Most of this has been said before, but I agree with spelling G-O. I haven't heard the fish thing before, but I'm tucking it away for future use.
I've been on both ends of this before, and it's better to listen to the SM:
- My first show as a light board op, I had thought about this myself. The SM had a habit of getting ahead of the cues (it was a dance concert) and I asked the teacher in charge and she had agreed that you go when told. The SM called a cue that I knew was a blackout when the second to last q of the piece, but I went. He learned from it, it wasn't too drastic, everything was okay.
- I've been the SM and had a board op who would argue with me over cues. It drove me insane, and out of 10 or so cues disputed, half of one they would be partially correct about. They would refuse to go on my cue, and would other times ask if it was go when we still had pages to go. If I'm the SM, I would rather have the board op listen, and if something goes wrong, I know it's my fault, and I know I'm responsible to fix it. Don't argue with the SM when a "Go!" is given. (The joys of educational theater...)
So, always listen to the SM. You may know better, and I'm sorry whoever is lame, but it's your job.
Edit: If something goes wrong and the SM asks you to fix it, then do so. :] If you don't need to have the SM say exactly what buttons to push (IE the actor's box is normally SL but for some reason it's SR and you're told to sneak the SR special, and you can do that without the SM telling you "S8 More Softkeys, S8 More Softkeys, S3 Sneak, Ch 70 at FF"[sup]1[/sup] then that's awesome.
[sup]1[/sup]I don't know if that's actually the soft keys for sneak on any board, I was just trying to put an example in.
Hope I made sense (or two-cents).
I've been on both ends of this before, and it's better to listen to the SM:
- My first show as a light board op, I had thought about this myself. The SM had a habit of getting ahead of the cues (it was a dance concert) and I asked the teacher in charge and she had agreed that you go when told. The SM called a cue that I knew was a blackout when the second to last q of the piece, but I went. He learned from it, it wasn't too drastic, everything was okay.
- I've been the SM and had a board op who would argue with me over cues. It drove me insane, and out of 10 or so cues disputed, half of one they would be partially correct about. They would refuse to go on my cue, and would other times ask if it was go when we still had pages to go. If I'm the SM, I would rather have the board op listen, and if something goes wrong, I know it's my fault, and I know I'm responsible to fix it. Don't argue with the SM when a "Go!" is given. (The joys of educational theater...)
So, always listen to the SM. You may know better, and I'm sorry whoever is lame, but it's your job.
Edit: If something goes wrong and the SM asks you to fix it, then do so. :] If you don't need to have the SM say exactly what buttons to push (IE the actor's box is normally SL but for some reason it's SR and you're told to sneak the SR special, and you can do that without the SM telling you "S8 More Softkeys, S8 More Softkeys, S3 Sneak, Ch 70 at FF"[sup]1[/sup] then that's awesome.
[sup]1[/sup]I don't know if that's actually the soft keys for sneak on any board, I was just trying to put an example in.
Hope I made sense (or two-cents).
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