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Backstage at McCarter: Bringing 'A Christmas Carol' to Life

                                                Candace Braun

While watching McCarter Theatre's annual production of A Christmas Carol may be a family tradition of holiday merriment for an audience member, the magic that goes into making the show each year takes more than a little ghostly fairy dust.

With 36 performers and 21 people working backstage, every movement, every word, every special effect has to be choreographed perfectly. From cueing scenery to fly on and off stage on strings, rails along the floor, or a push stick, to cueing special effects such as dry ice, fog, and strobe lights, there are many different aspects of the show that have to be timed exactly to keep the show going.

The person making sure it all runs smoothly is Cheryl Mintz, the production stage manager. Ms. Mintz is in her fourteenth season at McCarter, and her tenth as the resident stage manager. She has managed over 45 McCarter productions.

This is McCarter's 24th production of A Christmas Carol, and the fifth year for which they've used this particular set for the show, said Ms. Mintz, adding that she has managed the production the last 11 years.

Thursday, December 9, was one of the debut shows for this year's cast, which was performing to a packed house of several school groups.

"The students coming to McCarter are thoroughly prepared ... We want the theater to be part of their lives," said Ms. Mintz, adding that along with a work packet sent out to teachers, cast members also go out to the schools before they come to the show and hold a workshop for them. But because this show was taking place on a weekday, didn't the child actors need to be in school?

Children are notified during auditions of the handful of school days they must miss for productions, said Ms. Mintz.

"The local schools are used to this," she said, adding that everyone involved keeps track of the students and their homework to make sure they don't get behind; often their time-management skills improve.

"In my 11 years doing this, students have always come out more confident, self- assured, and with their grades up," she said.

The children in the show range in age from 5 to 13 years old. Each year they all must re-audition, even if they've been in several shows in the past. Only 13 children are selected from the approximate 140 who audition, said Ms. Mintz.

The children are always well-behaved with the older actors as well, she said: "You don't see any ugly cat fights among the children backstage."

Bringing It To Life

 While casting and rehearsing take up a great deal of time for the actors, once the cast is put on stage in costume with all of the scenery, special effects, and lights, it takes two-and-a-half days to go through all the technical work and make sure every single part of the show runs the way it's supposed to.

Small details make the show come alive, said Ms. Mintz, mentioning intimate movements of light from the upstairs to the downstairs rooms of the set, and a small red light inside the stage stove to make it look as though a fire is burning.

Certain parts of the show create an element of mystery and surprise, as when the door handle on Scrooge's house speaks to him as the ghost of Jacob Marley, operated by a hand puppet, and a large, towering figure representing the ghost of Christmas Yet To Come glides on stage, operated by one person wearing a backpack with controls, and another whose sole purpose is to operate the hand movements.

Thursday, before the show started, Ms. Mintz's main objective was to let everyone in the cast and crew know that there was a problem with the machine that pulled the set for Scrooge and Marley's counting house off the stage. Hoping for the best, the cast would have to be prepared to deal with the kinks until someone came to fix it at 1 p.m., once the show was over.

"We do have a back-up plan, so that someone can just crank it if necessary," she said. The machine, which was used in the Broadway show, Contact, can normally pull two tons of scenery across the floor. While this particular piece of scenery was originally close to that weight, it had to be reworked because it was top-heavy, said Ms. Mintz.

Backstage

For Ms. Mintz, this year the routine has been slightly altered from the past. Eight months pregnant, she needed help from a backstage assistant climbing the steep, narrow staircase leading up to the production booth. After reaching the top she was out of breath, and called down to another backstage worker to bring her a fruit cup, as she was feeling light-headed from the climb.

"I'm kind of crashing a little bit. Can you bring me some food?" she asked.

But once the curtain opened and the lights went down, all outside distractions were gone. Ms. Mintz's number one focus was the show.

A small crisis was called to the attention of everyone offstage when Scrooge's mic stopped working. While he also has a back-up mic, it appeared that moisture had gotten inside it, causing it to malfunction, as well.

"Sometimes the actors sweat the mics out," said Ms. Mintz.

It was determined that one of the backstage workers would grab Scrooge as he came off stage to let  him know about the problem.

While one might presume that intermission is a time for everyone, including those involved, to take a break, many of the stage hands and cast members must get ready for Act Two. Scrooge was hooked up to a leather harness, as he would begin the next scene flying around the room. A test flight was performed during intermission, and as the scene began, all stage hands were quiet, as full concentration was needed to make sure the flying scene went according to plan. "The most important thing is his safety," said Ms. Mintz.

Despite the many technicalities and back stage problems, no one in the audience could see anything but an outstanding performance. Laughter, cries of surprise, and large rounds of applause met this year's cast and crew of A Christmas Carol.

Town Topics
Vol. LVIII, No. 49, December 15, 2004
Web edition
(http://www.towntopics.com/dec1504/other4.html)



'Nine' to Get Seven New Actors for Show
 By MICHAEL KUCHWAR

It's the biggest replacement act on Broadway.

``Nine,'' the town's hottest ticket when it starred Antonio Banderas, gets seven new actors Tuesday, including John Stamos, who is taking over for Banderas, and Eartha Kitt, who is following Chita Rivera.

Replacements are a fact of life on Broadway for long-running shows. Usually they happen one or two at a time - for example, when a star such as Reba McEntire joins ``Annie Get Your Gun'' or Toni Braxton does ``Aida.''

But the Roundabout Theatre Company production is undergoing major cast changes all at once, replacing more than one-third of the show's 18 on-stage cast members. Besides Banderas and Kitt, several other performers, including Marni Nixon, join the musical in smaller roles.

And that's not counting Jenna Elfman (replacing Tony winner Jane Krakowski) who will come aboard later in the month to give her the same amount of rehearsal time as the other incoming actors. Until Elfman joins the cast, Krakowski's role will be played by understudy Sara Gettelfinger.

``In all my experience in the theater, I have never gone through anything like this - replacing so many people at the same time,'' said Arthur Gaffin, the show's veteran production stage manager. The Roundabout has even hired another stage manager and another production assistant to help Gaffin with the transition.

And it has made for long days and evenings for those working backstage or in the pit.

``We are basically doing a 10 (a.m.) to six (p.m.) rehearsal schedule six days a week and then the stage manager and I go do the night show,'' said music director Kevin Stites who has been putting in 13-hour work days.

Stites initially began with solo coaching sessions - four weeks ago for Stamos, three for most of the others. For each of these newcomers, that meant not only teaching them the music but, in some cases, how to execute it.

``It's a difficult score, very rangy and very beautiful - and there's a lot of it,'' Stites explained.

Banderas, who played the womanizing Guido Contini, departed the Maury Yeston musical last Sunday - the same day his wife, Melanie Griffith, left the long-running revival of ``Chicago.''

``We have approached this as if it were a new show,'' said Stamos, who previously joined such hit revivals as ``How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'' and ``Cabaret'' in mid-run. ``They told me, `This is now your Guido.'''

Stamos, best known for his role on the TV sitcom ``Full House,'' said he was fortunate that director David Leveaux and composer Maury Yeston have been with the new cast since the beginning of rehearsals. Kitt, who portrays French film producer Liliane La Fleur, agrees.

``Not only does he (Leveaux) understand the story, but he analyzes, which makes me all the more comfortable in determining what the character is all about,'' Kitt said.

``In many ways, David has taken a slightly different look at the how,'' Stites said. ``He's taken the energy that John Stamos has to bring to it and uses it, although to the public eye it's going to look like the same show. But it's not.''

To play to Kitt's strengths, a waltz that was in the original 1982 Broadway production has been reintroduced, replacing a tango number designed especially for Rivera. Still, Kitt calls jumping into a show ``scary.''

``It makes me nervous because you constantly think you are going to be compared,'' she said. ``But I don't want to do what someone else is doing.''

And as the producers of ``The Producers'' learned - it can be a risky business. After less than a month of performances, they fired Henry Goodman, who followed Nathan Lane, and replaced him with Lane's understudy, Brad Oscar. And box-office receipts have never been the same.

Yet ``Nine'' has been a major box-office plus for the Roundabout, winning the best musical-revival in June and doing great business during Banderas' six-month run. Recent weekly grosses at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre have topped $770,000, and there were standees at every performance.

10/06/03 18:30 EDT Copyright 2003 The Associated Press    




Meet the Council Stage Manager Eastern Region
copyright © 2000-2001. Actors' Equity Association. all rights reserved.

Marjorie Horne is living proof that it is possible to have more than one career. She's an Equity Stage Manager; an events planner, political activist and campaign staffer, and an archaeologist-and finds time to do it all.

Born in New York, Marjorie was raised in Miami, Florida. "I was a real beach baby," she says, "and never had a winter coat." She started college in Florida, but dropped out after a year and came back to New York to be a dancer. She worked in children's theatre, stock, got her Equity card at the Keeweenaw Playhouse in Michigan, hung out with John Travolta the year he got his Equity card at Allenberry Playhouse, and even was a go-go dancer ("Make sure you say it was before you had to be topless."), but she didn't make a living. 

Majorie knew she wanted to do theatre, but after ten years decided to reevaluate her priorities and her resolve. She studied theatre, but didn't look for work for a year, until a friend told her that Circle Rep was looking for an Assistant Stage Manager and that she should go up for it. She did, got the job-ASM for When You Comin' Back Red Ryder-and knew "I had found my place." She stayed at Circle Rep that season, working as an ASM and Production Stage Manager. She loves working on new plays and serious drama. "There's not much money, but I'm happy." An especially joyous experience has been working on productions with both of her sisters.

Fortunately, Marjorie is able to earn enough so she can continue to do theatre, by event stage managing-award dinners, business theatre and other special projects. She can make enough money doing this, she says, so that she can afford to do the theatre she loves. She was Director of the New York State Democratic Convention in 2000 and recently was a stage manager of V-Day (women against violence, a program organized as an outgrowth of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues).

She got into this second career when she volunteered to work on Geraldine Ferraro's first Senate campaign in 1992. That led to a staff job and then working on the second Senate campaign, several years as Treasurer and President of the National Women's Political Caucus/Manhattan and work for NYC Women 2001, which is seeking to create gender parity in the New York City Council. "I've always been a joiner," she says, noting that she had been president of her high school thespian club.

Her third "career" also got started as the result of volunteer work. She volunteered at the American Museum of Natural History and got hooked on archaeology. In fact, she returned to school at age 40, attending San Francisco State, and working as the manager of a Persian rug gallery. As part of her course work, she went on a dig to Ecuador and lived in a bamboo hut on the beach without running water. She later transferred to New York's Hunter College and graduated with a degree in archaeology and religion. A "dig junkie," she's also been on digs in Greece, Israel, Nevada, Georgia and downtown New York.

Marjorie became involved in Equity as a result of her membership in the Stage Managers Association, which she served as Chair for three years and as a member of the Executive Board. It was the Stage Managers' Association which led the fight to have the makeup of the Council changed to include seats specifically for Stage Managers. That change came about by Constitutional amendment in 1982. After working for several years on Equity committees, including the Off-Broadway Committee, Off-Off-Broadway Committee and the Developing Theatres Committee, Marjorie was elected to Council in 1994. She is most proud of her role in helping to focus attention on the function of the stage manager, and of working to strengthen stage managers' contracts. For the future, she says, she would like to see the formation of  a Stage Manager Councillor Caucus that would provide more of an overview of stage manager issues across all contracts.

Ken Nintzel:  By the book American Theatre (ISSN: 87503255) New York 17(2):64-66, Feb 2000  

How to stage manage a Richard Foreman show and survive   Up until last year I had to come home after rehearsal and lie down and take a nap because my head was spinning. Stage managing for him is constant: You can't yawn, you can't do anything but focus on what's going on in front of you." The "him" the speaker refers to is the infinitely particular, tech-and-props-- happy writer/director Richard Foreman. The now-not-quite-as-beleaguered speaker is Ken Nintzel, discussing his early experience as the foremost Foreman stage manager.   Armed with a prompt book that resembles, at least in heft, a Manhattan phone book, Nintzel, a theatre artist in his own right, has developed a "Foreman-- proof" method to get through the intense rehearsal process and exhausting runs. How does he cope? "You have to adopt a Zen attitude," Nintzel laughs. "It's not about you, it's about the greater work."

The adventure with Foreman started simply enough. Nintzel graduated from New York University in 1991 with a B.A. in drama and interned with noted costume designer William Ivey Long, not because he wanted to be a designer but because Long "pushed my buttons and allowed me to do what I wanted to do." (Nintzel initially considered an acting career but, by his own admission, "I was a terrible actor.")

Five years ago, Nintzel accepted a nonpaying internship at Foreman's Manhattan-based  Ontological-Hysteric Theater but was quickly named stage manager after his predecessor, not quite up to the demands of Foreman, was fired. He stepped in just as the show I've Got the Shakes was about to begin its run, so he was not yet aware of the dizzying pace of stage managing for Foreman. (During months of rehearsal, the finicky auteur constantly changes lines --often adding or deleting whole pages of text-- moves props, and adds and subtracts sound cues.) But Foreman found in his new stage manager qualities that are evident even in the shortest of conversations with Nintzel: equanimity, inventiveness and artistry. For his part, Nintzel found in Foreman  what he terms a "master-apprentice relationship, which I believe in."

But the following year, faced with the full force of the Foreman process, Nintzel found he had to discover his own method for keeping track of the ever-changing rehearsal elements of The Universe--and fast. Says Nintzel: "I had no idea what I was doing because stage managing for Richard is completely different from stage managing an established play. Once the show is up and running, it's more or less set, but until then, Richard constantly changes the scripts. I was using graph paper next to the script, writing and erasing, writing and erasing. I finally went to him and said, 'Richard, how did your other stage managers do their books?' He said he didn't know. He had no idea because he's never even seen a book."

And Nintzel's is something to see. The book is a work of art unto itself, resembling a wizard's book of spells. Outfitted with an eraser and color stickers, Nintzel scrupulously (though not necessarily neatly) records and keeps track of Foreman's every change--in blocking, technical cues, prop placement and the text itself. Nintzel photocopies the play's text onto 11x17 heavy-stock paper, then divides its right-hand into two columns. Rehearsal blocking is recorded on index cards in the left-hand column; any later changes are noted on cards in the right-hand column. In a bit of stage--managerial choreography, Nintzel then moves the updated cards to the left column. Photo corners for mounting hold the cards in place.

Thus the left-hand column on the right-hand page becomes the final calling column. Add to that the "wacky system" he created for the sound cues ("I use little round stickers--a red sticker is a 'ping,' a yellow is a 'crash' and so on") and you have Nintzel's Foreman-- proof system.

Nintzel also runs the lights and sound (for Ontological-Hysteric shows, Foreman handles the music), which is actually the part he relishes--particularly the "pings" (any note struck on a keyboard). He humorously bristles if Foreman, trying relieve his stage manager of at least some of his burden, tries to take any "pings" out of the performance.

But the real reason Nintzel pronounces his process "Foreman-proof" is, as he states, his working relationship with the iconoclastic director. "I now know him--working-wise--I know when he's going to keep something; I know when he's going to throw it out-- not all the time, but I've gotten better at it. And if you're on top of things, and you can think three times faster than he does, then you'll be fine. He will always push you further than you can go. That works for him, because if he has good technical  people, that means he can do 10 times as many things."

Nintzel observes that Foreman is notoriously difficult to get to know personally and that to work for him you would do well to put your ego aside-- Foreman is interested in ideas, not who comes up with them. And, not surprisingly, Foreman is fairly eccentric: When the ever-resilient Nintzel arrived at rehearsal one day with a bad cold, the ever-idiosyncratic Foreman took 20 bucks from petty cash and sent Nintzel off to buy a mask, which he duly wore for the rest of rehearsal.

[IMAGE PHOTOGRAPH] Captioned as: "You have to adopt a Zen attitude": Ken Nintzel.

But, Nintzel says, "As for the artistic side, he's very supportive of the artists who work with him. He saw my piece Pageant last year, and we had discussions about it. He's very kind, very quiet, very shy, but if you go up to him and ask him a question, he'll answer it." Nintzel pauses. "Or he'll dodge it, but it'll sound like he's answering it."

Last season's Paradise Hotel was checkout time for Nintzel. After turning 30, he felt it was time to leave the master-apprentice relationship behind and turn to his own inventive and idiosyncratic work. Pageant is a frenzied non-- textual piece whose influences range from Catholicism to beauty pageants to Spanish altarpieces. He has also conceived a work based on the epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

And as for the Foreman-proof book, Nintzel has offered it-and some counsel-to his successor. Whether the new stage manager chooses to adopt the system, Nintzel jokes, "It's ready to be trademarked now."

[IMAGE PHOTOGRAPH] Captioned as: Iconoclastic eccentricities: Michael Osano in the 1995 Richard Foreman work I've Got the Shakes.

Jane Hogan is a New York-based writer whose articles on theatre and entertainment appear in Entertainment Design, Lighting Dimensions, BackStage and Newsweek.com.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.
Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.

The following article is excerpted and posted with permission from Canadian Actors' Equity Association (www.caea.com), and the article's author Jane Gardner of Theatre Ontario (www.theatreontario.org). Archived CAEA Newsletters contain other Stage Management articles which may be of further interest.

The Art of Stage Management
CAEA Newsletter, March 2001, p.12
by Jane Gardner
Executive Director, Theatre Ontario

Stage Managers. Every show has one -- or the show can't go on. For a stage manager, each production poses fresh and unpredictable challenges. Each theatre has its own way of doing things. Every rehearsal schedule requires great organizational and people skills to balance everyone's requests. Each director has his or her own working method. Every script poses specific demands for the artistic and technical team. Each actor in the company has individual and specific needs (on stage and off). And throughout the run of the show, the audience will be different for every performance.

In learning the art of stage management, you can take many paths. The best training comes from getting on-the-job experience or technical training from a theatre school, apprenticing with an experienced stage manager, and updating your skills with workshops. For some stage managers, they fell into the role when no one else wanted the job and their technical or production experience led to the rehearsal hall -- a true baptism by fire. Theatre Ontario's introduction to stage management Stage Management Without Tears was created in 1993 to give theatres more written tools to guide new stage managers. Copies are available from Theatre Ontario for less than $10.00.

Leading the way for many stage managers with networking and training opportunities is Winston Morgan, author of an exceptional new book. Stage Managing the Arts in Canada delves into the intricacies of a production as it unfolds from before preparation week to the final performance. We asked Marilyn Lawrie to review the book (Equity stage manager, teacher, Talent Bank workshop leader, and Theatre Ontario President).

"I am amazed and impressed by the wealth of information, checklists, prep tools, helpful advice and humourous theatre cartoons in this very Canadian resource book,"
said Lawrie.

"I particularly enjoyed reading the essays by experienced stage managers which explore the specific demands of musicals, theatre for young audiences, special events, assistant stage managing, reading music, and repertory theatre. This is the best reference manual and learning tool that any theatre teacher, school or theatre company could have at their disposal for new as well as experienced stage managers. Recently at the Stirling Festival, I was pleased to see that my ASM had received this book as a gift from a cast member on a former show."

Stage Managing the Arts in Canada is available at Theatre Ontario and TheatreBooks and retails for $29.95.

Winston Morgan is also the founder and coordinator of S.M.Arts (Stage Managing the Arts), an annual conference and professional development opportunity for stage managers. He also created a new web-site with resources for Canadian stage managers: www.smartscanada.com. Morgan pioneered and helped to build the Apprentice Trust Fund, whose goal it is to sponsor stage management apprentices in Canada. Morgan added, "every Equity stage management apprentice who received an apprenticeship credit in 2000 or who will receive a credit in 2001 can receive a free copy of this book courtesy of Canadian Actors' Equity Association."

In Morgan's twenty-five year career as a professional stage manager, he has worked throughout Canada in theatres, large and small, on commercial and non-commercial projects, festivals and special events. Last year his peers awarded him Equity’s Larry McCance Award in recognition of his stage management career and S.M.Arts training program. Morgan says,

"it takes years to become an excellent stage manager. In addition to learning the necessary technical, managerial and organizational skills, you have to develop your own stage management style and personality. Your approach will reflect your different life experiences, expectations, impressions, methods and stage management experiences. The book reflects the vast wealth of knowledge of stage managers across the country and is designed to help stage managers, assistant stage managers, apprentices, and students apply and improve their craft."

Begun in 1994, the first S.M.Arts conference created checklists and course materials that were published into Guidelines and essays of what to do in various stages of production.

"Your career as a stage manager can be an isolated one, with few opportunities to network with other stage managers and no supplementary training or workshops after you've completed your formal education and apprenticeship," said Morgan.

"Participants in the S.M.Arts conference have enjoyed the opportunity to network with other stage managers and to benefit from the vast knowledge of experienced stage managers in this country."

S.M.Arts conferences have taken place annually in Toronto since 1994; and in Edmonton, Regina, and Vancouver with plans to travel to Calgary and Montreal this year. The Toronto S.M.Arts conference (March 9-10, March 16-17 at Equity Showcase Theatre) is open to any stage manager or individual interested in stage management.

Theatre Ontario's web-site features other recommended reading and web-sites for people active or interested in theatre at: www.theatreontario.org


Jane Gardner is executive director of Theatre Ontario, a central source of information on training, publications, career opportunities, awards, productions and resources focused on theatre in Ontario.