standby the cast

Canadian stage manager and scenic painter | Sheridan graduate | Main Blog: thelandofloralie.tumblr.com

[miseducatedmelanicmuse]

[seriesofnonsequiturs]

I love using “good catch”

I also say “thanks for the update” or “thanks for the head’s up!”

“I really appreciate the head’s up!” also a classic

If I haven’t gotten back to someone in a swift enough period (i.e. one work day max) I say “thank you for your patience. after some consideration, I have decided…”

don’t apologize for piddly things! 

thank you > sorry

[goth-aunt]

I need to remember

[stargazing-enby]

thank you > sorry

Thank you for waiting for me > sorry for being late

Thank you for helping me/for your time/for listening to me > sorry for bothering you

Thanking someone when they do you a favour > apologizing for your existence

This is especially hard when you haven’t been taught that people need to respect your limits, but with a bit of practice you can absolutely get there!

[moulinrouqes]

HAMILTON (2020) dir. Thomas Kail

[col-brightside]

I love this moment so much. What I love most about this is how this moment might have to come to pass. Did Binkley and his team have a moment in preprogramming where they just went “Hey, what if?” “Yeah, let’s build it and see what happens” and they surprised everyone in tech with this, or did Tommy or Groff go “Hey. What if in this moment when he stomps we snap to blue” “yeah, give me three minutes. Groups 600 + 700 + 41 select active at 5/68. Record cue 420 time 0.” And I love those conversations where someone just has a crazy what if and it sticks.

[darksideofthecurtain]

Can’t use cue 420, that’s only for the atmospherics! 420 haze it!

[animatedtext]

[stagemanagerssaygo]

Miss hearing Stage Manager calls? Here you GO.

[irobot-youjane-deactivated20220]

This video is free serotonin.

[an-a-1234-5678]

[astro-b-o-y-d]

Me when a new hyperfixation hits and I know full well it’s going to take up 90% of my blog in the near future

[quietwing]

Me when I talk about a musical to my non-theatre freinds

[stagefoot]

One of these days I’m going to just start sinking into the walls of the theater a la Davy Jones’ ship and my body will start growing shackles and tie line and gel frames

Part of the theater, part of the crew. Part of the theater, part of the crew.

[standbythecast]

Honestly, "Part of the set, part of the crew" is something that runs through my mind a lot while working backstage.

[ripelemon]

aaaaahhhhh this quick change

[garrettthegay]

what show is this why is this so amazing omg i love theatre magic so much???

[plaingreeneyes]

Hey is that mean girls?

[latenightsandstagelights]

That’s what I’m thinking it is!

[weareonthebrinkofdisaster-blog]

Actor: *throws clothes off as soon as they exit the stage in order to make costume change in time for a cue that isn’t for another five minutes*

Also Actor: *has thirty seconds until they need to be onstage* “Do you want to hear a joke?”

[thestageman]

Theatre Teacher: Pretend you’re actors

My ASM: THEY CHANGED THE SPIKE TAPE FROM BLUE TO WHITE HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THE SET WAS CORRECT

Me, the SM: THE STAGE MANAGER TOLD ME TO MOVE OUT OF HIS WAY SO HE COULD SEE THE STAGE??????

ASM: I WAS TOLD N O T TO SIT ON THAT SET PIECE THAT HAS TO GO ONSTAGE IN S I X LINES

SM: THEY TOLD ME NOT TO EAT THE FOOD PROPS!!!!!!! THE F O O D PROPS!!!!

[retroronyecs-deactivated2020091]

When the stage hands are struggling but you’re all the way up in the booth unable to help.

[plantsfromspace]

Apparently, there’s a clause in Actors’ Equity contracts that states company managers must “do their best to maintain a temperature-controlled environment”. I work in an outdoor theatre.

Cut to footage of our CM just yelling “stop it” at the sky.

[sapphicambitions]

Production Meetings

[that-sound-guy]

I think the most important thing I’ve learned in technical theatre is how to carry large awkwardly shaped things unnecessarily long distances.

[mondays-off]

When an actor starts ad-libbing their monologue and then calls “Line!”

[745pm]

We can’t get the fiddler off the roof

My stage manager during our first scene change of rehearsals (via 745pm)

[drearyhours]

unpopular opinion but i think the film and tv industries should have better labor laws even if it makes it harder or impossible to depict certain things

[drearyhours]

i dont care if it makes it harder to produce game of thrones or whatever, acting should not leave women traumatized

[squeeful]

Okay I know this is about acting and people are getting more traction about it (sexuality safety coordinators are a job! yell about them. demand your shows get them) but

Any person who has worked on a set for more than a few years has at least one person they know who died.  

Not usually on set, but afterwards.  Because we don’t have anyone shutting down production for unsafe practices when “unsafe” means 16 hour days.  Or more.  For weeks.  Finishing a day before hour 12 (not including lunch) is considered an early leave.

I had teachers tell us not to, unless we absolutely had to, take music video gigs because they’ll work you for 24 hours and send you to drive home.  And if we had to work that, pull over and nap in our car because multiple people per year fall asleep at the wheel and go over the canyons around LA.

I know you mean acting but please.  Don’t forget the crew.  We have a shockingly high rate of suicide because these working schedules leave us with no sleep, no time outside of work, and it destroys lives, relationships, and families.  Burnout is high.  Chronic illness and broken bodies are common.  Cocaine use in order to get through a 20 hour day is rampant.  Every single one of your reality shows is fueled by cocaine.

The number of days that are scheduled to shoot a feature has shrunk dramatically in the past two decades.  Which means longer days.

Netflix shows are notorious for being poorly organized, understaffed, and long days.

There are labor laws but what they do is levy fines.  Those fines are either factored into budget, people are bullied into not reporting actual hours, or crew members see them as incentive to take those jobs because more money and cost of living is high.  (Also this industry has a crew culture of dick measuring by sticking your wang in a blender and boasting about how many 100 hour weeks you pulled.)

[alexazombie]

this can be applied for people working in animation as well. Like I know people who work at Pixar and they straight up work 12 hour days and go into work on weekends to meet their deadlines. The incredibles 2 made over a billion dollars and Pixar still cut jobs due to “budget”. The entertainment industry is a business at the end of the day. There here to make money and they are going to do it at the expense of workers because they know no one is going to do anything about it.

[hunterinabrowncoat]

This is why I get pissy when people have a go about British TV shows only producing 10-12 episodes per season at most, instead of 24. Do you know why? Because the UK has fucking labour laws.

When I worked on BBC Causalty, as soon as it hit 5pm, everything stopped. The producer/director etc would have a quick meeting to decide if we’d go into overtime or schedule it in later in the week. And I got an extra payslip in the mail for every minute of overtime I did, even though I was paid a weekly rate.

I don’t care if it means producing less content. I don’t care if it means it costs twice as much - if treating your creatives and your crew like shit is needed to make your show, then your show doesn’t deserve to get made.

And that’s aside from the fact that actors are often exploited, neglected, coerced into doing scenes they’re uncomfortable with etc or outright abused by directors for the sake of ~performance.

No art is worth that.