"Autograph" wall?

[JLNorthGA]

I'm painting over a variety of autographs (and some graffiti) on the walls/pillars beside the stage.

Eventually I'll be painting some of the areas downstairs near the dressing rooms.

So - the question - should we eventually have an "autograph" wall for the various performers to autograph? Should our facility just have a "No autograph" policy? I don't really have a preference either way. My personal preference would be to have autographed playbills that would be framed and mounted.

 

[chausman]

I Think you should allow that. Some people really like to remember shows that way. You can always paint over it again later if it gets out of control.

 

[Van]

I think either way works. In Salem there is a venue called " The Elsinore Theater" They allowed people to sige the US side of the Fire curtain pocket < US of the Pro.> Anyway, there are names from all the Vaudelville greats on that structure. There is even an autograph of a very young Clark Gable who used to perform there in amateur days... Who knows you could be painting over a real piece of history.

 

[josh88]

Our facility at college was getting replaced by a new building but casts had been signing stage walls and the grid dating back to the 30's. Knowing they'd get painted over or torn down we photographed and documented everything so now there is still all the history available even if it's been covered up.


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[avkid]

Ours is up in the projection booth, projectionists from 1930 until the last time the carbon arcs were used in 2002.

 

[techieman33]

Ours is our stage managers office which is just off stage right. It started out where you had to be asked to sign the wall, acts that came through, techs that had been there for years and were moving on etc. It's a hard thing to keep control of though, we've had lots of local ballet dancers sign the wall without permission taking up lots of space and writing over other peoples stuff.

 

[Footer]

Tagging is pretty common. One of my friends that tours devotes a small part of her work box to tagging gear and does some pretty killer work. In our space the only tags that are out there are from crew throughout the ages and its usually somewhere high up off the beaten path.

Personally, I kind of like it. Gives a bit of history to the space.

 

[howlingwolf487]

At my university, we had an autograph wall above the grid. Each year, graduating crew members would spray paint their initials and year of graduation on one cinderblock.

 

[chausman]

Next time I'm at the Bing, I need to take pictures of the green room and offices. They have posters from tons of events that were in there. I'd take a picture of the projection booth, but theirs only a bunch of burnt gel and cigarette butts up there (thats where all of our FoH is reached).

 

[Lambda]

In our place it used to be that everybody would sign the wall in the stage left wing, and there were signatures dating back to the first productions from the 1960s. But a few years ago the director ordered it all painted over. If you look at the paint in the right light, it's still possible to make out some of them.
It's still common, however, for the tech crew to sign the upstage side of the fire curtain or the walls and ceiling of the flyspace.

 

[bobcatarts]

Don't mean to be mean, but no, you will not write on the walls. I will paint over it, and you will buy the paint.

I think it's unprofessional (despite how many pros may do it) and sets a bad example. If you want to remember a show, go to the archives! Older houses that have lots of history - I get that, and love the photo archive idea! Don't disrespect my space. I don't care about who you are, just the work you do.

If you want a kinder, gentler answer: Theatre is temporary and ephemeral; let the show fade back to nothing but a pristine, hollow space, leaving us with nothing but these base tokens and memories. Jerk.

 

[Call911]

I work in a school setting, and signing any walls will buy you a week of suspension. We have a hard enough time getting the students to not scratch lockers and bathroom stalls. Openly allowing them to sign walls only brings on more troubles.

 

[porkchop]

Totally depends on your kind of facility. I certainly agree it's not appropriate in an educational space because kids (and sometimes adults) tend to get out of hand. I could even agree that in a professional strictly theatre space it is inappropriate. There are some still professional, but more multi-use places thought where it's can be done well. The only buildings I've seen it in that I liked are arenas, but I can imagine some others as well. The pyro room in the arena in Birmingham, Alabama and the whole of backstage in Forest National in Burssels, Belgium are examples that I like. In Birmingham it's all done with chalk and is mostly the year, name of the act, name of the shooter, and number of points in the rig. It's really crazy to see the variety of shows and the ridiculous increase in points as years go on. Forest National, on the other hand, is a whole different beast as almost every bit of backstage that isn't visible to the public is covered in paint. Some tags are just a simple name done with a rattle can and others are detailed 3' x 5' paintings done by the shows props department and signed by the whole show. Last time I was there our props department was running low on paint and had to ban everyone from using show materials to tag the building in fear of running out completely. There is some serious art in that building and it's certainly fun to come back to a building years later and still see your name there. Basically if the building management is alright with it, it stays reasonable for your space in terms of amount, language, and content, and can't be seen by the public I don't see the harm. Once you don't have one of those you kind of have to decide whether to put a stop to things entirely or to fight a never ending battle against it.

 

[DuckJordan]

I'll have to get pictures of our backstage walls, we have autographs from casts of shows to people like Bill Cosby. I think its just fine as its kind of a badge of honor. Plus returning acts love to look back and see who from the cast and crew has made it back to the venue.

 

[Morydd]

At our school, you get to sign a brick in the scene shop when you graduate. Only when you graduate, and it's done at a time set aside for that activity, so it's supervised. Any other writing on the walls is considered vandalism, and gets you a trip to the Dean. At the other building, they don't have a scene shop, so they sign bricks in the dressing rooms with the same rules.
At my college, there was a tradition that for each show someone would write a quote from the play with one word replaced with "brick" on the bricks in the men's dressing room bathroom. Last I heard, that tradition was still going strong. Traditions are a good thing, but write your name because you did one show isn't much of a tradition in my opinion.

 

[Aman121]

The prop and lighting storage room in the Jr High School theatre (its waaayyy out of the way, I doubt any of admin has even been up there) is full of signatures. When people are freshman and move on to the sr high musical, they sometimes sign there names back there. I didnt, I think all of the organized equipment inventories and the properly (more or less) lit stage means allot more than a few words in Sharpie. The Sr. High School is freshly renovated, and there is no signing of walls over there. Their theater is very small and is rarely used for anything other than musicals and plays, so most of the action happens in the Jr High anyway.

 

[josh88]

My old college theater had the walls of the grid signed all the way back to the 30s. Including some updates after the WW2 where people had gone back up to indicate friends who'd signed but been killed in the war. That was when I realized the vfw post in town was named after one of the guys. It was a neat piece of history.

Edit: apparently I had a similar thought as this back in January. Doh


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[gafftapegreenia]

In high school we were certainly never allowed to write on the building walls. They used to do that before that part of the school was remodeled (back in the 1990's), but it's long since been ended. However, we certainly wrote all manner of things on the back of flats and set pieces.

At my college's theatre, there is a secret spot us tech-only students signed. It's a traceable lineage.

 

[DaveySimps]

At an old road house I use to work at, the tours that came through were offered a ceiling tile to decorate. It was really cool to walk the backstage hallways and see all of the artwork and the history of the place.

~Dave

 

[kiwitechgirl]

My old theatre has a "tunnel" which runs under the seating bank and is usually the only way from one side of the stage to the other, depending on the set. Every show is allocated a space on the tunnel wall, and cast and crew all decorate and sign it - some are way more elaborate than others but there's a lot of history there. Sadly, the building, being an old building in Christchurch New Zealand, is currently inaccessible due to earthquake damage - the company has relocated and built a new theatre within an old warehouse - reopened less than a year after the February quake - but we live in hope that one day someone will be able to get back in there and at least photograph the tunnel, if not rescue it by taking the board off the walls. They'd also like to rescue the 40 years' worth of costumes and props which are still in there, and maybe the lights hanging in the grid too...they did get the Ion, the Element and the LS9 (as well as the computer servers) in the ten minutes they were allowed back in...