Scottish Opera

For most of this term I have been at Scottish Opera shaddowing the Stage Management team. At first I was unhappy about having to do this as I was not sure how much I was going to get out of it as I have already done several operas and I felt that we were just being shoved onto Scottish Opera as there was nothing else for us to do before opera 1 starts. However I thought I should give it my best shot and I think that the rule the more you put into something ther more you get out of it definatly applies to this.  I have been at almost all the rehersals and even went to the understudy rehersals yesterday and it has been really good and I have found it really useful.

It has been really good to see how a professional opera is managed and how the ASM’s run their wings even just basic things like how they keep order in their wings and how they do their setting lists and running lists and how they mark up their scores have all been things that I have learnt in the past few weeks.

For most of the time it has just been me, Emma and Graham and for some of the time it has just been me and Emma and I think that as the Stage Management team saw that we were very enthusiastic about the show and they were quite happy to let us have a go at doing some of there jobs during the understudy rehearsals like cueing performers on which was really good as I had never done that before and it was good to get to have a go of it before the madness of war and peace starts and to find out the proper way to cue someone on as I realised I had no idea.

It has been interesting to observe how the stage managers operate as a team as they all seem very relaxed and cheerful and dont seem to be very stressed and I think that this has transfered to the other teams as everyone seems to be having a laugh but still getting everything that they had to do done. I really hope that we can also achieve this and not get to stressed out during Opera 1 and enjoy the experience as I think that its going to be a really interesting and rewarding experience and I want to enjoy the experience as its happening.

Stage and Piano

Well this week has been completely taken up with the 10 Stage and Piano’s that we had to have for Ariadne.  Unlike almost everyone else I actually really enjoyed it.  The first one we did I had Vicky there as part of a peer teaching thing that Johns starting this was actually really good as she was able to answer questions that I had not thought of until we started and she could help when I was unsure of what to do which was good.  The next one that evening was a nightmare especially the beginning as we started the prologue for Ariande which involved a lot of things going on the stage one after the other and a lot of people going on at different times.  One of the things i noticed was the difference between this and panto as when we did panto we each had a list of what we were supposed to do before it started so everyone new what they were supposed to be doing and even quite complicated bits ran reasonable smoothly.  This time no one new and me and Martin were left trying to work out who could do what in our wing with only seconds before it started as none of the TSM people had a clue what to do as they were only told they were doing it just before it started.  As there were so many problems and it was so complicated we had to run it again and again and the really annoying thing about it was everything that starts inthe SL wing ends up in the SR wing and vice versa so it took us ages to reset and involved running back and forth between the wings so it was slightly disheartening when the next morning Mike had a go at us for not reseting fast enough and not keeping better control of our wings. That night would have been a really good time to have Vicky there as after Oranges im sure that she would have had lots of ideas on how to manage what was happening.  After the beginning of the prologue things settled down and were much easier.

One of the things that I found during these sessions was how hard it actually is to get people in the wings to be quiet and that actually during this week the techies were the worst offenders which surprised me when I asked a singer to be quiet they were and normally stayed that way but when I asked some of the TSM crew who were waiting in the wings to do a scene change to be quiet they just waited until I had moved back to the props table and then started there conversation again at the same volume.  I found this to be really annoying as I assumed that they would have more respect for what was happening and for Hannah as they were standing very near the prompt desk.

The worst bit of the whole show is during the interval when we have to get 4 tones of sand onto the stage in 15 minutes its really tiring and we only just manage it everytime although as we had so many stage and piano sessions we got to do 2 full piano dresses so we will get lots of practice and im assuming that we will get faster each time. After the sand is down me and Martin have 5 minutes to get the dressing down exactly as Cordelia wants it which doesnt always happen as we start to run out of time as there is a lot of stuff to go down.

After the interval there is very little for me to do as not a lot happens in the 2nd act. Vicky told me that I should be using this time to be practising score reading but I have found that I really dont like doing this during a show as i find that it makes me feel disconnected with whats happening on stage and that im not giving this my full attention. I feel that at this point its more beneficial to me to watch what is happening on the stage and that I know the show so well that I can almost see the score in my head without having to look at it.

More on Opera 2

Well we are now midway through our second full week on Ariadne and after a shaky start im really enjoying it.  This week our to do lists have been quite short as we did most of it last week so we have been in rehearsals a lot which has been great as I know have a much better idea of the plot and whats going on during the opera.  Rehearsals have also been good as me and Martin have been running our wings so I have had to follow the score by myself which has been really interesting as I had no one copy if I got lost so I had to find different ways to cope which I think has been really good practice for score reading and I probably learned more doing it this way than in the whole week we spent with Christina just because if I got lost I had to figure it out myself whereas in her class there was people to copy.  I find that this is the best way for me to learn just being thrown into something and having to find a way to cope as it seams to stick better for me doing it like this.

Today we did a full run of the prologue with the two casts and it went well.  It was good to get to rehearse the beginning before we get onto the stage as there is quite a lot going on at once and me and Martin have to get the wheelbarrows from one side of the stage to the other quite quickly. I think that it was also quite helpful for the singers to know what we are doing as they are used to doing it themselves and the first time it was ran they sometimes forgot to give the props to us so we could take them round but by the second time they knew to give us the props so it was good to get all this sorted before the stage and piano.

Blocking Class

Thursday evening was Johns blocking class and I really enjoyed it.  The use of technology was good in this class I do sometimes think that people use technology just cause its there and not cause it benefits anyone in particular but I think that in this case it really helped the class. Short of actually getting into a rehearsal and learning it that way I dont think that there was much that could have made the class better. The content ofthe class was good it was really easy to follow and I think that if you didnt know how to block it would have been a good way to learn and i am sure that I would have remembered and understood everything that was taught which doesnt happen that often. I also picked up some blocking tips that I never knew about like using post it notes.

I discovered that I am a kinesthetic learner as I find it easier to learn and remember things if I have had a shot of it. Its a shame that all classes are not taught like this as I thought that it was really good however I can only imagine the amount of time it must have taken to do the  video and animations.

Opera 2 (2)

Today after our tutorial with John I did a lot of thinking about why I am having such a hard time with this show and I think one of the main reasons is that I have never really done much as an ASM I have been a DSM and SM a few times and I think im just used to having all the information I could ever need to hand. I realise that as an ASM there is not the same need to know everything but I like to have all the information so that I know exactly what im doing. I think that my main problem is that I like to be in control and to know exactly whats going on which is something maybe an ASM doesnt get to do.  This is something I am going to have to work on and I think that with practice this will be something I can get used to.

Im still having propping issues but I think that this is just something that will improve with practice. I do however seem to have a talent for picking the difficult props that take most of the day to source. Whereas Martin seams to be able to pick the ones that get done in a couple of phone calls.

Opera 2

I was really looking forward to being ASM for opera 2 but so far the experience has been quite disapointing and im not really sure why. Firstly even after spending the better part of a week on the show I still dont really feel like I know anything about it and im not really sure how to find this out.  Im also having trouble with the props The to do lists me and Martin get are extremely vague and its sometimes hard to figure out what we are supposed to be getting also basic things like the amount needed are left out which is making our lives harder. One thing that I think I have learned from this is that when im stage manager im going to have a page on each prop with a detailed discription so that everyone knows what they are supposed to be getting. 

Today I spent the whole afternoon trying to get 20 music stands which was anoying as we are in a music school but the music school doesnt have any to spare. Because I spent the whole afternoon on this and Martin spent the day with Mike in the van getting props we had already found none of the things on the to do list got done which is a bit worrying.

After speaking to Martin I think that the main problem is neither of us are really sure what we are doing and are scared of making a mistake and im not really sure how to make the situation better.

Week 4

This week was another week of classes this time it was TSM and LX.  I enjoyed the TSM class it put the team working we had done in Johns class into a production environment and showed that as a group unless expressly told to work in a team we all just tend to our own thing and not really collaborate even though when we do we work well as a team which I was a little disappointed in as until Steve pointed it out I had not even noticed we were doing this.    However I think that we all learnt something from this as the next day when set the task of rigging the lights we did appoint a team leader and sorted out roles before we started.

On the Wednesday morning we had a meeting for the Drama Vs Opera presentation and I think that this is going really well.  We seam to be working well together and everyhting seams to be coming together which is a relief as its one less thing to worry about.  

The LX class was not great I think this was because James had to get the lights rigged, focused and plotted  for the actors showcase so he didnt have time to teach us anything and most of the time I had no real clue what I was doing which I found extremely frustrating and may have given the impression that I didnt care or couldnt be bothered which was not the case.  During the focus and the plot there was a lot of sitting about and by this point I was getting bored with sitting through focuses and plotting without having to do anything.  During the plot most of us were sent to the circle while others watched the lights being plotted, when we were supposed to swap over some of the people would not move as they wanted to watch the plotting and this meant that most of us never got anywhere near the board so I have no idea how to work the strand which I was a bit disappointed in.  Next year I think that it would be a good idea to have LX classes in small groups for only half a day as i dont really feel that I learnt anything and I dont feel that im anymore confident in LX than I was at the begining and I felt that I could have spent some of the time over the past few days working on all the projects that we have to do.

Which now brings me to today which was set aside for the collaborative projects.  As part of the project we had to do peer assess everyone in our group.  The results were given to us this morning and as a result lead to a very uncomfortable meeting.  I was surprised at the comments I got as a didnt think I was doing that well but everyone seamed to think that i was contributing well and doing a good job of leading the group which I was really happy to learn, i was also told that I was sometimes to quiet and needed to speak up which is something I am working on.  Some people in our group were really upset with the comments they got and i think some people used this opportunity to attack the people they didnt like.  I was maybe not as constructive as I could have been on a couple of peoples forms and the next time we do this im definitely going to try to not let my anger with them interfear with the task.

SM Day 4

Sorry for the delay in getting this post done but I have  been so busy doing work for the other presentations that I have not really had time to blog until now. 

 Friday was a really enjoyable day.  The first hour was spent score reading and having just got my head around the Hoffman stuff we had spent the week doing Christina changed the opera and I felt like I was back to where I was on Tuesday, luckily by the second score reading class in the afternoon I had picked it up again and kind of managed to follow the score without reading the words but I think I am a long way off being able to DSM a opera.

The rest of the day was spent practicing cueing which was really good.  The actual DSM part went well and so did the score reading part. I found the score reading part much more difficult than the script although I was expecting that.  But I was slightly surprised that I managed the score without making any mistakes which I think has boosted my confidence a bit.

Overall I think this week has been really good and I was surprised at  how much I learnt

SM Day 3

Today we had another score reading class and I actually managed to have a small breakthrough today when I finally figured out exactly how you are supposed to follow the music and was sort of managing to keep up properly so that was a good start to the day although when I get lost its still hard to find where I’m supposed to be.

After that it was back to the Chandler for team building games. We had to come up with a game that showed team working and had something to do with theatre.  This was really interesting as my group didn’t come up with a proper idea till about 10 minutes before we were supposed to present the game but then it suddenly all started to work right at the end.  I thought it was a really good idea to extend the games and have other people come in and try them it was perhaps a shame that we couldn’t  have extended it more and developed the games properly.

We spent the rest of the day preparing for the script and score presentations tomorrow and I’m feeling much better about doing the acting part.  I have spent most of this week dreading Friday as I would have to speak  in front of everyone and and I’m still not completely comfortable with the idea but I do get why its a good idea and I think that actually doing it will be a good thing for me to do.

SM Day 1

Today was the first day of the Stage Management classes and I spent most of it trying not to be sick.  I cant really pick out anything I did learn as most of the stuff we went over I already new how to do except the score reading class at the beginning which being completely music illiterate I found quite daunting especially as we were all simply given a score and told to follow it along with the CD but by the end of it I was following the score reasonably well and did get to the end at almost the same time as the CD. 

I am really not a fan of blogging I just really dont get the point of it and I have never really been that good at reflecting especially writing things down which I seem to really struggle to do.