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Advice

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Other Topics
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URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3596
Printed Date: 10/18/24 at 7:27am
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Topic: Advice

Posted By: imamember
Subject: Advice
Date Posted: 11/12/08 at 6:53am

We have a bad Stage Manager on the show we're currently working on. He's a board member but prior to his election he was working with a private group's show which hand picked the cast consisting of regulars from our CT and another private CT. Sort of our town's version of A-List actors.

Anyways he didn't start coming to our rehearsals until about halfway through as he was stage manager for that other show. He refuses to be on book. He's basically a rope puller and moves some props on and off. He spiked something on the stage the other day and the director (first time director) made an ironic big deal over it.

The SM is never first there or last to leave. Far as I can tell nothing is done off of his watch and he rarely ever even pulls the rope for the curtain as he's chosen a chorus member to be his assistant when she's not on stage.

Last night he told a friend of mine that working on the previous show was really great as any of them could easily have been equity actors and switching to this current show is like night and day.

Now sure, he had the cream of our crop on the last show but that was just rude and unprofessional. Plus he's a board member.

What complicates this is that I'm also a board member (younger) and the SM has been around for years, not always as a board member, but in other capacities.

How do I go about this without rocking the boat too much?

Replies:

Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 11/12/08 at 9:06am

Here's the question, are you the director or someone else in authority in the show or just a board member and cast member? If you want you could put a small bug in the director's ear about the dissent in the ranks but I'd just let it drop. Bad blood in a theatre lasts forever.

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Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse

Posted By: RoseColored Gla
Date Posted: 11/12/08 at 9:55am

Patrick -

You mentioned bad blood staying in the theater for a long time, and that is true. But I totally disagree with your suggestion to just let it drop. What this SM is doing is completely unprofessional, and while we, as community theaters, are not truly professionals, we do strive to act as such.

imamember-

I would definitely mention something to the director of the show, and hope that he/she will be able to fix it. But I would also take it one more step, and at the next board meeting, make sure you get a discussion going about this subject. You can mention that some people approached you because they knew you were on the board, and expressed some concerns about this problem. For starters, I would try to be as general as possible about the situation, presenting it as a "What if...." If the problem is not solved by talking to the director, then i would be more specific about the problem with the board.

Just my 2 pennies worth..... Good luck with the situation.

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Dennis Dippary
Artistic Director
Songs for a New World http://rosecoloredglassestheater.com - RoseColored Glasses
May Dionysus smile upon your every performance!

Posted By: imamember
Date Posted: 11/12/08 at 10:03am

I'm a board member as well as a cast member (although i was drafted, I didn't audition)

I didn't hear the offensive comment and was sworn to not say anything about it by the person who it was said to. It was said to her boyfriend (me) and not a board member (also me) so I have to respect that line which is difficult sometimes.

What i'm thinking is making sure the board has precise and strict definitions and guidlines as to the roles and responsibilities of each crew position so if the SM in question steps outside the role, he can easily be called on it.

The director knows he's not a good SM and she's just gritting her teeth and getting through the process as we've only had a month long rehearsal time for a musical and our director isn't comfortable with musicals. She's much more at home with small cast plays but she's been stage managing herself for so long that the duties our SM is shirking is getting on her nerves and I'm sure she plans to bring it up if not at the post show meeting, but in private with the president or the executive director.

Posted By: JoeMc
Date Posted: 11/13/08 at 8:40am

It may be more judicial to get the SM to be reeducated about the position.

Leave a copy of the SM Handbook [it's written in your currency] the penny may drop if the SM reads it?;-

http://www.geocities.com/dollariquestnet/SMhandbook.html?200814 - http://www.geocities.com/dollariquestnet/SMhandbook.html?200814

Some how I doubt it & this is not the definitive answer on SM's duties, but it may appeal?

It may be the SM just feels like a big fish in a wee bond! While everyone knows "The fish always stinks from the head first anyway", it might take a while for it to permeate an inflated vacuum & be absorbed fully.

The SM is probably a good reusable resource, he/she just needs to pull their head in'!

-------------
[western] Gondawandaland
"Hear the light & see the sound!
TOI TOI CHOOKAS
{may you always play to a full house!}

Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 11/14/08 at 2:37am

Originally posted by imamember

How do I go about this without rocking the boat too much?

How do you go about what? Unless you're the producer I'd say just keep positive and don't rock the boat at all during the show.