Standby Lights: A DSM's Guide To FMP

Animal Farm Show Write Up De-rig/ Fit up- Throughout the fit-up period, all of the crew helped out building and rigging for the different technical departments. We only had one week to build the set and ensure all the technical departments were ready for plotting on Friday. We de-rigged the lighting that was left up from the last external show. The de-rig process took us half a day as there was only 2 of us, if all the crew was there we would have had it done way before dinner time. Later on, in the week, we were given a lighting plan by Andy (lighting designer) which we had to rig. This included lanterns such as cantatas, Parcans, Source Four Profiles, Moving Lights. To rig these lanterns, we used equipment such as Tallescope and Zarges to get to the rig. We then used pullies attached on to a sling to send a light up to the crew member at height. Whilst doing this we used all of the correct PPE such as Hardhats, Steel top caps and gloves. Set On the second day, we...

Attached below is a couple of pages of my prompt book for Animal Farm. One the left is a copy of the script, and on the right is where I record all my cues, notes, times and blocking. As you can see many times in addition to underlining the cue line, I will put it in quotation marks in the notes section. This helps me ensure that I don't miss any lighting (LX), Sound (SQ) and stage management (Stage) cues. During the shows, I would record running times. After some research, I found an application that allows you to easily record show running times for theatre. At the end of the show, it sums up all of the times. Below are the screenshots from all four performances. Thursday 14th 1:00pm               Thursday 14th 7:30pm Friday 15th 1:00pm                                 Friday 15th 7:30pm

Industry Practitioners  Research Part of my research was to find industry practitioners in theatre. During my time researching, I found this website which had a Q and A session with 'Nathan Matthews" who is the deputy stage manager at "Mamma Mia". I thought this was a great interview, so I included it in my research. Nathan Matthews Deputy Stage Manager at Mamma Mia The first thing I do every day is: Check my emails. It’s sad but true. Mornings used to involve making a pot of coffee, but I’ve cut that out, so it’s a pint of water instead! An average day for me involves: If we’re in auditions or rehearsing (which we’ve been doing since February!) I’ll usually be at the theatre just before 10:00 to make sure everything is ready for the day. During auditions, we make sure the auditionees are in the right place at the right times, try to settle their nerves and make sure they are as prepared as they can be. During rehearsals, we make sure the right...

Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester Frankenstein (April 2018) On Thursday 12th April 2018 I visited the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester to shadow their Stage Management department on the production "Frankenstein". During my time there I shadowed the ASM (Assistant Stage Manager) and SM (Stage Manager) through the matinee performance. During the show, they ensure the cast's safety, move set pieces onto and off stage and help maintain the artistic integrity of the show.  Due to the fact that the Royal Exchange Theatre is in the round, I got to see how the show runs from outside of the auditorium. Actors running endlessly so they don't miss their cues, dressers constantly running after them picking up any costumes that were dumped on the floor during quick changes, its a very interesting and different way of theatre than Iv seen before. Along with seeing that I saw how some of the different effects in the shows happened, they used a lot of different "Trick...