Best showing of appreciation from a cast?

[Cedes]

For the cast party after the closing of  "It's a Wonderful Life" my cast all got together and got me a very nice snowglobe with my name and show engraved on it, as well as a picture frame with a collage of pictures from the show.  I was almost in tears, it meant so much that they thought of that. 

[jaslada]

I just closed Chicago and the cast gave me a flask - engraved with my name & the show.

[valence]

Hope nobody minds me performing a bit of thread necromancy, but the TD just sent me this picture and I wanted to share it.  Last fall I stage managed my high school's production of Into the Woods.  My birthday was right before we opened and the cast knew I'd be spending my 18th birthday playing master electrician instead of having a big party.  So they brought the party to me!  One of my ASMs aunt runs a bakery and they made this cake:

I appreciate the 'thank you's from my cast as much as anyone else, but homemade carrot cake during tech week takes the cake is the best

The image on there is based off of the poster(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a269/buffo_shelty/June%2011/2.jpg), which the director bullied/blackmailed talked me into making.

[kiwitechgirl]

^^^That's awesome!  I had a nice one from a director I often work with the other day - she's working in another city with another company at the moment and not enjoying their SMs at all - she Facebooked me and all the message said was "you are officially the best stage manager in the country".  Considering it took her three shows working with me to trust me at all, it made me happy!

[dallas10086]

I don't think it's a show of appreciation necessarily, and it was from a past team member, but I appreciated it!

I recently attended "Evita" with the director of programming for the PAC - who was also considering hiring me for a few shows - and the musical director just happened to be one I've worked with once years before. After the show, with the director of programming a few feet away, she gave me a huge hug and gushed about how much she had missed my work and how I was the best she'd worked with. Then she looked right at him and said, "She is absolutely the best in town!" Boy, was her timing perfect - she may have just secured future work for me!

[late_stranger]

I spent my birthday doing a show too, and my director organized (without me knowing, which is a near miracle) the cast into a harmonized rendition of Happy Birthday (it was a musical), and the lead gave me a hug. It was a Friday, and there had been questions about whether school transportation would be available, and despite there being no actual problem, my ASM had bailed (again), and I wasn't having a great day, and it just made my day.

[BayAreaSM]

I agree with some others, sometimes it isn't a physical gift that tops my list either (though all gift items become part of my SM kit).

For the past 7 seasons, I've been a resident SM for a ballet company. Since my birthday is in November, for the past 6 seasons, my birthday has fallen on a tech or a performance. As a general rule, the dancers sing during Company Class for the birthday dancer du jour, but for my 30th - they went all out for me. During bows for our final afternoon tech, they got the Sound Engineer to play Happy Birthday over the house system, they all sang to me, and one of the principal men pulled me from my console and ran me out center stage, as Spot 1 picked me up. Everyone was applauding, so as he turned me across his body (typical ballet bow style for men & women) I took a deep curtsy and jete'd into the wing back to my console. I was flushed and thrilled at the same time (and I think I pulled something!).

To top it off, the show was Pirates of Penzance - The Ballet, and we had 4 live opera singers who sang along as audience members in box seats with the orchestra in "3rd person style" - quite a tasking job to say the least, especially if you've already performed the show and have sung it in your own 1st person voice. After bows on Opening Night (that same day), the quartet came to me backstage and sung "Hail, Les Reinhardt!"  A cappella to me at my console (the Soprano had re-written the words to "Hail, Poetry!" for me). This just made me cry. I'd done a few shows with the Soprano before, and we had taken her to China on tour with us, so it seriously tugged at my heartstrings. She gave me a copy of her lyrics and it's something I treasure to this day.

And, on a non-birthday related note, last summer season I worked on my very first workshop. On closing, the Director of the New Works Festival came up to me to tell me that the director of my show had said great things about me. It's always great hearing that, but what was the best was when I went to say goodbye to the director. He said, "I am going to ask for you the next time I work here." That just floored me and filled me with so much joy that my chest nearly burst.

Sometimes, as we go along in our trade, we doubt ourselves. Perhaps we feel that our methods are out of date, or we're losing our touch, but to hear that, honestly and without provocation, really helps me to know that I'm on the right track. That is one of the best gifts ever.