The life of a theatre technician can be interesting and frustrating all at the same time. Have you ever had someone call a show who had no idea? How about a Director who calls a show, who was more interested in the performance rather calling the cues correctly. Or those temporary SM’s that call cues the wrong and differently each time. Or the worse possible situation a show without a Stage Manager, the client hands you a script and expects you to operate the equipment, read the script and follow the action on stage. They must think that we are supermen. The cast of course consists of members that cannot project their voices beyond the first row, so we are suppose to hear them with the sound of equipment buzzing in our ears is beyond me. This particular scenario is one that I don’t recommend no matter what the event is or how simple it might seem. You need to be in contact with someone backstage in case something goes wrong or changes. All venues should have a policy about always having a responsible person in contact with the technician at all times, it really becomes an Occupational Health and Safety issue. We also need to instil in the client a correct way of calling cues, don’t you just hate the statement ” GO LX 45″ or just plain “GO” . What can make it even worse is there is no standby or “Standby..GO LX” – that will keep you on your toes. Or the long standby, were you drift of into another world waiting for the GO cue. And there is my particular favourite – my son/daughter will call the show,they have seen me do it since they were 9. Now they are 14 and do ont realise the responsibility that has been thrust upon by their parent. And even worse they are now going to be in charge of their friends and peers possibly.
We certainly did not get into this job for the glamour.
