Comedy of Errors
Director: Jack Young
Scenic Designer: Nicholas Schwartz
Lighting Designer: Daniel L. Taylor
Costume Designer: Amanda Vander Byl
Sound Designer: David Greenberg
Photos: Eric White
This was one of two shows I assisted on while at Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre during the summer of 2019. There was a cast of 14 adults and 6 children. Comedy of Errors was AST's outdoor production this particular season. The show was at the whim of mother nature so occasionally it was performed in a second location due to weather! This was the first show I worked outdoors. I combatted mosquitoes, sweat, rain, and cockroaches. Some of the responsibilities that will be discussed here include the prop tracking, child tracking and line notes I completed for this production.
This show was extremely physical in nature. It required careful tracking of moments that would need to be run in fight call, as well as notation of what happened in those moments which I and the other ASM assisted the stage manager with.
This show did not have a lot of props; however, the props that were involved in this show were used frequently and changed hands often. With the fast pace of the show, prop tracking and the run sheet had to be precise and allow plenty of time for things to be prepped before being handed off.
As with all shows, there are some needs that aren't anticipated until you've hit tech and you're in it. For this particular show, due to it being outdoors, the actors were sweating through their mic tape a lot. Quick applications of mic tape and juggling of sweat rags, water bottles, and precious shade were all elements of the backstage life during this production.
Below I have included some of the paperwork I worked on during the show.
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We had five children in the cast and I crafted a child tracking sheet for the Child Wrangler to reference throughout the performances.
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From top of show to intermission in prop tracking is shown in the second PDF and demonstrates how props were tracked during rehearsals.
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Finally, the run sheet that the other ASM and I built together is included to provide an overall idea of what the show was like.