I am free lance technical director for various shows. Off and on I have called the cues either in whole or part due to complexity of the show. Has anyone else done this or something similar? Pros and cons. Thank you.
Well you could have a stage manager not there with you but on headset with an infrared video camera to view the stage and backstage areas.I believe it is the Stage Manager who should be calling cues.
However, I work at a community theater where sadly our lighting and sound folks don't have the luxury of having cues called for them, and they have to call the cue themselves. Our "booth" is a small open space in the back of the theater that can only fit two people at a time; Sound operator and Lighting operator. Even if we could fit a third person back there, again, it's an open space and you have audience members directly in front of you and calling cues would disturb their viewing experience.
On one tour, I called all but two cues for two local IA brothers operating spots atop four sections of scaffold based in the first box seating on either side of the prosc'. There were two cues, both half body shots on a trio of singers in dead black outs, where the goal was for all three spots to hit their marks precisely simultaneously: I would call the standbys and warn them the SM would be joining our channel to call the 'GO's for those two cues. Post a couple of tech' rehearsals the local lads would have it nailed.Only the Stage Manager call the master cues. An ASM may call departmental "go" cues but NOTHING happens without the SM calling. It's a safety thing. Spot cues are often called by a master operator to the local operators but the master operator cues solely on the instructions of the SM.
The community theater where I spend a lot of time has evolved to the lighting operator calling cues, which works great for us. The old venue didn’t have much wing space, so there wasn’t room for a SM desk, and also due to the size, the SM often was helping with costume changes, props, scene changes, etc... It was too busy to have the SM sit around to call the book.
If I’m on sound, I actually prefer not running line by line, so I’ll ask whomever is calling to notify me of entrances and exits by mic number, I do the rest on my own. I’m comfortable in different systems, so I’d say find a method that works for you and don’t worry about the “standard”.
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