CALLING: Backstage or Booth? (meta-topic)

[lauria]

I have only called from FOH in a booth CS all the way in the back of the house. The only time I did otherwise was when we were doing "Play in a Day" and it was easier having multiple SMs to call from SR. I hated that because you couldn't see the apron do to sightlines and we didn't have monitors since the norm was calling FOH.

[jspeaker]

I will be the first to say that I prefer calling from backstage.  Especially with many flying elements and automated scenery.  I feel more comfortable being in the middle of it all that I way I can see what is happening with my own two eyes.

[BalletPSM]

There was an extensive discussion on this topic about a year ago...you can find the thread here:

http://smnetwork.org/forum/index.php/topic,2255.0.html

that being posted, I will reiterate that I prefer to call from backstage!

EDIT: Merged! --PSMK

[Scott]

Obviously 'traditionally' a show is generally called from stage left. Has anyone ever called from FOH?

EDIT: Merged this and the entire thread after it with the older thread from April of '07. --PSMK

Not sure how "traditional" it is to call from SL as opposed to SR -- it usually depends on the house (location of linesets, elec. tie in, dressing rooms, etc.).  Like KillerDana above, my impression is that I've probably called from SR more than SL.

[Thomas A. Kelly]

If God meant SMs to call from a booth, he would have installed them in theaters before the late sixties.... backstage is where the person running a show needs to be, out font is where the person responsible for watching the show and taking performance notes should be. If you are in a situation where as PSM or Calling SM, you are esponsible for both, well, then maybe the booth is ok, but if you are cueing a show and running it from the front, the quality of one aspect or the other is going to slip...

Just my opinion...

[nmno]

Obviously 'traditionally' a show is generally called from stage left. Has anyone ever called from FOH?

Not sure how "traditional" it is to call from SL as opposed to SR

I'm guessing the "tradition" referred to here is from the terms Prompt Side and Opposite Prompt (being SL and SR, respectively).

[Scott]

Obviously 'traditionally' a show is generally called from stage left. Has anyone ever called from FOH?

Not sure how "traditional" it is to call from SL as opposed to SR

I'm guessing the "tradition" referred to here is from the terms Prompt Side and Opposite Prompt (being SL and SR, respectively).

Oh right -- that Brit thing again.     Thanks for the refresher -- I'd completely forgotten!

[HappiTam]

Backstage please.  :-)

[Scott]

If God meant SMs to call from a booth, he would have installed them in theaters before the late sixties....

Do you think that a boom in installation of booths was related to the explosion of Off Broadway in the late sixties?  Many of the Off Broadway houses have booths -- backstage space is so limited as to make calling positions backstage sometimes inconvenient.  (The Cherry Lane Theate and The Actor's Playhouse come to mind.)

[stagegal1]

The booth at the Cherry Lane is SR, built as a sort of loft.  There is no view to anything other than monitors.  It is even difficult, if not impossible, to see the rest of the backstage area.

[jmc]

Actualy from memory, being a POHM (British).
The bio box [booth] started to creep in about the late 50's. This was caused in Britain, primarily because a lot of live theatres had been adapted as picture houses. With the advent of TV & a spreading coverage by the BBC through out the regional areas. Forcing theatres to look to films as way of staying in the black, rather than closing thier doors.
The bio boxes were for the most part a partitioned room, gaffed together to house the projector & film gear.
Later in the 60's when rock 'n roll shows needed venues to perform for the teeny boppers. Picture [theatre] Houses were the obvious chioce, as the film screen could be flown out & quickly converted back to a live theatre, to acomodate the shows, then reverted to a picture house once more.
For the most part it was easier to establish a purpose built bio box & control booth, in the FOH, as lighting technoligy had gone ahead in leaps & bonds. Thus retiring the old Sunset Row & other types of large dimmer controls from backstage. this was how it came about in Pohmyland [Britain] & I'm sure it was much the same there.
However the SM remained on the PS [Devils Side] as in most cases this was the side of the stage that large dimmer controls were located. Leaving the OP area for the Fly system.
With better communications being installed it was a natural progression for the SM [DSM] to be drawn to calling the show from the bio box.
I doubt it was just a traditional Pohmy thing, but more purely one of logistics, as the Promter, lighting control gas table & later the electrical lighting dimmers & Light Operators.
Well that's how I remember it happened with theatres in Britain, It certainly happened this way with my Great Uncles Theatre [Tyne Theatre & Opera house] in Newcastle On Tyne NE England. Which became the Stoll Picture House in the 50's, then converted back to the Tyne Theatre in the 90's, after being used as a Bingo Hall for a number of years.
{So I believe, there is still reminants of the gas pipe lighting system there,  used in the early 1900's & even relics of the first electric lighting system [water dimmers (P*ss pots)] that was installed later on in that time.}
I don't know if this helps, but it may clarify some of the transitions in theatre operations. 

[Baz]

Whoa! Talk about British 'Old School'!

PS and OPS (Prompt Side and Opposite Prompt  Side) - though by time I 'did the Provinces', that was largely replaced entirely by SL and SR - in reference and - thankfully - blocking. Still, most of the theatres I worked in (city-owned touring venues) still had the PS (SL) calling location for the SM. I don't recall ever having a FOH booth, short of doing pub venues or black boxes, like the Donmar Warehouse or The Young Vic. I guess I never played the converted cinemas, jmc!

My very first experience calling shows was here in North America in an old Pantages House, and its calling station was (and still is) SR. I don't recall FOH booths until Black Boxes became de rigueur in the 70s, when one could never be sure where the stage (or audience) was going to be. Somewhere along the line after that, it became acceptable to throw the SM up into the Gods - even in a pros House - to call a show.

All things considered, I still prefer to be 'on deck' (even if that means with limited sightlines), but I have been several floors (and at leasts 3 minutes away) from the stage with an ASM on deck in lieu....

Ha! History lesson for the young'uns!

 

[jmc]

PS & OP are a usefull mainly with calling Dome [limes] pick ups off the cuff & with sets during a Bump in/out. Otherwise the SL & SR directions, are prevail in normal show circumstances.
I feel a disconection with calling from anywhere other than on the PS deck, even from the bastard prompt [OP].
Although I have noticed a gravitation to utalising the lighting techie to call the show, usualy with disaster pending results, even in Pro & Ameatre.
Here in Oz [Here in Perth West Australia] it didn't happen in the quite the same way as with the Pohmy theatres, although it was heavily influanced by pohmy theatre cultre. So PS & OP is still predominant with techies only.
To that end I have even called an Opera Gala performance from the theatre carpark, which is almost another Novel length story!

[Scott (formerly Digga)]

I think I've found the best of both worlds here at Northern Stage.  You call from a booth in the back of House Left but you're also backstage.  It puts the stage at a slight angle but keeps you available in case of emergencies and I've got a monitor for a more direct frontal view.

[Thomas A. Kelly]

Well, maybe... I called Fortune and Men's Eyes backstage at Actor's Playhouse (and ran lights)... it was fine. Also ran show backstage at the Provincetown, Jan Hus, etc. The fist time I wasn't backstage was in tent musicals, as there is no backstage. Then, I go a job at the Beaumont, and the deck sms were backstage (duh), but we called rfom the booth, both upstairs and downstairs. It was weird at first, but... it did allow one to do acting notes and call the show. Another place I used a booth was Cirle in the square downtown, as there was no place to call other than the little crow's nest.

Anyway, I am happier backstage when calling and of course out front if taking director notes on a run. On Broadway shows during the run, I would usually call the show 2-3 times a week and watch from the front 4-5 times a week...

The thing is, all new theaters seem to be directed towards the booth calling, and as many of these are in university or large arts complexes, many SMs only understand how to call from a booth, and that is a shame.