MORALE: Hospitality backstage

[Erin_Candice]

Then again, I find I do things differently to women SM's when it comes to cast relations - different standards etc. If I was female, maybe I would be more inclined (and it would be more expected of me) to do the whole hospitality thing. Being male, well they don't expect me to be good in the kitchen or know how to make a decent cup of tea (being an avid tea drinker and a bit of a tea snob (no bags for me) I like to think I make a damn good cuppa) or be willing to do dishes.

First, I think that's the crappiest, and most offensive, answer I've ever heard, "Leave the hospitality up to the women-folk.  Nobody expects it out of the men."  I know plenty a male SM to deal with coffee.

Anyway, in my current theatre, (a LORT space) we provide a selection of teas- herbal and flavored, hot water, regular and decafe coffee, sugar, sweet-n-low, non-dairy creamer, and labeled coffee mugs.  We ask for $4 a week from anyone that partakes (including directors, excluding Tech), and once you pay you can ask for special things like cream or coco.  This is also what we did at my last theatre and from the actors response, this seems to be an industry standard.  The non-equity ASM deals with the coffee set up and tear down, mug washing is left up to the ASM's discretion until strike when all the mugs are washed.  We also provide cough drops on occasion.  What an actor wants to drink or not drink is up to them, seeing as how they are paid professionals and I am not their mommy.

As for food, sometimes people bring in baked goods for opening or holidays.  And sometimes the crew brings in crackers or something to nibble on during the show.  This has never been a problem.  It is up to the individual to decide what they should or should not eat.  As long as they don't get a giant streak of chocolate on their costume or get drunk, I could care less what the actors eat before they go on stage.

[Mac Calder]

I did not mean to sound offensive. It is just what I have noticed. I have worked in other positions, under female and male SM's and a lot of the cast honestly do not expect the male SM's to act in the same way as female SM's - and in many cases they don't. Neither is "Better", they are just "Different".

It is a fact of nature that we do treat men and women differently, just as it is a fact of nature that men and women have different thought processess. Women (as a general rule), are a lot more nurturing than men are (again, this is a generalisation and whilst I don't like typecasting, these are observations). Personality traits are dictated by a number of factors -  society, genetics, etc. - and whilst it is no longer "Men provide, women care for the family", society still places a lot of emphasis on the women in the role of carer. Divorces are a great example of this - it is assumed that children are better off primarily with their mother (at least in Australia it tends to be) - equal visitation is rare. And people tend to expect what society has raised them to expect. My answer was not intended to say "Hospitality type stuff is womens work", but rather to say that if I were a female, I probably would have been encouraged to be a lot more, again with that word, nurturing than I am as a male, and my cast would accept it more readily.

I am more than capable in the kitchen, and I have been for most of my life - single child raised with a father who was at work more often than not, with a mother who wanted many children (problems during my birth) and was off work due to back injury, had me spending a lot of time with her in the kitchen. I love cooking. When I was just starting out as an SM, I brought in home made biscuits one day, and everyone said "Did your mum make these?" or "Who made the biscuits?" - straight off the bat assumed that I didn't. That is just how people think (although that mindset is changing slowly I believe).

Now as I said, I believe cast and crew are old enough to look after themselves with regards to hospitality. They are grown men and women. I make the basic things available - but that is the extent I will go to. I believe it is not my role to brew 5 different kinds of coffee, provide 7 different teas and 7 different brands of milk and sweeteners. The simple fact is if they want something more than instant coffee and tea bags they can bring it in themselves.

[centaura]

Singers are the ones who have to be especially careful about what they eat/drink right before a show. It's not just a diva thing. Smile What you consume can really effect your performance. Though it is going to vary some from person to person.

Yeah, and its amazing what some professional singers will do to their cords before performances.  I work at a road house that hosts large tours and big name concerts.  I think my favorite rider hospitality quote was a recent one this spring where, in reference to the bottle of wine that must be in the dressing room before the show, quote "If you're spending less than $50, you're not trying hard enough" [to find a good local brand].

We just had a tour in recently that had so much insence going, both in their dressing room and onstage, that I 1 - was smoked out of my own office, and 2 - am now worried how I'm going to get the smell out of the sofa from that dressing room.  How on earth could they even breathe, let alone sing, with 30 sticks of insense burning on the drum riser, I still don't know.  I was allergic to the stuff and spent most of the show hiding in the box office.

Its been really interesting seeing the hospitality riders that come with the big name bands.  And to see what they'll eat right before going onstage.  Often there's good things asked for in the rider, like throat-coat tea, but then after the show you find it unopened in the dressing room.  Then other times the onstage beverage station will be all alcohol.

On most shows, there's a deal with the in house catering company, I make the coffee on the dock [for the union] and they make the coffee in the catering kitchen [for everyone else].  There's one promoter who's too cheap to pay for the union to have coffee, so cheap in fact that the one time he brought donuts for them, they were day-old stale things leftover from somewhere.  But their only choice is caffenated, and while there is hot water for tea, they have to bring their own tea in.

The broadway tours either have their own stuff that the prop department sets up, or they order the in house catering.  Its all been very eye-opening though.

-Centaura