To cue or not to cue... (Old-school SMing?)

[Dart]

Lately, I've gotten into reading old SM (and lighting) books, both to count my blessings (make sure we have a working landline in the rehearsal space? Thank you, cell phone, for taking care of that one!) and to learn about how our job has changed over the years.

I am, however, also reading things that make me wonder if they've changed or if they still happen, just not in my "kind" of theater (non-equity, straight plays in DC, with primarily foreign directors and performers).

For example: in reading this book (http://www.amazon.com/Stage-Managers-Handbook-Bert-Gruver/dp/0896760073), from '52 (and revised in '72) and geared toward equity productions, I'm finding "direct cues" versus "indirect cues." Direct cues are defined as visual or line cues, and involve people, whether actors or crew, taking the cues on their own. Indirect cues aren't defined, but involve giving a cue - preferably via a person like an ASM, lest the cueing system fail.

Is cueing via headset - and particularly cueing for everything - a new development? Of course there are things that should happen without SM direction: live-mixing sound shouldn't depend on the SM giving a GO every time a person starts or stops speaking. But is trusting a Light OP to GO when a line is said or when a person enters done anywhere? Was this ever actually common in the 50s, or am I being deceived by this book?

[PSMKay]

There are still visual and indirect cues all over the place. Cue lights are a form of them now that calling from a booth has become more commonplace. Board ops might need to do a visual cue when practicals are involved - think, turning on a lamp or a light switch, or answering a ringing phone. Nearly all follow spot cues would have to be on visuals.

On deck I can recall a situation involving a character who hanged herself towards the end of the show. The scene was set on a platform about 9' up in the air, and for safety's sake rig was controlled from behind a pillar immediately adjacent. I had to sneak behind the pillar during a blackout, stay there to hook her to the rig, run the rig up, and then stay behind that pillar absolutely motionless for the last 15 minutes of the show. I had a wireless com on but had to turn it off so that audio bleed from my ears didn't carry into the house during this emotionally wrenching and silent scene. I obviously could not see anything except masonite, rigging and steel directly in front of my nose so the whole sequence was completely out of the SM's control once it began.

[On_Headset]

But is trusting a Light OP to GO when a line is said or when a person enters done anywhere? Was this ever actually common in the 50s, or am I being deceived by this book?

Well, theatre used to have a rather neat cleave down the middle.

On the one side, you had "legitimate" theatre: shows which were rehearsed and scripted, with permanent casts, sets, costumes, sequences, and so on. This is an environment we recognize and work in today.

On the other, you had vaudeville and music hall: shows which changed every week (sometimes every night!), performers who travelled with their own sets and costumes, and a good deal of improvisation and the unexpected in the mix. And in that environment, an operator who needs a cue to do something will be completely out to sea. (Sure, you'd have cues for the flymen and the curtain and the orchestra and all the other stuff you do between acts, but the lighting operator [and especially the follow-spots] are, for all intents and purposes, improvising.)