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

[achstechdirector]

Originally Posted by bendersen

I don't open the balcony usually (only had to for one production, West Side Story last spring). So I don't worry about the noise. Frankly, I don't think the audience was really too bothered by my talking -- I'm quiet and the music and actors were loud.

We do have a booth though, which I've always wanted to use for the stage manager. Right now we're just using it for storage. The biggest issue with the booth is that there is no monitor, so I cannot hear what is going on onstage. Plus, it means I need an extra headset for the spotlight op that I normally sit next to and cue manually.

Thanks for the thoughts.

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Also, to reply to Charlie: How does your SM call the show AND remain an active participant in set changes? That strikes me as absurdly confusing, and I'd love to hear how the SM makes that work.

We use our entire booth as storage until I got there, they ran sound and lighting from backstage, I found that out and had a fit.

We now use our giant booth for lighting, sound, stage manager, and followspot

[forbiddenpluto]

When things run as planned we have lighting and sound in our tiny booth and the SM directly out front. There's also an ASM on SL and SL as well as a runner on backstage in the dressing room in case of missing performers and/or crew.

[ReiRei]

Our SMs usually call a show from the booth... we have monitors which screw up from time to time and juuussttt enough headsets for everyone who needs one.

[Clifford]

In our theatre, we don't have a balcony, or much of anything else, except a catwalk and a booth. Our SM calls from the booth, because we have planty of space. The light board is far to the right, the sound board far to the left, and spots are on the catwalk, leaving the center open for the director and SM. We also have two ASMs who are actually in the wings, one for stage right, and one for stage left.

[ReiRei]

Originally Posted by Clifford

In our theatre, we don't have a balcony, or much of anything else, except a catwalk and a booth. Our SM calls from the booth, because we have planty of space. The light board is far to the right, the sound board far to the left, and spots are on the catwalk, leaving the center open for the director and SM. We also have two ASMs who are actually in the wings, one for stage right, and one for stage left.

Do you have quiet spotlights? Our spots are in the corners of our booth but they're really loud... one can barely hear monitors when they're on...

[Clifford]

We use the Comets that a lot of other theatres seem to use. The fans are a little loud, but there aren't loud enough to be heard in the audience, which is the most important thing. But I guess if you moved them into a confined space like the booth, they would seem a lot louder.

[maggyx13]

we have a stage manager and a assitant stage manager. the SM calls the show from the lighting booth. and the the ASM is backstage in charge of both sides but is mainly in charge of one. and then does anything that needs to be done during the show.

[Clifford]

That's similar to how we do it. The only differnce is that we have two ASMs, one for each side of the stage. We also have a TD (student) who's on headset and makes sure everything on the technical side runs as it's supposed to. They're where ever they need to be.

[rosabelle334]

What we usually have at our HS is that everyone is basically independent. The Assistant Director gives cues to the actors and contols that aspect, Costumes contol the quick changes, Props have their own crew on both sides of the stage, with a co-property master on each side, then the stage manager sits right next to the curtain stage right, controlling set changes and the curtains. The lights and sound also do their own thing. It works out ok.

[Clifford]

That sounds really confusing. We have the SM, TD, and ASMs on headsets. With our SM in the booth, they can just give the cues to the board ops. Sets, props and curtains are all run by the ASMs, who are in charge of the run crew, with actors doing their own costume changes.