Talk:Stage Management

Are we supposed to be sticking to the wiki rules with these pages? ie should the little preamble not be "conversational"? or is it more helpful to be told how to SM by Colleen in the pub!

I've edited to break up the wall of text.

Thanks for breaking the wall. I think that the wiki should be used as an extra resource alongside the pub teaching we have at the moment. The problem with pup teaching is that, occasionally small things get missed out and that it is not always available 24 hours a day. If we have one complete and comprehensive place to go, then it will help. Though the wiki is young, its true usefulness will show when it comes to things like the rig or phones system, which people rarely look at in detail, and so the next time it needs re-hung or it breaks, all the required information is in one place for everyone to use.

You missunderstand me, I was asking if the page needed to be made more "formal" (not the right word), see below. Grible 12:15, 4 March 2006 (GMT)

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It's a bit difficult to write about stage management in general terms. The job that a stage manager does varies widely from person to person, show to show, venue to venue, director to director, and so on. I'll try to give a basic summary of the job, followed by specifics of shows at Bedlam.

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It is difficult to discuss stage management in general terms. The job of an SM varies widely from person to person, show to show, venue to venue, director to director, etc. This article aims to give a basic summary of the job and some specifics regarding Bedlam.

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Are there rules of the wiki?!?!?!?!?!

no, there are no rules at all. Nick

I like the more 'formal' version but then I spend my course writing technical reports, formal is good but the personality of the writer need not be completely covered up - Amar

yarrr

Well personally I should find it very difficult to write anything proposing to be "practical theatre" in an entirely formal way. Speaking for stage management, there simply is no universal job description for stage managing. Since it depends almost entirely on the venue, the director, the show, my own personal preference, whatever, I can't write out a list of THIS IS WHAT YOU DO and THIS IS WHAT YOU DON'T DO in formal, contract/job description-type terms. I mean I guess I could, but it doesn't seem appropriate. I took an informal tone because if the question is indeed "how?" (as the link to Practical Theatre says it is), I respond to that question with "well, you do this this and this, but sometimes you might do this other thing, and one time I did example, and I've also heard that four years ago someone did example and no one liked it, which means that it can be done but you might run into trouble with the idea, and you also need to do this, possibly this and this, but ask your director if you are in charge of this and that." Et cetera et cetera. Pub teaching does seem to be the way we do things at Bedlam- when I decided to stage manage a show no one gave me any written formal guidelines about how to do it, I learned by experience, trial and error and asking people- mostly, at the pub. So I don't see a problem with it until someone asks me to write out formal guidelines for SM-ing that can then be handed out to everyone who goes on a form. - Colleen