Stage Management with Laura Beard

so now we're recording wow i mean it feels like it now but there's just some stuff that can't be on the podcast no and we had to catch up yeah we needed to do major oh i mean we need to do way more catching up yes but you know everybody has we don't have time for that anymore no we're all spread out yeah well you guys are doing you guys are doing matilda yeah yeah at theater winter haven we're doing cinderella at harrison yeah nobody's at lct this time which is so weird it is so weird it's very weird not to be there this is

like the first kid show that i haven't done in a while it's kind of sad actually be sitting in the audience to see i can't remember the last one i actually watched me neither because we're always working back i mean technically we michaela is doing it she's doing sound so like we do have one kid in it but she's like representation she's 17 and a half like she's taking care of herself at this point yeah yeah i don't even have to drive her she has her e-bike she's awesome i love michaela she she didn't want a car until like the last like six months or

so and now she's like i think i want a car and i'm like i think i need to make more money yeah i think the bike is good i know it's not great in the rain you know but i bought our poncho so it's fine we could get like an umbrella that goes up and over i think no because she does like yeah it would it would she likes to go everywhere like 20 miles an hour i saw her one day in the rain and i have an svp i'm like michaela throw your bike in the back i'll take you home it's like pouring rain

she's like i'm good i got a helmet i'm like but you're getting wet don't you want to like get in my car she's like no i'm good we're gonna get in this little no i'm fine it's great we need to get her like a shield that's got the little wipers listen i played soccer and i was the goalie and this is before i wore contacts and i said the same thing because we would play unless it was lightning or thunder and i'm like god i need something for my glasses just make me little windshield wipers and just go and i can move them so i

can see the gosh darn ball exactly otherwise you're taking them off oh my god it's a pain wiping them off and i can't see without the glasses or contacts yeah you know i'd be looking there'd be like four of y'all each where's the ball yeah oh i meant to tell you pinky i think has given up on the contact no after that one day after the one getting stuck in her eye yeah so did i tell you about we had to stop in the middle of a parking lot and i had to like i had nails and i had to like chew and rip my

nail off so that i could actually pull it out of her eyeball oh my god is she not like she can't do it herself i know that but i learned that yeah you did i learned that very well but can she not does she not put eye drops and stuff in them to keep them moist and wet yeah oh moist caitlin love you oh shut up um but yeah yeah but um yeah i mean she's there's no need to because they don't stay in long enough to put drops in she's like she can't tolerate we had to go back to the the um eye place

the glasses place she's in remedial contact insertion class put them in in and out again to prove that she could yeah and i had to pull them out the last time and it like seriously we were there for three hours oh no did they like they were so did they pull her card we're like you can know no they let her they let her they gave me a pair she does but she's just i started at 13 and oh poor thing as well and so i get it it's she wants to wear them yeah she just it's a lot and she's a lot and she

was there for like that day that you had to help her she was literally fussing with them for six hours i remember you saying that because she got home from school and it wasn't until like that night when we went to your place yeah uh yeah and that always makes it worse it was it was my birthday yeah it was yeah that's what it was it was my birthday i was like no it was it was my birthday yeah hey by the way welcome to the drama mama oh i'm kristin i'm kathy i'm lolo yeah lolo's back to join us it's been a hot minute

since you've been on the podcast because like i think you were one of the single digit episodes and now we're this will be 35 i think oh y'all better get it season three yes it is i can't hear so tired this morning you're like a shot of caffeine which is crazy it's crazy because she doesn't she doesn't really drink a lot of caffeine but you're like energize me i literally it's tea this is tea that i drink i don't drink coffee and this is water and my mini mouse cup that a student gave me oh she's just energizing because she's just good positive people yeah

thank you but it's funny i was watching i was scrolling through tiktok and last night that's like my going to bed thing i don't know why you think and then it's like three i do the same thing it's like why am i still awake scrolling through tiktok and laughing so hard and sending videos to laura kristin and or jordan jordan sorry she'll wake up in the morning and it will be like 12 and then i'll get done with school and it'll be like 13 or 12 from her yeah um she i was watching one of them and it says you know you're an introvert extrovert

when and it was like eight different things and i was every single one of them i need to see that because i'll see if i can find it and send it to you because it really is like there's only a small group of people that i will be around that gets me to this point and then i and then or i always have an escape plan to go home when my social battery has depleted yes yes and yes or if anybody's like let's go to go out or i'm like you want me to do what you want me to do in three days you're gonna

need me to stay home i need to recharge my batteries yes and just be alone because i'm with people all day at work with kids and then more kids just older at harrison when i leave and i just need to come home it's a lot it is so i just need always been that way don't talk to me when i first wake up in the morning it's a good thing i just live with my cat because yeah i don't see anybody at work until like seven because i get to work at seven and no i'm the first one there and no i don't see anybody

until about 7 45 so it's like then i'm ready i've been up for two hours and then i'm ready to talk to a human being that explains those 7 30 calls in the morning on those like camp shows dragging i'm like no don't talk to me and then i have to be like oh god i just leave the green room i'm like once the parents get there i'm like your turn tag you're it and i go sit stage right and go no one talk to me nobody talk to me and then nine o'clock hits and the show starts and i'm fine but that also gets

the adrenaline of the show yeah yeah so yeah that i realized something about myself so i haven't been involved in a show in a while and i was getting real cranky like i needed something to feed my soul yes ah yeah yeah getting to go to wet tech yesterday and like it was like a breath of fresh air for me like i can focus on something other than just my stupid house and everything that needs to be done yes yes or where my kids need to be at this time it's like it feeds yeah everything that needs to be done there your house is like

spotless yeah because i have too much time you can come to my house yeah exactly and i'm that way too when you know if i'm not doing a show and the first couple days i'm like i get to go home and then like give me about a week and i'm like i don't want to do laundry i don't want to i there's there's only so much tv i can watch and i don't even watch what's new with the exception of this new show that i have found it's not new it's new to me it's on hulu it's nancy drew and it's on hbo max too

yes not hulu it's hbo max thank you kristin and i'm in the middle of season two i started when did i start when did i text you it was this week it was like last sunday yeah we didn't have rehearsal saturday and i was doing that's it that's sunday yeah and i found it and i was like oh i liked nancy drew as a kid i read all the books and i saw all the movies and the remakes and stuff and i was like oh and so it came out in like 2019 on the cw and you know cw is gonna be good and it's

gonna be dramatic and because all good teen dramas come on cw yes and and they run for multiple seasons on cw because cw doesn't see a need to get rid of them they don't and it's great because the ratings are great get one tree hill and the buffy give it all to me yeah so this one you know they're revamping buffy they're gonna know i don't know half anyway me either uh sarah michelle gellar getting up like she's gonna be in it no i don't think so so and maybe buffy's mom but um sorry sarah michelle we all age yeah because she listens to the

podcast hey right now we're i highly doubt that if you'd like to be on the podcast just let us know we'll take you'd like to just come in and slap kathy around for saying shit you can do it twice it's okay oh my god she'll turn the other cheek but it's a supernatural version of nancy drew oh scott wolf is in it plays nancy drew's dad oh well see there we go scott wolf how you doing i know and there's another guy that i recognized his face well i thought he was one actor and then i looked him up i was like oh that's not

him but he's i don't remember his real name it's riley something and um but he's cute too he plays another woman yeah we watched the first episode of that it's so good i watched i would get home after cinderella and um and and like get dinner ready and do stuff and then i'd sit on the couch and before i know it i've watched like four episodes and it's and they're 45 minutes long and it's like 10 o'clock and i'm like crap i gotta go to bed it's so good i have to get up at the ass crackadon so there's like three hours of sleep that

laura gets and then she's this energized how's that happen i don't know it's fake it's all fake and it's called good meds my happy pills are so great guys that's awesome i really feel like nancy drew was like the original true crime she is we bring it back right yeah she is but now she's true crime supernatural yeah which is kind of cool so it's like it is hocus pocus meets true crime answer true yeah yeah it's so good i'm just saying it is it's so good yeah it's really good to check it out guys yeah check it out okay any noodle all right why

am i really here teach us about being a stage yes because oh pretty soon angela is going to be going how to stage manage that'll be here before we know i know that's mean girls and that's like yeah like what april auditions probably yeah yeah listen i've got i've got three more shows before that yeah i'm not there yet wait so we have cinderella if you count and have the box yes i was just gonna say so i was gonna count that down cinderella out of the box descendants um footloose pink and i have and penguin and i have penguin so i have five shows

before that wait no that was six right no that's five that's five fingers no i i started i didn't get it right i didn't cinderella yeah out of the box yeah descendants yeah footloose penguin okay yes then the sixth show will be no the sixth show will be the spring out of the box the seventh show will be oh yes it'll be mean girls that's only if jojo wants me to do the spring out of the box right which we all know the answer to that i'm pretty sure that's gonna be yes yeah so that's just crazy talk right there but it's just but it's

also weird though because it's like i'm used to being at lct all the time which is my home and i love it there it's like any i'll do anything for that place and um this semester it's only out of the box next semester it's only out of the box until which is just weird yeah yeah it's weird too it's it's weird yeah i it's my home and it's just it's weird but we're branching out we are branching out and there's other opportunities yeah you know that fun and we're having a fun time and making an impact a lot of kids that's i yeah that's the

biggest piece it's been so much fun over there um i i've learned almost all of their names i still have to ask only because i'm not there when they take role because they take role at the beginning of rehearsal which is like 220 ish but the kids are taking roles so i'm not learning that way well she's not i'm just kidding she is but i don't get there you're usually writing something down or yeah their names she's doodle drawing like a formation on the you know on the stage and i'm like that's brodie i know most of them it's sorry girls if you're listening it's

the town's ladies because we haven't spent a lot of time with them yeah you know like knights and featured dancers and you know all the rest of them yes but we haven't spent a lot of time we're we're getting into all calls so i'll learn them yeah but we haven't spent a lot of time i have to lean over all the time to sydney and i'm like purple shirt she's like oh that's so and so i'm like or i have to just be like which hannah is that i know because you can't bell is that you can't throw a stick and not hit a hannah

or isabel is that isabel with a z everywhere is that isabel with two l's is that seriously like so many ten hannas and ten isabel there's so many and even the kids will go hannah and they all go which one yeah so we just call them by their last names yeah because that makes easier how many kids total are in this production on stage not like orchestra yeah i think we're just shy of 50. just shy of 50. yeah because this is the all it's the all school so it's every department okay oh by the by we're talking about cinderella harrison make sure you get

your tickets they go on sale this week the yeah october 5th october and it's uh they're gonna go super quick they will go super quick so you gotta be on it i thought i texted my mom and i was like hey we don't have a kid in this show but i've been working on it and i would love for you to come see cinderella and see what harrison does because they haven't been to see a musical with my mom i i think it is i think it's a it just ends up being i don't know usually anyway like talent right i mean the fact that

you have to like audition to even get into the school yes you audition again to get into the thing i mean that's like the best of the best is is coming on the all schools fun too because it's not just musical theater it is every single department chorus chorus yeah visual arts the giant in in cinderella they battle at the beginning of the show yeah he's he's uh a bass player but he also plays like but it looks like he's playing a cello because he's a big dude he's really tall but he plays like piano and all these other yeah like crazy talented you know

there's chorus kids in it there's visual arts kids there's motion picture kids there's i mean every department which is amazing and they are killing it they're amazing it is so much fun to like be a part of it and see all these kids and you know like half of them we knew already because we had seen them over on the lct stage yeah um or over at theater winter haven but yeah i just it's been a lot of fun over there or i've worked with them i have worked at harrison before i come in and help cc the costumer and she'll call me in if

there's you know to come help her girls do some crazy ones like i did hairspray and hunchback and things like that so i got to know some of them and both of those both of those were all-school musicals as well yeah hunchback that was my first one i went to see it harrison yeah that totally set the bar oh my gosh it did so good that was an amazing show uh i mean they've had amazing shows since then yeah amazing shows um but yeah that that's top for me really good and then the second one that i saw at harrison that was so amazing was

the one they did in the black box last year with the little women oh my god little women yeah that's like it was so good tissue tissue yeah told you you need a tissue girl should listen to your mind i was like i'm not crying i'm not crying oh i was so crying that's like my favorite one of my top like three favorite books of all time i read it when i was in middle school when the first 96 version came out with winona ryder and i remember my mom and my stepsister were like we're gonna go see this and i was like i'm not

gonna go see it oh man that's so stupid and then i went and saw it and i was like it's so good and then i read the book and then you know i watch it all the time it's like a comfort movie and then the new one came out with searsha whatever ronan searsha ronan and um jordan and i went and saw it with caitlin and her grandma and it was just it's so good anyways it's my favorite so you just watch it when you need a good cry basically kind of like pride and prejudice that's my other favorite one when you're in your feels

yes it's like in my feels sorry just screamed into your ear pod listeners but you know this will age me steel magnolias yes yes yes oh my god if you need a good cry oh the horse whisper shut your face no it's got robert redford in it isn't he or paul newman which one of them i've never watched redford but my mom were you know would watch those movies too and my mom really didn't watch movies over and over again like it's not a thing she does it's it's my thing where i got it from probably my dad but um but beaches and still magnolias

and the horse whisperer i've watched all of them with her and i just sit and cry well and they and still magnolias is a play and my friend sarah woodsby who i'm fixing to we're fixing to work with in descendants over at twh she did it at theater winter haven and she was shelby so shelby yeah she's either shelby or she was uh lanelle oh no i can't remember which one the hairdresser or the shoot no the the well yes she was a hairdresser but like the not dolly parton not dolly parton but the other one yeah yeah yeah i know what's her name she's

the one that walks to work every day um she married the easter bunny yeah the easter bunny at the end of the movie daryl hannah played her yeah yeah she did a great job and her character went through like a whole transformation like trying to getting away from this nasty horrible relationship and then finds herself and gets all you know major makeover have you seen that movie i haven't seen any of these movies you've named no so what a great character for her to be able to play i can't remember i try not to either one is great i can't yeah shelby well spoiler alert

shelby that's the stage man yes sorry we can talk about movies all day long yeah i know we're like 15 minutes into the podcast and still haven't actually talked about stage managing yet what about stage managing i have lots of questions okay well shoot i remember the first time i met y'all use quotation marks because you were on the stage and i was in the audience was mr popper's penguins and i knew nothing and i'm like who is this lady the director's right there why is she talking like i didn't understand the dynamic of what was i doing just being a stage manager you're talking

about the schedule and all that kind of stuff oh it was parenting yeah yeah yeah like yes so there's like so many facets to being a stage manager so walk us through some of that yeah preparation what goes on it depends on where you're at it does every theater has their own little um ways of doing it in the community theater world um and different things that you need to do and things like that but i first started at lct um 12 years ago 2000 i don't remember it was some time 12 years ago it was a while ago and um my first year that

i was supposed to do because this is one of the story time with lolo see i wrote it down yeah because i wouldn't forget um i was just supposed to be the asm the assistant and it was it wasn't a big show it was a special it was a christmas special so when i met tyler campbell for the first time he was it was all music there was some blocking that alan did and some choreo and things like that and there were kids in it that maureen worked with and all that jazz but i was just supposed to come in and learn from somebody else

because i had never done it i had taken like a workshop at lct that was like two hours from shannon pierce who used to be a equity stage manager and wrote things down and maureen was like you'd be a great stage manager you're so organized which is basically a basis of it that's like you need to be really organized and and things like that which i'm a teacher type a teacher you know get it from my mom and um in that aspect at home i'm not quite so much i'm like um i don't know where that is it's somewhere in the box um so i

did and then we'd meet and all of a sudden she was like okay you're the stage manager and i was like whoa whoa excuse me excuse me come again and i had never written blocking i had never written a cue i did i was a dancer growing up so i i knew what a stage manager person was from florida southern and doing dance recitals there but i didn't know i just knew they were a person like i didn't know what they did right right they just made the magic happen yeah and so i was like uh okay so i was learning on the fly like

literally treading water and like okay i need help so we get to calling the show and i'd never called a show before and oh my gosh i'd like never written a cue like nothing and so the lighting designer who happened to be the master electrician at lct at the time brian mackey shout out love you he taught me how to write cues in my book he taught me how to call a show he said like i do now like i did with stella and i've done with kristen sit on a headset called it first i listened and then he walked me through it and i

just remember going well you'll feel it in the music and i'm like but what if i feel it in a different spot in the music than when you felt it when you programmed it and it's not gonna mesh up like i was so scared and so i was like okay and that my first show i didn't run my own light board i okay uh morgan snyder did and it was morgan snyder's first show ever too so she was running my light board and i was up in the booth and this is back when we were attached to the wall we didn't have wireless headsets and

he sat with me and he'd coach me through and he'd be like okay try it you know call this way or try it this way and i said okay so we get to opening night and i was like about to pee my pants like i was just so scared and unbeknownst to me he sat downstairs in the sound booth with the headset on listening to me i had no idea he was listening to me call the show and we were done and he was like that was great i was like you were listening he's like yeah i was like what yeah it's better you didn't

know it's better that i didn't know because i would have so yeah so you just i kind of got thrown into it and here we are 12 years later and i haven't left and i used to stage manage everything i and i still love it i still i found different avenues and we've talked about that on the last one but i still love it it's still really fun um is it stressful yes but the end result is so much fun so stage manager you're kind of like you remember in the movie um uh my big fat greek wedding where uh the mom's like the woman's

like the neck and the husband's like the head and they control not that we control but we're like the neck and we keep everything afloat and move everything around you are the go between between every single department making sure a department lights sound set um and our fight because we have fight um choreography and cinderella um all of it directing all that stuff so you are responsible for keeping all of those together and like on the same page and keeping this wheelhouse moving and going well because like all of those departments you just listed aren't usually at every rehearsal so a stage manager is at

every single rehearsal love you directors but not even directors are at every single rehearsal because there's choreo rehearsal or there's music rehearsal but stage managers are at every single one we start at auditions and go all the way until strike we're there the entire time um because and you're the first one in and the last one out you get there i get there 30 minutes before because you need to set up the stage you need to know what you're doing that day make sure you have everything whether it's rehearsal props whether it's the set that you you know the doofers or the things like that

that you have for the set pieces um lights need to be on you know your attendance sheet needs to be out everything needs to be ready to go so that when it's 10 o'clock we are starting at 10 o'clock we're not starting at 1005 or whatever we're starting right then and everything's ready to go and then you do it all over again at the end you clean it all up put it all away and make sure you're there until the last person cast member especially kids is gone because you have to turn everything off you have to lock everything up you have to and you

have to be informed about what's happening especially at community theater you have to be informed around around your show like what's happening yeah in other shows and and in the theater so you can help facilitate you know like you we you know talk with the business manager and the person that's in charge that helps with the scheduling and stuff and make sure okay well we're not we can't be on the stage because there's you know someone else is before us so we're in the glass lounge or they have an event they have an event so we need to go some you know find other places

if we can and you're the keeper of the schedule and you're the keeper of everything right yeah so when you're in so beforehand you get everyone together and you do a production meeting your director schedules one and they you write down all the notes you keep everything share them you're in those meetings you're like you're like a secretary yeah you write down everything what they say when they say you type it up you send it out and then you do auditions and different directors want stage managers to do different things i have i've been a stage manager where they want you at the door you

are sitting there with you're standing outside with the um auditionees and you're just ushering them in um excuse me and keeping you know their paper words up i've worked with directors who want me sitting in there with them um i have had directors that want me sitting in there with them but then i also get up and go get them you know they come in one at a time so that they can talk you know every director is different in that sentiment i like being in the room i think so in the room where it happens i think the hardest part about it is that

the fact that every director is different right yeah you're like to know i've worked with so many different ones they're all different and they all expect different things from you some directors you literally are just their secretary that's what you are some directors ask for your input they want your um ideas they want your help or things like that and some are in between everyone's different and that's fine it's your prerogative doesn't bother me but you come to know which one is which and you're like all right i'm doing this show with this director i'm gonna keep my mouth closed right yep you know i

wonder about that with auditions like because you've worked with so many kids do they look for input from you as to some directors do because like behavior wise or you know i mean definitely they should well they should be asking everybody who's ever worked with that person if they need to know anything well but you know and especially in that because we're with them all the time we're at every rehearsal we we also have you know we correspond with the parents and and kids you know theater for youth and stuff so we we know who they are especially if you um are like me and

you call shows from backstage you know you're you know how they are backstage right or if i'm working another show and not the stage manager and i'm backstage and they act different because lolo is not the stage manager she's the dresser or she's the assistant costumer or whatever or the costume mistress so but you see lots of but i can see what it is so we can get there and not saying that you know i say don't cast them i'm just saying listen right yeah you need to know here you know but if this goes to that you're always on an audition thing we've always

heard it is you never know you're always on one so and the community itself of theater people is so small everybody talks oh heck yeah everybody talks um but yeah so auditions and then you you know you meet again you cast it that can take hours you're writing down everything making sure you have the list the cast of characters and then the list of people making sure that you've got everybody that there's this this and this and some people are different too some directors want to make sure that every single role speaking and otherwise is cast that night some people some directors do just the

leads and who they want in the ensemble when they get in the room they'll tell you we get to a read-through they'll tell you what you're reading you know what roles so it depends on who you're working with i've never heard that before oh yeah yeah um you know i've worked with them before every single role has you're gonna say this line and this line before we get there so i read through they're like susie q you're reading master of the house i don't know and then other directors are like you try it this time or you try it this time to give that's mainly

main stages adults because you know things like that but yeah and then you get the schedule and you have to get everybody together and you're like you know when i make a schedule and i'm at the theater and i know what's happening i write down what's happening i write down when there's out of the box i write down when there's right another show happening try to predict any of those conflicts because we do have such a small space so you're working and seeing and and then when you're working with kids you don't want to go past a certain hour until you get here and well

they have overlap too so you do maybe helping with out of the box exactly so you've got to oh yeah and all the conflicts and it might happen yeah that might happen and you don't want that to happen and you don't yeah you try to like look at it all yeah you try to accommodate all those things and um look at their conflicts on their sheet and say okay uh-huh y'all need to stop i am trying so hard to be on the rails to be professional here and you three i'm just sitting at my table silently laughing moving on it's a good thing y'all don't

visually record anymore no videos anyways so then you get the schedule out and kathy still can't hold it together kathy do you need to go to the bathroom i don't know what you're talking about i am perfectly oh my god but then once you get into rehearsals you write down blocking and blocking is everything that the actor whenever the actor moves where they go what they do when they do it how they do it you write down the blocking in the script and usually you write down shorthand yeah when kristen first started she would write down i'm a mix long hand and i look at

it going no i did i took your notes oh my gosh it's yesterday i was like what the hell is this symbol and i held it up to her i was like what is this she goes towards it means towards it's this line and kind of like with a little triangle thingy on the end of it i was like what the how does that mean towards i don't know it's just something does she have a you know a symbol key box on the bottom so i do have a key no i have a key in my script so yeah there's not like a set stage

man so there are some so you can look up some like i gave i wrote one out for this one for the kids who were mentoring um and i showed it to mckinney and he's like oh yours is much more organized than mine but um that's crazy because he like did it professionally well his was just written out on the list mine are in boxes um because again it's my type a ocd coming out so probably color coded as well with her array yeah with my area i can go get my book and tell you what they look like and all the post-its and those

are different colors and different colors mean different things yeah different colors mean different things um so when i see it coming up i know what it means yeah so you talk about your book is that like a script that's a copy so yeah it's a script okay single-sided kristen just learned this too this week when i taught it to the kids there are two books there's what you call a prompt book which has a prompt meaning you're you know you're prompting the actors to move you're prompting the actors to say their lines or whatever it is so it just has the blocking in it some

choreo some formation and then there's the cue book which only has cues lighting sound fly sets the only time i write um uh blocking in there is if it has to do if a light has to a cue has to go on it then i'll write you know they're exits left and exit left or they're crossing up stage if it's a sound cue or take the cue when they move out of the house exactly so something like that the only time so you have two separate ones you have the prompt one and then you have a cue one that makes sense because you want that

cluttered with exactly nonsense it could oh yeah exactly you should see the book right now for cinderella there's they have like a blurb of script where it's all italicized and it's telling you the stage direction you know i guess that they used in the broadway show right like the pursuit so they're chasing so that's it and that's the only stuff you have but there's an entire three or four minutes of song stuff that has had music stuff that is happening and in that music same with the wedding yes yes in that music is all of the stuff that's happening on the stage and you have

to get all of that blocking it is insane there's no lines of dialogue to like no there's nothing so like literally i i start i start this process on my ipad with a pdf version of the script i tried didn't work for me and and so i can just pull it up and i just start typing and i do bulleted items and then i'll go back through and clean it up right so then you can be like okay these happen all at the same time then this happens then these happen all at the same time like a deer on the stage at the same time

as the mice like it's crazy sweaty under the pits over here here's the wedding oh my gosh these are all the different formations it's like when they enter it's like when yeah and they're diagrams you draw the diagrams have the red yarn strung from here to here yeah it is or no show her the front the the very start of the script there's two pages like this so oh that's yeah mine is different okay mine's different but yeah it's in my but see how it's just like that italicized like stage direction at the top right this is just the giant fight and literally i have

12 like at like 12 point font an entire page filled with stage direction that happens during that tiny little block yeah of italicized leads into the scene yeah then it leads in wow and then you're like i've done all of this typing and then tofer comes in and says his line and you're like yeah yeah some things where it's really crazy like in songs yeah when they're moving and and this is what we're teaching all the kids about because they they haven't stage managed before you know all their things so that when i so this is your prompt and you know there's notes and blue

means there's that change and all sorts of stuff and you start writing those down and then you move to when you get to tech week you move to a different book so that it's all clean and you can easily see your cues easily see your cues and the box that it goes on and things like that yeah get to the point where it's like intuitive like it's second nature okay yeah yeah you mean like writing it down or just like that and just in a show yes to where you're not freaked out every time something is happening yeah so many things yeah yeah okay so

usually i'm still freaked out well and every time oh well i've been doing it 12 years yeah when i first started i was i'd have to constantly look at my book and constantly go now like you know what's the last show we did with jordan um rudolph rudolph like rudolph i was like oh yeah he's gonna enter over here and i don't have to you know whatever it's just it becomes second nature and you just because again you're at every rehearsal so you're hearing and you're running it and you're working on it and you're and the actors learn it more and more they do when

you do it more too and so but you have to know you have to be on it because if an actor misses a day they're coming to you as a stage manager what blocking did i miss and you have to have everything written down and give it i suck so bad at this like so i write my blocking and then a kid comes up to me and is like hey i wasn't at this one so and so swung for me and now they're not here so i don't know what i'm supposed to do when we run this scene that happened it happened yesterday and i

was like so i have that you enter and then i have dance period so just do your dance well in the moment it makes total sense i've found this but we video everything we do video everything and it gets uploaded i'm like did you watch the videos yeah but like then they said that it changed and blah blah blah i'm like just do what was in the video just yeah so so the normally then you would have put like the different moves of the dance so i don't write i don't write choreo down okay the only thing i do i write formations i write a

little bit more in a kid's show than i do in an adult main stage show adult main stage you're adults you you know figure it out write down your ending pose that leads you into the scene so that when we get to the blocking of that scene we know where you are and the director can say laura where are they and i can say bam there they are yeah that makes sense or i'll say this one exits this one does whatever i'll write those kid shows i write a little bit more i'll write their formations and their lines down and um and maybe like in

the middle of a song like if they switch or they do something like that because they're children they you know their brain capacity is only so much and they might forget and they have other things and you know and things like that so i might write a little bit more um but i don't write potty beret you know jeté across the stage i don't write those things down um i might just write they're gonna waltz you know or whatever yeah yeah um blocking you write everything down and some directors sit there and have it already written out and they're telling you what it is or

whatever and um you can follow and they don't get up they do it from their chair or they do it from the house or whatever it is then there's other directors who give them a skeleton and meaning they give them their entrances and their exits and they give them okay i had i want you to walk over here and then let's run it and they let them do it organically which is great and i love it but it constantly changes every that's the hard part about that and that's the hard part you write everything in pencil because you're constantly erasing then you have directors that

give them everything and then they sit back and watch and they stand up while they're running it and walk up to the actors and whisper in their ear and tell them what to do and you're like no no hold up yeah tell me what you're doing i need to know yeah i need i need you to say that out loud i need yeah and and at first i was afraid to say that stuff now i'm like stop what'd you tell them yeah it's gonna fall back on you it is because you need to know what happens and and i will admit there are times like

when we've done pursuit or we've done the prologue or we've done in cinderella i will wait and watch the video and write my blocking that way at the end because so much there's so much there's so many entrances these three people are exiting while this one's running while it's never like one person or two people come on the stage and they do this thing and they x the next group comes on it's all at the same time so i traffic patterns we'll watch it and write that way um just because it's going to change in the two and a half hours we have a rehearsal

you know or we didn't and that's that changing is when you go through a lot of erasers i have like 50 but yeah so you write everything down gotcha so that you can help them and the director will come back and say where were they and you have to be able to say they were you know crossing stage left to the cabinet and kid shows too i write down like when we get to the music rehearsals if they if they do splits because like i write they're trying to do the harmonies i say group you know top group middle group bottle group whatever good idea

i do that too because you know i don't do it in um adult shows because they're adults they should know what parts they're singing um but um do it in kids shows again like you said because the music director might do it on the fly because they need to hear them and see and they didn't write it down because they're teaching they don't need to write it down it's our job to write everything down if you think it's too small nope write it down yeah i tried to explain that to the kids and i i went at it like think about it if you were

that actor and you missed that rehearsal like you come back and you're like i don't know what i'm doing you go to the stage managers and the stage managers need to be able to tell you what you missed so put yourself in their shoes right yeah right that's how detailed yeah how how what kind of information are you going to know detail is too small because you're tracking props you're tracking you know set pieces and you know every you're tracking everything everything you need to know what props yeah this isn't overwhelming at all i'm telling you should look at our book for this show this

one's probably the like most impressive yeah it's um it's a big show it's a big show and you know and i'm so glad i'm not doing it alone well and then and then you start to get assistance like you can have an assistant stage manager and which is great and you can pass things off on them like you know they need to write blocking and things like that but you can be like okay and a kid show you go outside i'll shut everything down you go outside and dismiss the kids and be there you can like tag team it or when we get into runs

we did this in nonsense you know you get it we're joint sms you get into runs and one is on lines and one is on blocking like so that you're not or what we did was one was on writing the blocking and one was on taking the notes because if it's just you you're writing the blocking and stopping and writing notes which you get good at because you have to compartmentalize thank you can't say that words are hard um and write both of them and so um and you have to remember crap what they just do so you have to you know but you do

it and if you work with a director like i'll use jordan i've worked with her so many times and as her stage manager that i basically know what she wants before she wants it right sorry jordan yeah but that's why she wants you at every show you know i you know you come to know the directors you work with and you know their style so you can predict what they're doing and you say oh yeah i already got that note and you know you already have it written down because you've done it so much and it's popped in your head but in the beginning i

didn't i was like i was like uh the very first like kid show that i stage managed was pinkalicious such a good show i need to bring it back and it was so good and um but i but i was like i don't know what i'm doing yeah it was it was a lot but you know you get used to it and you you know write and and write everything down and you're also in charge of all the communication right for the actors that's huge too yeah not just the actors with the parents the parents it's a kid show i and me as and i

do it in adults too me as a stage manager you know we give them the the rehearsal calendar at the beginning you know at read through or whenever it is and especially with children i like to give them the entire rehearsal schedule then because their parents need to plan for it it's a school year there's things happening they need to know you can't change things at the last second kids would have to go other places exactly you know they have they have jobs themselves you know and um so but usually sunday nights and susie does this too sunday nights i will send an email slash

facebook like you get both of them group um remember this week is monday is this people and tuesday is this people we're here we're going to be in the theater we're going to be in the glass lounge we're going to be you know blah blah yeah there's never a uh over communication issue ever no right you have to do every possible method you need to especially in a kid's show yeah send texts send emails send facebook messages and whatever and same with your your production team production team meeting set designers props designer costume designer lighting designer master electrician technical director the box office your business

manager i mean all of them are on on that list and um you choreographer musical director director all of them you send out what you call a rehearsal report at the end of every every single one in the beginning i like to do just a week but whatever every rehearsal every rehearsal and it's a it's a blanket you know template and you write down every note and you send it out what we did that day when you took a break how many people were there if somebody was absent if someone had to leave early and then if there's a costume note you put it in

the costume set if you accept a sound or whatever it is it all goes in this report and every night you send it or every morning depending yeah whatever you get to it usually i come home or like two days later yeah i still have to send my notes from yesterday yeah me too yeah but anyways you send it out but i usually also follow it up with a text to that person oh just to make sure just to make sure because they you know some of you know some of our props people are a costume designer or even the light you know set other

people have a day job as well like this is their it's not just you know depending on where you are it's not just their job they're you know they're contacted artists that come in and so you know like myself you know i teach during the day so i do it at night or you know in the afternoon when i'm done working i send it all out but on the weekends but yeah you i want to make sure like i'll send heather hey this is going to be on the rehearsal report too but sometimes it's just easy to ask right then and there if you can

i do it right now with cc the costumer for cinderella i'm like question but i still put it in the report because it's written down and it's there and everybody will yeah i'll put like here's the question we asked and here's the answer we got exactly oh yeah and that's in the report yeah do you have like a printed copy of that like a book that you keep or you just they're all in emails it's just all in emails i don't keep a copy of that i do uh do i have uh in here yeah i keep i print them um because then you can

go back and say i told you the fact that you print them makes it makes me understand why you're hating the uh report template issues we're having i print them because of that reason i can look back and say i did put that in the report right you don't have an excuse not to know it's not my fault that you didn't read your email yeah um or or i go back or the text that i or the text that i sent like your screenshot here it is i'm sorry it was there you know not my fault um i was going to show you my into

the woods ones but um they're in the theater room you keep them you keep all of them i have all my scripts every script i've ever worked on i have that's crazy every script i've ever worked on i throw that out this show is done however she burns it comes back because jordan will text me and say hey do you have this script with this scene because she knows i've worked on a lot of kids shows and a song and i'll say let me look yes i do and i'll scan it for and she uses it for stuff and i have it and um stop

you're creating issues huh now i've got to like figure out where to store it oh i have them in big like boring binders i well that's why i like the pdf because i have those i have into the woods because because it was a pdf yeah well i have into the woods pdf and i have margaritaville yes pdf i have cinderella pdf i have the ones from camp this summer because i called those shows i have orson's shadow too that way um i have those pdf like if i come in and just call a show like without the box or the camp shows i'm like

just send it to me digitally i'll do it on my ipad because i'm not writing down blocking i'm just calling the show right um if i'm running down the blocking i like to have right write it down um does the stage manager usually call the show or is that kind of okay um yes they do stage managers it's different on broadway there's like five different ones and they rotate um you have like the stage manager calling and then you have a stage right um stage manager and the stage left stage manager and you know prophecy you know all those different things and then you have

the one that sits up and calls the show and then you have the two on the side that you know like the crew like the well they sit there and they help and they do kind of like we do backstage but sometimes they'll call but um they do sorry suzy um she uh are but in community theater and things like that the stage manager it's the the head one you know you're on the stage manager then you have asm we call the show however comma it's not my favorite thing to do it's getting better i like them more um just because i personally like to

be backstage yeah in the heat of the moment that's where the action happens i'm a problem solver i want to fix it i want to be able to make it happen put the fires out put the fires out that's how my brain works it's and when you're upstairs in the booth you're away from everybody you're depending on where your booth your booth yeah you're just on the headset going i need you to figure it out you are yeah you're like literally watching the train watching the train issue yeah like you have to figure it out like and you know at lct and and in the

main stage of winter haven you're up stairs behind the audience and watching it because you need to be able to see the whole stage to call things and um you're like that you have a headset and you're just like well i have said what do you want me to do about it i can't fix it you need to fix it like i i go to the go get the gap tape and fix you know what i mean we'll fix it with a whatever and intermission so but i like to be backstage and in the middle of it so i might call jackie and say well

you call the show and she'll call lights and sound and flies that she doesn't see and i'll be backstage and she comes in tech week and does that and writes it all down and but i'll you know do everything else i've done it you know kat has done that for me before and my friend christina anastasio has done it for me before and things like that but i've also called back some stage managers they call backstage they're they're on broadway their booth is backstage like for moana i think i did i remember that big old book i did i did well and normally by opening

night i don't have to look at my book anymore if i'm backstage it just lives over there as a safety blanket if i need to remind myself or whatever it's all in my head um moana different story i did not get my head out of that book one time because so much was happening all at once it was a beautiful gorgeous show but there's a lot of moving parts it was the same with little mermaid a lot of moving parts happening and it was all my right there i think i finally put it down the last show and i was like but i didn't yeah

like it was like the last scene and i was like i don't need you anymore go away but i yeah because i called it from backstage and um why did you do it that time from backstage um i don't know it just it it worked out it just happened that way and um which i can put out fires and things like that too it just happened to be that way um but you're not when you're calling from backstage you're not calling like you's you're calling no i'm not calling like flies and at lct i don't think i've ever called a sound thing some yes no

in different places are different so um and different sound design um operators are different um some don't don't want you to call them um and i that's okay that's fine with me one less thing i have to worry about yeah um and some directors as well um the only one only sound that i'll call is if it has to go at the same time as a light cue or the same time as a um a deck thing or something i will and well also because the sound is below you like you're not sitting in the same room and if you have a live orchestra they

don't need to be on a headset they need both ears to mix the live orchestra or to mix whatever so why you gotta have both ears so i usually have it all written down and i'll tell it's usually kira or judah to do it for me um or mikaela now yeah mikaela now mikaela now i will have it written down get on your headset these two will go together okay so i need you to be on a headset um but if there's something else that's going on i usually just text and say who's mike is that right yeah that's the hard part because you're like

if you're calling that show and you're they're not you're not calling their sound cues but you hear something is bad you're you're trying to run your own light board call your stuff and text the sound operator at the same time yeah yeah that can be a little much that's that was margaritaville for me oh yeah that's a little crazy mikaela what's going on down there she's like i don't know they're trying to fix it it happens in those yeah it's live theater to it's live theater and that's why you love it and why you keep coming back to it because not at not every performance

is the same yeah every performance is different and you know and back to the rehearsal parts when you're done a performance you send a performance report out you send at the end the show is this long act one was this long we had this issue you know if something were to happen to the set we need this happened the td or atd will come in the next day to fix it if a prop broke you know those type of things if a costume piece needs to be fixed i tell heller and then i usually will be like i'll fix it before it's fine um i

just have to sew the crotch back together it's fine oh my god we only got one more show we'll make it work i don't remember whose pants it was oh it was it was nigel's ants and nemo i had to take them home and that's right i wasn't anything i was just backstage for that one but i was like oh but you still put out a ton of fires oh yes she did i was very happy to to have her yeah it's like please come hang out with me i was not backstage please be by the door i had fun yeah um but yeah so

you you know you have to send those out as well and you know and you send them to everybody so they know how the performance went and if something needs to be fixed or something needs to you know this happened and we need to know why this happened speaking of that i was surprised and this is more the main stage than kids shows the director doesn't always come to the show no that i was totally floored by no i guess they figure their job is done well technically their job is done yeah um when you hit tech week um the stage manager is it's your

show like the director is there and they are getting you know it's their vision and they're making sure it all comes together and they're they're giving notes for actors and the things but once you once the show is open it is the stage manager's show it's theirs the director's like my job is done the vision is done and you just have to uphold it and our job as a stage manager is to keep the integrity of the show that the director had a vision on you have to so you are giving notes at the end so you you know you go to them and you're

like listen you need to speed this lineup it's taking too long you have too many gaps or that's you're not crossing at the right time or you're not you know things like that or with your tech crew like you're like yeah this transition is taking too long i know there's a lot of bar stools and stuff on the stage but we've got it we've got everybody needs to take a set piece and exit yeah like it's just you it's your show it is your show now some directors come to every show they like and if they're choreographers they they like to be there and see

it and things like that um some directors you see them opening and you see them closing and that's it yeah that was very confusing to me yeah yeah i'm a control freak i'd want to be there yeah well i think it probably is at the heart of that because they want to like not be done they want to fix those things and whatever but at some point you have to just kind of like let go and yeah that's got to be hard right it's been your baby for exactly and i know it's hard like it's it's like raising a child you know i've been a

choreographer before and it's hard for me to let go i'm like that's as good as it's gonna get you know why did you do it that way you know no yeah you're done fixing it we've we're three shows in it's not gonna change you know whatever so um but yeah it's your responsibility as the stage manager to keep the integrity of what um it's like already time i know why is that i set an alarm that i'm gonna stop it so that it doesn't go off talk forever and ever and ever i i know get someone else to drive them over and then you meet

them over there yeah um yeah but yeah it's just yeah well we appreciate you because oh 100 percent thanks to it and thinking like all the time i know they give you a very small paycheck which is not even begin to cover what you put into shows you this goes to you to kristen tubes i know you've done that but thank you because you're you're making a difference in the lives of people yeah it's a lot of work but it is very rewarding it's fun i really enjoy it and i like having like laura i've been on the stage twice now and i've done you

know deck crew and flies and like everything i can do except for sound um yeah i don't touch them also if you're listening to this podcast thinking oh kristen hasn't done sound let's teach her no no i'm good no thank you um and not that i've done like lighting design i haven't done that either but like that you know your normal techie stuff yeah um but yeah i i actually really enjoy i really love being down on the deck the most it's my favorite it is my favorite like i'm but i also like calling the show i like running my own light board i i

feel them like i love doing it for musicals i i straight plays are a little different but um yeah like i get into it i'm like you guys on the stage you know and i do too i'm up there dancing to margarita bill too well i prefer to run my own light board because when you're calling lights you have to call it a beat or second before so you make sure that it lands where it needs to land if there's there's bump i usually go take it on the bump you know because it needs to whatever but i like running my own light board because

i you know i'm a dancer so you know i'm musical so i can keep the beat you'll see my foot tap throughout the entire show did it i'm like the woods i'm tapping keeping time and things like that and you hit it on that beat or well it is it's it's choreography but like i did into the woods and um i did not run my own board um kristen ran the board and um but i called lights and sound because over there no not you not now go back it was it was more like jk it was more like no no stop oh my bad

but you have to be very clear on who you're calling and things like that but in in a musical like into the woods i had tyler i was like tyler i need you to record the the opening for me the specific section i need you to play it and i need you to um count it and then send me another one where you're singing it because i there were so many different lights and sound that needed to happen at specific things that i would listen to it and i would go and one two three four and go two because you have to know how it

goes so i they'll send he'll record things for me and i or i'll pull up the soundtrack um or the rehearsal tracks and run them in my head and call things like that yeah so and if you want it to go on four and you have to call it at three and a half you know so you have that so you have to know because you're usually a beat ahead so that you can get it right on you so freaked out about cinderella for that aspect because i'm just like oh god i hope there's like visual cues for me that help me like they hit

center to call it then you know that kind of thing i know i'm just are you gonna are you running the board for that no she's teaching i'm catching you're teaching she's just sitting up there sydney's running everything yeah i'm just worried about me back there tyler's doing everything in the kids but i'm back there chewing your nails well i'm also quick changing but um but you'll be busy i'll be busy but i'll be on a headset so i can be like no no no no no and she can help with the traffic patterns and stuff that was the other thing too we have a

little set so she's been mapping out like playing dolls almost but with playing dolls and i love it and then she mapped out our whole show for us already from a tech aspect like three pages four pages front back three pages from back yeah everything that's happening because what's coming off what's going on where is it going and then and then the model and these are our models so that you can get up there and you can set them i went and got that printed up at staples so we know what every right set will look like what it should look like and things like

that well because cinderella you know it's magical so things have to magically appear and reappear and it's not like end of scene we have a couple of transitions that happen end of scene but the rest happen in music they do it's magic it's you know one scene alone we change the scenery three times in the middle of a scene you go inside inside outside inside to the forest to here so you got to figure it out yeah now so that you when you get to tech you're not like oh no it's already happening right and it's choreography and that's how my brain works is choreography

yeah i know we didn't even get to story time i know we didn't i had really good stories i think we do need a part two okay um i think next week we have cc set up and then maybe we can have laura back on after yeah yeah let's look at your schedule um that works i don't i don't know i mean we're gonna be pretty far i mean i think that's the 15th yeah oh no we can't but that day no we cannot that day yeah we're not gonna be able to record unless we do in the morning i mean yeah but how how

long of a drive is it to bach tower i don't know yeah anyway yeah it's a drive my phone says i'm doing i mean my watch says i'm doing a workout i got all angry i know the best is when i'm at work and they're and i'm like dealing with like a kid who's having some issues and they're like do you want me to record that workout yes i do want you to record that workout my heart rate got really high yes please yes please anyway we'll figure it out okay we got an exit left