The Start of Everything.
Starting a theatre company never sounded easy, although, with the right people who knows! After discussing who would take on what job roles Tina and I decided that we would need to list our individual job roles as we made up the stage management team. Tina was the Assistant, and I the Deputy. I wanted to take on the challenge of stage managing; I have done it once before and found a real passion for it, more so than acting, so I was jumping at the chance to do it again. One of the elements I’m most excited for is calling the show, this is where I say things like ‘LX 1 go’ and ‘standby SQ 3’, meaning I cue the lights and sound and operate it on the day of the show! It was important that as the stage management team we defined what we would undertake as we wanted to ensure all bases were covered.
| Stage Manager | Roles |
| Jessica Carter (Deputy) |
|
| Kristina Hollier (Assistant) |
|
| Both |
|
After this I decided that I would research some popular West End shows and see if their stage managers had any advice. Two stage managers (SM) I looked into were Andrew Speed, who works with the National Theatre, and Marybeth Abel, who works for Wicked. Andrew, in his interview for Careers at the National, discusses the importance of his role. Additionally how his plays a ‘‘facilitating part of the theatre’’ with his role liaising with every department. In rehearsals it is vital that information gets shared between every department, as if certain information isn’t not shared with the correct people if may affect the performance. He also discusses the pivotal point where the drama moves to the stage; this is where you take a more active role. In Marybeth’s interview, like Andrew Speed, Marybeth talks about the importance of communication in between departments.
Roles both SM’s discusses they undertake are;
- Checking the safety of everyone (Health & Safety),
- Ensuring the actors turn up,
- Ensuring the scene changes occur smoothly,
- Organisation skills,
- People skills and be prepared,
- Overseeing departments,
Although, Andrew said the most useful advice he could offer was to, ‘keep your head when everyone around you are losing theirs’. Which is what I attempted to remind myself whilst rehearsing.
Lending a Hand
Recently whilst the cast were work shopping ideas; Tina and I have been making notes from rehearsals about the script and then later editing it. This has been very beneficial as it meant the actors are kept up to date with any changes with their scenes and are not memorizing old scripts. We have been taking this is in turn. As well as communicating with Chloe, the director, and each other to sure that we keep her vision alive. By constantly editing and adapting the script it means we will be able to have a finished product sooner rather than later! Whilst making rehearsal notes I have been making notes of any set or props we will need to source as the sooner we can get these the sooner the cast can use them. Tina and Chloe had a great idea of creating a ‘Zelda zone’ which would be a square made of scrunched up paper, which the actors would perform in. In addition we would hang love letters up from the ceiling which the cast would pull down and read. As Zelda often wrote love letters to her husband we thought we would use in the set and in the script too as verbatim. Tina and I decided that we would keep the square small in order to show how confined Zelda was in her life. She was seen as; muse, a socialite, a flapper as well as many more things. Although we wanted her real passion, writing, to influence our performing space.
Another role I undertook as DSM was to run the rehearsal when the director or producer weren’t available. I knew the script well enough as I had been editing it so got the cast to run the entire performance although stopped when it seemed necessary. Other jobs were to record the Narrator and interviewee, I was luckily enough to source a recording studio for this so we were able to have high quality recording. Also Tina and I made all of the Zelda Zone and hanging love letters. I researched some of the letters Zelda had sent to Scott, her husband, and used them. One letter I used was this;
“I wish we could spend July by the sea, browning ourselves and feeling water-weighted hair flow behind us from a dive. I wish our gravest concerns were the summer gnats. I wish we were hungry for hot dogs and dopes, and it would be nice to smell the starch of summer linens and the faint odor of talc in blistering summer bath houses … We could lie in long citoneuse beams of the five o’clock sun on the plage at Juan-les-Pins and hear the sound of the drum and piano being scooped out to sea by the waves.” (Goodreads, 2016).
I was able to find numerous letters sent from Zelda so I used them in the set. Additionally I wanted them to look worn out and crushed, kind of like how I perceived Zelda to have felt so I tea stained them. Also we decided that the researcher’s desk would have normal paper screwed up coming from the corner of it and flowing into the square. This shows the link between us and Zelda as Charley’s character of the researcher represents us, as we have been looking into her life. This took ages, but the end result was immense….but I’m getting ahead of myself!
Seeing the Space
We were able to book one of our rehearsal in the auditorium which is the space in which we perform. This was beneficial for the entire company; the actors were able to work in the space, whilst I was able to think about the set. I realised we would have to hang the letters from the lighting rig as the grid was only above the audience. Additionally Chloe and I were able to discuss the size of the Zelda Zone, as we had taken influence from Brecht we wanted everything to be visible to the audience at all times, so we need to take that into consideration. We decided that the Zelda Zone would be 16 x 14 (steps) as we felt we need to adapt to the large stage however still wanted Zelda to feel trapped. After seeing the space issues which were raised were:
- How many letters we need to make it effective,
- Are the actresses able to pull the letters down safely?
- How do we ensure that the letters don’t drop randomly?
- Also how do ensure that the letters don’t catch fire being so close to the lighting?
One of my duties as part of the stage management team is health and safety; I will need to talk to the in-house tech team and see what they can suggest as well as going into the space and trying hanging the letters down.
The Final Countdown
In the last few weeks running up to the performance, it has been all systems go. After seeing the space I made sure in every rehearsal the actors were acting in the Zelda Zone in order to get them used to the space. Additionally after Charley, the lighting and sound designer, had sourced all the sounds and cleared them with Chloe I was able to make the BOOK. The book consists of: lighting and sound cues, prompt script, technical rider, day rider, contact list, props sheet and source sheet. It basically includes everything which is to do with the show. My prompt script would include both lighting and sound cues, whereas Tina’s would only include the sounds as she is only operating that one. After changing the places of a few of the songs, I then had to go back to the cue sheets and change them so they were correct.
Before our tech day we wanted to be as prepared as we could so we wanted to have these things sorted:
- All music sorted on Qlab,
- All props sourced,
- Letters to be tea stained and fishing wire attached,
- Lighting and sound cue sheets ready to use and
- Prompt script completed.
The tech went well, we were able to test sound levels and sort out the lighting, which gave us plenty of time to run a cue to cue. It was good to see everything coming together although Tina and I did have a few notes for the cast which we noticed from the technical box. We past them on to Chloe to inform the rest of the group; they were only minor things like projecting your voice, making sure all the Zeldas sit the same and ensuring that the projection screen is placed in the right position as if not it would stop the audience from seeing the video.
SHOWTIME
On the day of the show, we had decided that all crew (both DSM, ASM, Producer, Technical Designer and Director) would come in at 09:00. This meant we could set up the stage and add in the haze we wanted to use for the fire; additionally it meant that the cast were not just hanging around getting bored. We had to experiment with the fishing wire as the lighting rigging was A LOT higher than we expected so we had to spend some time on fixing this. However, we were done by half ten so we then just had to mark the stage where certain set needed to go.
Overall I couldn’t not have been happier with how the set looked. Especially as we weren’t able to try the hanging letters out before. The fishing wire almost seemed invisible! When the cast arrived at 11:00 we decided that we would do at cue to cue. This was again good to run as we needed to double check sound levels, as the last thing we wanted was to not be able to hear the actors over the music. Additionally Tina and I had to make sure we checked over our risk assessment to ensure the safety of the cast and crew. Whilst the actors got into costume and make up it meant Tina and I could practice using the headphones and run another cue to cue trying out the haze too. The stage was then reset and ready for the debut performance. Whilst the actors waited in the wings for their cue, I was given clearance and the show got underway.
The actual performance went really well, I was happy to have Tina in the tech box with me as I was a little nervous however the show went without a hitch! We got some lovely feedback. However, I know there is always room for improvements such as;
- I would have had the lighting and sound cue sheets done sooner, in order to be able to complete the prompt script sooner,
- Ensure that our next production had a detailed set as this is one of the elements that the audience commented on heavily.
- Slicker openings, as I want to ensure that both the director and technical designer are happy with the end product.
Although for our first debut performance I don’t think we could have set the barrier higher!
Work cited;
Carter, J. (2016) Testing out letters [image].
Carter, J. (2016) Recording in the Studio [image].
Crow, P. (2016) Love First, Live Incidentally. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/27005919041/in/album-72157668230653081/ [accessed 19 May 2016].
Goodreads (2016) Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda Quotes. Available from; https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/881082-dear-scott-dearest-zelda [accessed 12 March 2016].
National Theatre Discover (2016) Careers at the National Theatre: Stage Manager [vlog]. 21 January. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj6tvqQR5iw [accessed 22 March 2016].
WICKED The Musical (2013) WICKED Stage Management [vlog]. 12 April. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dU3RlYQIVM [accessed 23 March 2016].
This week Tina and myself have been working on making the book. The book consists of: lighting, sound cues, prompt script, technical rider, day rider, contact list, props sheet and source sheet. It basically includes everything which is to do with the show. I have been a little nervous about calling and operating the show alone, and after finding out how many cues we had I did start to panic a little. However, we realised that Tina in the actual performance was not needed backstage as all the set and props are already on stage, so we decided that she would operate the sounds throughout the show. Although as a touring company I know that many companies only have one stage manager who would normally operate and call the show. However for this show we have both decided that it would be beneficial if we were both oping the show. This also means that the lighting and sound will have to be on two separate programs instead of all being on Qlab. So this is something we will do in the week before our tech day on Saturday!
