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

[rosabelle334]

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.

It actually doesn't get very confusing. Everyone knows what they're supposed to be doing when, so if one thing goes wrong, everything else won't go down with it. We did have headsets, however, before they broke. Now we have walkie-talkies. I hope we replace them though. We usually give one to the props, one to the SM, one to lights and one to sound. we cna communicate that way. The Assistant Director is in the wing farther back from the SM, so its usually easy to communicate with her.

 

[Clifford]

Whatever works, I suppose. We just like to have immediate control over any aspect of the technical production.

 

[tech2000]

We don't even have an asm at my school.
There is the SM, me, and then Sound, Lights, Fly, and everyone else.
But the SM calls our show from back stage right.

 

[tngillette]

A quick thought.

I've always called my shows from our theater's balcony, but I know a lot of stage managers who call their shows from backstage.

Which do you use, and what are the relative merits of each?

Thanks!

I'm the light designer but we've always had our stage manager a very hands on person and ran the performances from backstage. we just did Music Man this spring and while we had a stage manager to call all the shots what we did was we had a a guy in charge of the set and had someone on the other side of the stage to coordinate from that side, a co-stage manager if you will.

 

[HighWattageKid92]

As the board operator (Lights) via Telex I call the show to my spotties and stage manager, the only my Stage Manager calls is whether or not the actors are in position to go during a black out. Otherwise im basically the Main dude.

 

[Clifford]

Doesn't that make your stage manager, well, not a stage manager?

 

[Dally]

As the board operator (Lights) via Telex I call the show to my spotties and stage manager, the only my Stage Manager calls is whether or not the actors are in position to go during a black out. Otherwise im basically the Main dude.

When I was in highschool out light op would call light cues, sound, fly and spots. The "Stage Manager" would sit backstage and make sure the actors went on on time and had props, sometimes even check that shift changes were done...more of an ASM position really.
However when I went back to work at the same highschool after experienceing in college what real Stage Managers do, we switched it up, and I called a few shows to demonstrate and then taught my students and the drama students that were assigned the SM position how to make a promt book, call standbys and cues for lights, sound, spots and fly. We then assigned an ASM for backstage.
I think the main problem before wasn't the SM not wanting to do their job correctly, it was a lack of knowledge of what a SM is supposed to do. The students who were assigned that position had throughout the rehearsal process acted as more of an Assistant Director or ASM and really had no clue as to tech things. And the drama teacher refused to have a tech student as SM because she didnt "know them well enough to trust them not to mess up the show"

 

[Eboy87]

Back in high school, we varied where the SM was. For the school musicals and plays, the SM sat in the light booth with the board op and called the show from there. For a particular show that always comes through during summer, their SM sits stage left with the wireless wrangler(s). Then again, the director sits in the house the entire time with a headset and constantly calls lighting changes . Sometimes we had an ASM stage right, but often times the SM or ASM stage left just kept an eye on SR across the stage. We always are scrambling for people to work crew.

For the summer one, I guess I'd be considered the TD, but I also mix the show. So I get one rehearsal (of 3 or 4) on the board (usually right before opening night), and spend the rest running around like a chicken with my head cut off. The SM calls mic cues over headset, as well as spot cues. Lights are cued by the Director (again: ), and I hand out Motorola radios to the de-facto department heads. We had problems with sight lines for the SM this past year, so I was thinking of using the theater's video system to set up a monitor backstage for the SM so she can call the show better. Things are changing there as I learn.

 

[Serendipity]

My school has two spaces. For the first, we have a balcony where the light board, followspots, occasional projection, and photographer are. The SM normally calls from there, with a primitive com system to the FOH position below.

For the black box, the house is very small, which leads to a lot of problems. For example, the booth is inconveniently upstage, which means that scenery is always obstructing our view, and we call off of a wired feed to a small webcam mounted at the back of the house. This leads to a lot issues, as the webcam does not record sound and the lighting is definitely less than spectacular in quality, so it's difficult to see if a light has gone out or if something has gone wrong. The only upside to this is being able to get backstage easily, but I'd give that up for an in-house position.

Anyone have suggestions on improving the system in the black box?

 

[HighWattageKid92]

In lamest terms I have a very LAZY stage manager, who leaves basically everything in my hands.

 

[ishboo]

For our upcoming musical in the fall we're trying to figure out positions. We have two theatre's and this musical is in our old small one that only has a lighting catwalk rather than a booth. We've run lights sound and SM from there before. Since it is a musical our sound guy wants to mix from the floor. Our catwalk is very noisy when walking on it (to take places) so I'm considering running lights FOH with the Sound op and putting the SM backstage. Does this sound feasible?

 

[Clifford]

If you have tables and can sacrifice the rear rows, it's perfectly feasible. Many, many high school theatres are run in such a way, either because they have no booth or becasue their booth is too small. Also, for the same reason, the SM will be backstage running the show, giving them direct control of the deck.

 

[chaosLeader]

the HS I graduated from does have an opperational booth where the SM is right there with the light board operator and sound board operator. but I know my HS is above typical HS level in the technical dept. but, thats where the Sm calls the shows from.

 

[rwhealey]

We have a full booth for lighting (it's quite large and we don't store anything in there) behind the back wall (with quite a large window, of course) on the 2nd story. Sound is in a FOH position in the middle of the house (the best place, IMO). Spots are in dedicated spotlight positions on the catwalk farthest from the stage.

Stage manager sits in the light booth, and we usually have 2 ASMs, stage left and stage right. All on Telex. We also have video to backstage, the pit, the fly rail, and the green room.

 

[rwhealey]

Yeah, I'm a student, but in the St. Louis area

Now that I'm the senior technician, I've realized I'm really lucky that my high school (a public school!) has such a great theater and arts program. Most of the techs and the student body in general take it for granted and don't realize the value of what the school has to offer.

I feel kind-of guilty reading everybody else's posts- we got a Congo Jr. last year and a Soundcraft MH3 the year before. Our facility was built in 1995 and now brings in enough from rentals to be self-sufficient.

 

[philhaney]

Our venue has a stage building, but the audience sits outdoors in an amphitheatre. Our Director calls the show from the sound/narration booth in the back of the audience (we're not setup like a "standard theatre).

 

[ogivol]

We usually go with the sit on the side and see "everything" approach to stage managing. Although now with the expansive set we've concocted for Beauty and the Beast this year, we had to rig up an upper level on the side. Ironically is it right above where the stage manager sat for previous shows.

 

[WestlakeTech]

Our larger theater... we used to call cues from the stage-right wing. The only way we could see the entire stage was thanks to an old TV and a security camera at BOH and the color was horrible on the TV's screen. After our rennovations are done, the Light Booth at BOH will be larger with bigger windows, so shows will be called from there.

Black Box Theater (AKA "Home"), always from the BOH booth. Where exactly in the booth is SM's choice.

 

[icewolf08]

Our larger theater... we used to call cues from the stage-right wing. The only way we could see the entire stage was thanks to an old TV and a security camera at BOH and the color was horrible on the TV's screen. After our rennovations are done, the Light Booth at BOH will be larger with bigger windows, so shows will be called from there.

Black Box Theater (AKA "Home"), always from the BOH booth. Where exactly in the booth is SM's choice.

While I think that most people would put together that your BOH=Back of House, it would be a pretty non-standard and possibly confusing term on account of many might think back of house=backstage. Generally anything on the house side of a proscenium is considered Front of House (FOH). Thus you have things like FOH mix positions for sound, FOH Booth, and FOH Cameras. Also, sometimes people like ushers, concessionaires, box office staff and house manager are referred to as FOH staff.

That's all, just some clarification on terminology.

 

[WestlakeTech]

it's appreciated. Thank you.