CUE 1
REAdy
You can start stage crew work without a director, without a venue, and without a show, but things wonât seem real until the entire staff is on board and a few things have been decided. This book covers pretty much everything except directing, costumes, and music, but your assignment may be just sets, or just sound, or maybe everything. Iâm going to proceed on the assumption that you are working with a director, and that someone else is handling the costumes, the music, the dance steps, and the singing. Assembling the staff is a job in itself, and if someone gets sick you may just have to take over volunteer assistant dance coordinator duties as well as the traditional stage crew duties. Letâs keep the choreographer healthy; that way you can keep your mind on your job instead of everyone elseâs job. In a nutshell, your job is to instruct the stage crew on the technical aspects of the production; in reality, youâll be involved with every aspect of the production, the glove on the directorâs hand.
DECIDING ON THE SHOW
Itâs not really your job to decide on the show, itâs the directorâs. And the director is always under a lot of pressure to pick a show that the kids will like, a big show so a lot of kids can participate, a popular show so you wonât lose money, a cheap showâŠ. Letâs just admit that the director has pressures. You donât really want to make things harder by even suggesting shows. No, no, no, what you want is ⊠veto power. Veto power means you get to say no to a show, for any reason whatsoever, and it should stick. Needless to say, the choral director and band director should have veto power over musicalsâthe same as you.
Our principal (actually it was an assistant principal) thought he had veto power over our newest director, and screwed up his face when she decided to do Shakespeare for the second time in three years. Iâm not a big Shakespeare scholar, but our director is; guess who won that battle. It helped that sheâd just returned from London, acting at the Globe. The concern was that itâs sometimes difficult to win the student audience over to Shakespeare. Try one of the comediesâMuch Ado, or Midsummerâand remind everybody involved that itâs a comedy ⊠When Flute refuses to play Thisby (a woman) itâs because, âI have a beard coming.â Thatâs a joke! Yâknow ⊠woman/beard. Get it? A joke. People are always surprised to learn that (done right) Shakespeareâs comedies are actually pretty funny.
I donât recall actually vetoing any shows, except maybe while we were still in the musing stage. I did get to pick a show, though, once. It was my first directorâs last show before retiring. We started our career together with a screaming argument, and then, five years later, he asks, âWhat show would you pick?â
âFiddler,â I said, âfor two reasons. First, because Iâve always wanted to do it, and second, Iâve always wanted to do it with you as the director.â He chose Fiddler. I figured it was a compliment to me. If you do Fiddler, figure out a way to make Frumah Sarah really fly. Be careful, but do it.
ONE-WEEK RUN/TWO-WEEK RUN
Once youâve decided on a show, and gotten permission from the licensing agency to actually produce it, youâll have to decide how many performances you can pull off. For several years we did three-day runs, and I was actually pretty happy, as there was only one weekend of pure panic and dread. But the truth is, Iâve come around to feel that you should have a two-week runâthat is, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of the first week, and Friday and Saturday nights the next week, with a Sunday matinee. At least for the musicals. Youâll find the musicals generally are more work all around, so the longer run might be more easily justified. And a two-week run can turn a financial loss into a profit, as the only extra expense is the royalty.
Opening on a Thursday does not guarantee a full houseârather the contraryâbut the best part is the buzz the next day at school. Kids who saw the show will talk it up (presuming itâs good) and more kidsâll come the remaining days. Try a student discount on opening night to pack the house. Closing on a Sunday matinee gives more time for set cleanupâcalled a strike party. Try to get everything done since no one will want to come to a stage crew meeting the day after a show is over.
Youâll have to check with all adults involved, and be cautious about overexposing yourself. As the years go by, you can vary the number of performances. When you finally get to do Annie and Guys and Dolls, you should schedule as many performance dates as you can.
A Saturday-night closing can be great too; most parents will allow the kids to stay late at school to strike the set. Youâll have to buy the refreshments unless you can talk a parent into doing it.
DOUBLE CASTING
If you decide on a two-week run, the director may be tempted to double cast major parts. This is a very noble idea. It allows more kids to have starring roles and does attract a few new customers the second weekend. But itâs not worth it. It encourages student rivalries and is hell on the director, not to mention the costumer. To top it off, the kids will rarely work together to make both performances better; instead they may actually (consciously or unconsciously) work to hurt the performance that they donât star in. If you have that many kids, then put on another (different) show, or let the drama club do it.
UNDERSTUDIES/CHANGES
You do have to be prepared in case somebody falls out or quits the show. Luckily for you itâs more the directorâs problem; you just suggest and lend support. Mostly my suggestions were to put some kid from stage crew on stage. Many of them want to act but hold back, probably just due to shyness. We put Alan on as a judge, Cindy on as a waiter, everyone on as âThe Mobâ in A Tale of Two Cities, and a few kids in a few other places. I always encouraged the kids to try outâfor the play, for cheerleading, for sports (I lost a good carpenter to the soccer team), but when a crisis hits, you promote from within. So an actor or stagehand gets pushed up, just like in the movies. Magic.
The truth is, a kid would have to be pretty darn sick to leave a show. We considered putting a âringerâ in the pit to sing Prince Charmingâs song in Into the Woods, but the (incredibly sick) kid did it, and the other Prince harmonized to lift him through the tougher sections. From on stage. Nobody noticed except the people who were coming back to see the show a second time, and his effort earned him extra applause. Magic, magic, magic. Life memories of the best kind.
If you see trouble brewing, pull a kid early and get the replacement in there. I think we did that once.
RESERVING SPACE
In almost every case, the location of a show has to serve other masters. In a school the orchestra, choir, and even the school photographer will put demands on theater space. In community theater there can be as many as three shows in production at the same time. This leads to quite a few problems, most of which can be solved with a great big padlock. Lock up every single item that you canât stand to have damaged, stolen, or used up. Lock up the tape if you expect to have any when you need it. Lock up the extension cords, or be prepared to buy more (perhaps you can attach them to a pipe with plastic cable ties). Lock up everything the other groups have no right to. Theyâll use your water, and even your makeup, which is gross (all the actors should buy their own, but they never do). Outside groups may rent your space, right in the middle of your production. The superintendent of schools may come in to make a budget presentation. It stinks. Youâll have to work with the director and reserve the space. Use this opportunity to begin a comprehensive calendar of the next few months of your life. (Donât forget to schedule in time to pay your bills.) Someone in the office will have an arcane, cryptic form that you have to fill out in triplicate; be sure to get three copies. There is no question that the first time you reserve space youâll do it wrong; for instance, you may skip the box that means you want the heat on, and the show is in December. In Pennsylvania ⊠oops. Try to coordinate the school calendar, the community calendar, your social and religious obligations and account for possible bad weather ⊠trust me, youâll overlook something. Butâand here is the most important lesson in the book (fancy that, page 4)âthe better you plan and try to figure out things ahead of time, the fewer your problems. And the smaller your problems. And easier to solve. So ⊠think ahead. Donât worry, think.
And find some alternate work locations for when you get kicked out of the theater.
REHEARSAL SPACE
Occasionally you will have the luxury of a long stretch of uninterrupted time available to you in the theater and the associated workspacesâthe costume shop, the scene shop, makeup roomsâmake the best of it. Since the crew will need a lot of extra time and space, try to get some of the rehearsals placed elsewhere, especially in the beginning, when blocking isnât quite so important. Directors want to block pretty early, though, so make the most of any early time you get. Turn all of your lighting technicians and painters into carpenters. They wonât like it, but the jobs have to be done in their proper order. And itâs not really fair to any group to dawdle. Youâve got time, youâve got the theater (because you reserved it), youâve got labor ⊠GO! The actors can run lines in the drama room, or practice dance steps in the wrestling room (unused out of season). Beg a bit of time to rough in the major, major pieces. And do it, donât let the time slip away. Youâre going to be extremely busy later in the production, and the director will never give up the theater again if you donât take advantage of your week or two and at least get the stairs built and the bigger set pieces begun. Plus, it gives the kids a thrill to see the set taking shape. (A great trick is to save some major painting until the night before the first tech rehearsal, and stay late. Saturday morning, everyone comes in to find the set miraculously transformedâwhat a boost to the show. But weâre getting ahead of ourselves.) The thrill is when the actors come in and see a set, not a shambles of unbuilt sticks.
One little detail. If you have to build elsewhere and move the production in later, you have to measure everything, including door widths and heights, and build to fit. And budget a little extra time for the move.
EQUIPMENT INVENTORY
If you are just starting out, youâll need to take account of all of the junk in the place, and youâll have to determine if it works or not. Inspect everything and sort it out as best as you can. Put all of the tools in one place; test the staplers, saws, sewing machines, etc. Put old props away in some logical fashion. You wonât be able to reorganize the entire theater, especially if your predecessors were slobs, but you do need to get down a layer or two just to see what you have. Write down things like the blade size for the circular saw, the model number of the sewing machine, all that stuff. Use a permanent binder of some kind, something that will last the year through. Eventually youâll have to reorganize the binder. Think of that as a good sign. Little drawings of how things are hooked up go in the binder, notes about repairs made, dimensions you know youâll need later, a wish listâŠ.
In effect this little book becomes a substitute brain, remembering things you have no room for in your head. At the beginning of each workday, at the conclusion of each workday, every day during rehearsal, Sunday nights, and every day at lunch, youâre going to take a peek in this little book and try to get a task done. Of course, the master calendar is in the book. Post copies of it on the callboard. Usually you end up adding to the list, but be of good cheerâI found that the list getting longer was a sign that things were going well.
A fun task when you are tired and arenât actually going to do anything is to rewrite the lists in the book in priority order. Youâre just kidding yourself, of course, but itâs cathartic, and you can pretend you actually accomplished something.
After a time, youâll have a pretty good idea of what youâve got to work with, what you need, and what you want. Youâll have a list of things that donât work and problems to solve. If you donât write it all down, youâre going to forget something important.
ORGANIZING THINGS
Iâm going to presume that the place is a mess and itâs your first day. Your predecessor left you a huge pile of junk, including about half of the set from the last show. You canât find any tools, the paint cans are open and all dried up, the lumber rack is a total shambles (actually, that never changes), and if you had had any sense, you wouldnât have taken on this job. Too late, you signed the contract. Poke around a little. Eventually youâll see something thatâs worth keeping. Let joy fill your heart. Look around, and decide where you want to put it. You donât want to move things more than once, well, twice probably, but not a lot. Donât actually move the thing, just mentally note the best place for the paints (behind lock and key), the tools (same), the wood, the flats ⊠everything. You may end up moving things to a poor location, but the truth is, just getting everything organized (and the trash thrown out) is an incredible first step. Itâs a step youâll want to be ready to take when you call your first stage crew meeting in September.
Try to think ahead as far as where things should go. At my old school, I felt strongly that the props room was too close to the stage entrance (in the wings). There was always a bottleneck of actors right in a bad place. I made the props room the paint room, and moved the props room further offstage, where they had room for a table and a wall to hang costumes on. We didnât need the paints during the run of the show (except when we did), so actors could use part of the paint room for quick changes as the dressing rooms were in a really bad place (upstairs).
It worked great. The kids didnât like me changing things around, and let me know in many not-so-subtle ways, but the new layout worked better, especially as the tools were also put in a place closer to the wood. Just try to imagine how things will move on- and offstage, where you want to set up the paints (near a sink)âbrilliant! Figure out where you can fit the larger set pieces. Be flexible. Then call your first stage crew meeting.
STAGE CREW
If things are really bad, just start ordering people around and doing everything your way. Make it clear that youâre the boss, and that this place is going to present a quite different appearance from now on. If things arenât so bad, let the elected officers run the proceedings. That is, if the club even has elected officers. (We didâthough being an officer was no guarantee of getting a choice job for any show.) What I mean here is if things arenât in good order, your job is to put them in good order; conversely, if the ...