So you want to be an actor?

Monday, January 29, 2007

Q-2-Kill

I believe I've mentioned it before (would you look at that, I have!), but I hate cue to cues. I don't think I have ever been to a Q2Q where people haven't lost their tempers. It's almost inevitable because everyone has an opinion as to how the show should look.

Now, a director and a stage manager can deal with that fact in one of two ways:
1) They can patiently listen to everyone's opinion, brainstorm those suggestions over tea and crumpets, try it all out one at a time, and basically tack on an extra three or four hours to an already lenghty process; or
2) They can tell everyone to shut the fuck up while they work because they can't concentrate with all that noise and end up offending the hyper sensitive actors who just wanted to help.

There almost never is any middle ground.

Personally, I prefer option two, but that's only because I know the techies reign supreme on cue to cue days and therefore I won't get offended. Just tell me where to change my clothes (the bathroom that smells like someone died while taking a dump in there and the body has yet to be taken away? yes sir!) and what line you want me to start from. Otherwise I'll be in a chair over there with a diet coke.

To be fair, none of those particular scenarios happened last night (well except for the bathrrom thing, which is why I changed in the booth instead), but patience was running thin. We've got a very cue heavy show: 18 scenes, lots of lighting changes, a projector, a smoke machine, a power point presentation, and various sound cues. It didn't help that the lighting board at SAW is crap. You can't even get a full black out, even when the master levels are down. That said, what we did get set up looks absolutely fantastic. The pre-set is actually kind of spooky. I can't wait to see what it will look like with the "blood"

Everyone is working incredibly hard and by Wednesday, I think we're going to have a pretty great show.

But I still hate cue to cues.

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2 Comments:

  • I like to say that in french, cue-to-cue is "Cul-à-Cul".

    And then anyone who speaks french looks at me, tells me I'm not funny, and walks four paces away.

    Oh, and the smell in the bathroom: it was Chuck.

    E

    By Blogger Ereek, at 2:57 PM  

  • Less QQ more PewpEw?

    By Blogger Darcy, at 4:18 PM  

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