# Stupid actors!!



## lights11964

So there was a dance rehershal yesterday, and i was messing with the booms. and whatnot. later i walk to the lightboard which we have in the house for focusing purposes. an i find that the stupid Directer has just conviently put all channels 1-50 up to full. and that day we found that the blue gels were were using were already fadeing and burning out. so no we HAVE to get new gets and order more heat sheilds. god why do actors have to be so stupid.


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## soundman

If the dance show is not a school function I would just bill them. When groups liek that come to my school they are billed for use of the theater, for any expenses which most of the time is a flat rate of 2 or 3 bulbs and a sheet or 2 of gel and pay for the crew. But if they refuse to pay because they know its human, using that word losely, error then I would smack the actor around.


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## zac850

Ummmm, just one question.... how are you blaming the actors when you said in your post that the director put the lights up to full? sounds like the director needs to be talked to about touching stuff, but the actors seem innocent....


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## lights11964

Fine zac850 i guess that the actors are inocent. And soundman it was a rehersal for our musical. so there is really nothing we could do with out using our own money to replace the gells.


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## zac850

Oh, i'm not trying to defend the actors   I'm just trying to figure out what happined   

eh, if all else fails, blaim it on the actors....


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## Mayhem

In an ideal world it is not ok for anyone to dis anyone. However, utopia aside, it is human nature to bitch about whatever it is that annoys us. 

Now you happen to have stumbled upon a post in which the cause of someone’s angst is that some actors were playing with lights (which they do not have anything to do with) and have caused damage. Now it may seem innocent enough and perhaps they didn’t understand the consequences of their actions, but the end result was that it cost money in replacement parts. As you can appreciate, this can cause serious problems as many schools struggle to keep under budget.

There are plenty of other posts on this forum where a techie will unload on another techie for a variety of reasons, some justified and others not. This forum is very supportive of its members and in many cases the issue will be resolved and part of this is the initial venting of one’s grievances. It is much better to explode on the forum that to let loose in the theatre with a c-wrench. Again, not ideal but part of learning and maturing as an individual.

I am not sure as to the number of actors using this site but I would imagine that the majority of users are techies and many (if not all) of them understand that a good working relationship with, and mutual respect for the actors is a vital ingredient for a strong collegial working relationship. I would like to point out that you have stumbled across a post that represents a small proportion of the site and in reality, is confined to discussing an individual problem. Perhaps the title of the post could have been better thought but I think the content does dispel this as being the overall view.

I would invite you to join the site and if you are an actor it would be great to have your thoughts and comments on a variety of issues. One of the major issues that I have picked up on (I work as a mobile DJ and spend very little time working gin theatres) is that there is often a lack of appreciation for what each other does. Most of the problems seem to stem from this and I think that if we could get some actors involved in some of these discussions it would be very useful.


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## halojen

yeah i call myself a sound guy but i used to be, and still kind of am, an actor.
i think it is importand that a techie has experience in performing.
they must kno what it is like.
and sound guys must be musical. even if tehy used to play an instrument but dont any more.
equally, i kno of directors, actors, and other ascisiated people that have done tech courses not to become a techie but to get a feel for what its like for techs, to understand a bit better... and so they dont do stupid things like put all the faders up to full.


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## halojen

lol nice story. youve jkust got to love the exciting bits ay.
how boring would it be if everything went as planned.
but im sorry but i dont really count the props as techies.
not crazy enough and dont have enough of a problem solving and complex job.
i think they just have to be generic.

and i think a post-it note, nomatter how big or clearly labelled, will only stop people bringing up everything about 50% of the time.

and i fully love the 'Oh S**T' sub.
that is the most legendary idea. the name makes it. if you called it an 'emergancy sub' that would just suck. if you see what im saying.

that all. im sorry if im sounding like a w**ker. i dont mean to be.


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## zac850

Jay said:


> I also typically keep an Oh S**T sub master on my desk. This sub, when brought to full brings all the house lights and work lights to full, takes out all other non essential lights ( mostly sidelights as people may be blinded or burned by them) , and flashes the red cue lights on both sides of the stage and in the pit. It has come in handy a number of times. If you can, have one on your desk.



what are the red cue lights your taking about? what are they and what are they for?

thanks


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## halojen

ok. you kno what. i dont kno what i was talking about.
the three paragraphs were theoretically replying to three different people.
but when i look back up the page i cant find who i was talking about.
..o wait.. i cant remember who the first one was but in the second bit i was refering to the

> A simple solution: put all your work lights into one sub and mark that sub as worklights with a big post it note.


 bit.
meh. im crazy.


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## Eboy87

A little late for this reply for mayham, but, in my tech experiences, there are only one or two actors who have any idea of what goes into tech, and how delicate(?) equipment can be. Most of the others mess around with stuff they shouldn't, such as the lightboard. Therefore, because of the ones who screw things up, techies usually rip on the actors. I have a good story proving this, but I won't get into that here.


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## Mayhem

Thanks Eboy87 - I do not doubt the legitimacy or the cause of the problem. 

My interjection into this post was to point out that we are not here to bag actors (in direct response to a previous post).

If everyone just showed a level of respect for, not only each other, but for things that they no nothing about – then we may have a starting point to address the problem.

The other issue here is trying to install a professional and responsible work ethic into those in the tech world. Getting worked up and yelling at people doesn’t really help and it is not a good practice to get into. In fact, it can also encourage others to mess with you just to get the reaction. Now there was some posting here a while back that went along the lines of how to booby trap equipment – now that is also something we want to avoid as theatres are hazardous enough to begin with.

In this situation I believe that a tech person who can control themselves and actually explain what has been done and the reasons why, document the event and formally submit this to the supervising person, head teacher, principle etc. Will have a better outcome. If the individuals can be identified, then they should receive the bill for replacement/repairs or be punished in some other manner (decided by the school).

Yelling and screaming whilst immediate and somewhat self-rewarding has no real lasting effect. It is a bit like pissing in your own pants – you get a nice warm feeling but the effect is short lived and you have just added to your woes for the day. By documenting the events and reporting the matter you have a much better chance of achieving not only a result but in setting a standard.

However, at the end of the day, anything short of actually educating people as to how to behave in a theatre environment is probably not going to make any difference.


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## ccfan213

it drives me insane when actors musicians and directors (and techs with a different area of expertise for that matter) mess with things they dont know about, but the best solution is to teach the director what they need to know to turn on a simple mic or light cue, and keep a simple light cue set up for them to use that just turns on a basic lighting setup all across the stage. another good idea is to leave instructions for these basic things on a large poster in the booth. that will probably keep people from messing things up, because for the most part they have good intentions and dont mind following instructions if they are provided. in general, actors are nice people, even if they dont always appreciate the work techs do for them


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## Eboy87

We've tried that, and it works to a point. We have one actor who thinks he knows everything about tech, but he doesn't. We try to show him how to work the equipment, but like the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. He is to full of himself to learn about the stuff, so everything he touches, needs to be fixed before we can use it.


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## ccfan213

i forgot to sign in until after i posted the last message, but yea it was me Matt
(CCFan213) in case anyone is wondering


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## mr_sound

a forum just for trading horror stories? oh i think i'm gonna spend a lot of time here.

well to jump on the "stupid actors" bandwagon, sorta, i have got to complain about a guy in a band i did sound for this friday. i'm the only sound guy, no assistant or anything, and usually i'm the only employee that's even in the theater itself before a show (they all hide in the lobby). so i'm up on stage, setting up the mics for the first band, as usual, and when i come back to the booth i see one of the guys from the other band standing in front of my board pushing up random faders. i ask what he's doing, and he tells me he's trying to figure out how to turn on the music. so he had switched around songs on my mp3 player (i guess my choice of music was no good for him), and was just pushing up random faders and fooling around with the gain. this is a digital board..so i can recall the preset and his changes will go away, but the gain isn't included in that, so i get real mad when anyone touches my gain knobs (and it seems everyone does).

of course, without the power amps on, this guy isn't gonna hear anything. the annoying part was that i just told him 10 minutes ago that we cannot play any music at all until the movie in the other room was over since the walls are so thin....and he still was trying to get some music playing. and then anytime we had a changeover and i was up on stage, i'd see him creeping around back there checking things out. i hate to be so accusatory, but naturally i was a little worried he was scoping out my gear, seeing if it would be worth breaking in to steal. i don't think he was though...i think he was just some stoned musician fascinated by all the pretty lights. 

i still cannot figure out why people attempt to do things they aren't supposed to do, or don't know how to do. i've noticed evidence of other people trying to use my sound rig for events that i didn't get hired to do sound for...which naturally makes me mad. ironic...none of them can find the one button on my rack that turns on everything (except the amps). when i first started working at this place, i didn't even turn on any of the stage lights until i knew the system well. of course once i did figure it out, and did turn on anything, the always drunk/stoned TD would get on my case about how only he is allowed to turn on the lights.

whew....that felt good. got 2 more shows this week......so i imagine i'll be back by the weekend, hehe.


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## zac850

Yea, when I go to a broadway show I usually end up finding the sound guy and staring/drooling over the sound board and all of the nice equipment that they have. Usually the sound guy will come back, see me looking at it and eather ignore me or start talking to me about what we have, and we'll talk about the equipment or whatever for 5 minutes or so. However, if there is a rope, I don't go past the rope, and I only look, and do not touch unless I am allowed to and the guy shows me something (which has never happened, I might add). 

Its simple, I don't know there set-up, so I'm not going to mess with there stuff "trying to figure out how to do...."

I'm very lucky in my school. Since we're in the gym, to get into our booth you need to climb a ladder. This ladder is removable, and unless I am there, or I will be back and no little kids are there, the ladder is not there. Now, the ladder is not locked up, but you can be easily seen if your climbing up the ladder. People sometimes bug me to let them up, but its fairly clear that you only climb the ladder if your allowed to. A few times I catch people going up a bit, but they rarely enter the booth, and if they do I nicely tell them to get out.


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## mr_sound

oh i'll actually sit there and talk gear with people...if they don't piss me off first. but this guy didn't make a good first impression, trying to mess with my gear. of course sometimes i just want people to leave me alone. i was doing sound for a dance recital and i'm trying to write down all my cues during the rehearsal while this guy and his kid just keep talking to me about sound. the kid kept insisting, over and over again, that i put some mics up on stage. the setup called for no more than a tape deck, so that's all i did.

i think the good thing about being in a school is the administrators are generally not very trusting, so access to the grid, soundbooth, catwalk...stuff like that isn't usually available to just anyone. of course, working in a private facility, we have to deal with the money issue constantly. they tore down the old catwalk over the stage since it was ancient and completely unsafe (it was made out of wood) but the rickety old wooden ladder remains. so far only a few bands have attempted to go up there....but i'm sure someone at some point is going to ignore everyone and just go up there. 

same goes for the sound "booth"....it's just a table in the back of the room. i do have like 1000' of this yellow "reserved for audio crew" tape that i bought after getting sick of people standing next to me and telling me how to mix, as if they've got any experience doing sound (usually soccer moms who don't understand that little johnny's vocal can't be heard cuz he sucks)....but i haven't used that yet in this place. we have been talking about building an actual booth for the sound and eventually lighting...of course just my luck it would be towards the center of the room, and my snake won't make it that far. the guy who's in charge of these concerts said "well can't you just buy an extension snake?". keep in mind my snake does not have multipin disconnects...that's too expensive for me..so i'm stuck with 100'.

wow all this bitching and i'm barely getting any work done. this board might turn out to be a bad thing for me, hehe. i'm addicted to complaining about my job. of course, i'd much much much rather be doing this than say...working in a grocery store. been there, done that.


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## tenor_singer

I try to install into my high school thespians that we are one big theater family... each member having a specific task to perform that is no more important than another's... from the poor freshmen assigned to mop the stage pre-production to the lead actor to the stage manager.

It only lessens the shows quality when everybody is bickering about somebody else. It is paramount for a shows success that everybody is interacting with each other at an instinctive level and in-house fights cause micro-pauses which destroy the productions cohesiveness. "ooooo... I am pissed at so and so... whoops... I have an intrance/cue/prop/costume due RIGHT NOW..." Instead of complaining, spend a couple of minutes during your first tech rehearsal and explain things. Example... "don't touch any of the control equipment because we have it set to perform specific functions and things can be damaged if the controls are adjusted incorrectly" or "please don't touch a prop unless you are the actor assigned to it or the prop mistress/mister (who then should have known not to touch the prop in the boom example)".

Not to be cliche, but..... Can't we all just get along :roll:   ?

Tenor


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## halojen

man, take all the fun out of why dont you?
( :


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## 3D

most actors should be blamed not for just one thing but blame them for everything that goes wrong because if something is different from the way you left it and screwed up then it most likely was anctor cause they dont know anything about lights, sound, or tech! if they touch something they screw it up cause all they know how to do is act!

3D (Derek D. Deiterman)


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## run_dll

during our production we were practically wrapping the radio mic transmitters in gaff to stop them playing with them!


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## __WWW__

3D said:


> most actors should be blamed not for just one thing but blame them for everything that goes wrong because if something is different from the way you left it and screwed up then it most likely was anctor cause they dont know anything about lights, sound, or tech! if they touch something they screw it up cause all they know how to do is act!
> 
> 3D (Derek D. Deiterman)



try reading the whole thread.


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## sallyj

One thing that always gets me is when we are working with, say pink foam or something that is odd colored, and the actors come on stage for rehearsal, see it and ask, "is that what it is going to look like?" You just want to say "yes, the show will have pink bricks. Isn't that realistic?" Happens all the time, with students and professionals alike.

SJM


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## cambo1000

how did your gels burn out in one day?


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