Being an assistant stage manager (ASM) can require you to do some strange or difficult tasks. Mostly my job includes the normal stuff: setting up the stage for the beginning of the show and intermission and setting out props. However, some of our set pieces are monstrously heavy. At first it was difficult for me to move these without help, but as the show has progressed, I have become stronger and can lift some of the heaviest pieces on my own. I feel quite hardcore.
In addition to my increased strength, this show has some odd requirements which make me feel rather manly. For a short time in the middle of Act IV, one of the characters smokes a pipe which must be lit offstage and handed to the actor. It is my job to make sure that the pipe is lit at the proper time and stays lit until it goes onstage. Later on in the act, the other ASM and I are responsible for the live gunshots. We shoot several series of blanks in the hallway that mix with the recorded gunshots and cannon sounds and underscoring to produce one rather epic stage battle.
This new level of being hardcore has led me a couple of times to push myself a little too far and fortunately adrenaline carries me through. Sometimes the lifting is undesirable, but when it comes down to it, an ASM's gotta do what an ASM's gotta do and I'm the girl on the job.
2 comments:
So long as keeping the pipe lit does not lead to a future of smoking...we're good. Otherwise, I'll have to come have a chat with you...big sister style!
Love ya!
No worries! No actual smoking is required, I just look hardcore/kinda ridiculous.
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