Curtain call for crew?

[TheHeadhunter]

At my school, the Stage Manager has always gotten the technical crew to appear onstage during the curtain call and take a bow with the actors. Until I worked with him, I had not heard of this practice. I will be taking over as stage manager next year and was wondering what member's opinions are regarding this practice and if you think it should be continued or stopped.

Thanks in advance
-Jono

[Inaki2]

I've been forced into it once. Hate it.
I think in the last night its OK to do it, especially in High School, since it is a student body activity and you guys deserve the applause. Still its a debate of wether you wanna do it like a High School or like a professional show. The stage crew for the touring production of Chicago actually comes out on the closing night, but thats the only time.

[wolf825]

Eh... Not a normal practice in theater or anywhere really...except some non conventional touchy-feely community theater shows where ego stroking is needed to make everyone feel good about themselves.

Like Inaki said--unless its a long tour or a long time run of a show closing finally (after YEARS of working together)--or a TV show doing a final episode...you never see the techs...

-w

[jonhirsh]

ITs a cirque du sole tradition that on the opening nights in the new city that the running crew run across the stage but dont take bows the sea of black is amazing it takes allot of people to make that show happen. but i think there are very few shows where its necesary that it happens there are two people that should never do it though. 1 sound opp. and 2 lighting board opp of follow spot ops its just sloppy when they do .


JH

[CHScrew]

We never do curtain calls at my high school. But, After we close the main curtain and no one can see us. Then we walk out and take a bow. I believe that we should bow because we are a vital part of the show but as long as we are in the theater nobody should ever see us.

[BCPAlights]

We used to be forced onto the stage on the last night of a performance then last year we had a great idea.... We made a crew sign that was 8x8 ft and flew it, it was painted black with Tech Crew on it and everyone painted their name or whatever they wanted to do then we put rope lights around the edge. So now whenever the cast does their thanks (pit stage booth) we fly it in turn on the rope lights do somethin funky with the stage lights and balyho (sp?) the spots. It was a lot of fun and then the people who really wanted to go on stage could the last night but it satisfied the rest of us quite well.

[Foxinabox10]

The lead role in the show always points to the pit for the musical and then back to the tech booth and we turn on the lights in the booth and wave. Our backstage people come on stage and it all works out pretty well. Our booth is in the auditorium, so we always get a lot of credit from the crowd.

One time I had a former professional sound operator tell us that our sound for Les Mis sounded better than broadway. I was shocked that someone would take the time to tell us and that with our 10 year old mics and breaking board that we would get the compliment. Only goes to show how critical the sound technician is.

[bwayhawk2002]

I'm not gonna lay on a whole bunch of description as to how a curtain call should be run, but I personally think that the tech crew DOES deserve to get a bow. I mean, they worked hard on the show too, so why should they just sit behind the wings and not get any recognition for the job they performed. They are, after all, the hidden performers of the stage.

[moderately_clueless]

Wow, at my high school theatre, the techs never get any mention whatsoever. We're lucky if we get invited to the cast party or a bowl of brownies in the booth for us. The only time we have ever had a tech onstage was when she improvised a scene change for her self. Though, I think that if techs want to be onstage getting applause, they should audition. For long running shows and stuff I would definitely say that techs should get a curtain call, but otherwise they should stay backstage. I don't think I would like getting a curtain call very much, but then, other people may say differently.

[Thranduil]

On closing night we have a bow of the entire crew. Closing night is also when the techies dress up, so we are all in black suits and dresses(mostly dresses as im hte one guy on the crew and last time i ended up cross dressing) our board ops come down usually, as we usually have an old techie who came to see the performance just run things for the bows.