Either run with the big dogs or stay on the porch.
Big Mark
*******************
Hello Val
******************
There's a tradition among farmers that calls for yoking a young inexperienced ox with an older ox so that the young one will quickly learn the routine of plowing. They don't send the young ox to college. They just tether him to the older ox and that's that. The young one learns fast.
When I was studying drawing at the Art Student's League I always tried to sit next to someone who was better at it, to learn from them by observing.
There are real problems connected to learning a new task, a new job or a new career. Most people don't do it right.
Here's an example. I was hired at a radio station and my first day of work the boss put me on the air at the busiest time, the morning drive time, before I knew which switches did what or what problems I was going to face with news and weather reports and phone calls. The boss thought it would be good to put me there so I would get the full effect of the job. He was wrong. It was a nightmare. But by noon I was a big dog. I had to be. At a different station I broke in on the all night shift which was much simpler and enabled me to learn all I needed to know to handle any on air shift at that station.
Approaching this topic from a much different angle there are those who come into a job situation thinking they know how it's done when in fact they don't. I'm sure that happens in many enterprises but I have found it to be quite prevalent in the theatre business, the one I have spent my life in.
No doubt the glamorous nature of what actors do attracts many people to the trade but why should anyone decide to be an actor without knowing what it entails or, worse, assuming they know. I've seen too many youngsters and others jump in with the big dogs when they should have stayed on the porch.
I partly fault the kind of education some people get. Acting is an art, but it is also a trade, a craft, and like any craft it has it's rules and it's techniques. I have worked with too many recent graduates of important Drama Departments and Academies of Art who were not taught those techniques. I don't know what they were taught or who taught them and I don't want to know. Those new to the trade didn't know they needed to stay on the porch and watch the big dogs run.
There is a highly regarded drama department at a well known college in the
East. I have yet to work with a recent graduate of the school who really knows acting. After many years away from that school I had to give one graduate a lesson in voice placement. I wondered how he could be a drama major with a BFA in Acting and never have been taught that.
It's worse when they are arrogant. They know what their teachers told them or didn't tell them and they believe it's the way without discussion. I had to give one young fellow a lesson in how to be a stage manager. He laughed at the rules until the other members of the cast threatened him. He got back upon the porch.
I have experienced this type of faulty training first hand. I was asked to perform a scene for a directing class at a very important film school in the Northeast Not only did that teacher ignore talking about the directing, he tried to correct the acting. He didn't know what he was talking about because he didn't know what acting is. I felt sorry for the students. If you're a college professor of something you don't do yourself, don't take an actor with 25 years experience in stage, film and TV and give him acting lessons. Stay on the porch.
I write about theatre and acting because that's what I know. But I'm sure the same circumstances apply to any important endeavor. Don't assume you know what you do not know. Watch out for people who think they know but don't. And always find an older more experienced ox to hook up next to if you can. Otherwise stay on the porch.
Dana Bate - The 1.840th edition of Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*************************
Showing posts with label stage managers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stage managers. Show all posts
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Places. Please.
Sometimes the best helping hand you can get is a good firm push.
Joann Thomas
**********************
"Half Hour!"
"Oh, no, not another theatre story." Well I spent over 45 years in the professional theatre, I have stories.
Half Hour! That's a phrase that strikes fear or excitement or both into the hearts of most theatre people. After a play has been rehearsed fully and is ready to open it is handed over to the Stage Manager. From then on nothing happens unless he or she says so. The Stage Manager may have assistants, Assistant Stage Managers, ASMs, and altogether they are known as the Stage Management. (Isn't that clever?)
It is traditional in the professional theatre that someone from Stage Management gives four calls before a performance. (Those of you who know all this can talk among yourselves or go out for a smoke.) The first call is "Half Hour" which means you better be there, signed in and getting ready. The next call is "15 Minutes" which means in approximately 15 minutes the performance will begin, give or take any unexpected problems. Then there's the "5 Minutes" call. The cast and crew of a production absolutely depend on these countdowns, these calls. Stage Management may say "5 Minutes And Holding." A sudden costume repair, or scenery fix, or maybe a late arriving audience because of bad weather, slow service at the local chop house or a peaceful demonstration across the street. Then comes the most hallowed call of all, which we all wait for and expect and which generates a sudden burst of physical, psychological, emotional and nervous energy. "Places." We are ready to start and if you are in the big dance number at the beginning you better get where you belong, pronto.
In a few moments the show starts and proceeds along under the careful ear and eye of the Stage Manager until 2 to 3 hours later the final curtain comes down, the curtain calls are done, the house lights go on, the audience shuffles around putting on their coats and leaving. The rest of us go out to eat and drink, or just drink.
I have known some great stage managers in my career: Adam, Barry, Bruce, Liz, Margie, Maria and some whose names I can't remember dating back as far as the 60's. But I have also known some bad ones.
I was doing a play in Washington. There were 4 actors. It was a chaotic production, but we eventually got ready to open it. On opening night the Stage Manager, whose name I mercifully forget, called Half Hour, didn't call 15 Minutes, but called 5 Minutes. I sat in the dressing room, with one of the other actors, waiting for Places. I wasn't on at the beginning of the play, fortunately, but I heard it start. So I rushed upstairs to the wings in time to make my entrance.
At Intermission I told him that he forgot to call Places. He said "Oh I never call Places. I expect you to be professional enough not to miss your entrance." We divided him into 4 parts, chewed him up and spit him out on to the sidewalk.
We didn't really, of course, but what we did was a little more than a good firm push. The next night, and every night after that, he called "Places."
DB - The Vagabond
---------------------------------
Never Give Up
***********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Joann Thomas
**********************
"Half Hour!"
"Oh, no, not another theatre story." Well I spent over 45 years in the professional theatre, I have stories.
Half Hour! That's a phrase that strikes fear or excitement or both into the hearts of most theatre people. After a play has been rehearsed fully and is ready to open it is handed over to the Stage Manager. From then on nothing happens unless he or she says so. The Stage Manager may have assistants, Assistant Stage Managers, ASMs, and altogether they are known as the Stage Management. (Isn't that clever?)
It is traditional in the professional theatre that someone from Stage Management gives four calls before a performance. (Those of you who know all this can talk among yourselves or go out for a smoke.) The first call is "Half Hour" which means you better be there, signed in and getting ready. The next call is "15 Minutes" which means in approximately 15 minutes the performance will begin, give or take any unexpected problems. Then there's the "5 Minutes" call. The cast and crew of a production absolutely depend on these countdowns, these calls. Stage Management may say "5 Minutes And Holding." A sudden costume repair, or scenery fix, or maybe a late arriving audience because of bad weather, slow service at the local chop house or a peaceful demonstration across the street. Then comes the most hallowed call of all, which we all wait for and expect and which generates a sudden burst of physical, psychological, emotional and nervous energy. "Places." We are ready to start and if you are in the big dance number at the beginning you better get where you belong, pronto.
In a few moments the show starts and proceeds along under the careful ear and eye of the Stage Manager until 2 to 3 hours later the final curtain comes down, the curtain calls are done, the house lights go on, the audience shuffles around putting on their coats and leaving. The rest of us go out to eat and drink, or just drink.
I have known some great stage managers in my career: Adam, Barry, Bruce, Liz, Margie, Maria and some whose names I can't remember dating back as far as the 60's. But I have also known some bad ones.
I was doing a play in Washington. There were 4 actors. It was a chaotic production, but we eventually got ready to open it. On opening night the Stage Manager, whose name I mercifully forget, called Half Hour, didn't call 15 Minutes, but called 5 Minutes. I sat in the dressing room, with one of the other actors, waiting for Places. I wasn't on at the beginning of the play, fortunately, but I heard it start. So I rushed upstairs to the wings in time to make my entrance.
At Intermission I told him that he forgot to call Places. He said "Oh I never call Places. I expect you to be professional enough not to miss your entrance." We divided him into 4 parts, chewed him up and spit him out on to the sidewalk.
We didn't really, of course, but what we did was a little more than a good firm push. The next night, and every night after that, he called "Places."
DB - The Vagabond
---------------------------------
Never Give Up
***********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)