Moosicals

Sam --- She/Her --- Techblr (LX & SFX op)

[clickingkeyboards]

One reblog and you can hear about the worst LD to ever exist

[whatislifebesidesrehearsal]

Student: You got techies and you got twirles!

Other Student: Twirlies?

Student: Yeah, actors. Techies, twirlies, and twangies. That’s the musicians!

[later on]

Student: Ah, the setties!

Other Student: Setties? Like… sofas?

Student: No, set techies!

Other Student: HELLO COUCHES!

[awkwardblackstagehand]

Spent the day troubleshooting light fixtures set up on a rooftop across the street, connecting to an out of date ETC Ion over wireless DMX. 2 of the fixtures looked like they were getting intermittent signal but the rest got nothing. And the entire problem was the Swisson wireless transmitter wasn't sitting high enough to transmitter, which was the first point I tried to make over and over- which kept getting the response we can't go any higher until the Mighty Midget comes in and says we should just put the transmitter on the roof of our building, and now it's a great solution and it worked and this clown gets to claim he solved the issue and oh my god today was so fucking stupid

[darksideofthecurtain]

The secret to all wireless dmx, get that transmitter as high and clear line of sight as possible. The human meatbags suck up a lot of the dmx otherwise

[roseyourewearingablackdress]

No, you’re NOT a real theatre kid. I’m so sick of all these people that think they’re theatre kids. No, you’re not. Most of you are not even close to being theatre kids. I see these people saying “I listened to this musical over 100 times, it’s great!” that’s nothing, most of us can easily listen to all our musicals 300+ times. I see people who only know Lin Manuel Miranda and claim to be theatre kids. Come talk to me when you‘ve listened to a single Sondheim piece and we can be friends. Also DEAR ALL TUMBLR USERS: The Greatest Showman is not a real musical. Mean Girls is not a real musical. Dear Evan Hansen is not a real musical. Be More Chill is not a real musical. Six is not a real musical. Jukebox musicals are NOT.REAL.MUSICALS. put down the baby shows and listen to something that requires challenge and thought for once. Sincerely, all of the ACTUAL theatre kids.

[stagefoot]

what sort of tools/gear do you bring on calls.

Thanks for asking! 😊

As someone who primarily does lighting, the most important thing for me is my wrench (6 inches. Anything more than that is overkill 😉 and will get in your way).

My wrench hangs from a locking carabiner, which I clip to my belt loop. (I had a non-locking one for a while, and the first time it opened and my wrench fell I went to a fortunately nearby store and got a mountain climbing one 😅)

Also on the carabiner is a piece of tie line that loops around my wrist as a safety, and a widget (which I don’t honestly use all that often, but it’s really handy when you do need it! I also can’t find a link to one right now, but if you’re not sure what I mean, just let me know!)

I also clip a roll of electrical tape (very useful!) to the carabiner when I’m not using it.

Everyone’s wrench setup is a little different, but this works for me. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted, so feel free to play around a little until you find a good configuration!

Beyond that, general safety things like gloves and steel toed boots.

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever been given is to bring a change of socks. If I know I’m working eight hours or more, I try to throw an extra pair in my bag (if I remember) and I change them halfway through the day. It makes such a huge difference!

It’s always good to have a water bottle if you don’t have access to another source of water.

Another thing I don’t use often but is incredibly useful when I need it is a multi tool. Again, there are so many out there (I got mine as a gift, so I didn’t shop around) that you can find one with the features you want/find most useful. I mostly need a blade, pliers, and screwdrivers.

Beyond that, I always have a bottle with ibuprofen, gravol, antacids, and diarrhea pills (but that’s more just general preparedness than for calls specifically)

I also have a mini first aid kit (right now it just has bandaids, but even having those close at hand is very helpful).

I don’t need them often in my specific line of work, but I always have earplugs on me, and I recommend that everyone does! Our work can get very noisy and hearing damage is unfortunately pretty common.

I personally like my belt pouch, which is similar to this one and is exactly the right size for gobos to go home with you. (I also use it to collect tie line and little bits of tape)

I always have a phone charger (cable, block, and a power bank, just in case). I also have a Lightning to headphone jack adapter so I can use my phone to check audio playback (thanks, Apple 😐)

Another thing I ‘bring’ is @neil-gaiman’s advice:

“You get work however you get work, but people keep working in a freelance world (and more and more of todays world is freelance), because their work is good, because they are easy to get along with and because they deliver the work on time. And you don’t even need all three! Two out of three is fine. People will tolerate how unpleasant you are if your work is good and you deliver it on time. People will forgive the lateness of your work if it is good and they like you. And you don’t have to be as good as everyone else if you’re on time and it’s always a pleasure to hear from you.”

In my experience, this is true. On pretty much any given day I can at least manage two of those!

Ok. I think that’s everything!

Of course a rigger’s kit (for example) is going to look very different than mine, but for a general call these are all good, common things to have.

Thanks again for asking, I hope this answer helps! Feel free to ask if you’d like to know anything else 😊

[stagefoot]

Oh! And hand sanitizer (I have a little bottle that clips onto my bag) and a spare mask

[oof-i-did-it-agaaiiin]

Since I made the post about how it was gonna end soon that happened to get widely shared I thought I’d give it a send off post as well.

[bestmusicalworldcup]

I want it known that I voted against Hamilton in every round, even when it was up against musicals I'd never heard of like Spring Awakening. LMM can't rap or sing very well, and the founding fathers were horrible people (except maybe Thomas Paine but that's beside the point). A rap musical is a good idea that I hope more people do, but you need to cast people who can actually rap instead of just casting yourself, and you need to do something more interesting with the plot than just glorifying American history. Not trying to cancel Hamilton or anything, if you like it that's fine, but I'm not into it and my voting very much reflected that.

I am very aware of the sizeable anti-Hamilton voting bloc that existed during the Best Musical World Cup. LMM making himself the lead character in (almost) everything he's made and Hamilton's questionable depictions of history are valid criticisms that I generally agree with.

[fortunes-haven]

Perhaps I shouldn't be, but I'm shocked there are so many people out there hating on Lin-Manuel Miranda, noted lowercase nice guy, beloved by just about everyone who's ever worked with him, hugely supportive of actors (recall that when Leslie Odom Jr won Best Actor in a Musical no one has ever looked happier to lose a Tony than LMM), vocally doing his best to do as Sondheim did before him and share his knowledge and use his fame to teach and lift up new composers/lyricists, working hard to honor Jonathan Larson's legacy, like... good lord.

You know why he casts himself as lead, then is happy to step aside and let someone else take that part? Because he knows that if he doesn't write the roles himself, the chances of him (and other Latino men) getting to be a lead instead of sidekick (at best) are, well, not quite zero, but he also has pointed thoughts on how Latinos are usually portrayed.

When I started writing it, no one was taking my words seriously. I was 19 years old and I was just writing a story that I really wanted to write. As we continued developing [In The Heights] and it looked like we were gonna get a production, what I thought about ... And I didn't think about it very consciously in terms of the creating of the show, but it was in my mind, was I was very conscious of the way Latinos have been portrayed before on stage. I was Bernardo in sixth grade, I directed "West Side Story" my senior year in high school. I saw Paul Simon's "The Capeman" my senior year in high school as well, and that show just about broke my heart. Not so much for the show, but the fact that it was 40 years after West Side Story and we still had knives in our hands and we were still gang members.

(source)

This bracket and musical!Tumblr are definitely showing me some different sides of musical fandom, I'll give them that! And LMM doesn't exactly need me defending him, so I'll stop here.

[bestmusicalworldcup]

Interesting points I didn't think of! I will say that while Hamilton isn't the only historically inaccurate show on Broadway (there are more of those than I can count), it is the only one I've seen that seems to sell itself as "the real history you never learned in school," rather than some romantic fairytale like Anastasia.

[bestmusicalworldcup]

Interesting stuff! I will say that for all of Hamilton's flaws I do still think the score is pretty great, and that LMM is still a great songwriter overall.

[bestmusicalworldcup]

well that isn't good 😐

seeing this and reading about his involvement with promesa, i think i have clarified my viewpoints after today's discussions:

Hamilton is a great musical

LMM is a great songwriter

Hamilton still has iffy history

LMM has plenty of problems, but most people hate him for unrelated reasons

[bestmusicalworldcup]

Best Musical World Cup 2023 - Full Ranking

While the Best Musical World Cup 2023 ended a week ago, I have decided it would still be worthwhile to publish some more stats about it! As such, I have created a full ranking of all 74 entrants; the winners of the Tony Award for Best Musical.

Ranking Parameters:

Musicals that finished in higher stages ranked higher than those that finished below, and I used the votes each musical got in its final poll to rank musicals within a single stage. Musicals that placed 3rd in the Group Stage rank higher than those placed 4th, which rank higher than those placed 5th.

Link to the Best Musical World Cup Knockout Stage

Link to the Best Musical World Cup Group Stage

The full ranking is below the keep reading button.

Fiddler on the Roof 🏆🥇

Les Misérables 🥈

Hadestown 🥉

Cabaret

The Phantom of the Opera

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

The Sound of Music

Spring Awakening

Hamilton

Cats

Rent

In The Heights

The Lion King

Hairspray

Fun Home

Company

Moulin Rouge

The Wiz

Guys and Dolls

A Chorus Line

The Book of Mormon

Hello, Dolly!

The Producers

Annie

Avenue Q

Kinky Boots

My Fair Lady

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Once

The Band's Visit

The Music Man

The King and I

Monty Python's Spamalot

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Dear Evan Hansen

Billy Elliot the Musical

Evita

La Cage aux Folles

Kiss Me, Kate

A Little Night Music

South Pacific

Man of La Mancha

Jersey Boys

Two Gentlemen of Verona

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Titanic

42nd Street

The Will Rogers Follies

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

1776

Bye Bye Birdie

Thoroughly Modern Millie

The Pajama Game

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

City of Angels

Nine

Passion

Sunset Boulevard

Fosse

Damn Yankees

Memphis

Hallelujah, Baby!

Applause

Contact

A Strange Loop

Big River

Crazy for You

Ain't Misbehavin

Kismet

Raisin

Redhead

Fiorello!

Wonderful Town

Jerome Robbins' Broadway

[bestmusicalworldcup]

Hamilton quite nearly could have made it even higher if Spring Awakening didn't stop it from reaching the Quarterfinals by less than a percent.

[fuckedalrightandallforspite]

moment of appreciation for mirror blue night being performed in russell harvard’s 54 below show

[faerielad]

So, I was recently the video/special effects operator for a local production of “The Little Mermaid.” I was on headset the whole show, and I got some pretty funny quotes I thought I’d share with you guys. Sorry that some of them might not make that much sense out of context. (Btw here’s who everyone is: Mike-stage manager, Mary- lighting board operator, Phil-lighting designer, Trey- sound designer, Chris-video designer, Scott-director, Harry-spot op 1) Feel free to tag yourself or whatever

Quotes:

“I mean I feel like since I got high off of spray paint yesterday I might as well continue the tradition” -Chris

“Render like the wind” -Chris

“Pull the HELL outta that drop” -Mike about TLM last scene

“Oh are we seriously doing notes?? Fuck that I’m out” -Trey

“Phil: Yeah I broke my ribs and I asked the doctor if they could fix em and they said no

Spot op: Ask them if they could fix my daughter’s tuition“ -people on headset at TLM

“Phil’s fuckin with the console” -some guy on headset about the house lights coming up

“Fuck fuck FUCK” -Mike about missing a rail cue

“Mike (during One Step Closer): You know, we could just end the show here. They could kiss or if they don’t Eric can kill himself because she doesn’t love him back. Just like go on the ship and hang himself or something.

Some other guy on headset: The great sushi massacre”

“All hail the krab king” -John

“I don’t wanna be hot. I don’t wanna be cold. I wanna be HAPPY” -Mike about the temperature of the theatre

“*laughing* there’s a POTATO MASHER onstage” -Mike (after Les Poissons)

“They should drop kick it offstage” -Mary about the potato masher

“The ol bladder is filling up, t’is it?” -Spot op about Mike having to pee mid show

“Spot op: lots of beer

Mike: that sounds DELICIOUS”

“We need to check I think there’s a fuck up next to the beach drop” -spot op about a prop next to the drop onstage

“Spot op 1: why is he so damn monotone. Shouldn’t he be more excited to marry her??

Spot 2: He’s gay and this is royal pressure” -About Prince Eric

“Look at all that shit. This is a SHIT TROVE. This movie could be about our impact on oceans” -Mike about Ariel’s Grotto in TLM

“What the FUCK was that? What the fuck was THAT? What WAS that?” -Mike about the guy screaming “ahh ahHH” as a fish before going onstage

“Pee: GO” -Mike about having to go to the bathroom during the show

“A girl: are you SURE there’s no more crab hats? Can’t you check in the back?

Mike: there IS no more!! There’s NOT ANY “BACK”!! THIS ISN’T WALMART!!”

“Ah, shit. That was WAY TOO FUCKIN SOON. SHIT!!” -Mike about calling the rail too soon for TLM Act 2 opening

“God, Prince Eric. Why are you so cheesy??” -Mike about One Step Closer

“I am nothing but lies” -Mike about TLM

“what if we put a spot on JUST the crab hat” -Mike about Scott’s opening speech for TLM

“Chris just posted something online from his plane that said ‘so the guy next to me just took his phone and laptop into the bathroom with him.’ Observations from 10,000 feet” -Scott

“Everyone hold for five while I fight this kid for my hat back” -Mike about the crab hat

“He lost me like…. three lines in” -Harry about Scott’s speech

“Let me just wait a minute for the chimes to kick in so I can sing” -Mike about Eric’s dropper line

“He’s a yellow bat” -Mike about Flounder’s cape

“He does have a son…. it’s CRABFISH MAN. He gets cast aside, though” -Mike about King Triton

“Tell those people to SIT THE FUCK DOWN” -Mary about ppl walking in front of spot ops

“I’m gonna punch Flounder… RIP THAT FIN OFF” -Mike about Flounder talking in the dark

“Can we just rewrite the next seen so Prince Eric doesn’t wake up?” -spot op about Part of Your World

“Someone should send him back to biology class because fish do NOT do that” -Mike about the screaming fish

“Mike: Roll call! Are spots there?

Spot op: if we have to be”

“Stand by spots to be… spotty” -Mike

“She should be rolling around like a baby” -Mike about Ariel having new legs

“Crabs are assholes in the real world” -Mike

“This is the scene where we need the gulls to fly in and scoops up Flounder” -Mike about Positoovity

“Prince Eric is an ASS! You can’t just push someone over on the beach you’ve never met before!!” -Mike

“I was raised by fish and birds. I don’t know anything. As far as you’re concerned I’m a wild person. I’m the equivalent of one of those babies raised by wolves” -Mike about Ariel on the beach

“Speaking of rich people being assholes…” -Mike

“Stand by Spot one to pick up Ariel when she stands on the table like a BARBARIAN” -Mike about Les Poissons

“We should have the nightmare scene like all the flys and lighting cues reverse REALLY FAST. It’s been a drowning fantasy this whole time. Grimsby runs onstage crying over the remains of Prince Eric” -Mike

“I feel like Ursula would comment on the random dancer like ‘the FUCK is this thing doing here??’ But, I think it would fit into our dark theme TLM we were just talking about. Flotsam and Jetsam can eat her” -Mike

“I wish I could be a pirate” -Mike

“I’m King Triton, BITCH” -Mike about the last scene in TLM

[unexpectedtexture]

P.S.A.

Your paintbrush is not clean until the water you squeeze out of it is running clear.

Your paintbrush is NOT CLEAN until the water you squeeze out of it is running CLEAR.

[handageddon]

BUT THE BLUE PAINT NEVER STOPS RUNNING OUT OF THE BRUSH NO MATTER HOW MUCH I RINSE

[unexpectedtexture]

And it never will.

Pthalo Blue DOES NOT FUCK AROUND

[scoutfinches]

tips to keep brushes clean:

use Murphy oil soap. it’s sudsy, it smells wonderful, and it can clean both oil and water based paints. I mix 50/50 Murphy/water in a bottle with a squirt top and use that to wash all my brushes. squirt some up near the ferrule, rub the bristles in your palm, and watch the soap PULL pigment out.

unless you’re using a dry brush technique, wet your brush with water and give it a shake before dipping it in paint. this keeps the paint flowing out of your brush instead of sticking to the bristles.

use a “swish bucket” in the sink. instead of using gallons and gallons of running water trying to get that stubborn paint out of the ferrule, fill a small bucket with water and swish your brish in it, all the way up to the ferrule. I know that sounds like a no-no, but if you already got paint up there, you might as well get water up there too. swishing helps pull pigment out of hard to reach places.

not everyone has this option, but if you can lay your brushes flat on a screen instead of hanging them to dry, do that. when you hang brushes, residual paint (especially sneaky stuff like clear sealer) will all run down to the ends of your bristles and dry there. the tips of your bristles are the most important part of your brush, so if they get crusty, the brush is done for!* leaving them to dry on a screen means that any residual gunk will dry in the ferrule or at the base of the bristles. still not ideal, but better than the alternative.

*bonus tip: if you think a brush is beyond repair, try soaking it in acetone before chucking it. acetone loosens dried paint very easily, and can save that rock-hard sealer brush you accidentally left on the deck overnight.

sorry for commandeering your post, @unexpectedtexture !

[unexpectedtexture]

Heed Scout’s advice, folks.

The brush you save may be your own.

[latenightsandstagelights]

When the director is away, the tech crew will play.

💈🔪🥧

[unexpectedtexture]

I knew exactly what this was, but I just snorted into my drink anyway. 

Y’ALL I SWEAR

[unexpectedtexture]

Scene: The carpenters are sorting several large pieces of black scrim, deciding what would work best as masking.

Me: “Aaaaayyyy, good to see you lads don’t de-SCRIM-iminate!

[perpetuallight]

That’s BORDER-line funny.

[darksideofthecurtain]

DROP the puns before you get TRIPPED UP while you LEG it out of here. Don’t even try to TEASER me or TORMENT me.

[perpetuallight]

The MASKED bandit strikes again. Bring in the CARRIERS.

[darksideofthecurtain]

They are a mighty TRAVELLER, a black shadow across the stage bringing darkness to the STAR DROPS and terror to the 4 WINGS of the stage.

[perpetuallight]

Could be of GERMAN or AUSTRIAN descent, CYCologists perhaps.

[darksideofthecurtain]

With deviousness like that, I would guess a VENETIAN, scrawling itself across the the PROSCENIUM, leaving its TAG LINES graffitied from TAB to TAB.

[perpetuallight]

It takes a CURTAIN kind of person to do something like that. Don’t get VELOURED into the trap. Be vigilant; don’t fall into the ‘out of sight(lines), out of mind’ mindset.

[darksideofthecurtain]

We all know that once you go OLIO you never go BACKDROP. But I am tied of being being held back. The MUSLIN will come off, I will pull out my PIPE POCKET and go all WEST COASTING up on here.

[unexpectedtexture]

This’ll teach me to pun and immediately go to sleep… This… This is what I wake to… Y'all really ROSE to the occasion…

[darksideofthecurtain]

We take our puns seriously here in the Canadian techblr. We always give 100% FULLNESS

[darksideofthecurtain]

Puns so bad, nobody want to touch them with a 10’ JACK BRACE.

[stagemanagerssaygo]

Resume format for Stage Management

Writing a resume for Stage Management, or theatre in general, is different from most other fields. Here are some guidelines and examples to help you build your own or update one you’ve already written.

-Don’t overcomplicate your format. Adjust your margins to make them comfortable, but not running off the physical page.

-Make sure your name is prominent but not loud. I can always point out the young technician slash actor in the resume pile when they list their eye color and height.

-If you’re non-union or union, it’s a good idea to say so next to your general title - hiring managers appreciate it.

-Cater your resume to the position you’re applying for. If it’s for a musical, put your musical experience first; if it’s for an opera, put your opera experience first (then musicals because they’re the most similar), etc.

-When I was younger, it was standard to include your home address, but I advise against it. You don’t want the hiring manager to subconsciously factor in your travel expenses before even seeing your experience.

-It was also standard to include the year of the production you worked. I have mixed feelings on this - if you’re older it can date you and a hiring manager may subconsciously (or outright) decide against you. If you’ve had large gaps in employment, it will show. A practical reason to leave them out is a matter of space on the page.

-Shorten the longer titles of productions using ellipses.

-Standard order is Show-Director-Position-Producing Company

-For recurring productions with the same company, include the year.

-Be careful with your abbreviations, make sure they are industry standard. SM, PSM, PA - these are standard and typically used. Do not, for instance abbreviate the name of a show (Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Fly, not DTMICF) or a theatre company’s name (there are several CTC’s around the country, but only one Children’s Theatre of Charlotte).

-The old standard was to keep your resume to only one page, which resulted in using tiny font or picking which shows to leave off. Now that the majority of resumes come to the hiring manager in the form of email, it’s okay to send a two-page resume. If you do have a two-page resume, notate the page number on the bottom of the page. Put your name and contact info on the top of each page.

-Make sure your skills are accurate, don’t embellish or lie. If you only have a basic familiarity with lighting equipment (e.g. you can name the basic parts of a lighting instrument), then say so. If you have experience in other fields that translates well to theatre (e.g. event planning), then mention that. 

-You have to put your education information, even if you didn’t finish school for whatever reason. I had to leave CCM due to financial difficulties, even though the school gave me a scholarship to continue; I include my internships under education as on-the-job training and, during the interview process, make sure to elaborate on why my college education was cut short.

-List any affiliations you have that are helpful to your field.

-Use spellcheck and a friend with a killer eye for detail and the english language to double check your resume.

Most importantly, do not lie on a resume. Ever. Not even a little. Theatre is a terribly tiny world (Google makes it even smaller) and you wouldn’t believe how many people have caught someone in a lie during an interview. That’s a fast and furious way to make sure you’re never hired anywhere. One PSM I know interviewed a man that applied with an exact copy of the PSMs own resume with only the name at the top changed. Just don’t do it.

[high-quality-tiktoks]

i h8 broadway, singned every drama student ever

[stagefoot]

Me @ Past Me: Why did you label this cue that way? Unhelpful.

[q2qsteeb]

Sometimes my students have a knack for being both extremely descriptive and utterly unhelpful.

[theaterninja12]

This cue was the result of struggling to make something work. Took me a few minutes of digging later on to figure out what exactly it did (locked off some lights I needed not to move)

[spthhvy-deactivated20230905]

You seem to be really good with a whole bunch of theatre stuff and I need some advice if you have a moment. I’m working with some new adhesive that I’m not really familiar with, I forgot what it’s called but it’s really strong. I have to use a lot of it for the holiday show and I think it might be expired? It sticks really well to skin also and I just need some advise on how to get it off. I don’t really have much in the way of resources nearby. The whole thing is just a mess.

Also if you could respond quickly I accidentally glued myself to the grid and I don’t think it’s gonna hold me up for long…

Sorry for the late response. I hope can hold on for one day more. This will be a long answer so sticking with me is all I ask of you.

Lots to unpack here. While you haven't given me a lot of information, I'm going to have to assume that holiday show + strong adhesive = glitter....that's one of two things. Its probably R525600. When working with R525600 and glitter, you really should wear PPE!! Safety glasses, boot covers, a Tychem Level A...all that jazz.

If you're up on the grid, the unfortunate and first thing that will work to unstick you is...well, there's no defying gravity. This is the most pressing matter. Is the adhered skin tingling at all?

What you're going to need to do ASAP is call over any volunteer/freshmen/interns (not sure what level you're working in) and have them gather up a large mattress and then add a layer of upholstery foam. How's your skin? I hope there isn't much tingling...or burning. Once your crew has gathered the materials, they need to hold the foamed mattress above their heads. At that point...what comes next? I'm sure you see where this is going, aim is important. There's a fine, fine line. The mattress will absorb the initial impact and the crew will absorb the rest. You're probably wondering why I asked about the tingling. That's the second point. You may be dealing with ALW Industries JCSS1970, which reacts with the reticular dermis of your skin, causing it to slough off. If that's the case, this is an additional problem to gravity. DO NOT WORRY! Once you've landed, first aid for the sloughing is easy. Apply the industry standard of 3 inches of glittered meat to the wounds. Every theatre tech, at some point, has an ALW incident.

Theatre is a team effort, remember that, especially in tough times like this. You'll never walk alone.