Curtain call for crew?

[AVGuyAndy]

We are profesionals. Do you ever see the stagehands take a bow on broadway? No. So why should we do it?

[herr_highbrau]

At our school, on the last night of every run, someone from the cast is given a pre prepared speech and everyone on the 'support teams' is thanked and given stuff. They are invited up on stage, to rapturous applause.

As a pro I dissaprove of this practise, and many of the tech crew dissaprove too. Usually, the wrong people are thanked (such as teachers who have done nothing over the course of the show) and generally causes more problems than it causes.

So like everyone else has said, the crew should be thanked by the cast after the performance, when the house is clear and things are winding down. Even better, the cast could show their thanks by helping us with the get out! :P

[avkid]

Originally Posted by herr_highbrau

the cast could show their thanks by helping us with the get out!

Only if certain "unstable" people are prohibited from using power tools.

[kitkatfreak003]

yeah our school doesnt have the tech crew come out, its not really our choice its the directors choice and since ours doesn't work with a full deck. and anyways how does your sound and lighting people come out if there up in a booth.

[avkid]

I actually went on stage at the end of the drama last year, I was so out of it I didn't realize what I was doing at the time.

[TheHeadhunter]

kitkatfreak003 -
Booth? You mean the desk at the back of the 120-seat house? They don't. In fact, they keep to themselves - our theatre could be described as a concrete bunker so no form of radio or telephone communication can reach them, or anywhere else. In the wods of my Drama Teacher:
"If everyone knows the show well, you don't need cans!"
And with the size show we do, we don't need them!

Anyway.... The light/sound guys don't come down. Its just the running crew and stage management (all backstage) that appear.

[Diarmuid]

I have had to do two curtain calls as a tech, and I have hated them both. I think that it should be up to the tech themselves, as to whether to go on or not. In one of my other performaces, we went up on stage, and were each given a small box of chocolates this was only done however, when the auditorium was emptyand only the actors where there. This was much better, because we were still recognized for what we had done, but didnt have to appear in front of the whole audience.

[ship]

I could about see all the tech people coming on stage as if a part of the runners up at prom. All the actors are dressed up all fancy, and the stage crew in black in making the bow look like te step sister glory hounds not good enough to be on stage.

Been pulled out once or twice as a specific individual perhaps closing night, been pointed to while off stage or in the boot etc. Fine, that's the actors choice and not a official thing. It's also something not planned and due to that being the personal wishing to share the spotlight with someone they feel helped them in an important way.

At such times it was also only after the inital curtain call were it was actors alone.

Hope it helps. I have also never seen a show where the tech crew was required to or would even if so go on stage other than for a special pulled on stage thanks by the cast, or a motioning to as per the orchestra at most.

[Thranduil]

Our bows our on closing night, and on that night is techie dress up night, so we actually end up out dressing the actors in both formality and oddness.

[SjoramNFT]

I do have a very strong view on this. Techs should as a rule NEVER take bows. The public should never see any member of the crew, unless it's because they are in the auditorium, or if there's a problem. I know some long running shows that have had heavy technical elements (e.g. HDM @ National, UK) the crew have taken a bow on the closing performance, but never at any other time. We did a school production of JCS at my last school last year, and the director wanted all of the student techs down on stage. I didn't go down. He looked at me as if to ask why I wasn't coming, but I didn't move. It's not appropriate for tech's to go on stage, I firmly believe that and I wouldn't have felt comfortable going on stage on such an occasion. If I wanted to be onstage, I would have gone for a part. End of.