Curtain call for crew?

[Marius]

No, no NO!! I like to compare the crew to Ninjas. The highest praise a techie can get is if the audience has no idea he/she is there. We get our thanks from a job well done, a show where nothing breaks and nobody bleeds real blood, and in some instances from a paycheck. Like many others have said, if you want the spotlight be an actor. A show with its crew on stage is a ship with no one at the wheel.

[malex]

Most technicians that I have worked with loathe the idea of being placed in the lights. Our reward is the satisfaction of a job well done and hopefully a good day rate. Personally, my only request of directors is that they offer a hand to the booth and the pit during curtain calls. I don't see it as a way for the audience to recognize the people in black, but a way for the performers to remember who makes things go. I also like to try to talk directors into limiting their curtain calls. I figure a bow for supprting characters and leads, followed by a company bow suffices.

[HighWattageKid92]

My theory is never heard never seen, until the last performance we all come out for a bow and the directors speech. (High School shows) otherwise there is nothing for me.

[tech2000]

I'm in high school so of course my crew goes out and takes a bow...but I hate it , if I could help it we wouldn't go out to bow. However, it's funny because the audience cheers a lot louder when we run out there than when the cast first runs out to bow.

[WestlakeTech]

(sorry, I know I'm late, but I'm also a newb, so please bear w/me)

I'm in high school so we do curtain calls for about half of our shows (really depends on the type of show) and I used to love it. Freshman and Sophomore year, you couldn't slap the smile off my face when I walked on stage, even with me trying to repress it myself. I just got this strange feeling of elation. By now that feeling's worn off, but I still think it should be done. Don't think the audience cares at all, but if I've been working my butt of for this production, I better at least get some applause.

[rochem]

A horror story about our crew "bows". This year, we have a SM who is doing her first show. After our opening night, the agreement was that the crew was going to go down and stand in the procession line as people leave (see my post a few posts up if you don't know what I mean). So as the lights come up for the curtain call, everyone in the booth (two sound people, another lighting person besides myself, and the SM) all run down the stairs, apparently trying to be the first into the procession line. After the curtain call the lights go down and the curtain closes, and since the SM's headset is lying 5 feet from me and off, I call backstage to see if I am good to bring the house up. The response is "we're all out here in the lobby." Apparently, they shut the curtain then sprinted out to the lobby as well. So after leaving the audience in darkness for about 20 seconds, I finally bring up the house - to find that the curtain had snagged on a set piece and was hanging half open giving a clear view into backstage. So I go down to the stage and fix the curtain, right as our new TD shows up and asks what the hell just happened.

Although some good comes out of everything. The practice of having techs out in the lobby is now officially over, and will never be done again. Just because the curtain's closed (or not quite closed) doesn't mean our work is done.

[cdub260]

At the Pageant we don't do curtain calls. Period. Not for the cast. Not for the crew. That said, bear in mind that we don't exactly fit in the mould of traditional theatre. By the end of the show, half the cast has already gone home, and half the crew is trying to beat the crowd out so they don't get stuck in traffic.

If only I could do that.

When I'm working on other shows, whether or not the crew takes a bow varies depending on the group using one of our stages. My personal preference would be that I be left out of the bows, but if a given group wants to acknowledge the crew and or venue staff by having us come out on stage and take a bow, I can be gracious enough to do so. It's their show. They can handle curtain call however they want.

Really, the best acknowledgement I can get is program credit and a group that leaves my venue happy, and that's glad to see me when they return.

[willbb123]

I dont remember the last time that I have taken a bow.
Normal curtain call goes like this, actors go out and bow, then point to the musicians in the pit, I have a group of pit special (lights) that I bump up. A few shows they point up to the booth and/or FOH sound. Curtain closes and house lights come up. I normally walk down into the house and very rarely (like once) have gotten comments on lighting. My "curtain call" is when the Director, or the theater's Executive Director says good job. Now that I'm working in a professional theater my real "curtain call" is when I get my paycheck.

I think its alright to have a crew curtain call in High School, mainly because their parents are in the audience.

[renegadeblack]

When I was a freshman in HS, we did on closing night and it was friggin terrifying! There's a reason I'm not a thespian. It was a learning experience though, now I know what they're talking about when they say that you can't see the audience. When I was a sophmore shit happened and I wasn't in the musical. This year I'll definitely be doing the musical so I'll hafta wait and see what happens!

Freshman year, for the play, the director wanted the crew to be right in front of the stage with a light pointed on us. STD said absolutely not. I absolutely agree. That was one of her more ridiculous statements but I have to be nice to her... she's my English teacher. She once took up one of my entire classes telling me about what she wanted for her lighting plot.

[zuixro]

I don't care whether the crew gets a curtain call, but I enjoy it when we do. I do think that the actors should point up to the booth.

On the last show I did at my high school I wish we hadn't gotten a curtain call. The followspot operator felt that he deserved to come on stage and bow, so for the last whole number, there was no followspot.