I wanted to start this thread after what happend to me this past weekend. I substituted for a crew member in a community theatre and was floored by how rude the stage managers were! There were no time calls to cast nor crew before the show nor at intermission (in fact, I never saw either of them come down and walk the stage ever!!). The "calling" SM put on his headset w/ the mic on--you know, that awful clanking in your ear that happens when some one does this. I asked that he turn off his mic when doing that and he laid into me--"hush up" which later became "shut up". Now... I've only been an AEA SM since '82 and IATSE stg hand since '98...hmmm..and I must say that his calls were horrible. He would combine his Warns & Stand-Bys, "Warning and Stand By for curtain"---uhhh...which is it?.... Leave us waiting on the cue way too long, call stuff at the wrong time if at all, didn't know what a scrim was so never called it that (he refered to it as a black drop which I figured out after the 2nd scrim cue). I got a lot of the real cues from the actors---there's a lot of no confidence in the SM team on their part---and just ignored the SM's barbs--they didn't turn off the headset mic while talking bad about me---until we got to an important cue and he was apparently calling it w/ the mic off. Once again, the cast told me, "this is the cue...GO".
My point is that I've been places where if a stg mgr did this, the crew would have walked off the show or would have found other ways to make your life miserable. I know these two don't realize how important it is to take care and be nice to your crew. I've been in reverse situations as SM where the crew was really not very pleasant and my choices were: 1) act like them and not be nice back or 2) kill them with kindness. #2 always seems to work. A not nice crew turns into very nice quickly and appreciates the fact that I brought donoughts and wait while they take forever to relamp a fixture. Before the day's out, they're giving me pointers on stage craft and going above and beyond the call.
It takes a certain temperment to be a good SM...and I went through a learning curve of thinking I was "all that" until I learned the crew is very valuable and no...you can't run the show (fly rail, deck cues, prop hand offs, quick change dresser and lights) all by yourself.
My vindication from the other night was that the SM team missed important cues and the show was not tight--they spent time chatting in the booth rahter than paying attention to the show. The SM's knew this, knew I knew this AND theatre mgmt is very aware of this.
Take good care of your crew and sing their praises often!
