SCENERY: Drop Count

[davidb]

On a performance report I have seen, there is an item called "Drop Count" with a number next to it and then a total.  Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but what is a drop count.  I have looked this up in every stage managers reference book I could get my hands on and haven't found a thing.

Thanks.

[linka]

what was the show?

It must've been related to that. Maybe it's the number of dead bodies by curtain call? Or how many people left at intermission? It may be a particular show thing or maybe it's something the company needed to track. The only time I've seen the phrase was when the stage manager was jokingly referring to how many actors were out sick or had fallen ill during the show (it was a bad flu season). Let me know what you find out. I'm curious!

[RGSM]

The way that I see this term used most often is related to tickets.  I see it a lot in house management reports.  It is the actual number of ticket stubs collected for the show that night as opposed to the total number of tickets sold.

[Debo123]

So branching out from this, what interesting things has anyone recorded on performance reports before? I mean on a regular basis; something you kept track of every show that wasn't a run time or whatever.

Anything fun?

Ah yes, and I have no idea what  drop count might be, but prior suggestions sound plausible.

[jspeaker]

When I do Forever Plaid I always put the name of the person that gets pulled from the audience in Heart and Soul in the performance report.

[Mac Calder]

We added "Cake Count" for one show - the final number of the series of short acts in my first show involves a story teller distributing cake as she walks out. The Cake Count is the number of slices of cake taken, as you ALWAYS get people who say "No thanks"...

The show is in a REALLY SMALL church hall, with an audience capacity of about 50 people per show. It is part of a 'festival' of new australian youth works, each show written by one of 27 or so new australian writers and < 40 mins in length. There are 8 places converted into performance spaces and the audience travels arround to different spaces to watch shows (or if they don't mind waiting, they can stay in the same space and wait for the next show to come on).

[Aerial]

Right now we've got The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and the SM's performance report includes who was voted Datchery, who was voted the Murderer and who were voted the lovers.

[MatthewShiner]

1) the new joke told offstage every night to get a group of people onstage laughing.  (ASM reported to me the joke.)

2) chairs broken in the performance.  (classical theatre is rough on chairs, very rough.)

3) Also added the name of audience members used in Plaid.

[davidb]

Thanks for all your responses - did find out it was regarding the number of tickets purchased versus the number of stubs.  

I really appreciate everyone's taking the time to help.

[prizm]

In a recent production of True West I recorded the number of beercans the were kicked offstage, and awarded points for creativity (ie odd body parts or hitting an audience memeber) After every performance I put the points up on the callboard, however I did not explain the points the chart simply said Lee xpoints, Austin xpoints. It became the running question after I gave 1/2 hour, what are the points for. Well on closing night I handed out the award for most items kicked ( a toaster) it was big fun for me anyway. p.s. only once was an audience member ever hit and that is because they snuck into a taped off seat after intermission and I couldnt reach my house manager in time.

[ChaCha]

I once had to do a 'mango drop' onto a 'tin roof', actually several per peformance...mangos are an odd shape and tend to drop with noteworthy style so it became a regular item on the show report "mango narrowly missed actor/prop/audience/drowned out lines" etc. most exciting  highlight of the night backstage...except the night we nearly burned down the theatre -but that's another story!

[centaura]

I had one tour when the daily injury/sickness or urgent care run became the daily performance report item.  That and the version of the show we were doing.  As in which two characters were doubling up that day (we didn't have an understudy).  It was a cursed tour.  I made somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 dozen emergency room visits in a little over a month.  Everything from dislocated thumbs to vitamin C overdoses.  Yes, it is possible to overdose on vitamin C.  Trust me, you don't want to know how much you have to take to overdose, but I did have an actor who found out the amount.  Twice.

-Centaura

[Tashi]

When I stage manage for Fringe (or the school I regularly work for) the actors are also the ASMs so they can leave me to do the light check, sound check, etc.
Usually for the drama school I write down how many times a shout check has been done and a preset check. The last show I did I had a cast of 7 and in a single night a shout check had been done a record 12 times. You think they'd talk to each other! Front of house and I usually have a good laugh about it.

The DSM at the theatre I occasionally work for (lx dep) has a "pill count" where he counts the number of tic tacs in a little bottle both before and after the show.... he also has a "Red Bull/Tea" count which is the amount of Red Bull and/or tea consumed by the tech crew that night. =)

[PSMKay]

One show I did, the second act was an open Q&A based on questions that the audience members dropped into a fishbowl at intermission.  I had to track the questions.  

In the sequel to this show, the guy came out shooting baskets onstage at the beginning of the show.  I had to call opening when he got the third swish.  We had a running bet among the design team as to what the average number of shots per night would be from across the run, so I was tracking basketball shots on the perf reports.

[jenk]

In a production of "Much Ado" our Benedick was an incredibly funny man, and our Beatrice had one scene in which she could very seldom look at him and keep a straight face. The rehearsal reports included the score as to which of them would conquer the moment. Final score: Benedick 17, Beatrice 8.