Monday, September 22, 2014

Shouldn't everything be in flames yet?

Three rehearsals down. Of course, the early rehearsals are the hardest to get through - beyond recording the blocking once it's been set, there isn't much for me to do. But it's always an adventure - our silat instructor wasn't around today, so I've been giving the director plenty of free rein over what we work on. There's so much beauty in discovering what your fellow artists are capable of.
It's not like me to wax poetic this much. I've just been really lucky that nothing terrible has happened in this production so far. Aside from us not being able to find the paint the designer wanted - in the end she's going to mix rather than work straight. Clever people those designers. They can find a way out of almost any problem. Unless that problem is that actors who refuse to go in and see the costume shop. It's only partially the actor's fault. I would be inclined to blame it more on the university email system - never seems to get emails through on time.
I've had to keep reminding myself that the nightmare show I worked on last year was not the normal sequence of how a show goes. I keep thinking that something has to go wrong, and soon - maybe the director is going to change major parts of the script?! But normal people don't do that. Just one bad egg eh, ruins my work for a long time. At least I have a fantastic ASM who understands what I need. She already knows how this process works, and we''re constantly learning from each other, which makes everything way more fun. And we have the exact same text tone on our phones. Doesn't hurt that we're pretty much the same person. :P
I've been working on a baby blanket for my sister - fortunately this rehearsal process that been giving me plenty of time to work on it. Is that a good or a bad thing? To me, it's both. 
Until next time.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Anybody listening?


Well hello there. Who knows what brought you to my corner of the internet, but welcome. This is a blog about my adventures working university and community theatre. Every now and again I need a place to commiserate and celebrate the things that happen in my shows. Any good stage manager will understand what I'm saying, and maybe for those of you that aren't as close in the theatre world will learn something new. 
I'm not here to be nice, but I'm also not here to ruin people's careers. I have no intention of using real names, or giving any of you an indication of where exactly I'm working. This may expand beyond just theatre rantings, and I'd love to open up discussions about work and history and anything else that appears on people's minds. 
Why don't we jump right in?
Today I have my first rehearsal for the first show of the university season. Lucky for me, I have a cast of 12 actors - not the largest cast I've ever dealt with, but still, a healthy number for me and my ASM. Oh yeah. I have one ASM. Here I was hoping for two, but what can you do - only 5 people took the course! She's lovely though. Trying her best to keep up - not an easy feat, let me tell you.
Anyways. I'm mostly using this right now to avoid doing up a rehearsal schedule. I'm not looking forward to having to make one, seeing as there's like fifteen scenes in this 37 page script, and I somehow have to divvy up all the actors into useful sections, keeping in mind that half of them aren't available on non-corresponding weeknights and my lead isn't available for our planned weekend rehearsal. (I did say this was going to be ranty!)
But it's okay. I know what I'm doing, and I'm good at it. I think. People keep asking me to work, so I guess I'm okay at what I do. 
Until next time, keep the rubber side down friends.