On mentorships

So I've started a long-distance mentoring program through SMNetwork.org, which is an amazing amazing resource for stage managers (and really anyone in theatre). I am a guinea pig- there has been discussion for a while on the site of getting some kind of mentorship program up and running, but nothing really happened with it until one of the mods stepped up to the plate and volunteered to mentor up to 3 people- 1 in high school, 1 in college, and 1 in the early stages of their career. I volunteered to be a mentee, and here we are!

He is an AEA SM who has worked in regional theatre in the DC area for several years and just recently made the move to the world of NYC commercial theatre. We'd been emailing back & forth, and talked on the phone on Monday. He had some great advice and insight into working in DC, which is where I want to be. It was so reassuring to have a conversation with someone in the business whose career path is so similar to where I want to be in 10 years and who basically told me I was taking the right steps, moving in the right direction for where I want to end up. I'm looking forward to continuing- hopefully we can get the ball rolling for some other mentor/mentee pairs.

On a slightly similar note, I skyped with the AU Stage Management class a few weeks ago! It was honestly a little surreal- I am by no means an expert on anything (as evidenced by the fact that I am in a long-distance mentorship program right now!). I really enjoyed talking with them, though, and I hope I was helpful. Our other SM intern was with me, so we gave them a little bit of an internship/young professional viewpoint, I guess.

I do not envy her this job- the child wrangler backstage at the Washington Ballet's Nutcracker. Good Lord, what a task. I also know one of the SM's on this show- she's a former OTC intern. She just posted this video on her facebook, which is also really interesting-

you can see her curly hair in front of the monitor in one of the backstage shots.

I would love to work on a show this big, I think it would be so much fun! The bank of cue lights at that console is intimidating. I also really want to call a show from the deck some time... The closest I ever came to that was Pops! and I didn't really call anything but rail cues for that because Joel took his own cues. I'm still bitter about that...

Things I'm Thankful For- Theatre Themed!

I saw this on Mallory's blog and thought I'd give it my own Thanksgiving theatre twist-

Auburn

I am so grateful for my Auburn family, the Auburn tradition, and my time spent in the Loveliest Village. War Eagle!

Black Sharpies

Sharpies of all types, really. I'm a huge fan of labeling things.

Copy machines

What would my life be without a photocopier? Even though I have a love-hate relationship with the POTS copier...

Days off!

Pretty self-explanatory.

Erasable Hi-liters

You have no idea how much I love my erasable hi-liters. Seriously, I've started to actually color-code things again!

Family

My parents who never really questioned my decision to major in theatre, my grandparents who still aren't entirely sure what my job is, but come to see as many of my shows as they can, and especially all of the support (emotionally and financially) they give me.

Grace!

The best props designer I've ever worked with, hands down.

Headsets

Working without reliable headsets has made me realize how lucky we were at Auburn to have such a nice comm system.

Intern family

Yeah, we fight a lot. Sometimes we get pissy. But at the end of the day, we all love each other. This has been true of every Intern Family I've had, and for that I am blessed.

Katharine & Kendra!

The best SM team anybody could ask for.

K is also for Kelsey: such a good SM- I learned so much more from her this summer than I expected to.

Laptop

I am grateful that my laptop wasn't ruined! Only minor water damage. Heart attack averted.

Microsoft Office

Another self-explanatory one.

Night-vision Cameras

I'm not a spy or a stalker, but I do have to call cues during blackouts. Having a night-vision camera pointed at the stage with a feed to the booth is seriously one of the most useful things for calling a show. I can't even remember what it was like to call cues without one...

Olney Theatre Centre

For taking a leap of faith to hire me for 2 weeks as an emergency substitute replacement temporary ASM, and for taking another leap of faith to hire me again to stage manage a show. My first professional contract(s)!

Playhouse on the Square

I am so thankful for a year-long contract and a whole season of shows that I am stage managing, a whole year of professional credits!

P is also for Pip- mentor, advisor, and artist extraordinaire. Auburn misses you and all your advice, your radical ideas, your motivational speeches, and your hard work.

Q-Lab

I'm actually starting to enjoy running shows in Q-Lab...

Rain onstage (or the lack thereof)

I am thankful to be working at a theatre where it doesn't rain onstage. After 4 years of tarping scenery & keeping towels backstage in the TPT, and a brief stint with a leaky ceiling at OTC, the fact that The Vane had just fully enclosed their theatre was a blessing, and even though Circuit is old, it's not leaky! Knock on wood.

SMNetwork.org

I'm a giant nerd and I love stage management. Everyone on SMNet is as well, & it has proven to be a wonderful resource for advice & just sharing stories about the absurdity that is our job.

Tech staff

I am thankful for a tech staff that I can trust, that knows what they're doing, that always has their shit together.

Useless (useful?) knowledge

My constant stream of useless facts actually come in handy sometimes, if only to give Jeffries a run for his money in Trivial Pursuit. I love to learn new things, whether it's who was the governor of Texas in 1933 (Ma Ferguson) or how to rewire a stagepin plug, and that is a personality trait I am glad to have.

Volunteers

Without volunteers backstage, I could not function.

Weathervane Playhouse

For an unforgettable summer. I learned a lot...

It's not quite the whole alphabet, but gimme a break! It's pretty darn close.

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??

The show must go on.

Matthew Trombetta, the Managing Artistic Director here at Weathervane, passed away at 3:30am today following a head-on collision with a drunk driver, on his way home from the My Fair Lady strike.

He was the heart and soul of Weathervane, and he had such an impact on so many people. I've only worked with him for 4 weeks, and I already cannot imagine what my career is going to be like without him in it.

We start tech for Miracle Worker tomorrow. He directed the show, so this is going to be an absolutely heartbreaking process. This theatre was his life's work, though, and I know from the brief time that I was able to work with him that cancelling anything is the opposite of what he would want.

Here's the story in the Columbus Dispatch. There was a nice piece on the local news as well.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/06/15/troupe-mourns-loss-of-artistic-director.html

Day off, sort of...

Last night was the welcome picnic hosted by the Board of Directors. It was cute... also kind of a waste of time for everyone but the Board. We just ate, and then sat in the theatre and listened to board members introduce their children. But they give us money, and do things for us so I guess it's a fair trade.

Today we had our first day off... sort of... there was a production meeting and maintenance men interrupting it. Also ice cream and wandering around downtown Granville with my SM. And getting my car fixed for free! I'm a fan of this place.

I really wanted to write something tonight, but I'm SUPER tired and have rehearsal at 10AM so I'm going to bullet-point:

- My SM arrived today (had a flat tire on the way, poor thing!). So far she's pretty fantastic, I really like her personality and she was super competent in rehearsal today, even running on literally no sleep in 36 hours.
- A bunch of us went to Columbus tonight to a pay what you can production of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women at a theatre called Theatre Daedalus. The play was fantastic, I'd never read it before and I really liked it. Two of the three women were fantastic, the other one was only meh.
- Theatre Daedalus literally has lights made of coffee cans and paint cans. It was amazing, I was absolutely enthralled.
- Went to dinner after with the sound intern, costume intern, artistic associate, and artistic director at a fabulous restaurant downtown. Stupendous. Ate fried green beans and had a great conversation with them all.