Theater Folks... what are you?

[Madrigal]

I've done all of the above, but primarily am to be found as a production stage manager. You get all the blame and a ton of the stress and get people going after you for things you couldn't and shouldn't have had any control over... but I must be a masochist, because I just can't stop.

[Bobbsy]

Sound guy here...in fact (if you let me include TV work as well as theatre) that's how I earn my meagre living!

However, over the years I've done just about every other job on your list too, including the occasional guest appearance "treading the boards".

...but at this precise instant, I'm doing sound on a "traditional" British panto which closes tonight after two shows today. Moving a ton or two of gear out of the theatre after two shows is NOT my favourite bit about theatre work!

Bobbsy

[Lily]

Bobbsy,along with NOT being any fun after the magic of the days preceeding, it's sad isnt it?. I remember watching the set for a production of "PeterPan" being dismantled and the magic being reduced to litter :(
That production, Peter lost "his" voice. his songs were sung by someone else from the orchestra pit (not very far away in our little theatre)
And they had a carefully organised arrangement for when Peter had to fly out of the way of a lunging sword, in case the flying mechanism wasnt going to work.
Peter Pan is a great show!

[Priscilla]

All my life I've been a very important fixture to a theater production. I've been part of the audience! ;)

[Dawn]

All my life I've been a very important fixture to a theater production. I've been part of the audience! ;)

Me too, Sis. :D

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

I'd rather be a scriptwriter, I love writing. I wouldn't want to be an actor, I get horrible stagefright :faint: But above all I'd rather be in the audiance, no work required there! :D

[NeouofPern]

I'm usually one of the smaller/supporting roles.... But always humorous. *shrugs* I've written a few skits and such.... But nothing really big, just things for school and school trips.

[Elianth]

I'm, more often then not, small/supporting roles. It's fun. :D

[Jesserli]

I wish I could click several! I said Techie, although I also do set design and I've done stage managing, as well. I'm well-rounded. ;)

[Milo]

Acting. I clicked lead, but I often do chorus and supporting. :)

[ChrisG]

Quite definitely a techie. Oh, I did some acting in elementary school; I remember being a gingerbread man in Hansel and Gretel, but that didn't involve much more than holding up a cardboard prop. Nope, definitely a techie. Stage crew was the only reason I even tried to keep my grades up in certain classes in high school.

[Simon HoneyBear]

Another here wishing it was a multiple choice poll...

I've done every thing on that list, often all in the one show...

I clicked techie tho cos that is most often me, though I am one hell of a production manager. I'm good at fluttering my eye lashes and getting people to do or donate something, always useful!

On of my crowning achievments was when I was PM for a film project and talked a local bar into allowing us to film on the premisis out of hours - for free! They even gave us free reign of the bar and let us put what ever drinks we needed!!!!

Simon

[wulfin]

I've done several things in theatre.. i always prefer to be in the background..started with lighting, moved to sound..and then found my niche in stage managing. It was actually a mix between stage managing/assistant director since i did much of the directing as well, but that was not my main "job". :)

I loved it either way.

[Madrigal]

Incoming rant.

Yeah, wulfin, I do much the same as you. In the last production--which was a train wreck offstage but went smoothly enough on--I served as light techie, sound techie, production manager and projector-runner. (The flu was going around, and the runner/techie was just one person.) Offstage, one actor fainted after smoking some pot and we found she hadn't eaten in four days, another actor was threatening suicide--seriously, because she's "fat and nobody likes her," also because she was just diagnosed as bipolar--and a third was in tears because some of the people in the audience were making fun of him whenever he came on (his father's a political figure.) I was the one who had to get them all onstage as well... the director sat in the booth and surfed the web, and none of the other backstage people were anywhere to be found.

Simon: I'm what's known as the bad cop in the good cop/bad cop deal... the director being the good one. I recently told him if he doesn't start backing me up when he tells me to go confiscate lighters and so on, he'd better find another stage manager fast. I can't tell my peers what to do when I don't have anything backing me up, and I can't run rehearsal smoothly if there are people offstage who are playing catch with lighters near drying paint.

I went to the director and told him that I was likely to quit. He told me that 'my standards were too high.'

One week from showtime, and three of the four leads are still carrying scripts. We don't have any props because our prop-making-crew is asleep on the job. The costume woman hadn't shown up either. We've got people about to set the very small, very enclosed theater on fire, literally, and nobody offstage will shut up.

After it, nobody spoke to me for a few weeks besides to tell me how much of a bitch I was. People who'd been my friends before still aren't talking to me, and I know why--I had to be bitchy and bossy, because they wouldn't listen when bribed or cajoled or lash-fluttered at and because the director wouldn't back me up.

This play, I'm only taking a supporting role. When the director came to me and asked me to manage, saying there was nobody else who could do it, I said OK. And plan to be stricken with a bad case of the flu on opening night.

[maiken]

Hmmm....
<---not a good actor...
Mostly I right the plays and my drama team does them. They say I base too much on fantasy.....i wonder why....anyway..i'm more of a singer/writer(of any kind) than an actress.

<---high soprano voice(starting to crack) I don't know what i'll do when I lose my high voice.. :cry:


mai :wave:

[Madrigal]

Hmmm....

<---high soprano voice(starting to crack) I don't know what i'll do when I lose my high voice.. :cry:

mai :wave:

*hugs* That happened to me last year... I did a play three nights in a row that required yelling loudly while I had laryngitis and a sinus infection. I wound up dislocating and screwing up my larynx rather badly--couldn't speak for three weeks. In the end, I wound up a mezzo, but now have only a semi-OK singing voice. (Rather breathy and little range.)

Good luck.

[lisap]

I wish I could click several! I said Techie, although I also do set design and I've done stage managing, as well. I'm well-rounded. ;)

Lol same here. I clicked techie, because I was that first. Note: we include set build and running crew and stuff as part of tech. I'm also on stage now, a dancer.

But first and foremost; I am a techie!

[Lady of the weyr]

I like to be aminor/major lead * thinks dreamily of sandy from grease!*

[Master Harper Andrea]

I have played some really fun roles, such as Bloody Mary in South Pacific, Frumasara in Fiddler, and Eulalie Makecknie Shinn in Music Man. But mostly I do the music direction for shows now. Madrigal, the director you worked with should be canned. He should not put discipline onto a student. Shows are rough enough without all that happening. And ALWAYS take care of the voice in a play - it's so easy to hurt it and not easy to repair. :sad:

[Priscilla]

You truly never know what you'll find in my house! I'm cleaning out, preparing to sell and move in the next couple years. Now, I knew we had a neighbor/friend of my dad's who was a character actor on Broadway and television for years. His name was Reynolds Evans. He played the lead on Broadway in a play called The Green Goddess, which I have a brown charcoal drawing of him in his costume that I absolutely love! Anyway, as to things you may find in my house! Was digging in a box today and came across some of his scripts from plays he was in as well as a photograph of Walter Hampden as Cyrano de Bergerac signed by him to our friend! Let's see. The scripts are - The Queen Protected; First Love, by Samuel Taylor; and P.T. Barnum's Rocket to the Moon, story by Peter Welbeck, screenplay by Dave Freeman. The First Love script has some newspaper clippings in it of theater reviews from 1961. All carefully stored now, and I'm so glad I rediscovered them! :D

[Master Harper Andrea]

Neat, Prisc! That would be treasured here too. :ok:

[Madrigal]

I have played some really fun roles, such as Bloody Mary in South Pacific, Frumasara in Fiddler, and Eulalie Makecknie Shinn in Music Man. But mostly I do the music direction for shows now. Madrigal, the director you worked with should be canned. He should not put discipline onto a student. Shows are rough enough without all that happening. And ALWAYS take care of the voice in a play - it's so easy to hurt it and not easy to repair. :sad:

:) I just found out that one night of the current play will be performed for a fundraising group, too...

Of course, I'll still have the flu quite severely.

(Before anyone asks: I have absolutely no problem with screwing him and the other actors over on the night of the play. There're only one or two who didn't seek me out to tell me how bad of a job I did--how badly I did the director's job--and they didn't do anything to stop the others. I'm likely going to drag the assistant stage manager with me--who didn't show up until opening week, and then got treated even worse than me.) :ok:

Canned? Absolutely. But as I can't do that, vanishing on opening night works just fine.

[CLBeilby]

Techmonkey all the way. Although I act on occasion, my first love (and major when I was in college) is tech.

[Master Harper Andrea]

Well it burns me up when people don't do the job they are supposed to do. That's why I'm involved with my current show. The woman was lazy and incompetant and the kids suffered. And why did all the actors tell you you did a bad job? Because you wanted work and discipline from your peers??? I can understand your attitude. You don't need that garbage.

I at least am getting good strokes from the kids in this production. And yesterday, the witchiest girl in the cast (the only witch) said, "Are you going to do the musical next year? I want to be involved if you are........hmmm, I really thought she hated my guts because I wanted her to quit whining!

Good Luck Madrigal.

[Master Harper Andrea]

Hmmm....

<---high soprano voice(starting to crack) I don't know what i'll do when I lose my high voice.. :cry:


Your voice may be cracking from a number of things:

1) stress about something, anything
2) "reaching" for high notes and using your throat instead of having an open throat and supporting the tone with your diaphragm
3) growth
4) not enough hydration/sleep
5) improper or no warm up
6) tension in the throat (see #2)

Remember, women's voices also change and you may settle into being a mezzo. Voices are not totally mature until you are about 30 or so, believe it or not. The best thing you can do is to keep good hydration, rest, avoid improper use (screaming, etc) and use good vocal habits when you sing.

just my :2cent: - I'm a singing teacher.

[Jesserli]

I'm going to Boston University's Theatre conservatory! I'll either major in set design or sound design... I haven't quite decided yet. I'm really excited, though. Their facilities are AWESOME.

[Priscilla]

Yesterday I was able to take my daughter, her boyfriend and another friend of theirs to New York to see Phantom - THANKS MHA!!! We had a blast, and on leaving the theater we passed the sound board. Bobbsy would have been drooling! The production was wonderful, and meeting Andrea was great! :applause:

[Jesserli]

Yesterday I was able to take my daughter, her boyfriend and another friend of theirs to New York to see Phantom - THANKS MHA!!! We had a blast, and on leaving the theater we passed the sound board. Bobbsy would have been drooling! The production was wonderful, and meeting Andrea was great! :applause:

Excellent show! I love the sets for that one. I saw Spamalot the week before last - it's as good as the reviews and hype indicated. I couldn't stop laughing! Tim Curry made an excellent King Arthur.

[Bobbsy]

I'm going to Boston University's Theatre conservatory! I'll either major in set design or sound design... I haven't quite decided yet. I'm really excited, though. Their facilities are AWESOME.

If you go the sound design route and if I can be of any help, don't hesitate to ask!

Bobbsy

[Priscilla]

Oh, my! I'd LOVE to see Tim Curry in Spamalot! He's one of my very, very favorites (Rocky Horror is one of my top best laughs!). Got to see how much tickets are, and what my chances are of getting some! :)

[Valihi Wingsecond]

Dangit, I demand multiple options on this poll... ;) I've been director, lead roles, supporting roles, set design (painting, primarily), and other (I was once not only a play's director, I was the quasi-SM... The go-for, that it. "Oh, we need a sandwich? I'll get it!" "Oh, we need a lamp? I'll get it!")

So, yeah, I've been almost everywhere... ;)

[Bamy]

I was always minor roles or Set design.

[Milo]

Dangit, I demand multiple options on this poll... ;) I've been director, lead roles, supporting roles, set design (painting, primarily), and other (I was once not only a play's director, I was the quasi-SM... The go-for, that it. "Oh, we need a sandwich? I'll get it!" "Oh, we need a lamp? I'll get it!")

So, yeah, I've been almost everywhere... ;)
Ah... the gopher.

Been there! I don't even do tech, but I'm tight with the techies, so "hold this", "tighten this", "do that" etc. is all to common. :laugh:

[Valihi Wingsecond]

Ah... the gopher.

Been there! I don't even do tech, but I'm tight with the techies, so "hold this", "tighten this", "do that" etc. is all to common. :laugh:

LOL! A bunch of the second-year techs here at the college have adopted me as their pet actor. We're trying to get rid of all the "segregation" (for lack of a better word) that goes on between the techs and the actors, just because of scheduling conflicts with our classes, and the fact that actors are sometimes a bit clique-ish... :shhh:

[Danae]

I'm only ever a supporting actor. I've only been in musicals and my voice isn't anywhere near strong enough to have a lead role. I do pretty good with supporting though.

[dae]

I'm a bit of everything apart from actor, in the school musical thats being done this year i'm helping in next to everything seem's every class i go to decides to have some form of involvment in the thing, Luckly it will leave me with a pretty little report card.

[Bobbsy]

I'm working (sound as always) on a fun show just now. It's a new, original piece which is basically a tribute to the old "Rat Pack" (Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Junior, Dean Martin).

The first half is a pretty conventional modern musical with "subtle" mixing of of small radio mics hidden in the hairline or over ears. Most of the second half, though, takes the form of a concert with an 11 piece "big band" and a bunch of wired hand mics to mix...for once I can really "let rip" on the mix. The new "baby" (regular members will remember.... :) ) is really getting a workout on this one with most of it's 48 inputs and 36 outputs in use...plus (for the techies) a compressor on most mic channels, lots of parametric EQ, gates on the drums, etc etc.

Bobbsy

[Milo]

The new baby is a mic, right?

Can't remember the specifics... I don't think I even understood them in the first place. :erm:

[Bobbsy]

The new baby is a mic, right?

Can't remember the specifics... I don't think I even understood them in the first place. :erm:

Nope...new "baby" is my 48 channel DM1000 digital sound mixer....which happened to be delivered about the same time as "Thingy".

You were on the right track though!

Bobbsy

[Milo]

Nope...new "baby" is my 48 channel DM1000 digital sound mixer....which happened to be delivered about the same time as "Thingy".

You were on the right track though!

Bobbsy
Ah... I remember now.

Yes... you posted a picture... confoozlin. :laugh: I'm an "honorary" techie up at my theater... :evil:

[fionth]

Definitely chorus member here! A couple of years ago I was awarded a NODA(national operatic and dramatic association) 25 year medal for sticking with Uplands Arts for that long. However, my 11yr old, Jonathan has played some leads in his drama group (Duckling in Honk!, Baron Elberfeld in Sound of Music) and this June he does 'Cagey Joe' AND 'Joe the Bartender' in Bugsy Malone.I think he's going to be better than me- and at least he can dance! Me? I have 2 left feet, you should've seen J trying to teach me to waltz!!!!!

[Aurelia]

I am not much of a theater person.....I go to a show now and then, but that's about it.

[Jay_Quessir]

okay...my career broadens...

I'm now a minor role in the local production of the Broadway Musical, "1776" as well as a member of our ensemble piece for One Act Play, "Interview", which will be going to the state-level competition Friday. So anyone who's planning on going to Austin on Cinco De Mayo, stop by the McCollough theatre and say hello to the cast of Interview! :D

I've been a techie in shows premiering this past year as well as a minor or major lead. I'm directing a play this summer for our Drama Club camp. On all the Drama Club productions, I've been a stage manager as well as in the cast. I've written portions of the script for one of our plays and am currently working on "The Real High School Musical". So...basically I just haven't been on the props/costume committee. :D