Walkin in Memphis

So. Since the last time I updated I have finished my summer at The Vane and then opened and closed a show at my new theatre, and started rehearsals for the next one.

I am now the Stage Manager for the Circuit Playhouse at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis. What I didn't know when I took the job was that, until February of this year, the theatre that I'm SMing was the mainstage, and the Circuit Playhouse was in another building a few blocks away. They just opened the brand new building across the street, aka POTS, and moved Circuit into the old mainstage, which is awesome for me- I was expecting a dinky little blackbox, but instead I'm in a 250-seat proscenium house (no flies though- boo!) in the historic Memphian Theatre (reportedly Elvis's favorite place to play when he came home to Memphis). How cool is that?!

My first show here was Superior Donuts, by Tracy Letts. I came in for the last few days of rehearsal, and then we started tech! That show was... interesting. All community actors, and I had no crew person backstage. That was a shocker for me- I knew I wouldn't have an ASM, but I was literally the only crewmember on this show. I ran the lights and sound through QLab (I wish so much that Sound Design hadn't been a complete waste of a semester, because it would be really helpful for me to know what the hell I'm doing in QLab), and there was no one backstage. I thought that was a poor decision on the part of everyone running the show before I got here- there were a lot of props in this show, and a few scenic things that needed to happen during Act 1 that the actors had to do. I did the intermission shift by myself, which took 12 minutes- so much for a bathroom break! Donuts ran for 4 weeks (man, it's been a while since I posted anything!), we closed on Sunday.

Now I'm in rehearsals for the next show to go up at Circuit- Black Pearl Sings! It's a relatively new play- it hasn't been published yet, and we're still in contact with the playwright, but it's been performed at a few other theatres (small world, my ASM at OTC saw it at Ford's Theatre when it premiered). It's a 2-woman play with music, and it's posing an interesting challenge with some historical inaccuracies and the utter lack of resources to find this music- the playwright sent us a CD of the songs, but we have been unable to find sheet music for most of it. It's tough going for some of this music, friends.

The work schedule here at POTS is tough- we basically work 10 out of 12's 6 days a week. 10-1, 2-5, 6-10. I work in the office in the morning, with the production manager/PSM, the props designer, and the mainstage ASM (once she arrives!) doing anything from photocopying scripts (which is what I'm doing right now, aka time for blogging!) to production meetings to helping make props. If I have anything I need to do for one of my shows, that's always my priority for the morning shift, and if I finish that then I get a job from the PM or props designer. If neither one of them has anything for me to do (which rarely happens) then I go play with the Master Electrician and the resident Lighting Designer. They like it when I come help- they were shocked to find out I actually know what I'm doing with electrics. The fact that I volunteered to cut their gel also endeared me to them somewhat.

For the afternoon shift, it could be one of two things- more of the same as the morning, or rehearsal. Directors have the option of having rehearsal in the afternoon in addition to the evening, but some (Donuts) don't use it, while others (Black Pearl) do. In the evenings, I'm either in rehearsal or a performance.

I've also run some auditions (A Christmas Story and Grey Gardens, both of which are mine, and Peter Pan, which runs on the mainstage at Christmas).

Also, another small world- a friend of mine from middle school was cast in the ensemble for the tour of Legally Blonde! I was so excited for him, and then a girl who used to work at The Vane was cast as Margot/Elle's understudy as well. I've had at least 3 friends from AU and 1 friend from The Vane that I know of who have seen this show. I wish I could see it so badly, but they aren't coming to Memphis. =/

Theatre is such a small world. Let me see how many times I can say that in this post, but it's true- 2 of the other interns (an acting intern & the master electrician) were on the National Players tour together last year, so I already knew them from OTC. How weird is that??

Auditions

We tried a lot of new things with auditions this year, and overall they went very well. I've gotten a lot of comments from actors about how smoothly they went and how they were the least stressful auditions they've ever had.

The biggest change with auditions this year was the audition blocks- we put the audition form online and made it available in advance. People could fill it out and turn it in to the basket in the office. Everyone who had turned their form in by Monday afternoon was given a block of time in which their audition would fall (ie, 6-7, 7-8, etc.). If they did not turn in their form by Monday afternoon, I told them to come at 8:00. I also planned for the walk-ups to fill out their form, get their name put on the list, and come back at 8:00.

The other change we made (I say we because I implemented all of these genius ideas, but none of them were actually things that I came up with. Also I had help in the form of the rest of the SM team) was to eliminate the epic trek from the lobby, down the stairs, and around the backstage to get onstage to actually audition. I gave each group my spiel and then took them to the green room. Everyone from the other audition blocks waited in the main lobby. This way, they could relax in the green room until 2 slots away from their time, then go get their picture taken, and wait at the end of the backstage hall when they were "in the hole," and then move to the anteroom when they were "on deck." (I also extended our baseball metaphor- we always just said "on deck" for everything, which was really confusing, but then they all were confused about what "in the hole" meant... Theatre kids need to get out more.)

The Department Chair sent me this email today:

Becky, SM, ASM, ASM, & SM

Your names all came up in the faculty grading session today with high praise indeed for your efforts in helping the massive auditions last week run smoothly and effectively. We would like you all to never graduate and stay forever please.

Just kidding.

Sort of.

Great work!

So that was nice.

I ran into two issues with this new system- the first issue was with the website. Putting the form online worked really well, it was just a huge hassle trying to get it up (that's what she said), and then sometimes it would disappear from the website altogether. I know we were right in the thick of updating the website, so hopefully that won't happen again.

The second issue was with people who did not turn their form in before Monday afternoon. I don't know how many different ways I can say "Bring your form at 8:00." I don't understand why every actor thinks that somehow I can alter the audition order because their printer ran out of ink or they left their resume at home when they left this morning. It's not "too late for an audition time," JUST SHOW UP AT 8:00. I also got 3 audition forms out of the basket in the office after I had put a sign in the basket that said "Do not put your form here. Come to the theatre at 8:00 and you will be given an audition time."

Speaking of resumes. That was another issue- I forgot to ask them to include their headshots & resumes with the audition forms, so only the people who did it without being asked had theirs copied & given to the director with their forms. The point of having things turned in ahead of time was to prevent the lag time of having to photocopy the forms and put them in order to give to the directors, so that was my fault. Hopefully in the future, we can include that memo in the audition info.

Also, I picked up an interesting tidbit in this audition- next time we audition for more than one show at a time, and one of them is not a musical, we should if possible put all of the people only auditioning for the non-singing show at the end, so that the department doesn't have to pay the accompanist to sit and listen to 20 people not sing.

I think that the new things we tried this time around definitely were the reason that everything went so smoothly and so quickly.