I'm a non-Equity PSM at a professional theatre. Our sound engineer has started loading midi cues that are programmed to fire the actors mics into the sound program that the SM runs. During performances for a musical we typically will have a light board op, spot ops and a sound engineer in additional to whatever deck crew is needed for a particular show. The stage manager is responsible for calling all deck, lighting and spot cues and fires sound and/ or projection cues through a network that communicates with the computer at the sound board.
My question is: Is it becoming common practice for a stage manager to be responsible for firing the commands to turn actors mics on and off? I, personally, feel that if there is a sound engineer present, it's their responsibility to manage and control the actors mics. I'm also not enamored with the increase of cues required with the addition of actor mics into the calling script.
Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated, our engineer isn't currently giving me the midi cues to deal with because I put my foot down and told him he was responsible for mic control and for my current production I didn't have time to write an additional 300 cues into my calling script, but I recently discovered that he regularly gives the cues to my other stage managers who are calling musicals.
My question is: Is it becoming common practice for a stage manager to be responsible for firing the commands to turn actors mics on and off? I, personally, feel that if there is a sound engineer present, it's their responsibility to manage and control the actors mics. I'm also not enamored with the increase of cues required with the addition of actor mics into the calling script.
Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated, our engineer isn't currently giving me the midi cues to deal with because I put my foot down and told him he was responsible for mic control and for my current production I didn't have time to write an additional 300 cues into my calling script, but I recently discovered that he regularly gives the cues to my other stage managers who are calling musicals.