Hey there!
The second project of making theatre is taking part in the
process of bringing theatre shows to life. As the first years we have all
been assigned a role for the process of the technical aspects of theatre life
to help the third years prepare for their final production. My assigned role was DSM!
As Deputy Stage manager, my role mainly lies with
interactions with the cast and communicating any needs to the rest of the crew
whilst helping SM and ASM’s with their roles. Additionally, it is my
responsibility to type up minutes from any production meetings and rehearsal
reports from rehearsals I have sat through.
Due to timetable mishaps, I am unable to make the monday 1-4
rehearsal so I post reports every Thursday after attending the rehearsals, apart from the hour absence for the production meeting. Admittedly in the first few weeks,
due to other commitments and being ill, I was rather late in sending the minutes round
and I didn’t realise until week 3 that I was required to do a rehearsal report
so that was delayed in starting until week 3.
It is currently week 4, I thought it was best to start the
blog after a few weeks as it has been a fairly bumpy start trying to get into a
smooth routine with everyone knowing what they were doing. There, for example,
were a few job roles that were misunderstood and this led to confusions of the
responsibility of each individual which thankfully these have been sorted and
everyone is aware of what they have to do. Although, our lighting tech assistant
has just the other day dropped out so that may be problematic but as a group I am
confident we can work through it and come up with a plan to spread the role out
evenly.
The second week charlotte and I were in early to start
preparing the set followed by meeting the cast, although trains had run late so
I was 15 minutes late instead of 15 minutes early. We couldn’t meet the cast
the first week so it was merely a meeting to set things up the first week to
get everyone up to scratch with how things will be set out in terms of basic
set etc. second week was when things got a lot busier, before the rehearsal
myself, the SM and the DSM’s gathered a few immediate hand held props for the
rehearsal before we had our production meeting. For this week I wasn’t needed
in rehearsal as it was just running through little scenes and I had turned up
late so was told I could go home.
Week 3 was a lot busier than previous, having turned up
early to be there in case I was needed, a few hours early before rehearsals and
meetings begun, there was a problem with no one from our team having turned up
for the set making, as well as a member dropping from the course, week 4, (as I
am typing this) I had turned up by 10am in case I was needed to assist with the
set. As far my services haven’t been needed. The day started for me at 12 in
week 3, I had a meeting to understand how to use Freecycle to start gathering
set, then a half hour break before heading straight into rehearsals.
For this weeks’ rehearsal, it was my first proper
interaction with the cast so I made a point of going around the group of cast
to introduce myself properly and make them aware that I am there for any needs
they require. This therefore meant a lot of props and set questions to be
looked into where they are having interaction with the crew. I have a feeling
that the next rehearsal meeting there will be a smaller requirement of props
and sound as things should start to fall into place.
Regardless of a bumpy start I am thoroughly enjoying having
involvement in a show outside of acting. Whilst a busy role, it’s productive
and already heavily rewarding to see a show come together the way it is. And plus,
I always look forward to the biscuits in the production meeting!
Until next week J
