relaxing times

The next few weeks are not going to be that stressful (well not until the 16th of Novemeber). As of yet we don’t really have a complete props list and everything is really a maybe. We have a few references and we have tried to give the designer some ideas about what we were thinking, so we have to wait on her and the director getting back to us. At the moment I am not really that concerned because I know rehearsals haven’t started yet so they probably wont know what they want until then. My only concern is that my ASM are allowed to relax and just float around doing some research about the props and trying to prop with the references we have. Due to the lack of pressure, I don’t want them to think this is the way its going to happen all the time. I’m quite sure Catherine knows what is coming ahead because she has worked on an academy opera before whereas Graham hasn’t. I’m not sure exactly what type of stage management he has done so I don’t know if he knows what to expect.
My plan to raise my concerns with my team. Not as concerns but just to mention it to them that its going to be very different in a couple of weeks. Not that I want the atmosphere to be different. At the moment we are all getting on very well. I would for the atmosphere to stay the same and still get the work done.
Today we all had score reading together and doing very well in my opinion. We got up to page 95. Hopefully by the end of this week we will be very good at the Peace part of our opera so that on Monday we can start War. This was great for our team relationship I think. We then all went for lunch together which was lovely. I think if we keep this good relationship up we will be able to be a strong team, ready to tackle anything…

I actually shared wisdom today…

As we have no actual props list at the moment we have been concentrating on score reading… I have decided that this is very important and I know that it will help us in the future.

Although we only had one score, myself and my two ASM’s gathered around our one score and listened to the overture. After about and hour or so we all seemed to understand it. Our plan is now to take a scene a day and try to follow it. I think that if we have three weeks of this we can really pull this production off. It will be hard work and boring at times but if we just concentrate and keep our heads down it will work.

At the moment we don’t have a props list but it is coming through slowly which is good, we can prop for a while each day. We have been successful so far, Catherine has managed to get a donation of 100 sacks from a company so I am very proud of her. Some people said they probably wouldn’t be able to get hessian sacks because no one uses them anymore but we got them off the first people we asked. Fantastic!

Anyway for me today has been a good day, still very relaxed at the moment because there is not really a great deal. It is the calm before the storm. Hopefully we can use this time wisely and be as ready as we can when the 16th of November comes. Its going to be really busy and stressful but I cant help but be very excited….

To prop or not to prop…

Well things are frustrating at the moment as we don’t have a props list. I understand that we still have three weeks ish till rehearsal start so props are not the real priority at the moment however, as soon as rehearsals start I want my ASM’s and myself to be in rehearsals as much as possible so I would rather be ahead of ourselves on the props front so we can concentrate on the show.
I am sure it will all be fine though, we will get through the props list, we always do and hopefully we can do it with a smile on our faces.

Today has again been a good day. I hope my ASM’s think so too! It has been fairly relaxed although I know that as we get busier we will have a little more stress. My aim is to be just as relaxed yet efficient as the Scottish opera SM team. I think that they did work well together although I think it is because they have all worked together before and understand how each other work. I think that if I can get to know the strengths and weaknesses of my ASM’s then as a team we can use our strengths to our advantage and to the advantage of the show.

I hope my team management skills will improve over this production so that I can use my experience to further my skills and use some of my experiences to help my graduation project. At the moment I am finding it hard to work on my graduation project because I cant make myself work on it. I don’t really know where to start with the whole thing. Although I have done some research I don’t really know how to put it together or if any information I have come across will actually help me….

Catherine is an awesome actress

Well today was been a great day and before I go on can I just say that I am writing this blog on my itouch….proud?? I think soooo!!!

Anyways, today was my last day working with scottish opera, which was actually quite sad I was quite enjoying myself. Today we was an understudy run and we were used to help with scene changes. We were also allowed to look at an asm’s score so we were able to practise score Reading… I am getting there!! As we had the score we had to cue on some of the singers and scene changes. It was so much fun and filled me with a lot of confidence.I know I am not perfect or can score read very well but after today I now know that I will be fine.

We have had a great experience watching this team work…which has gave me a few ideas for managing my team aswell. As of tomorrow we are going to start proping. Although I have been with my team for a few weeks the next week or so are the most important. The next couple of days I have to lead by example with my asm’s and make sure they know what is going to be expected from them. If I can make sure that we all trust each other we will work as a team well and our show will be a great success. Throughout my time at scottish opera, I loved that they had a very relaxing attitude but still got the job done well. I hope to install this in my team. I do not want my asm’s to come in every day and just do the job…I want them to want todo the job. In my opinion, there is no point not putting your whole heart into the production.

In my opinion I don’t think john had as much of control of the stage and pianos as he usually has, but I think that was because the producer of the show was quite over powering. I plan try to make sure this won’t happen with us but I don’t really know our director yet so I don’t know what will happen.

This week we have been trying to get a props list together. Our director said she would have a props list together for the beginning of the week. However instead she emails us to tell us to look through the score instead to come up with one. The was really hard, it took us around 4hours to go through the hand written Russian score and tried our hardest but aoarently it wasn’t good enough that was quite upset. But we did try our best so that’s all we can do….

hmmm…

Today has been a strange day, I feel quite isolated from the rest of my year.

At the moment everyone is getting tense about our pyro show which is now a week away. Myself and Anne are the stage managers and have both been arranging all the meeting so far but today someone called an emergency meeting for tomorrow. Of course if people are concerned about the show they should call a meeting but apparently this meeting has been called because they don’t think I am doing any work for it. I am not the only person on this show and I am not the only stage manager, I understand that everyone is busy but I am too. I don’t understand why everyone seems to think it’s my fault which is pretty annoying to be honest. Although I am not technically working on a show I am not just, doing NOTHING. Which some people don’t realise. I don’t know exactly how this meeting is going to go tomorrow but I don’t really want to go. I am meant to be a Scottish Opera tomorrow as I said to the Stage management team I would be(just in case they need help), However I have been told by a few people today that the pyro show comes first. To be honest I am torn between them… I am really excited about working on opera 1 and although there is not always a lot to do at Scottish Opera I don’t want to miss anything, because there might be a situation that comes up that we can learn a great deal from. So I don’t know whether I should go to the meeting or not. Myself and Anne have organised every meeting to date and now I have a commitment to Scottish Opera I don’t want to break, I don’t know what to do…

At the moment I am just in rehearsals at Scottish Opera and although I haven’t been doing that much I have been observing and watching how situations are being handled. When my ASM’s join us I feel like I learn more because I point things out to them and try to explain things to them which re-instate it to me! I have also been getting to know the opera singers who are in the production which is great and they are talking to me about the production which makes things easier… One singer even told me today that he didn’t know If I would be a good stage manager because obviously he doesn’t know me …but I walk and stand like a stage manager…so I guess that’s something!!

My ASM’s seem to enjoy coming to Scottish opera with myself and Kieron and I love having them. I think it’s because I am quite enthusiastic about the show we are about to attempt to put on… but Kieron is not so enthusiastic which makes us all a little depressed. He doesn’t want to be on this show and I understand he is quite upset about it so I think this situation has to be sorted out today. There is no point doing a show that you’re not going to put your whole heart into because it will affect your team and the production as a whole. If the situation with Kieron is not sorted out soon it’s going to make everyone not enjoy the show as much. It’s not fair on Kieron or our team…

Rehearsals in progress

Rehearsals in Scottish opera are well underway…

One week until stage and pianos and everything is starting to make sense. On Friday I went myself to Scottish opera, without Kieron and I seemed to talk to a lot more people. Many of the singers were talking to me a lot more and even offered to let me look at their scores when they were rehearsing which was lovely! It really helped and I felt like I was teaching myself how to score read. I guess its just practice! Friday was great and because of this when I arrived today I felt very comfortable and more open with people which was a nice feeling. I spoke to one of the ASM’s this morning which was very helpful and I helped her set up!

During the rehearsals, the producer was in charge of the rehearsal room most of the time which I thought was very odd because I have always thought it was a member of the stage management team. On occasion, the DSM would stand by the SM and room and then SM would stand by the singers! However the person in command seemed to vary a great deal which was quite confusing. I think that if I was in the singers position, I wouldn’t know exactly who to turn to at times with a problem. Hopefully, as a team in ‘War and Peace’ we can work out a system that will work for us so that we have consistency and therefore be more efficient!

Is it meant to be…

This is just going to be a short blog about how I feel about War and Peace…

I worked on every academy opera since I started here apart from one, and I have grown quite fond working on them. So when I found out I was given the allocation for Opera 1 this, I was so happy!!!!!!!
Although I was happy, I am not naive, I know its going to a great deal of hard work and very stressful at times but I genuinely believe its worth it. I was even happier when I found out Kieron was my DSM, there is no one else I would rather go through hell with on this allocation haha!

I am very excited about this allocation and that’s why I know that no matter what happens, I will try my best and do whatever I can do to make this show the best that it can be.

However, Kieron is not so excited about doing this show which is quite upsetting. He doesn’t like opera so I understand that it would be a great deal of stress for something he doesn’t care for that much. I know it will be very difficult for him but if he does this allocation I will be so happy and will do anything to help him! I know he is not sad about working with me but it’s just a little upsetting seeing him like this. Opera 1 is such a huge opportunity, and I hope that if he decides not to do this allocation he wont regret it.

I don’t want him to be forced to do this allocation because if he is… he will just be very unhappy and his last year at the academy will not be a memorable one for him and the show might suffer if his heart isn’t really in it.

In the end I hope that this all gets worked out sooner than later so that it doesn’t cause to much pain. I don’t want Kieron to be unhappy because he is such a lovely person but It definitely wouldn’t be the same experience for me without him.

RSAMD dont make SM teams, but if they did…

Well our Scottish Opera placement continues….

Again today we sat in the rehearsal room watching how everyone interacted with each other and how the SM overcame certain problems. To be honest I wasn’t really getting much out of this experience of sitting and watching however, after a small chit chat with John I’m looking at the experience in a different light so I think when I go back this afternoon it will be better for our learning. John asked us to think of questions before we went into the rehearsal room and see if we could answer them ourselves by watching and reflecting and if not, ASK! I would think of questions during the sessions before but would always ask… but with this way I know exactly what I need to be looking for and teach myself rather than annoy the opera SM team even although they are happy to answer questions.

At the moment they don’t have a great deal of time to spend with us to answer questions etc because they are trying to learn a new show in 2 weeks however, it is also great to see how focused and dedicated they are to there work and shows you the attitude which we should strive to have everyday of our production. I feel that although I am learning a few techniques from them I am learning more about how to relate to people and how to keep standards high even in the rehearsal room. Attitude is everything. If you have a bad attitude it will reflect on your SM team, technical staff and the production as a whole will suffer. I understand that times will be stressful and hard, throughout this process but as long as I strive to keep a positive attitude and, ‘not lose face’ I think that as a team, we can put together a show to be very proud of.

Myself and Kieron have worked together before so we know how each other work. I know he is very like me because he wants the best for this production and strives for excellence at all times. If we can let our ASM’s know exactly what we expect from them and install our positive and hard work attitude in them, I see no reason why this will not be on of the best academy shows and will be a huge success.

My main fear is that we are all talk and no action. But I know, that we are so passionate about this show that we won’t let that happen. As I am studying team management for my graduation project, I think I will be able to try out different methods of team management, in the hope I will find one that will work for our team so that we can all work in a happy environment. I am positive that if we try our best we will succeed.

The next couple of weeks are going to be about learning score, learning the ways of a stage manager and the different methods I can use and team building. If we can create a strong team now, we can tackle this show head on as a happy team.

I just got a hug from Puleng and now happy:)

x

War and Peace

Well, today was the start of my first senior role in the academy of my third year and hopefully it will be all that I hope it to be.

We are starting this production on a mini placement with Scottish opera where we are watching and shadowing a stage management team to see how they work and interact with others. I was a little apprehensive going to Scottish opera today because I didn’t know what to expect but as soon as we arrived and got introduced to everyone I was happy to be there. Everyone was lovely. We had a tour around the building and then sat in rehearsals for the morning. It was interesting watching how comfortable everyone was with each other even though that had not been rehearsing very long. It seemed to be a very relaxed atmosphere compared to when I started last year’s opera1. I think this was mainly due to the directors attitude.

Although I have only been there one day I am more confident that myself and Kieron will be able to pull this off. We have decided that it’s going to be the best one yet! We have had a few ideas about paperwork and theatre practise today that we plan to incorporate into our style and hopefully this will prove to be a great success.

the end…

So I have now finished my first allocation as Stage Manager on Romeo and Juliet, and its been very busy and a great learning experience. My last week consisted of fit up, tech, dress, opening night, last night and strike of my first show. This is a lot for one week! It was very busy but I have enjoyed all of this. Fit up was fine, I felt organised before we went in and so I wasn’t worried about anything. Same with running my first technical rehearsal. I did feel ready for this. Although it took me a little while to find my feet, I think I done well overall. Once my first tech was over, I was able to relax into the roll. John wasn’t there unfortunately for my first tech which put me slightly more at edge because I knew if something were to go really wrong then, we were on our own. Thankfully nothing went horribly wrong. Just a few broken glasses.

Our second tech, also went well and John was there to begin with which was a great help. We had a fight sequence in our show which we were going to start our second tech with. However, I didn’t know that you could make your own fight but only to a certain point then we had to get a fight director. I didn’t know when we needed one of these, because I was never told so when John seen that the fight needed a fight director he was slightly worried. We had risk assessed the fight and both actors had practiced this adequately so everything was fine. I think it would have been better obviously if this came up in rehearsals but I am glad it came up when John was there or we wouldn’t have known that it would be a problem until it was too late. I wish that John had made it into rehearsals more so that we could have spotted this problem sooner. But at least we will know for next time. Apart from that hic up everything else seemed to go ok.

The dress was fairly good for us I think. Everything seemed to go ok it was a just a matter of getting things smoothed out a little more. The only thing was that our second dress was in the afternoon just before the show so time was tight. Due to this, I was a little stressed because I wasn’t sure we would be ready in time, but we managed to work fast and have everything set up for the half. Once we were set up and had done our checks I wasn’t worried at all. From a stage management angle, we were ready. I trusted my ASM and I knew that we both knew what we had to do and were as organised as we could be. Trust is a huge thing in a team and I know myself and my ASM worked so well together because I did trust her so much. I think that because I trusted her, she also wanted to work better so it was good for everyone all round.

Overall the show went well, I really enjoyed myself. Working with our cast was good because we knew them for creative beginnings, and I felt that I was more involved with them because of this. It was really nice to work as a team with them and I look forward to working with them in the future.

The Strike went according to plan, Calum (TSM) had to be up at the academy loading the van so he put me in charge of the strike at SYT. I didn’t really have to take charge that much because everyone just got on with what we had to do and we got finished on time. Apart from that it was just our props returns. We had a plan so we could get them done as quick and efficiently as possible so it all went well.

Over all, I would say it has been a challenging allocation, not so much with Stage management but with people skills. I have certainly learned a lot about myself and other people. With the SM side of this allocation, I simply put into motion what I had learned in the previous year and I think I done quite well. Team management was part of my main learning and I want to learn more about this. This is why I have chosen team management to research for my grad project. It was not always a very enjoyable experience this allocation but it was a learning experience that hopefully will stand me in good sted for next years challenges.