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Consoling an unhappy actor

The stage manager:

The director:

The wardrobe supervisor:

Another actor:

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stage crew things #24

the stage manager when actors haven’t memorized their lines yet and the show is in less than a week

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Gender Roles in the Theater

Male Lighting Teacher: People tend to think of sound design as a male-dominated field, and lighting design as female-dominated.

Female Lighting Student: So what you’re saying is that men sound more powerful, but women are the bright ones.

*Submitted by sensicalabsurdities 

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Asking a Technician Why a Note Didn't Get Done Over Lunch or Dinner

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you used to call me from your prompt book

(read more about Jason Bassett’s work here & see him featured in ham4ham)

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Person: How many lighting people does it take to screw in a light bulb? lol

Me: Okay first of all they're called LAMPS or INSTRUMENTS, and second you use a wrench to TIGHTEN or LOOSEN it, not screw it the fuck in.

Person: ...

Me: Also, like three

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YES!

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One of my favorite little backstage things is when people recognize someone else’s job as more important than their own and move the fuck out of the way.

Anticipated or not, we’ve all been there. You’ll be meandering back to the dressing rooms to rest your feet before the next scene when you see the prop runner bolting toward you. Turning, you instinctively hug the wall just as they fly past. You go on your way.

Or you have just descended the stairs when, “Fuck!” Before you know it you’ve turned around and every actor ascending to make their entrance pins themselves to the rail while you pound up the stairs. You accidentally bump into a guy on the way, but you both forget the encounter.

Or that moment every show when you step to the side with your arms out. Seconds later, an actress drops her prop in your hands as she dashes to her quick change.

It’s (usually) wordless, instead relying on bounding feet and focused eyes to communicate that their job is more important than yours in that moment. Knowing theatre is full of mishaps, we rarely follow up or know what it was about, but trust that it was all to serve the show.

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Never Late

I walked into the threatre, 5 minutes late, having sped to get there after leaving traffic, but walked in hoping no one would comment. Of course I ran into an actor who decided to jokingly mention my tardiness, my response was, "A stage manager is never late, everyone else is simply early,"

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No Chill

The only possible response a SM can have when their chill is questioned.

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Stage Managers Don't Get Sick

When someone tells you you're sick and should go home.

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could you explain the difference b/w dry tech, paper tech etc?

Yes! I’ll go through them in the order they happen in my experience (this is an important caveat: every theater/school/company/etc. does it the tiniest bit differently). 

Paper Tech: Sitting down with designers to talk through the show. Stage management will get cues from lighting/sound et al designers and put them in their books at this time. 

In my experience (and in what I’ve heard from a lot of the designers I work with), this is only REAAAAAALLY common in educational settings. In most cases the designer either (a) gives the stage manager a cue sheet and has a q&a session later if needed or (b) creates the cues during cue to cue, at which point the SM puts them in their book. 

Dry Tech: Running through cues without the actors. In my experience, this is mostly for the deck crew to run transitions and get their hands on any moving pieces/props they’ll have to interact with without the distraction of the rest of tech going on around them. 

At our theater, “dry tech” is hardly ever the a traditional thing. It’s more of a tech prep day – cleaning and prepping backstage areas, finding storage areas for large scenic pieces, setting up quick changes areas, etc. We’ll go through run notes and hit highlights and test any scenery we can, but otherwise it’s a pretty low key day. 

Cue to Cue: Affectionately referred to as “Q2Q”, this is typically the very first day of the tech process. It’s the day when everything comes together sans costumes (with the exception of pieces that will affect other tech departments OR the actors’ performance). Length doesn’t matter – it could be a 3 hour rehearsal, it could be a 10 of 12. What differs most is the way that various companies run their Q2Q. 

If it’s under my jurisdiction/in the cards, we set for top of show and work through from the very top all the way to the end (unless there is a truly long gap of no-tech-happening) rather than jumping from cue to cue to cue. I find that it’s easier for everyone that way – backstage can start to work out their tracks in slow-mo before being thrown into them, designers can see how things flow, and everyone gets a much better sense of what’s going on. The biggest con with this approach (in my mind) is how much time it can use up. 

Tech: Post-q2q rehearsal that continues to work with all of the different tech elements. It can be a stop-and-start run, it can be based off a work list with trouble spots. It can be quick change rehearsal. Really, tech is whatever you want it to be as long as tech elements are involved and you’re working on getting them integrated into the show as a whole. 

Dress: When costumes are added to the rehearsal process and everyone’s brain falls out of their ears. This is the first night quick changes happen, the first night people realize their mic belt isn’t going to fit where they thought it would, and the first night for a lot of other things. From here, you run the show as many times as you can and work out as many kinks as humanly possible until opening!

Again: the specific ins and outs of these rehearsals vary from theater to theater – and occasionally even from one director/designer to another within the same theater company. 

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Congratulations to the cast and crew of HAMILTON on their record-breaking 16 Tony nominations!

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Calling a terrible first performance but telling yourself it could have been a lot worse