# crew night



## propmonkey (Sep 23, 2004)

does anyone else have crew nights? if so what do you do? last year we went to this really ionce japanese place(also did some research for last years musical there: The Mikado). this year we're going to this place called the safe house in milwaukee, its a spy themed place. except this time we have to pay, are lighting consult has a meetings in milaukee all day but last time he paied for all of our dinners which was atleast over $150. i hope we go bowling after or a moive.


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## RelativeMischief (Sep 29, 2004)

We just always went over to one of the guys' house and had a "production meeting"


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## SuperCow (Sep 29, 2004)

Well, we don't have a designated crew night, but we often get together, go out for some sushi, and then we, uh, play badminton. Yeah, that's it, we play badminton and other things that those under the age of eighteen are allowed to do.


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## zac850 (Sep 29, 2004)

SuperCow said:


> Yeah, that's it, we play badminton and other things that those under the age of eighteen are allowed to do.



Or 21 in the wonderful united states (you can go to war and die for your country, but you can't have a glass of wine when your at dinner. does that make sense?). But, we play cards, and study, thats it, we study a lot.


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## dj_illusions (Sep 30, 2004)

yes, its called the pub after every show lol


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## soundman (Sep 30, 2004)

At my intern ship we had a grill out hosted by the set designer in the middle of the summer then after it was all said and done there was a viewing of the rocky horror picture show at the intern house (housing was provided if you were over hte age of 18) They said they were getting dressed up and I thought nothing of it. I was rather taking back by what they maniged to find in the custume room, and embaresed that I went to so little effort, wearing what I wore to work. 

but at my high school after strike we go out to eat and there are partys after the shows but no one really makes plans.


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## dj_illusions (Sep 30, 2004)

omg rocky horror picture show... that was on late night tv when i got home a few weeks ago, i think that it has damaged me forlife... men in tights and makeup inst my cup of tea :|


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## soundman (Sep 30, 2004)

well the host in the movie sat night next to me in fish net stockings a vest and a very short swim suit but after working side by side on 5 shows over 3 months you get by thoose little things quickly.


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## JahJahwarrior (Sep 30, 2004)

well, I would go out and party or something after shows, but being only 15, and having parents who think tht 9 is a good time to be home, it's really hard to even stay light to help strike a set, much less go eat pizza or something afterwardss. And everyone freaks out when you play with lighters too.


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## ccfan213 (Oct 1, 2004)

soundman said:


> well the host in the movie sat night next to me in fish net stockings a vest and a very short swim suit but after working side by side on 5 shows over 3 months you get by thoose little things quickly.


 was the host of the movie a guy or a girl?

JahJahwarrior, im 15 too but i dont think ive ever gotten home from a night of tech before 9:00 tonight i was there until 10 and that was just a rehersal for something we rented the school for, after shows, we usually are done with strike by 9 or 10 the whole cast and crew usually go to a nearby diner to eat socialize relax and for once, not worry about deadlines.


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## soundman (Oct 1, 2004)

Docter Frank n Furter was played by a male.


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## JahJahwarrior (Oct 1, 2004)

your parents must be alot cooler than mine in the tech department!!  my dad thinks I ought to shut msyelf in my room and do nothing but study math for the next 20 years. 

This play though, I will plan a crew thing to do, so my parents will let me!


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## JP12687 (Oct 1, 2004)

Does anybody else run into the problem in HS about some students feeling the need to get REALLY messed up after shows? It just makes it no fun when you have to spend the whole night taking care of kids who are puking up their guts...A good crew party could be fun..but i am somewhat jaded as in my town it normally means exessive drinking.


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## ccfan213 (Oct 1, 2004)

soundman.... ew

no we dont drink after shows, if anyone does, its not alot, not nearly enough to be puking over
and jahjahwarrior, i stay up really late, so for my parents to make me come home early would just be stupid, i wont b sleeping anyway... especially not after a good show.


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## propmonkey (Oct 1, 2004)

man you guys suck. im 16 now and a junior. are strikes are on closing night after the show. we get done around 3am. and then go out for coffee and stuff and watch the sun come up. the professional theatre i work at in the summer we go down to this bar place after and hang out. everyone usually has a drink or few. i havent. its always a fun time though.


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## Peter (Nov 24, 2004)

I avoid parties and drinking (except water) always. If you ask me its a dumb thing to do, I know too many people who have gotten hurt bad or messed up their lives by drinking. I live almost 45 mins away from my school, and when i have someone else working with me, they could very well live 45 mins in the other direction. Considering that the nearest real pizza place is 30 mins in the direction away from everyones houses, it gets to be too much of a bother to have any kind of tech nights. If anything we'll bring candy to school and eat it on stage (where not much can get hurt by a spill) or in the lobby. Of course that happens once in a blue moon, because most of the time I really dont have a crew... It's just me for most of the shows I do. (only really have a crew for bigger shows a few times a year)

so ya, i often sit alone at my kitchen table at 11 pm or later when i get home and have a nice big party for myself as i eat supper! (homework fits in during shows that i dont have to do much for other then setup and take down, and into the wee hours of the morning)


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## techieman33 (Nov 25, 2004)

well when i was in high school, on friday nights after a show, all the techies would go to denny's, and usually that's when most of the old techie alum come to see the show so we hang out and talk, and catch up on old times, then saturday since our TD wouldn't let us strike after the show, so we would go to the company party, with cast/tech, everyone involved, and have some fun, then all the techs leave togeather and we go to a parking lot and make a bon fire with our cue sheet, prompt books everything, it's a fun way to end the show. and as far as alchol, we might have a drink or 2 but don't get drunk.


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## ccfan213 (Nov 25, 2004)

we generally go to the diner after every show with the people involved, but on closing night we go to the cast/crew party.


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## soundman (Nov 25, 2004)

Heres a better question, do any of you 'bond' with the crew out side of the show like play mini golf or bowl? I hang out with some friends from crew but not every one, I was woundering id anyone did this as a unit. ALso for this show there must of been some strong anti-actor feelings becasue every time we got notes the "its not us VS them thing" came up. SO what about the cast?


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## techieman33 (Nov 25, 2004)

well up until this last year when i graduated the techs were one big family, we were always togeater, hung out at one of the local coffee shops a lot, there isn't much of an actor vs techie feud, we didn't hand out as much with the actors as with the other techs, but we didn't have any problems. As far as college, everyone acts, i'm the only 100% techie at my school, so i hang out with the actors a lot, most of them treat me like a god, cause i'm the only tech, it's kind of funny.


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## ccfan213 (Nov 25, 2004)

its a fun night, where all of us who work our asses off for little or no appreciation go out and chill or party.


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## Peter (Nov 25, 2004)

My school is small enough that most of the people who help me out, are the same people i have classes with, so i get to know them there.


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## kirbz60062 (Nov 25, 2004)

Im 15 and once again we also usually strike untill midnight ish and go out and see a movie and grab something to eat and usually get home around 2 or 3 and our crew is only like 9 people so we are all really close. My parents had a problem with it at first but after a while they just looked at is as normal. But I know if they could have their way i would be home at 7 every night.


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## EPAC_Matt (Nov 25, 2004)

Usually our plays show thursday through saturday, and on the Friday after the show, we all go down to Denny's (around 11:00 PM)

Last year, during Alice in Wonderland, our theatre manager bought the crew bunny ears, so we went into Denny's last year in stageblacks wearing bunny ears.. it was great 8) 

This year after macbeth, those of us who could find them, wore the ears again and we got some funny looks.. good times indeed.


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## Peter (Nov 25, 2004)

LOL that's great!

(Driving from our place to the movies and back (never mind seeing a movie) would take from 12 till 2! Enjoy living where there is actually stuff to do! (that same time frame goes for the nearest Denny's :-/ ))

The closest thing we have had to your bunny ears are pins that said "Friends of Fenwick" that we were supposto wear a few days before our production of "The Mouse that Roared". It didnt really happen b/c everyone was dissapointed and upset with the show (This was the show that the director yelled so much, 1/2 of the cast walked out 2 weeks before opening). The ears are defanatly a great idea (the perfect antenas for headsets if you ask me  )


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## techieman33 (Nov 26, 2004)

walking into walgreens right after a show has to be one of the funnest things we've done, around 12 of us walked on togeater, all in black, the security guard flipped out, and a lot of people were giving us weird looks, and some were definetly scarred, but then we just bought some pop and chips for the company party and everyone had a relived look on their face.


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## who_touched_the_patch (Nov 27, 2004)

*Dark Night*

At my theatre we have a tradition called the *"Dark Night."*

Basically, its a night that happens after tech week the night/day before opening. The only thing on stage, apart from the set, is a ghost-light, and the entire theatre just basically sits there ready to go.

_(It is quite common to find a lonely techie working after hours to get a last minute job done, but that happens on a black-night about once every two years!_

ANYWAY - the whole idea of a blacknight is to give everyone, cast and crew both, a 24-hour period where they're not thinking about the show!

It actually works really well to focus the entire cast and crew.

To relate back to the topic, blacknight will normally see the entire tech crew at a movie, pizza place, club or bar - just having a holiday after the stress of tech week.


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## OldGrover (Nov 27, 2004)

*grins* Tech /week/ ? LUXURY. We're lucky to get a tech /weekend/ - and by weekend, I mean we get access to the theatre on Saturday noon and we're supposed to be ready for a cue-to-cue by Sunday afternoon.

Why, I remember one tech weekend not too long ago where I showed up as a volunteer carpenter, just to pitch in for a few hours, and discovered that the show's master carpenter had bailed.. and thus nobody had any construction plans, nobody had bought any wood, nobody had done ANYTHING with regards to making the set a reality. In fact, the TD and Director will still trying to sort out what they wanted things to look like. Oh. And they had almost no budget left.

That was... fun. It worked - by Sunday afternoon, they had a full set, including a brandnew bed, a hospital operating gurney, full sets of walls, including some cutaways, doors and windows and moving walls.. but it was a lot of hours at no notice.

Of course, the show then proceeded to flop, but that wasn't the fault of my set.

-OG


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## scarlco (Jan 18, 2005)

At my theatre, the crew spends so much time together, we're like a family almost. The actors rarely join us on our nights out - they reside primarily in NYC, and just want to get home. Usually, the crew will get together on any given night of the week, and I'll be there waiting for the hangover victims on a matinee day. I'll sometimes join them on Friday nights, when they go to a local restaurant / bar for karaoke. 

We play this great game sometimes called 'theatre tag' or 'flashlight tag'. We wait until the building is empty, and just go nuts. Always fun with a comlicated set. Of course, we're all careful - each crew member knows that if they break something, the game is off to fix it... and if they break themselves, the whole thing loses it's purpose. It's just a blast to blow off some steam occasionally. In our situation, that's a necessity. After all, we're sometimes working 7 days a week, and once every three months we're putting in an _average_ of 100 hours in a week. Lots of steam to blow off!


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## moojoe (Jan 18, 2005)

heh. you guys are taken aback by rocky horror. oh dear.
our entire company loves rocky horror, we've even preformed it for the audience participation midnight showings. but if you think that a guy wearing fishnets is creepy, oh wow i hope you guys never see what we wear. >.> <.<


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## avkid (Jan 18, 2005)

wow,some people scare easily! The things that go on at cast parties(the insanity)


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## jammers (Jan 24, 2005)

Working in live music full time we tend not to do much socialy after gigs. However the once or twice per year i do theatre type stuff (once per year at my old school) on closing night the hole cast (ages 13-18yrs plus teachers) goes to a local pub and we all get wasted, well tho older looking ones - typically 16yrs plus. Its great, get rid of all that tension and usally end up throwing up after one too many snake bites and vodka! Rock On.


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## cutlunch (Jan 24, 2005)

moojoe said:


> heh. you guys are taken aback by rocky horror. oh dear.
> our entire company loves rocky horror, we've even preformed it for the audience participation midnight showings. but if you think that a guy wearing fishnets is creepy, oh wow i hope you guys never see what we wear. >.> <.<




For you Rocky Horror Fans here is a news story from New Zealand, where it's creator Richard O'Brien lived for many years. Checkout the statue made by Weta Workshops (Lord of the Rings ).

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?ObjectID=6500547


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## SketchyCroftPpl (Jan 24, 2005)

*Traditions*

We have a few crew traditions. The first is that before every show for the three days that it runs we do something called "Techie Love" its where we go and get together at one of the techs house after school and write a mean skit about actors (they write one about us as well) and then we perform them during the cast party. We also go as an entire cast to a mexican resteraunt called "tortilla sams" after the second night show. After the third is the cast part and the first is nothing. The day of the opening show is black and white day and anyone involved in the show either a actor or tech or music wears only black and white. And every play we get shirts for the play and one day we're allowed to wear them and then they become in dress code.

~Nick


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## techieman33 (Jan 24, 2005)

I miss that part of a show in high school, now it's just a big drunken party every night, which gets old really fast.


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## avkid (Jan 24, 2005)

wow, someone else with my dress code. Last year I mandated black dress shirts shoes, slacks and dark or silver ties for all tech crew at all formal events.For local bands and such we just wear jeans, industry t-shirts,steel toe boots or sneakers and credentials.


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## ccfan213 (Jan 24, 2005)

we dont have credentials, i wish the school would make us AV IDs. for this show im going to try to get tech crew to wear all black even though we arent backstage, it is almost like a uniform for crew.


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## Sombra2 (Jan 25, 2005)

it weird alot of times schools give even the smallest employee an id tag, I had a club in middle school and since we sort of were working for the school (not being paided) we got id tags for our club. Yet now that I work as av tech, even though students are not suppose to be in the school when school ends, we get nothing to identify us to teachers/staff that we are suppose to be there.


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## teh_sparky (Jan 26, 2005)

Well, there is the usual cast party after the strike. But after the performances, usually a bunch of people go out to a resturant and just BS about stuff. But there has been a couple random times where myself and some other techies have gone out and played some laser tag, which is fun to do when you know the people that you are playing with.


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## len (Jan 26, 2005)

Back in the 1970's when I was in school drinking and drug use was much more prevalent, and much less discussed. So the strike party was a pretty drunken affair. Crew nights didn't happen much. If they did, I never went because I had a 40 hour a week job. And sleeping in classes wasn't enough sleep so I had to sleep some time.


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## Too_Tall (Jan 26, 2005)

Well, we have partys. The main party has no booze, but some after partys do. Usually we just chill and maybe go to Steak 'n Shake. As I have started 2 years ago, one night for every performance, me and some other thechies go and aol cd some actors yard that we got frustrated with during the production. Yes, i said AOL cds or Earthlink cds. we collect them till one night we go to someones yeard and place thousands shiny sid up on their lawn. In the morning it is one sweet mirror.


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## propmonkey (Jan 26, 2005)

hah that reminds me of what we did to our director for homecoming. through out the week we collected Bush signs(he hates bush alot). and we went to his house and covered his yard in Bush signs. he thought it was harilous but all the people missing signs didnt. they were all reclaimed but the next day.


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## jonhirsh (Jul 23, 2005)

Most shows i have worked on our run has gone like this. 

1 day to show load in lights and sets with two stage hands and my self

show week or two depending on the show do the show with my self on lights and sound and a stage manager

last night of the show at about 10 pm load out set return rentle gear return the plot to the theatres plott and be out of there by 12 am or we go into overtime go to a house party usualy hosted by me with all the cast and crew which is usualy small since we do small cast plays such as Godot. we have a few drinks share a few jokes then get ready for the next show its really a crazy 

but yes i will say this i do bond with my 2 or 3 techs but they change every show so its hard to create areal attachment but its normal

JH


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## GV_hellion (Jul 23, 2005)

alot of people talk about getting wasted, but no one ever does... Since we're only in high school its not like we can do anything we want, so normally crew goes to a local trucker stop on Friday night, and on Saturday someone has a cast party (normally that is left up to the seniors, but who ever is willing to host a party for 70 some sleep deprived teenagers is taken up on their offer) my mom has never really had a problem with how late I stay out, but shes not fond of me driving past 1am... its state curfew, and I could get pulled over... I dont think she wants to start driving me around again


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## avkid (Jul 23, 2005)

GV_hellion said:


> shes not fond of me driving past 1am... its state curfew, and I could get pulled over...



Wow, in New York State 9 P.M. is the curfew for anyone with a junior driver's license(under eighteen)


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## propmonkey (Jul 23, 2005)

wisconsin is 11pm. all the people i used to hangout with never had a curfew including me but all my new friends have one and it sucks.


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## Foxinabox10 (Jul 23, 2005)

The Wednesday before every show our set and stage crew has a big dinner out in the lobby that the cast serves for them to say thank you. They give out all sorts of awards with duct tape sashes and everyone wears them to school the next day. It's a big way to tell the crew that they aren't forgotten.


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## achstechdirector (Jun 19, 2008)

avkid said:


> Wow, in New York State 9 P.M. is the curfew for anyone with a junior driver's license(under eighteen)




In Mississippi it is 10pm until you are 16 and then there is no curfew


What is a "junior" drivers license
We have a permit(15)
a intermediate(15 1/2)
a regular (16 and up)


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## rosabelle334 (Jun 19, 2008)

Sometimes when we stay late we order pizza ^.^

Other than that we mainly just have a crew party at a local diner after the show on opening night, then we join the cast party on closing night. Its fun!


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## SerraAva (Jun 20, 2008)

Lol, even before I was 21, we still went to the bar after every corporate gig. Doesn't matter if we finish at 1 AM and have to be up at 4 AM, we still go get a drink.

For theatre stuff, same deal, except it is normally more for food then booze.

As far as specific nights, never. It was always just go out after show/rehearsal/setup/strike.


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## Clifford (Jun 20, 2008)

We have a tradition where the entire cast and crew go to Denny's after the third night of the show. We always get the new guy who thinks we're joking when we say we'd like a table for 30 (because the people in the first car get the table, so not everyone shows up at once). Then it takes an hour and a half to get everyone ordered and fed. Eating is hard without forks, which must be donated to the traditional fork house (Denny's must really wonder how so many of their forks are bent on the same night). Apart from a few cups and a plate, we haven't broken anything major, so they still let us in. We usually stay until about midnight, when we go to someone's house until 2am or so. It's a very good thing the third night of a show is Friday for us. It gives us plenty of time to sleep before the Saturday matinee and show. We've been asked on Saturday matinees why the booth smells like Denny's food. That smell just doesn't leave. Good times, good times....


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## lieperjp (Jun 20, 2008)

Some nights (usually a Saturday) anyone in the show can join a party at Perkins. We're usually there from 11pm to 2am, and we have gotten to know the Saturday night Waiters very well. They don't have seating for 20-30 people all at one table, so we take up three long rows of tables. Our tradition is to eat a sugar packet (not swallowing,) do a half 'n half chaser, swish, and swallow. It tastes like a milkshake. They probably wonder why all the creamer is gone at tables that don't order coffee.

But the tech crew usually has a pizza party at the end of the year, where we elect "officers" and generally hang out for an hour or so, then go back and study for finals.


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## cverdetech (Jul 22, 2008)

for us, its almost always about the diners.. .and i mean theres applebees too. but we tend to do it either on the final night of tech rehearsal (given all of us are still under legal curfew of 12:01 so this rarely ever happens after a tech rehearsal) and most times we join the cast after the show. 

and of course, the well loved games of "badmitton" and "twister" .... sure.

but we tend to get around to a crew members house for a crew night once and a while.


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