# Queries for Brits; PS, OP & "Bastard Prompt"?



## RonHebbard (Oct 25, 2017)

Hello British brethren and sistern, [Not to be confused with cistern]
Over on my side of the pond we have SL [Stage Left] & SR [Stage Right] and label touring scenery thus. 
I believe on your side of the pond you have PS [Prompt Side] & OP [Opposite Prompt] 
I further believe these designations remain in place regardless of which side of the stage your Stage Manager calls their show from. If your Stage Manager calls from your OP (our SR) side, I believe you term this as the production having a "Bastard Prompt". Are my foregoing presumptions correct, incorrect, partially correct, totally bonkers. I spent a number of years in a Canadian roadhouse where we hosted an appreciable number of British productions touring with British built and labelled sets but I've only toured into London, England's "West End" once back in '96 or so with the Who's rock opera Tommy. I met a good crew but you lads speak our common language with an incredible number of variants. I still chuckle when I recall watching your BBC news with subtitles so folks could understand the annoyed Mayor of a town who was speaking extremely quickly and greatly perturbed at your government reneging on money previously promised to his community. 
An Englishman speaking English on your national television network with subtitles so other Englishmen could understand him. Separated by our common language. Too funny.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


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## JohnD (Oct 27, 2017)

Well, it's understandable, look at all the languages they started with, not to mention the dialects. Even their English is German! (In the interest of political correctness, shouldn't us white folks be called Anglo-Saxon Americans???) Their cars have boots and bonnets! Don't even think of ordering Biscuits and Sausage gravy there.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Oct 27, 2017)

Not even to mention bangers are to be welcomed at the dinner table, not feared as on the streets of Chicago.

IIRC a number of US opera houses used the P and OP designations many years ago.


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## RonHebbard (Oct 27, 2017)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> Not even to mention bangers are to be welcomed at the dinner table, not feared as on the streets of Chicago.
> 
> IIRC a number of US opera houses used the P and OP designations many years ago.


Back to my query; Am I correct that PS & OP remain as SL & SR respectively regardless of which side the SM actually calls from? In the sense that PS & OP ALWAYS denote sides and DO NOT switch sides if / when the Stage Manager chooses to work from Stage Right ? ? 
Toodleoo! How odd to have two U.S. based replies and ZERO responses from Great Britain. 
Ron Hebbard.


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## JohnD (Oct 27, 2017)

Well Ron, to address the GB boffins directly you could go to the primary coloured room that is neither Red nor Green, i.e. Blue-room.org.


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## derekleffew (Oct 27, 2017)

On a tangential note, in the touring rock and roll genre, WHO decided, that Dimmer Beach was SR and Monitor World SL?


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## GreyWyvern (Oct 27, 2017)

derekleffew said:


> On a tangential note, in the touring rock and roll genre, WHO decided, that Dimmer Beach was SR and Monitor World SL?


Was that a statement or a question?


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## Chris15 (Oct 27, 2017)

RonHebbard said:


> Back to my query; Am I correct that PS & OP remain as SL & SR respectively regardless of which side the SM actually calls from? In the sense that PS & OP ALWAYS denote sides and DO NOT switch sides if / when the Stage Manager chooses to work from Stage Right ? ?



Yes.
We inherited that system here from the Motherland...


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## RonHebbard (Oct 27, 2017)

GreyWyvern said:


> Was that a statement or a question?


@GreyWyvern The clue was the interrogation mark at the end of the line. I'll admit to reading it twice myself. 
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


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## GreyWyvern (Oct 27, 2017)

RonHebbard said:


> @GreyWyvern The clue was the interrogation mark at the end of the line. I'll admit to reading it twice myself.
> Toodleoo!
> Ron Hebbard.


I know. I read it twice as well. I'm just in an ornery mood today. It's Friday and it's been a long week.


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## Van (Oct 27, 2017)

Had quite the time remembering this arcane system when we co-produced Long Days Journey Into Night with Sydney Theatre company several years ago. Everything down there is PS and OP too. 
Weirdos....


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## JohnD (Oct 27, 2017)

Well, I just went down the rabbit hole of "TheatreCrafts", not the us magazine but the UK website.
http://www.theatrecrafts.com/pages/home/topics/stage-management/glossary/
It seems when Bastard Prompt is used, Prompt Side becomes Opposite Bastard (O.B.)

Now on to the tl;dr segment of this programme.
>They sometime give the nickname for peraktoi as Toblerones or Tobes. (For the uninformed, go buy a Toblerone candy bar, you will feel much better for it.)
>Instead of Genies or Genie Lifts they sometimes use MEWPs, or Mobile Elevated Work Platforms.
>Here we have Load In/Out, in the UK they have Get In/Out, meanwhile in Australia they have Bump In/Out and in NZ the have Pack In/OUT.
>Here we have loading docks and deal (on big shows) with tractor-trailers, There they have the loading bay and deal with ARCTICs, or Articulated Lorries.
Some other fun things to look up are Cod Panto and Corpsing.

EDIT: Another interesting term was Kirby Wire which led me to this:
http://www.afxuk.com/
Because of the background slideshow it might be considered NSFW. (Of course that one image is quite lovely and illustrates some of the problems of flying rigging.) The company history is quite nice.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Oct 27, 2017)

derekleffew said:


> On a tangential note, in the touring rock and roll genre, WHO decided, that Dimmer Beach was SR and Monitor World SL?


Steinway? And right handed guitarists maybe. Just guessing, since they both seem to have better views into SL than SR. At least that's why I plan it that way.


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## JohnD (Oct 27, 2017)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> Steinway?


Interesting theory, lets look as some examples:
Liberace-facing SL
Ferrante & Teicher-well, yes and no
Billy Joel-facing SR
Leon Russell-facing SR
Elton John-facing SL
More research is needed.


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## RonHebbard (Oct 27, 2017)

JohnD said:


> Interesting theory, lets look as some examples:
> Liberace-facing SL
> Ferrante & Teicher-well, yes and no
> Billy Joel-facing SR
> ...


Add Victor Borge & Ray Charles to your facing SL list.
*Edit:* Added Ray Charles
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Oct 27, 2017)

I think its the guitar folks that really drove this. They are naturally looking stage left or at least the right handers. But works for most pianists/pianos. The stage right crowd is all electro acoustics I presume - no natural acoustics. I guess there are left handed pianos - a few.


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## Van (Oct 27, 2017)

It's because Electrics are always right and Sound gets left.


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## Footer (Oct 27, 2017)

JohnD said:


> Interesting theory, lets look as some examples:
> Liberace-facing SL
> Ferrante & Teicher-well, yes and no
> Billy Joel-facing SR
> ...



I've done monitor for Leon multiple times before he passed.... even with him looking SR I was still on SL. Classical pianist will almost always want the piano setup so the sound goes into the room. Most of the rock guys who go short or no stick want it the other way.

There are artist out there who flip it and do monitors on SR. The other day we had Steven Stils in, the did monitor from SR. Steven Wilson is another one who does it that way.


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## RonHebbard (Oct 27, 2017)

Footer said:


> I've done monitor for Leon multiple times before he passed.... even with him looking SR I was still on SL. Classical pianist will almost always want the piano setup so the sound goes into the room. Most of the rock guys who go short or no stick want it the other way.
> 
> There are artist out there who flip it and do monitors on SR. The other day we had Steven Stils in, the did monitors from SR. Steven Wilson is another one who does it that way.


@JohnD @Footer Clearly there's a corollary here; St's for Steven's lean towards monitors on Stage Right, right? No, lighting's always right. No, lighting's always correct, right? [Are CB posters ever serious?] (Of course some are, seriously, right?) 
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


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## RonHebbard (Oct 27, 2017)

Van said:


> It's because Electrics are always right and Sound gets left.


@Van Interpretation: Electrics are ALWAYS *correct*. Sound gets the remainder. [Then what about automation, welders and LASER's?]
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.


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## JohnD (Oct 30, 2017)

derekleffew said:


> On a tangential note, in the touring rock and roll genre, WHO decided, that Dimmer Beach was SR and Monitor World SL?


Warning, even more tangential!
I sometimes get lost in places like wackypedia and such, but this is sort of technology related and even refers back to the OP (eventually).
Reference reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nib_(pen)
I have no argument that it was a great day when the reed pen was replaced with the quill. I am greatly puzzled by why the quills were traditionally from the left wing of your large bird. Are most birds right winged except for the outliers who are left winged?
Then eventually metal replaced the quill. Granted the metal nib was around as long as the reed pen, but it was a long time before nib makers got their steel together. In fact it was in 1822, for the dip pen, then eventually the fountain pen, how cool is that, the ink actually inside the pen. Ah the progress of technology. I wasn't around when the wheel was invented, but as Booger Tom* has said "saw one of the first ones, didn't much care for it, things started moving too fast after that."

*Booger Tom is a character in Peter Bowen's *Montanna Mysteries. *


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