Who Calls a STOP, and when?

Jay Ashworth

Jay Ashworth

Well-Known Member
As a companion to @cdiamondz thread with anecdote about calling a Full Stop...

I am young (52) and not much travelled (about 4 seasons of community and small stage), and I have been lucky enough, so far, not to be involved in a stop (though my boss was in NYC for the Pierre show control fiasco :)).

So, I can only assume that calling "FULL STOP; THIS IS A FULL STOP" on the PL is roughly akin to running into the pressroom at 1am and calling "STOP PRESS!"... or, on a slightly different, but more related tack, deciding when to call 911.

When *do* you call a FULL STOP? And who does it? The SM/PSM, I assume, unless that was the person who ran into a batten and fell down, in which case the ASM who saw it.... But what's the judgement tree for making that not insubstantial call?
 
Jay Ashworth said:
As a companion to @cdiamondz thread with anecdote about calling a Full Stop...

I am young (52) and not much travelled (about 4 seasons of community and small stage), and I have been lucky enough, so far, not to be involved in a stop (though my boss was in NYC for the Pierre show control fiasco :)).

So, I can only assume that calling "FULL STOP; THIS IS A FULL STOP" on the PL is roughly akin to running into the pressroom at 1am and calling "STOP PRESS!"... or, on a slightly different, but more related tack, deciding when to call 911.

When *do* you call a FULL STOP? And who does it? The SM/PSM, I assume, unless that was the person who ran into a batten and fell down, in which case the ASM who saw it.... But what's the judgement tree for making that not insubstantial call?
Click to expand...
@Jay Ashworth and/or the person paying the bills.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
Depends on the inherent risk in the show, but in my experience a technician will call a piece to stop (Not a terribly uncommon thing for me to hear) or bring the stage manager's attention to an issue. Then the stage manager, after consulting with the responsible parties as to how long it will take to rectify the situation, will be the one to call a show to a full stop. Even in the event of a fall or an injury, it is not uncommon for the initial stop called my the technician to be worthy of caps lock and an exclamation mark, but usually the all stop called by the stage manager is a calm and reasoned decision.
 
porkchop said:
Depends on the inherent risk in the show, but in my experience a technician will call a piece to stop (Not a terribly uncommon thing for me to hear) or bring the stage manager's attention to an issue. Then the stage manager, after consulting with the responsible parties as to how long it will take to rectify the situation, will be the one to call a show to a full stop. Even in the event of a fall or an injury, it is not uncommon for the initial stop called my the technician to be worthy of caps lock and an exclamation mark, but usually the all stop called by the stage manager is a calm and reasoned decision.
Click to expand...
Well said, Brett.

I'll add in, just to give it a little more screentime, that a tech can/should call a stop to something they have their hands on and then immediately inform the ASM/SM. If you ask if it's ok to stop your effect/wagon/lineset and have to wait for the ok, that just wastes precious time and an avoidable incident becomes unavoidable.

Another thing to do is to talk down this question with your SM's and crew before things start moving- say, prior to paper tech or dry tech maybe?
 
Interesting stuff so far; I hope this thread pulls more comment from long-timers -- it's very helpful to be able to get inside the AIDA cycle of people who've been there.
 
Fair point. Thanks.

(Though, for the record, your second link was the thread that sparked this query, and I did mention it... and the third one is about pre-start cancellations. :) )
 
Last edited:
Calling full stop - at any call I am on - can come from any technician at any point! If the situation is dangerous to personnel or equipment you better speak up! Over the last 40 years I have had my keister saved by "newbies" who were doing what we all should do and work with a "swivel head" on every stop / show who saw a potentially nasty thing happening and called "stop." By the way I never understood the "call it a full stop!" When you hear "stop" you and everybody else should freeze and look around immediately! I have seen a lot of bad voodoo stopped where it could have killed someone (a baton "grabbing" a 25' set piece and starting to tip it on stage my way is one vivid memory) It is better to let God (SM) sort out stupidity later than for anyone to get hurt or valuable show assets to be damaged! The last time I called "stop" was two weeks ago - and I was just a JAFO on a work call - but a chain motor was hooked up on a set of "companion" truss = and had I not called stop on stage left the motor operator would have had no idea of what was going on stage right! The TD was not even on stage - and it all got sorted out and communicated - but again any one should be able to call stop if they see a problem! Safety is everyone's business after all the goal of any work is - to go home afterward!
 
I'm an "old timer" with 45 years in the biz.. I've been thinking on times when we've had to stop and in one case almost cancel the remainder of the evenings show.

As a Jr. Tech I remember yelling out "STOP" because if the actor kept going she would have destroyed expensive equipment. Another case where I call an all stop because a lady was straddling a piece of pipe that was sticking out the edge of a backdrop was flying out and picked her up and she rolled over and fell off. I was the first person to notice. In these cases it was an immediate cituation that couldn't wait for a descision tree...

As a technical director I've called a couple full stops due to wireless mic & equipment failures. In these cases there was a bit more time to talk about what to do. With an angry director what do you do? Stop the show when convent, make an announcement, fix the problem and move on. If it's close to intermission you might take an early one. In one case where the lead was knocked unconscious just before intermission we ran a very long intermission giving some a aspirin time to start working and for her to rest. The lead refused to let her understudy do the 2nd act...diva. She went to the ER after the show.

As a director I always tell my people they are an extension of me and to tell me if something is wrong and I'll make the tough call. If it's a life threatening cituation, act now and we'll pick up the pieces later. I try not to yell or be angry at them (not always that easy) but on today's stages there is so much activity that the TD or SM, etc. cannot always be the one to call a STOP. But if possible, the info should flow to the highest manager who would be the one to make the call. Hope that helps.
 
Alas, it's too late to edit my initial post, but I did specifically mean "during a performance with an audience"; I'd thought that was clear context, but maybe not...
 
The way our usual venue is build, we have a standard rule:
FoH techs (Sound/light) can always call a stop
SM/ASM who are both situated backstage can always call a stop

The rest of the crew as well as all actors and musicians can all call a stop, how ever those need to be called to either FoH or SM
(as we are the ones able to stop the show and adress the audience)

We choose this due to doing a few kid/youth plays a year, and had one year with a show getting stopped several times at the same spot.
Turned out one of the younger actors got scared in that scene, same as one getting scared if there is a horroscene in a movie.
That led to the change on who could effect a stop, and who can issue a stop petition.

Now this is amateur/semi pro/amateur productions so a lot of the people around (apart from SM/FoH and a few more) might be greenhorns each new production.
 
As a TD I have empowered any of the Techs working in the show to Call Stop for any reason that they feel there is a potential issue to health or Saftey during any rehearsals. During shows, Only a Stage manager or ASM in wings can stop a show and all concerns are funneled through them.
 
As already noted by the responses, this is a convoluted question. I wanted to address a few things.

I think there are three general scenarios to address:
  1. Work Calls or Load ins/outs
  2. Rehearsals
  3. Performances

First off, I noticed a couple responses that seemed to be referencing procedure during a load in/out or work call. I think this is very different than calling a "show stop." If you are loading a show in or out or on a work call and you see something going sideways, I see no issues with calling for things to stop, especially if it is a matter of life safety. It shouldn't matter if you are a box pusher or the lead rigger, you should speak up to protect both people and equipment.

The etiquette probably changes a little in a rehearsal setting. At this point you probably don't want any old joe to be able to hold up the process. At this stage in the game you may be breaking things down a bit more, so maybe the crew member who is pushing a piece of scenery can't call to stop everything, but they can stop the piece they are moving. The head flyman may not be able to stop to whole rehearsal, but can hold all the flying pieces. Depending on the theatre or show, actually bringing the entire show to a stop may be limited to the SM team, directors, designers, etc. That said, if an actor/performer doesn't feel safe, or if there is some other life safety issue that should always be called out.

During a performance, the number of people who can effect a full on show stop should be even smaller. While you may still want that crew member to stop the piece of scenery they are pushing if they notice something in the way, they may not really have a "big picture" view of what could happen if they tried to actually stop the show. Sometimes it is actually a lot safer to hold a single element rather than stop the whole show. Also, there are times when it is OK to hold an element of a show and let the show continue and most of the time the only person who knows when that is OK is the stage manager. As always, if there is an actual matter of life safety, you certainly should speak up, but you need to do it in a way that doesn't cause panic.
 
I was watching a recent performance of Sweeny Tod when over the PA an announcement was made in a calm voice. "Actors, please leave the stage" then, "we are having technical difficulties, please remain seated and we will resume shortly". The main was closed and I could tell things were being reset.
The problem was a elevator was stuck.
Being in the audience was quite interesting to see how calm and professional everyone carried out their part.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back