Day Two–McLeod Summer Playhouse

Today was the day that we had to tape the stage floors for Unnecessary Farce and Spelling Bee. I felt better going in because I had a concrete task to perform and to get ready for. So I got to the theater around 830am and got a hold of the measuring tape and spike tape that we would need and set about clearing the space in the Lab theater so we tape the stage.  Then Tim (the director) and my scenic designer, Jason, showed up and we began measuring the space for the groundplan. Taping out the stage took a lot longer than I had planned. We had a little trouble getting the measurements right and apparently today was one of my clumsy days. We were measuring out the center line (the line that divides the stage into right and left) and I thought I had depressed the button that would hold the tape open, but when I let go of it, the tape speed toward its end, which Angela (the SM for Spelling Bee and The Drowsy Chaperone) was holding. Luckily it didn't hurt her or anyone else. Then we had to redo a couple of things: the doors to the closets had been placed opening the wrong way and we had to shorten the center corridor and move everything back by about two feet. Then we started getting all the props for the set dressing together which could have waited until tomorrow and given the props master another day to get it all together instead of rushing him this morning. I didn't realize that Tim would have wanted that, but I should have anticipated it and prepared the props department for it. Something else to put in my "What I have learned this summer" book. Always try to anticipate the needs of the production and see if you can get it done earlier than expected. Which goes along really well with my terror of being two steps behind.
   We finally got Unnecessary Farce taped out and then nyself, Angela, Tricia (my other fellow stage manager), Jennie (the director of Spelling Bee) and Jason went to Altgeld to tape out Spelling Bee in that rehearsal space. This took about a half an hour. It went very quickly and smoothly. Angela is great. She basically used a coordinate system and then played connect the dots. It worked really well. She is a major in Stage Managing at Webster University. She had everything planned out and directed the taping easily. I think this is what went wrong with the taping of Unnecessary Farce. I still am not sure how to do the conversions from the blueprint of the ground plan into real space, and if I had known to do it, I would have prepared the way to do it and measured out the space yesterday and had everything prepared so I could come in and direct the taping, knowing exactly how to place everything and direct everything. Again, another thing to add to my "learned this summer" book. Now I know. I will have two more opportunities to learn how to do this and make it work correctly.
   After we got Spelling Bee taped, I went back to the lab and made the props were on the tables and cleaned up the space in preparation for tomorrow's rehearsal. I also got the sticker on my car and so everything is taken care of until tomorrow! At least, I hope it is! :)