. Sometimes it’s surprising what the kids want to talk about.

My co-host for the day was Rachel Bertone, who is one of the camp teachers, and one of Reagle’s regular dancers (she’s currently playing Zaneeta in Music Man). We’ve probably done close to 10 shows together, so we work well together, and Rachel helped to steer the conversation and ask interesting questions when the kids ran out of things to say. Before each class she would give me an idea of what topics each age group might be most interested in, and ways to tie in to what they’ve been studying in their other classes.

Rachel contacted me early in the summer about scheduling this class, and I was able to have more input than I usually do on what the class would consist of, where it would be held, and how the groups should be divided up. In the past we’ve always done it at the theatre in two groups of 50-60 kids, which can be really distracting because all the scenery is around and it’s more of a “field trip” atmosphere, and the large groups aren’t as intimate. I really wanted it to be in more of a classroom setting with as much time as possible to take questions and let the conversation go in the direction the kids were most interested in, and more classes in smaller groups seemed to be the way to go. It’s also a lot of the same kids who attend the camp each year, and many of them already know me from previous master classes, or from having been in the childrens’ choruses of various Reagle shows (which results in me occasionally being asked for autographs at the stage door!), so I try to avoid repeating the same information when half the class has heard it already.

It was nice that we ended up talking about different things in each class. I always feel that the classes are too short. Describing the job of a stage manager can take a really long time if you had to talk about every part of the process, and answer questions about it! So I liked that we were covering a lot of new territory with each class, it kept the day interesting for me, instead of repeating the same things four times.

With the oldest group, they had been learning more about “the business,” including preparing resumes, so I talked a little more about how I get jobs, and how I hire other people, including ways in which resumes have stood out for me.

One thing that came up with most of the groups is the story of how I got into stage managing, which I found myself getting way more specific than I intended to with the 8-year-olds, about how I had wanted to be a director, and after pursuing directing and nothing but directing from the age of 12, I decided halfway through college that I had to give up my lifelong goal and become a stage manager. I realized by way of answering the simple question of “what’s your training in stage management?” that it served as a good life lesson that even if you spend your whole life wanting to do a certain thing, it’s OK to admit that maybe you were wrong and you should really be doing something else. Rachel also chimed in about how she had wanted to be a ballerina her whole life and eventually discovered that she really belonged in musical theatre. So we found a way to work that story in with almost all the classes because it seemed like something important for kids to hear in general, especially in this business where so many people grow up wanting to perform, and very few will make it all the way to being working professional actors.

I’ve learned in my experience of running talkbacks at Phantom, as well as later in my career at Reagle and on the Acting Company tour, that every talkback group is different. That’s part of the reason I love doing them, because you never know where the conversation will lead. Some groups want to know all about the technical stuff, some all about the acting / performance stuff, some are really curious about training and how people grew up to be professional theatre artists. I think of the master classes like extended talkbacks, except that instead of an entire cast, I’m the only one being talked to.

The part of any talkback I don’t like is where the talkers are spouting off canned information.

“Tell us a little about yourself: where you’re from and how you got into theatre…”

“The Acting Company was founded in 1972 from the first class of Julliard’s drama division…”

This is all necessary information that gives context to what the listeners are about to hear, and helps them to decide what questions to ask, but I always want to get it over with as soon as possible because I never feel there’s enough time to cover everyone’s questions, and I like to get to the part where I figure out what the group wants to hear about. I like the intro to be very brief, but give a quick sample of what the possible topics might be, and then when the listeners latch on to something, we can talk more in depth about that.

Rachel had brought along the Music Man program, and began each class by reading my bio, which was nice because in 75 words or less it brings up a couple different topics right away. Here it is:

Karen Parlato (Production Stage Manager) This is Karen’s sixth season as Reagle’s PSM — credits include all summer productions since 2005’s Crazy For You. She is based in New York, where credits include The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, Off-Broadway: Inventing Avi, Frankenstein, The Fantasticks, Wanda’s World, Bingo, and others. In the fall she will return for her 3rd year as PSM of The Acting Company’s national tour, bringing Romeo and Juliet and The Comedy of Errors to 33 US cities.

So right away that potentially leads to:
1. What’s a production stage manager, as opposed to a stage manager in general?
2. How do you travel here from New York? How do you handle working away from home?
3. Wow, I saw Phantom! How do the candles come up from the floor? What’s the hardest scene to call?
4. What’s touring like?
5. Do you like doing Shakespeare? How is it different from musicals?

I could fill the entire class period on any of those topics, so I don’t want to waste time talking about something they’re not interested in, when I have hours of material I could share on a topic they are interested in. The interesting challenge for me with the camp is that usually none of the kids are specifically interested in stage management or technical theatre, so it’s not so much about the nitty-gritty of my stage management style, as it is about familiarizing them with what a stage manager does, and I’m one of a number of guest artists they’ll meet who can answer general questions about what it’s like doing theatre professionally.

On tour our cast does a lot of performance-related workshops at schools we visit, and on a few rare occasions the schools have requested a stage management or more behind-the-scenes workshop for their students who are pursuing other careers in theatre, which I am always beyond excited to do, no matter how busy the day. When we were in Tucson two years ago, Nick and I spent an hour in the greenroom after a performance with a college class of stage management students, which gets much more specific about “how do you write your cues in the book?” and that sort of thing, which is equally fun, to be talking to people who are not that far behind us in their careers. Last year Corey (the staff repertory director) and I did a seminar with a group of theatre students that focused on how we keep the show running on the road, and the career paths of a director and stage manager. Also last year, we arrived at one college and the resident stage management teacher introduced us to one of her students, and offered her as an intern for the day. We gave her a 16-hour example of a day in the life of a stage manager doing a one-nighter, which at one point included a tour of our bus, that ended up with us sitting on the couches in the lounge for probably two hours just chatting about stage management and life.

This whole experience led me to send off an email to The Acting Company reminding them how much I enjoy doing talkbacks, workshops and working with stage management students, and offering that while they’re contacting schools to offer workshops on acting, interpreting Shakespeare, stage combat, etc. they should also feel free to mention that I’m available to talk to technical theatre students or to be shadowed by any aspiring stage managers. They got back to me right away saying they’d begin offering that to venues. So I’m excited to be doing my little part to have our roving troupe offer educational opportunities for other students besides just performers.


June 2, 2010

First Day of Rehearsal: Into the Woods

I call this: summer stock,theatre — Posted by KP @ 12:33 am

Well our first day of rehearsal has just ended. Or my day has. It’s 11:46PM. My brain is very quickly shutting down, but I need to drink more water before bed, so you’ll get a post while I take some time to wind down.

Like most first days of summer stock season, it was crazy. We began with a production meeting at 12:30. I got in at 11:30 to make some copies, and had a chance to meet and talk with our director, Stacey Stephens, who is new to Reagle this year. We had the standard director/stage manager talk where he explained his style of directing and how he likes to run rehearsals and what he wants from me in that respect. It all sounds great, and I’m looking forward to working with him.

Then we went to the meeting, which was attended by pretty much everybody — a great turnout which makes it very easy to reach decisions and move forward on projects.

That led right into rehearsal where we had a very brief and informal meet & greet, and then dived into the music. With ten days of rehearsal before tech, no time can be wasted in teaching a Sondheim score! Our music department attacked their task ferociously, being very meticulous with every note, but the cast came prepared and rose to the challenge. We had a very ambitious schedule, and still finished it all with an hour and 10 minutes to spare, which we were able to use to work some solos that weren’t expected to be started until Sunday.

So it was definitely an encouraging day. I feel a little bit in over my head because my union is apparently of the opinion that I don’t need an assistant this year. No crises so far, but I’m not sure how long that can keep up. We’re hoping to get somebody to do it for next to nothing — anybody — but until then it’s just me and thankfully only 17 actors. But still, there are a million little things that come up many times a day that simply require another body to operate seamlessly. But I felt supported and appreciated by our creative team, so maybe they won’t hate me if something inefficient happens because I can’t be in two places at once.

Our cast seems very talented — those who I don’t know. The ones I’ve worked with before, I knew were talented already. Starting with Rachel York, who is going to be as amazing as the Witch as she was as Dolly. Which was not to be missed. So get your tickets!

Strangely, not having an assistant has given me the opportunity to get to do things only the ASM usually gets to do. Like keeping an eye on fittings, and people off in far-flung corners of the theatre. Since music rehearsals don’t require constant attention, I was able to move about a bit, sometimes even getting to spend a few minutes in the hall with actors who were not being used. I actually feel like I got to know something about the people I just met, and I had a decent amount of time to catch up with Rachel and some of the others I haven’t seen in a while. My experience of this part of the process in past seasons has usually been that Paul gets to actually talk to people on a personal level, and then as actors come up in conversation between us he tells me about them. I find it very frustrating sometimes that no matter how hard I try, I often can’t find any time to just talk to most people. I’ve done entire shows at Reagle with people I’ve been friends with for years, and despite being thrilled to hear they were cast so we could hang out again, I end up having hardly spoken to them in four weeks. So maybe having to be all things to all people will get me in on some of the socializing that only the ASM gets to enjoy.

But as I said, it was a very good day. I haven’t done a musical since last year at Reagle, so it’s very nice to check back in with that, and remind myself why I do this ridiculous job. I also realize that I’ve never actually done a Sondheim show, and there is much to be excited about. I’m glad I’ve had time to actually sit in music rehearsals and listen while the nuances of the score are explained. There’s a lot of musical symbolism that I wasn’t aware of, except in the sense that it leads you to exactly the feeling you’re supposed to feel. But having it pointed out why it has a certain effect is really cool. I love processes that provide an education in theatre itself in addition to just the teaching of music, choreography and blocking.

So my life might or might not be a living hell for the next two weeks, but I think if I can stay on top of everything I will have a great time. The production meeting set a very good tone, and despite not having an assistant, I feel like everyone has each other’s backs and I once again have a team I can turn to for support from their respective departments. Most importantly, there’s no doubt in my mind this will be a fantastic show that is one I would not have wanted to miss out on in my career.


May 31, 2010

It All Seems So Simple

I call this: summer stock,theatre — Posted by KP @ 3:07 pm

Today is my last day of preproduction before beginning rehearsal for Into the Woods at The Reagle Players. I’ve settled into my apartment, and have parked with my laptop in my favorite spot on the couch next to the living room window, where I go when I want to pretend that I work in a job that lets me see windows, as I listen to the cast recording playing in the background.

I just finished entering everything into my event list, which is kind of a master table where the database tracks every rehearsal and performance. It’s from this that it knows that something is performance #6, for instance. It also allows it to fill in certain details automatically when I create a report, based on the current date. On tour it’s more interesting, because based on the date it knows the performance time(s), type of performance, what city we’re in, the name of the theatre and capacity.

Anyway, one side effect of this table is that it very concisely summarizes everything from first rehearsal to closing. And this is what it looks like for Into the Woods:

It looks so small and simple, but it feels so hard at the time. The only other show I’ve had this part of the DB for was R&J, and that had 111 records. This only has 23, so I’ve always thought of this table as something that has to be scrolled for many pages, and it’s strange to see it so short. I’m not sure if I’m depressed or encouraged by how quickly the next month of my life can be summarized, but I suspect I may be encouraged. I think it fits the attitude I always try to have towards it: you just have to give 200% for two straight weeks, and then it’s easy. There’s even a day off somewhere in there.


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