I am STRONGLY agreed w/the no music camp. It does not belong and causes problems. I love music but there's a time and a place and working in the
theatre space is not one of them.
There are too many things going on and it gets in the way of
safety, concentration, communication, and simple awareness of others. Especially annoying are those with ipods/
headphones. They are in their own world and have NO awareness of what else is going on while they circulate around the
deck taking care of their own things. Can't hear questions aimed at them and it adds a layer of "'scuse me, pardon me" shuffling every time anyone gets near them.
Pyro safety especially requires absolute quiet. Actors offstage, backstage conversations stop or go elsewhere - all distractions go away.
When Sound has a reason to run signal, test speakers and levels, of course that's fine. But he is very aware of everyone and just great about being sensitive to what's going on before he'll do it. If he has extended needs for making noise, he'll try to schedule it during breaks/lunch for others.
The above is about being in the 'space' working onstage and in it's environs. Back when I was in the shop we had low
level radio or CD's on at a low
level - people rotated their preferences so all were ok. Saws would drown it out but when no
power tools were running it'd be there in the background. Problem was the
level would quickly rise (people would inch it up) until we'd have to just kill it due to the same issues.
Cell phones are another issue. I am close to just collecting all of them during electrics calls. You can have 'em back during breaks and afterwards. I've lost count of the times I've found crew sitting on their
butt, OR UP IN A BUCKET) futzing with a phone while they are getting nothing done. Time and a Place. Of course, I am the hypocrite and mine stays close to me. It's essential to the job I am on payroll to take care of. My personal stuff gets ignored til later, but it's the lifeline to other dept heads, SM's, late arriving crew. I was gonna say 'don't get me started' on phones but I guess that didn't exactly work out!!!!