New Post Series: Green Room Goals!
This week, our bloggers will be sharing their goals for 2014 and beyond. Read along each day to see whose goals might line up with yours, or who has an interesting take on New Year’s Resolutions!
Am I living in the dark ages?
I’ve recently started thinking about how the world is becoming obsessed with technology. It’s all around us and yes I know it is for the better but is it making us lose the skills that used to mean so much. And of course, being a theatre blog, how is it changing how we do our jobs, concentrating on two main areas; writing and communicating.
Computers. Laptops. Netbooks. Macbooks. I love them I do. I’m typing on one right now. But whatever happened to the writing on paper. Having a pile of organised (or unorganised) notes used to help me get my mind in order. I could scribble down what I liked, where I liked and that let me link ideas together. Nowadays most people start using the word software on their computer and notes are made directly onto that. I guess you can insert text wherever you like and it doesn’t matter if your thoughts don’t come out in order but how creative is typing onto a keyboard. I know that lighting and sound find it much easier with the new technology as there’s always new software being produced that makes even the most difficult tasks fairly simple. But what about stage management? Tutors have told us recently that having a laptop open in the rehearsal room creates a barrier so you seem unapproachable, and I have to agree. Why should actors feel like they can approach you when you’re clearly staring into a screen? What is wrong about writing rehearsal notes onto paper – the prompt book has to be paper anyway so a writing into a notepad wouldn’t be that difficult. I agree that typed up paperwork is a lot nicer and I’m not denying that laptops shouldn’t be used by a stage manager but are they always needed or can things be typed up later in the day. That’s how I like to work.
An Open Letter to Casting Directors
In November I attended the 2013 Artios Awards – Congratulations to all the winners and nominees.
Inspired by Woody Allen’s wonderful Open Letter to Hollywood, I have written An Open Letter to Casting Directors.
P.S If you haven’t seen the fantastic doc Casting By – It’s a must-see!
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Dear Casting Directors,
I have heard so many times in Workshops and Panels that you love actors. I believed you – at least I thought I did. Sitting at the Artios Awards I was struck by how many times actors were thanked and spoken about with love and affection.
Thank you! I didn’t realize how jaded I had become. When we are paying to take a class with you, of course you’re going to say how thrilling it is to work with us. Obviously, in a room full of actors you’re going to tell us how much you adore us. Even basic logic insists you love actors; otherwise you wouldn’t do what you do.
Money Matters
I am lucky that it is not my goal to make a living at theater, because I do not know how anyone does it.
I have joked about earning “high triple digits” as an actor, but it’s true — in the part-time performance I have done in the Washington, D.C., region, I have not yet broken $1,000 per year, and still do more unpaid than paid work.
American Theatre magazine recently asked followers of its Facebook page to share the “biggest paycheck you’ve ever gotten for theatre work.” Most said something less than $2,500 for an entire run, or a few hundreds dollars per month. Many said they had never been paid in theater. One wrote, “Wait, what??? People in theatre actually get paid and do not just get taken advantage with b.s. internships, empty vapid titles, etc.?” And one succinctly wrote, “Paycheck for theater? F**k you!” (That comment received multiple likes.)
I’VE ALWAYS BEEN SHYYYY!
Networking. The ugly word that haunts everyone with a career in theatre. The art of selling yourself is, well, an art. You can spend years honing your talents at school, college, an internship and an apprenticeship. The fact remains: you may want a career in theatre, but so do many, many other keen beans. In Britain, it can be agonising for us Stage Managers to peel ourselves away from the latest episode of Downton Abbey and venture out to that social event/ career fair/ bar-after-a-show and sell ourselves. Boasting is not in keeping with traditional British modesty. Plus you always run the chance of making yourself look like a knob-head. The British SM is an easy spot at a networking event, quietly introducing ourselves and slowly sliding our portfolio across desks (yes, an SM portfolio is a thing, yes, people deserve to see what your paperwork looks like, and yes, I encourage you to make one). Small talk, positivity and bragging make up a painfully polite yet necessary process.
Can you therefore imagine my horror, when arriving stateside, at having to undertake this mortifying practice in front of 10 other people. Not even just people. Potential candidates. For the same job that I wanted. That I was perfect for. All I had to do was meet the Production Manager and let them know that I would be great for their show. The only problem was that I had joined a line behind ten other Stage Managers who were just as qualified as me, some much more so. Being left in a predicament by all of these quality applications (and possibly feeling slightly torturous) the Production Manager decided to host a group interview.
I arrived, like the other ten applicants, 15 minutes early and clutching my sample paperwork (Stage Management Portfolio). Everyone politely introduced themselves and we all took a seat in the room we were to be interviewed in. Together. All at once. At the same time. There was the usual small talk and then a following deadly silence. I can’t say anyone was sizing up the competition, the silence was the result of eleven Stage Managers practicing their usual interview responses in their head.
Late = Fired
I had the two most unfortunate, almost back-to-back experiences of my entire theatre existence and both occurred for the same reason.
Early = on-time. On-time = late. Late = fired.
I’d like to believe that it’s a very simple concept. I became aware of the meaning a long-time ago during high school musicals and the importance of being ready to start at 3:10 p.m. for our rehearsal. I didn’t actually learn that phrase until I got to college, on probably the first day of classes.
Recently, I had two very different actors arrive late to their rehearsals. It was my miserable duty to inform them of being late and the consequences for being so. And both actors responded…to put it kindly, I lost every ounce of respect I could have ever possibly had for either of them.
It’s behind you!
“Oh no it’s not! Oh yes it is!” Panto – it’s my favourite time of the year. Majority of theatres in the U.K. will have a pantomime and that means plenty of work for people like me. However this is a mainly American-based blog which means you probably don’t know what I’m talking about so let me explain;
Pantomime includes songs, slapstick comedy and dancing, employs gender-crossing actors, and combines topical humour with a story loosely based on a well-known fairy tale.( for more details look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime) In other words it’s completely and utterly bonkers!
My involvement with pantomime started in 2011 when I got asked to work a local professional pantomime as lighting and sound operator. The next year I got asked by their local rival to come work for their pantomime as deputy stage manager and this year I have returned again for their production of Aladdin so here’s a little run down of the joys and difficulties of this particular job.
My show schedule is crazy and that means having a social life is difficult. Luckily majority of my shows have finished by 8pm which means I’ve managed to get to the pub with friends and my boyfriend. On the plus side I love hanging out with the cast and especially the crew – one of my greatest nights out this year was with the cast and crew in Manchester a couple of weeks ago (very messy, lots of singing and a very rough head the next day!) The only way to survive is to hope that your friends and family understand that this schedule is required.
The Branding Badge (Part 3)
The finale to my branding experience! I have learned so much over the last few months in ways I never expected – from my childhood years of Girl Scouts to basic tips I picked up from Senior Seminar.
But why the sudden obsession with brand? I think it’s my way of getting ready to say good-bye to being a ‘college theatre dork’. In a few months, I’m expecting to graduate, to leave all the people whom I’ve been working alongside for the past four years and I’ll have to introduce myself anew all over again. This is me trying to find the best way to say, “Hello, this is me”.
Actually, a friend of mine figured it out best. She was despairing her concerns about people who are considered ‘nice’.
It’s just…when the first thing people have to say about you is that ‘Oh, he/she’s so nice!’, it’s like, you couldn’t think of any other adjective to describe them first?
She was ranting about something completely unrelated but I think she made a good point for me. It’s like when I was auditioning for colleges and I worried that my song choices wouldn’t express who I was. Branding became my way of realizing how and who I am now and figuring out how to put that on a resume or website and then in my repertoire book. I don’t want to be just the ‘nice’ choice – I want to be THE choice because of who I am and how we click that makes me right for you.
The Green Room 