E-Board Check-ins
Emma:
went to Melancholy Play
SFB move in!
talked to OB
having meetings with Presidents
will finalize next year’s calendar
talking to SAO
Stella:
went to Melancholy Play
trying to talk to SAO lol
submitted SFB Eventbrite
went through
answered questions about renting theater from Agganis
SFB move in!
booked rehearsal rooms
Guin:
got space for Haunted House!
facilitated auditions for One Acts
still looking for stage manager
Jack:
Melina:
sent two newsletters
made 5 graphics
reposting on social media
went to Melancholy Play
SFB move in
Rayna:
helped with Haunted House
picked up Home Depot order
meetings with sound for SFB
watched Melancholy Play
hosted tech workshop for lights and sound
helped Wandering Minds with move-in and strike
Steve:
watched The Little Mermaid
Show Check-outs
The Little Mermaid (Family & Friends Weekend Show)
Hadysha Miller (Director):
“My experience in The Little Mermaid as director was a stressful one, to say the least. I felt like there was no proper guidance on how to do this. Honestly, I am tired and grateful that the show is over. We did make a show happen and I am grateful that things pulled through. With that being said we can improve this process through proper communication. I know we had the wish, wants, and needs list established at the beginning of the summer but having the technical director meet and create another group meeting would have been super helpful, I know that you got the tech crew late in the game Emma, so that is not on anyone. It’s just tough to see issues that could have been solved a lot sooner happen with large creative team meetings. Also with a musical like this, it is so important for the music director to communicate with the director about music transitions and underscore dialogue cause I felt there was a lot of overlap there, but we were all new in the process and now we know. Other than that, making sure we have a level of professionalism and making sure we communicate would have been super helpful for this show. But thank you, everyone!”
Amy Fryda (Music Director):
musical was so much stress for F&F
live pit was a struggle
coordinating pit and actors and headset was a lot
first time music directing as well
feeling after Friday night was great
heart was full of joy and pride!
may have been a better experience if the timeline was longer
new experience with college students/older students
didn’t set expectations
not everyone knew how to read sheet music or sight read
advice: have no expectations – set an equal bar for everyone
fulfilling experience every night
low lows and high highs
Emma Neary (Technical Director):
first TD’ed online, did tech a lot after
a lot of new people in Troupe who don’t know how things work, i.e. Division of Power
need to stress this learning curve
costumes felt stepped on when actors were told to buy their own costumes
grateful for this CT being mostly new people
very appreciative of Rayna and Claire as helpers
not meant to be a TD (she says)
new actors didn’t understand the techies POV
liked a lot of parts of working in Tsai
very grateful to Mack for SMing
CT was confrontational
it’s just extracurricular theatre!
Daphne Parker (Producer):
“This production has been a huge learning experience for me and something that will be so helpful in future troupe productions that I am a part of. I would say that the main thing that I took away from it was just how important communication is when working in a team. Mainly, the importance of being honest and asking for help when you need it. Especially with how stressful and quick of a process this was, everyone had their own issues and stressors so it was so important to be honest and ask for help when needed. Even just the fact that I ended up being Assistant Director as well as Head Producer because Hadysha expressed concern in being able to do directing all by herself. However, I think we really all did help each out throughout this process. Although this was a tough and stressful experience for me, and all of us, it truly taught me so much about how the dynamics of the creative team work best and how best to deal with various situations in the future.”
Madison McCormack (Stage Manager):
“Over the course of the production, I noticed many good and many bad things. I want to
start with the good things. In general, E-Board was very responsive to text messages, emails,
and calls throughout the entire process, and this was greatly appreciated– it generally made my
life easier. I also appreciated the help concerning logistical issues and willingness to help
mediate and be present for conflicts. I appreciated the amount of passion that all members of
the creative team had for the show, and the way that they each put their all into this show. It
could not have been done without them, and I am thankful for the amount of care put into it.
That being said, this show overall was incredibly frustrating for me. Communication,
especially at the beginning, was very poor amongst the creative team. There were not clearly
defined expectations, and amongst the members of the creative team, Hadysha had never
directed a show of this size before, it was Daphne’s first time as Head Producer, Amy had never
music directed before, and Mckenzie (as far as I know) had not choreographed a show of this
size before. While I’m not against Stage Troupe’s motto of “Learning by doing”, I think that there
needs to be more help provided to those who are performing a role for the first time. Daphne
had a great mentor in Natalie, and I believe was adequately prepared for her position. I think
Hadysha would have benefited greatly from receiving more help from within Stage Troupe
regarding timelines, duties, and responsibilities expected of her as director. A suggestion would
be to have a mock timeline for Family and Friends weekend specifically to be handed to the
director of future productions with what needs to be done approximately how far in advance. I
think Amy would have benefitted from being put into contact with someone who had previously
music directed a Stage Troupe show, or having a model schedule provided for how to structure
music rehearsals. I think Mckenzie could have potentially benefitted from the same. This is not
to say that our creative team members did not do the best that they could with what they had, I
just believe that it could have been a lot smoother had any of these measures been in place.
I do not wish to speak badly of the people I have worked with during this process, so I
will keep this as professional as possible while also pointing out several issues that cropped up
during this production. Throughout this entire process, I have constantly had to defend tech,
defend actors, defend members of the creative team, and defend others actions in general as
they were subject to a great amount of negative commentary from others. I am not completely
innocent in this, of course, as I have had my own frustrations during the course of this show and
have voiced them on occasion. However, most of my experience consisted of listening to others
rant about each other, absorbing it, and then doing my best to stay partial and defend the
attacked party. This has been incredibly frustrating and exhausting. It should not have been my
responsibility to defend the entire crew and creative team from each other. It is 100% my
responsibility as stage manager to hear out the complaints of the cast and occasionally the
crew, to do my best to respond to those and make the changes necessary to mitigate those, but
personal attacks should not have been on the table. On that note, I have been told multiple
times by E-Board that the best thing to do when frustrated is vent “up”, i.e to E-Board or Steve,
and while I am lucky to know and be known by members of the E-Board, I believe that this does
not feel possible for other members of the creative team when they do not personally know the
E-Board. There was also confusion at some points during this process as to who to turn to to
communicate logistical issues or problems in regards to E-Board members, and I wish that had
not been the case. I think it would be very beneficial if for example, each production over the
course of the season was assigned a specific E-Board member to be the designated go to
concerning logistical issues and E-Board questions (obviously not when it comes to department
specific questions, i.e. money questions should go to the treasurer).
I would also like to make a personal suggestion, if I may. I don’t believe that musicals
should be performed for F&F shows. Last year, I ASMed for She Kills Monsters, and just trying
to put that show on without music was difficult enough and posed its own difficulties. For The
Little Mermaid, the amount of pressure and stress that was put on the cast and crew and
creative team due to the time constraint was ridiculous. Blocking and choreography was still
happening after the hard off book because there simply was not enough time to do it before
then, despite us having four hour rehearsals six days a week. I think this show had the potential
to be absolutely amazing, but we struggled far more because there was not enough time. I
understand that we want to bring in as much revenue as possible for F&F weekend, and
musicals (especially big ones) do that, but the cost of doing that is too high, in my opinion.
The last thing I want to touch on is the division of power. We did have a division of power
talk with members of the E-Board, and I appreciate that it happened. However, I don’t believe
that it was adequately followed, and there was no real way to regulate people who stepped over
their bounds, which I believe happened often. Multiple tech teams had their jobs taken away
from them due to interference from other creative team members, there were music rehearsals
being conducted by people other than the music director, and at times contrasting opinions and
conversations that should have taken place before blocking or choreographing happening in
front of the cast. There needs to be a way to enforce the division of power. If I had been told up
front “it’s your job to step in when someone does someone else’s job and let them know” I would
have been completely comfortable doing so and enforcing this. However, I was constantly told
throughout this process that I was considered lower than other members of the creative team
and that as such my opinion mattered less– which also felt completely unacceptable. If I had not
had positive experiences with Troupe in the past, I do not believe that I would be returning to
Troupe in the spring. I worry about that when it comes to actors and techies who participated in
this show as their first show, and have general concern for the future if this does not change.
I hope that no one takes these comments as a personal attack, as that was not my
intent– I wish to be as objective as possible and tell people the things that caused problems so
that they can be worked on in the future to create better experiences for everyone. I appreciate
you hearing me out through this long piece, and want to say thank you again to everyone for
their hard work and dedication to this show, as I know how hard it was at times and yet it still got
done. I am grateful for that.
Mackenzie Hackett (Choreographer):
Fiona Brymer (Choreographer):
enjoyed working on the show
first time with Stage Troupe!
loved working with Mackenzie
did a lot of things outside of her job criteria to ensure show went well
loved the show and the result, but the process was stressful
decent amount of miscommunication on who should do what
advice: make sure jobs are thoroughly outlined
communication was lacking
two days of Amy’s absence with no music
no clear plan of what to do for music
stressful for actors – not their job
tech week was unnecessarily stressful
hold people accountable
covering for people’s absences is not fair
happy with how everything turned out, but a lot of stress on actors and CT
Kenzie had not worked on a show this size, but not necessarily an issue
she was the assistant
had experience choreographing a show this size
choreo had the experience
Hadysha and Kenzie had to do music rehearsals sometimes as Amy was at other commitments
Amy mentioned this during the summer
songs needed to be worked on and Amy didn’t have time to work on them, so other members had to step in
felt the most excluded from CT meetings
took halfway through the process to be included in the CT Slack channel
had a significant role in CT as a choreographer
Show Check-ins
A Small Family Business (Fall Mainstage Show)
Gavin Mastella (Director):
saw Mermaid with parents!
it was so good
last week of rehearsals before tech week
dropped into build week one day
had some rehearsals
scheduling was difficult
had photoshoot on Thursday night
had move-in today
no complaints but went long due to complicated set
one actor is currently sick with a sore throat
went to a doctor and thinks its RSV
Molly Flanigan (Technical Director):
met with many departments
finalized light plot, sound, costume fittings
saw Mermaid
helped with strike
move-in worked!
everyone worked together!
didn’t have to stay late during build week
thanks Rayna for Home Depot run!
everyone worked well and things went nice!
always nervous for tech week
Mariam Hydara (Assistant Director):
went to rehearsal on Monday, Friday, Saturday
move-in was cool and smooth!
Renata Feinstein (Producer):
Sorry I won't be able to make it today. Move-in today was awesome! Got headshots of the entire cast and most of the crew :) We finally got the eventbrite link (YAY), so I've submitted the warren poster and we're working on promoting it! I'm also ordering flyers that I should be able to pick up soon, and will hopefully figure out reimbursements for myself soon. My APs are awesome and putting the playbill together and managing social media, and we're going to start decorating the lobby tomorrow!!
Macy Bornstein (Stage Manager):
people showed up to rehearsal this week… finally
photoshoot
move-in was good
nervous about next week
Ride the Cyclone (Fall Mainstage Show)
Guin Keith (Director):
good week! lots of rehearsals
three cast bonding events
got rehearsal space situation solved
mostly in FitRec
some lifts go too high in rehearsal room
currently having two cast situations
one is a health issue
one is a division of power issue
division of power needs to be clarified
had to explain blocking and notes by director, not by cast
Claire Parrell (Technical Director):
being “around” for SFB
met with CT to talk about tech
cross referencing with videos to make final version of set
will talk to Rayna about pipe and drape
sent out form for sweatshirt
Hal, Grace and Claire = official TD team
making department meeting schedule for them
doing research on mic rentals
Madeleine Clinch (Music Director):
Sarah Valger (Assistant Director):
Ian Aquino (Producer):
Zoe Larrimer (Stage Manager):
continued to schedule rehearsals and we had our first FitRec rehearsal
sent out sweatshirt info and we had a cast and crew picnic!
Guin Keith (Choreographer):
productive and incredible dance rehearsal this weekend
made Google Drive full of dance videos
One Acts Updates:
three one-acts!
directors: Adie, Stella, Isabella P, Seheni
perhaps movement showcase
Guin will send cast and crew lists
Rayna will help with finding SMs
Mermaid Scripts:
return in a box to the post office
Costume Returns:
need to dry clean… need credit card…
we don’t know about SAO credit card!