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- Scheduling rehearsals. This includes when rehearsals will be, and what will happen during each individual rehearsal.
- Take notes of what goes on during rehearsals (blocking, costume, prop, sound notes, etc.). See Callboard.
- Maintain rehearsal props/costumes (i.e., bringing them to rehearsal, keeping them safe, letting props know if they run out, etc).
- If actors are missing from a rehearsal, it is your job to hunt them down like dogs (ie call/text them to see where they are)
- You need not be at every rehearsal, but it is your responsibility to make sure that an ASM is at a rehearsal if you're not.
- Recommendation: if you are also the Production SM (you probably are), be at big rehearsals like Read Through, Designer Run, and as many Full Runs as possible to get a good sense of the show, blocking, etc.
- Make sure that your ASMs know what they're doing. Have them shadow you (or an experienced ASM) at one rehearsal before they run a rehearsal on their own, or attend their first rehearsal.
- Make sure to send an email with all the information about how to ASM to your ASMs. Check the email drafts document for this.
- Make sure to send an email with all the information about how to ASM to your ASMs. Check the email drafts document for this.
Overall, you act mostly as a liaison between the director/designers/producer(s) and the actors. It's your job to help provide communication between the actors and everyone else to ensure that everything will be ready for prod week.
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If someone else is needed at rehearsal, like a fight choreographer, please contact them wayyyyy in advance. Fight choreographers need to be there to rehearse every fight, and they come back once more during tech week to oversee a fight call. For more on fight choreographers, see reference this document The Fight Captain and Other Fight Notes.pdf.
Auditions:
Assist director with running auditions (the producer will also help with this). Tips are written assuming the producer is in the audition room and you are in the waiting room. If the producer is unavailable or auditioning themselves, you should be in the audition room and someone else (an ASM, a non-auditioning officer, etc.) should be in the waiting room.
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- Take pictures of auditioners; it's easier for the director to remember faces
- Write the person's name on a chalkboard, and take their picture with their name visible.
- Have a method to communicate with the producer about when auditioners have arrived and whether they are ready to audition (this can be as simple as both of you having messenger open).
- Make sure the director and the producer are introducing themselves and making the audition room a welcoming space. You should do the same in the waiting room.
- Get the casting done as quickly as possible. If possible, schedule the last day of auditions to end early to give you time to call people. (this should be the last day before callbacks and the day of callbacks if possible)
- If possible, make a characters list before-hand and have an idea of how large each part is (search the play name on wolfram alpha- it's super useful!) and which parts can be combined if needed. List which characters are in which scenes. This is also a good time to decide which characters are important for the rehearsals of each scene, which will help with scheduling.
- Note: the director will often do this, because they know the show better than you. Check with them.
- Encourage the director to take scheduling into account during auditions. Try to prevent giving main roles to people who don't have the time for them.
- Make sure to print extra audition contracts, for walk-ins and people who forget theirs. An example audition contract for a spring/touring show (in LaTeX) is here, fall/non-touring show here (raw LaTeX files are also attached in case these links break).
- Try to get some monologues from the director prior to auditions. If the director doesn't have any, there are monologue lists from other productions that the officers can pass on to you.
- Take pictures of auditioners; it's easier for the director to remember faces
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- Clean the stage - Sweep the stage before each run and make sure there are no wet or slippery spots. If there is blood in the show, wipe the blood splatters off the stage immediately after the run/perfomance to avoid stains.
- Clean the audience - Make sure the audience is clean before house opens each night. This means all cast/crew belongings, trash, old programs, etc. should be cleared.
- Clean the dressing room - Make sure stray personal belongings (especially food and non-water drinks!) don't get left behind in dressing rooms after runs. Help make-up clean up supplies and help costumes tidy the laundry piles.
- Laundry (assign multiple people if play involves blood) - Not all costume pieces get washed: there should be a specific laundry pile in the dressing room(s) and you should only wash those. Wash laundry-specific costume items three times: after final dress, after the first weekend of shows, and after closing night - if the show has blood, laundry should be done between every run/performance. You can get reimbursed for this, ask the dirstaff (request@) for help!
- Props (as necessary) - Make sure props are clean and not breaking after every run. Ask the props designer for instructions on what they want you to do, because props can be very fragile. If there is blood and swords in the show, wash the blood off the swords (including the handle if needed) immediately after every run. If you notice anything is broken, email the props mailing list.
- Candy for dressing rooms - Buy a lot; actors are hungry. You can get reimbursed for this, ask the dirstaff (request@) for help! The only rules are:
- ask for allergies in the cast
- don't buy chocolate!
- Water for dressing rooms - Buy a lot (1 bottle per actor, and a jug for refills); actors are thirsty. The PJ-Way is to buy bottles and number each bottle cap so actors can place the bottles wherever they want, and they only have to remember what number is theirs. You can get reimbursed for this, ask the dirstaff (request@) for help!
- Silence doors - Using tape, attach wads of newspaper over the latches of a door so it can't click/lock and so that the door closes as silently as possible. Do this to all the doors leading from backstage to the dressing rooms(s) and/or bathrooms, or similar doorways. After the run/performance, take these off so we can secure the premises. Ask the SM/ASM if you need help understanding how, or if you don't know which doors to silence.
- Warm ups - Get people warmed up for the show: nice and toasty! Ask previous morale people for institutional memory, and you can always email dirstaff for help. We usually start with syllables, tongue twisters, and resonators. Projection exercises are also very good. Then we move on to games focused on getting comfortable on the stage and thinking on the spot, such as free play, 5 things, I'm a tree, improv scenes, etc.
- Start on time, every time! You are in charge of showing up and shepherding the flock of actors into getting ready.
- Morale - Get people hyped up and focused for the show! Ask previous morale people for institutional memory, and you can always email dirstaff for help. We play games, common ones are: five things, bunny bunny, wa!, category tag, counting games, etc. and we always end in "take pains."
- Be flexible! If something goes over time, morale is the section that gets shortened to compensate.
- Fight captain - You should have fight experience, but shouldn't be in too many fights yourself. Attend some fight rehearsals before tech week. Make a list of every fight and which actors are in it, and run the list in whatever order is best/optimal before every show. You are in charge of fight call (which is right after warm-ups) and you should run every fight in the show. For small fights, you can run them just once; for more complicated fight choreo, run through each fight in increasing speed percentages (50%, then 75%, then 95% or something similar). The most important thing is making sure everything is done safely and that every actor involved feels comfortable. Never do a fight at 100% speed during fight call, because actors will always do it faster during a real performance than during practice! For more details, read this document.
(More jobs can be added as necessary to make the number of jobs equal the number of actors)
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