Where do you call your shows from? (High school especially)

[bendersen]

Originally Posted by icewolf08

First of all, you are going to school to learn how to deal with situations like that. Also know that if you are going to a school with a big theatre department you will be working up the chain from the bottom, and you will have plenty of time to see how crews are run and how SMs handle all sorts of situations.
I think though that it is not such a great attitude to say that people who can't get it right in the first couple tries are "like foreign people." In the professional world it is not uncommon to spend many hours teching aspects of a show. When you have lots of moving scenery, flying scenery, props and actors that have to get on and off stage it can take a lot of time to get it right. Then try throwing in a costume quick change.
I suppose the point of all of my rambling is that as a SM you need to be able to get things to run smooth, but you have to be patient and be able to work with people. OYu can walk into a venue and have a completely veteran crew who can get everything done without you even telling people what you need, or you can walk in to a completely green crew who have to be taught everything, and you have to be able to deal with that in a civil, calm, and efficient manner.

I'm not so much worried about people messing up in the first couple tries -- but the scenario described, where the stage crew was unaware of where the scenic pieces went by the day of the show, that really does just strike me as foreign. I'm perfectly used to dealing with a "green" crew, but one way or another they're going to learn the changes before the curtain goes up. Whether that takes two rehearsals or twenty is dependent on the experience of the crew, but if it takes twenty rehearsals, that's what needs to happen.

[avkid]

Originally Posted by charcoaldabs

twenty tech rehearsals

What the heck?
I have 6 if i'm lucky.
Thursday before, Sunday and show week.

[icewolf08]

Yeah really, our tech schedule is like this:

1 x Dry tech - (up to 6 hours, no actors)
2 x 10 of 12's
3 x 8 of 10's [including dress rehearsals] (or straight 6's depending on the show)
1 x invited audience dress rehearsal
1 x preview

So that is around a total of 60 hours.

[cutlunch]

You guys think that's bad. For the last two High Schools shows I LD'd I had to do the lighting plot during rehearsals. If you took to long on any cue they hurry you up. They hadn't thought about giving any time for plotting.

[soundlight]

Originally Posted by cutlunch

You guys think that's bad. For the last two High Schools shows I LD'd I had to do the lighting plot during rehearsals. If you took to long on any cue they hurry you up. They hadn't thought about giving any time for plotting.

Yeah, I was in the same boat too. What's even more fun is cueing dance pieces as they're happening. And having no real time for revision because the school gets locked up and you have to go home.

[Raktor]

For my high school's production, I remember getting about two hours before their dress rehearsal (no tech, obviously) to plot what I thought would fit from reading through the script and attending what they seemed to think were rehearsals. Even then, I was supposedly "holding them up" and "pushing them for time" by using two hours, but this sounds like the case in most high school events.

[derekleffew]

Time to invest in a pre-viz system, such as ESP Vision, WYSIWYG™, or Martin Show Designer. Won't solve all problems, but might help some.

[TechiesDoItInTheDark]

our director doesn't have the slightest idea what it takes to tech...so he spends all of his time making sure we do everything else (because no one is intelligent enough to know how to use a screw gun) so then when he's ready to actually rehearse, we're scrambling. generally it just ends up being a team effort, the student director sits behind stage with a walkie talkie to tell us what's coming up as we plot and hang.

[museav]

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I missed this earlier and since I design facilities, I'm definitely interested in this topic, but here's my take:

At least for audio, the mix position is ideally out in the audience so they can hear what the audience hears rather than being isolated in a booth. Many times, both the lighting and audio are out in the house. This isn't always feasible, but when it is it makes little sense to have the SM by themselves in the booth (although the SMs may like that idea). Having the SM out in the audience is usually not a good idea as calling cues and call lights are very distracting to the audience, some of whom may have paid to see the performance on stage rather than the SM's performance. If you have monitors for cameras, clocks, etc., the potential distractions for the audience get even greater.

The SM usually needs space to lay out scripts, notes, cue sheets, etc. It's nice for them to have some dedicated space and finding sufficient room in an often already crowded booth or FOH can be difficult. And you try to talk an Owner or Architect into pulling out seats so you can provide space for the SM at FOH instead of their being on stage.

This may not be applicable with qualified stage crew and ASMs, but those can't be assumed to exist in all cases. In many school or community theatres the SM takes great responsibility for the crew safety. During a performance the lighting and sound board operators probably aren't going to do anything that's safety related beyond maybe falling off their chair. Not so on the stage. So it seems to makes sense to have the SM where they can most directly prevent or react to any situations.

So I often incorporate a dedicated tech position or additional comms and 'god mic' connectivity at FOH so that tech rehearsals can have the SM, LD, etc. out in the house, but this is not used during dress rehearsals or performances. SM position is usually on stage, typically downstage right, sometimes with a dedicated movable desk, with the comms main station at that location. A remote comms station or secondary connections for a comms station are in the booth for an ASM or alternative SM location. This seems to be a fairly standard configuration

[Tank]

At my HS it was a bit whacked out, there was the director, LX op, SND op, and often some other random teachers who decided to join in. and there was no communication with those on the floor. the LX and SND was run seperately... no prompt copy or anything of the like. I was "SM" on the floor, but was basically an ASM, running the scene changes etc. with some crew for help etc. to communicate with the bio box (booth) during the show, we had to go outside the hall, in the foyer, then up a ladder, through the green room, then in the back door to the bio box... :\

At Tafe i guess its a more standard setup; LX op, SND op, SM in the bio box, then one or two ASM's on the floor. For our current production we have a "set co-ordinator" instead of an ASM, but they're essentially the same. The AV and Dome op's are on the balcony, but they shouldnt be talking on cans, only listening, so that should be good