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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Backstage or Booth?
« on: Jan 17, 2012, 09:57 am »I LOVE calling from backstage. You're so much closer to everything and everybody. If there's a problem, or someone gets hurt, you can deal with it right away rather than wait for an ASM who was busy flirting with the lead actor to figure it out. And as an added bonus, stagehands and actors will often come by and spontaneously start rubbing your back!
I totally relate. Some of my best moments calling from backstage were accompanied by a massage.
Post Merge: Jan 17, 2012, 10:16 am
I have done both. In my early years as a SM (late 1970s-early 1980s), backstage was the only place available. I had to know the show really well because my favorite director doesn't restrict his actors to behind the proscenium arch. There were a few things I couldn't see from my position, and therefore had to call on lines and my knowledge of their timing. That was really the only drawback for me. I loved being near the action and I could deal with problems quickly. I never had an ASM. Actors knew better than to bother me in the middle of a cue.
After the booth was built back of house I called from there. The obvious advantage was now I could see the whole show, and I appreciated that, but I missed being in the thick of the action.
I recently co-SM'd a show in a different theater where one SM was in back of house calling lights while I was backstage wrangling actors, running our numerous scene shifts and calling the start of the acts. That was an insane experience.
Another recent show, I was given the option of calling backstage or in the booth. I was so tempted to call from backstage! But even with a monitor, too much of the show would have been invisible to me because of the way it was blocked. I called from the booth.