Curtain call for crew?

Should the Technical Crew appear onstage for the curtain call?


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Every director i've had and most that I have seen (except those on Broadway) will come out at least for the closing night bows.
 
During our curtain calls our director makes all of the actors stay in character, it ends up looking pretty cool. The only recognition our tech gets is a raise of the hand from the lead. Works for me.
 
Everytime we have had the option of doign bows I have voted against it. I feel my mention in the program is enough, as well as hearing about compliments people say to either the td or myself after the show.
 
At my highschool it was tradition that the final show of the year the sr's would come out behind the entire cast (not very visible, but there if you were looking) and take a bow.

Really, that was just a tradition at the high school. I do not think it is needed for any other level of theatre. I currently get recognized only cause i am visible near the back of house in my booth running sound, and thats only the people leaving and motioning to my booth saying that thats where the sound is run from.
 
At our high school, it's usually been tradition for the tech crew to come out. I have mixed feelings on it it myself. I don't think they came out for West Side Story, in my opinion a good thing as the ending is very emotional, and it'd break the illusion. However, most of the time, the "high school mentality" overrules all--the fact that a good 40% of any given audience is parents of people involved int he show, and they want to see their Johnny or Josephine take a bow so they can clap and cheer and whatnot hard for their kids.
 
I have not heard of this. Part of being a tech is not being seen. If you do your job well most of the audience should never know that you are there. The people that count know the hard work that you are putting into a production. If you are training people to do theater work in the future this may not be a good thing to continue to do. But you should do what feels right for your theater.

Have fun with it.

Dan
 
For the love of God, don't do it! I had to do curtain call on EFX at the MGM a few years back, and damm it felt stupid. Just hand me a mop and let me clean the deck.:twisted:
 
At my school when we do a play whoever is on the board runs their fingers along the bumb buttons when the actors point to the booth. When we have spots we would sometimes dance them around for a second too. When we do dance performances we usually get a thank you from the head of the dance department at the beginning or the end of the show.
 
Talk about unprofessional!! Technicians should never go out and take a bow.

Totaly agree, at my HS, the techs have done some wierd things. Last year during the musical (this is a big deal here) our techs decided that they were going to go out on stage, roll up their sleves and show off their muscles. Staying backstage is the best, the audience knows you are there and they know that you do alot...keep the mystery.
 
I've never been on stage before and i liked it because you had a sense of pride that the show would not have happened without the crew and it is kind of satisfying but this year on the last night we are going onto stage to bow and I think that maybe it is ok on the final night as it shows that the staff appreciate your work.
 
If you do a good job, no one knows you did it
thats the way i think it should be!!
right now, i'm SM for the middle school up the hill in our high school theater, and my running crew cheif wants to go take a bow with the middle school running crew, but i think that if you really love and care about tech theater, appluse is not needed.
Repels without Appluse.
 
Okay...so here's my view (since it looks like everyone has one). I enjoy the gesture backstage from the actors...I certainly don't feel like going onstage after a particularly difficult production...BUT...as an asst. designer as well, I sometimes feel jilted. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...Big woop...my name is in the program...woohoo. I work my butt off backstage and ya know...I secretly do enjoy being brought onstage after the LAST preformance (only)...I think I deserve a personal thank you and way to go...as do all technicians and designers. Now...that being said...I only feel that way when I work on the university shows. I also work at a professional V&PA center and have never felt the desire to be brought onstage there. Go figure. In the professional world, however, I have felt more gratification then I have ever felt on the college level, but mostly because I get treated better and respected so much more (which tends to happen when people spend a boatload of money). Anyway...I digress...I think the closing performance should include the crew, BUT only the ones who want to take a bow, should. Not everyone is comfortable onstage...but EVERYONE should be acknowledged. As both and actor and a Technician...I understand this as well as anyone...
 
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I have never appeared onstage as crew. I don't even appear in the pictures of the crew during photo call, mainly because I am a designer and don't consider myself crew. Although it is not typical, I have worked a Cirqie Du Soleil preformance where the road crew went onstage during curtian call.
 
i'm really not sure about this. i feel that there should be some recognition of the crew, but i don't want to take away from the actors. it's a hard call to make really, something that has to be talked oever with everyone i feel, crew, director, cast, TD, SM, and every other position.

on a slightly more humorous note: my school has a dance concert at the end of each semester. my friend came up with this dance we call "the happy techie dance" (essentially you stand there and kick each leg out alternatingly about 6" off the ground in a rather slow manner, a laid back can-can if you will). and another friend of mine and i came up with the idea that during the dance concert, during intermission, we'd bring in the rag and then a few minutes later it would rise very slowly and show all of us in very simple blue light, with no music doing our little dance, then we'd look up the lights would come up, we'd all see the audience and scatter in a paniced fashion...we thought it would be a humorous way to handle the "no one gives a s*** about what i do for this place feeling that a lot of techs at my college have at the end of the semester. :lol: :cool: :mrgreen:
 
I've worked quite a few shows, and in two of them, the directors requested that the crew come out for a bow, or just some recognition. I think it's very unprofessional, and it violates the law techs live by - not to be seen! We should be recognized, we put in just as much work as everyone else, but a curtain call is the wrong way to do it.
It also didn't help that both curtain calls were just decided last minute - the crew wasn't really expecting it. It was one of those "the director is yelling for us to come out and take a bow, we better do it" deals - and that's just ridiculous.
As I believe someone previously said in this thread, it really depends on whether or not you want te be professional or just have a good time working on a show. I prefer the professional method, but it should be up to the crew whether or not they want a curtain call.
 
It just seems odd to me to have the tech come out onstage. We never go onstage, so it seems odd to suddenly go during curtain call. Tech curtain call is just a bit too reminiscent of cute little high school shows when the mommies and daddies want to see little johnny take a bow. The real audience doesn't care. I would much prefer a personal thank you from the actors after the show is over than a little clapping.
 
As has been stated before in a variety of ways, the crew is still working when the bows are occuring. I did work in a theatre where the crew was acknowledged and the lightboard operator blacked out the lights momentarily.

I understand the crew's desire to have their "moment" but my students seem to understand that every moment on stage is actually theirs.

dwt1
 
Our crew has never gotten a curtain call. Sometimes we'll go onstage to do the actors' bidding though. For Beauty and the Beast, the guy who played Beast had one of us bring flowers onstage for Belle. In most cases we get thanked during the last show by either the director or cast.

That's crew- we're rebels without applause.
 
I have two views to this. Firstly, i do theatre tech because i enjoy it and love theatre BUT I HATE THE STAGE and so it makes sense that i work behind the scenes. However, i always feel we don't get much credit and would like to be recognised for the hard work i put into the productions.
 

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