Mister Wibbles Sez. . .

GearGrip Pro: When I got my new computer, I was actually thinking of trying to work up something like this so that I could carry the whole computer all together, what with all the back and forth I tend to do. I saw this and I thought, “Oh. I guess I don’t need to make my own, then.” This is very high on my list of things I want to own.

The Bionic Wrench: Okay, how is this just not way beyond awesome? It makes using an adjustable wrench so much quicker. Of course, I’d be interested in the 8″: it gives you more versatility.

Bamboo Tshirt: I’ve actually heard that these are insanely comfortable. Plus, it’s bamboo. What’s not to love?

Deck LED-Backlit Keyboard: Okay, this is just awesome. That is all.

Leatherman e306x/e307x

Absolutely beautiful. Leatherman now has knives in addition to their lovely tools. I’ve got a Juice xe6, which I adore. And now, they’ve got knives. I’ve wanted a knife for a while; I think this is the one I’ve fallen in love with.

I just got home from a rehearsal with the BSF, where they’ve just hired me as running crew on Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was a last minute placement: I had sent in my resume last week and they had already filled the position, but the person they initially hired had a conflict for the entire last weekend, so they called me. 11am, I got a phone call asking if I was still interested and available. I told them about a conflict I had for one of the dates (which will having me arriving late for a matinee), but they’re fine with that since the majority of what they need me for is strike. After a quick exchange via email, I was put in touch with the stage manager and we arranged for me to start at tonight’s rehearsal, although due to pre-existing plans, I would arrive a little late (which was fine - I’m not sure they were expecting me to be available tonight at all and instead start tomorrow). I showed up at 7 after they had already started a run, so I was tossed head first into learning what to do.

This show is being done in an outdoor theater in this gorgeous little field. The combination of outdoor theater and constant rain is not a good one, however. Unfortunately, halfway through, the rehearsal got rained out. This provided me the opportunity to learn very quickly how they wanted the tarps put over the stage. After some discussion, they decided to cancel the rest of the rehearsal (there was something like several hours more of rain being predicted). We cleared out the tent the props were under so that the actors could work on a vocal rehearsal, during which time I finally had a chance to catch up with the stage manager and find out what I would be doing during the run. I stayed after the time I was officially dismissed so that I could get a tour of the space and have some time to get to know the people I will be working for, and I have to say, I’m really excited. If all goes well, I might be able to translate this into further work with this company. If the impression I get of the company is anywhere near accurate, that would be absolutely amazing. I am so excited about all of this. I think this might be the foot in the door I’ve been looking for.

Cool Hunting: Preserve Tableware

I really just don’t think these people get it. Really. Take something disposable and make it reusable. Sure, I understand we’re a country of wasteful people, the disposable nation. However, this concept won’t help that. If I want non-disposable plates that go through the dishwasher, don’t you think I’d instead prefer to buy something, oh, I don’t know… tasteful? Instead, I could have all the class of use-it-lose-it with none of the convenience. Truly brilliant.

kritha: Fashion and other concerns.

I really couldn’t sum up what happened closing night of Fashion. Fortunately, Lei did it for me. Since she plotted it all out, her version sums things up pretty well.

One of the trickier things to explain among the list of what a stage manager does is blocking notation. First of all, blocking is how we refer to the movements of the actors as choreographed by the director. Whenever the director says, “You, go over there”, or “Pick up that book and examine it when you say that”, that’s blocking. This process begins in the first few rehearsals. Either the stage manager or assistant stage manager should take blocking, writing down the actions that are staged. There are several methods to this, none of which are by definition correct.

First of all, we need to be the ones to write down blocking because you can be certain that most of the cast will not. Then, several rehearsals later when they find themselves hopelessly backed into a corner stage left and needing to exit stage right two lines from now, the director will turn to the stage manager and ask what we’d decided last week. If it isn’t written down, what follows is twenty wasted minutes trying to remember what happened last week (and inevitably getting it wrong), only to realize that didn’t work either and now we have to reblock the entire scene.

The first lesson of blocking is to always, always, always work in pencil, because as sure as fish swim under water, the director will change his mind. I always keep close at hand my mechanical pencil, a spare handful of wooden pencils (for loaning out to actors so that they can forget to write down their blocking), a pencil sharpener, and a large white eraser.

Since it’s nearly impossible to write as fast as the director talks and the actors move without many years of training and lightning reflexes, stage managers tend to develop their own shorthand. I’ve included an example of my own, complete with explanations. Most of it is derived from what I found in Daniel Ionazzi’s Stage Management Handbook, a lovely yellow textbook in my personal library. Obviously there have been modifications — that’s to be expected, as the notation style I use is what makes the most sense to me. It is ever-evolving as I run into more symbols I need.

Okay, so here’s my problem. In my redesign, I’ve managed to break this page. I’m not sure what happened to it, but it’s thoroughly dead. It’s the only instance I have of tables on the site, but it’s exactly the kind of data that tables were meant to contain, right? I don’t know a better, more semantic way to display it than through tables. Yet tables broke it.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

Edit: Nevermind. It turns out when I enabled the Textile plugin, it automagically added <p> tags to my code. However, this created a minor issue in that you can’t have a table inside a paragraph. Back to manually coding ’s and “ for me!

The first rehearsal is usually used for general business, a read through and table work. The read through is exactly what it sounds like — the cast reads through the script with the director and begins to get a feel for the flow and timing of the show. Table work involves going through the script scene by scene (or even page by page) and looking at the individual scenes for areas that are denser or require more effort to find the real meaning. Without this work, the play runs the risk of being superficial. Besides, one of the easiest ways to make your show incomprehensible is to have the actors on stage spouting words they do not themselves understand.

While at first it might seem like there isn’t much for the stage manager to be doing in all this, there is. That’s because the stage manager’s job is to be as quietly efficient as possible. The producer should make sure the scripts are available to be distributed, but it is the stage manager’s job to make sure that it’s been done and actually hand out the scripts. For our work at my college, that often means standing by the photocopier, or, as for Waiting for Lefty, typing it up in Word. Having it electronically is very useful with the evolving technology; I’m currently helping to beta test a program called LineNotes, which requires the script to be electronic. More on that later.

During auditions, I’ll have collected a copy of the audition form which gives me basic contact information — email address, cell phone number, and room phone number. With the cast list in hand, I compile a contact sheet. Personally, I use Excel with a template I created (This template also includes information for the scene breakdown — more on that later). The contact list can then be photocopied and ideally handed out at the first rehearsal. I have the actors check it over for any errors to ensure I have correct information. Minor corrections are for my own and my ASM’s use; major corrections may require redistributing the contact sheet.

The scene breakdown is helpful for scheduling rehearsals. At first, it seems more complicated than it is. Quite simply, it is a chart of which character is on stage during each scene. During my first reading of the script, I go through and create my scene breakdown, placing an X in the column for that scene when each character appears on stage.

Any other paperwork and random administrivia is taken care of at the first rehearsal (what the set will look like, forms for adding one credit to the students’ schedules, etc.) before we launch into our first read through. It’s a really rewarding time where you begin to see the first inklings that we actually will be creating a show. The first read through is usually among my favorite rehearsals for exactly that reason. Plus, this gives us a base starting point for the amazing heights to which the cast will eventually reach. The difference between first reading and final performance are breath-taking. This is what makes theater worth doing.

Okay, so I think we’ve managed to get a closer to complete version of the site design. My rehearsal schedule had a temporary easing up before we dive into tech, so I was able to play around here. You’ll notice the header has randomly rotating images. That’s thanks to the Random Header Plugin. The base template for the site design is shamelessly ripped from the Falling Leaves template. In fact, very little of the code was changed. This lovely redesign owes very little to my own design training, except for Mr. Hopkin’s repetition of “Don’t reinvent the wheel!” When there is free stuff that’ll do what you want done, don’t waste your time recreating it.

In other words, I have little free time, and I’m not afraid to shamelessly abscond with other designs. As long as they’re properly credited, of course. However, all the graphics are totally mine. Mine mine all mine.

Just as an FYI, this site is undergoing a live redesign. As a result, its look will be wildly changing and sometimes broken. If it’s ugly when you see it, blame that on the fact that it’s a work in progress.