# "Autograph" wall?



## JLNorthGA (Jan 10, 2012)

I'm painting over a variety of autographs (and some graffiti) on the walls/pillars beside the stage.

Eventually I'll be painting some of the areas downstairs near the dressing rooms.

So - the question - should we eventually have an "autograph" wall for the various performers to autograph? Should our facility just have a "No autograph" policy? I don't really have a preference either way. My personal preference would be to have autographed playbills that would be framed and mounted.


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## chausman (Jan 10, 2012)

I Think you should allow that. Some people really like to remember shows that way. You can always paint over it again later if it gets out of control.


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## Van (Jan 10, 2012)

I think either way works. In Salem there is a venue called " The Elsinore Theater" They allowed people to sige the US side of the Fire curtain pocket < US of the Pro.> Anyway, there are names from all the Vaudelville greats on that structure. There is even an autograph of a very young Clark Gable who used to perform there in amateur days... Who knows you could be painting over a real piece of history.


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## josh88 (Jan 10, 2012)

Our facility at college was getting replaced by a new building but casts had been signing stage walls and the grid dating back to the 30's. Knowing they'd get painted over or torn down we photographed and documented everything so now there is still all the history available even if it's been covered up. 


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## avkid (Jan 10, 2012)

Ours is up in the projection booth, projectionists from 1930 until the last time the carbon arcs were used in 2002.


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## techieman33 (Jan 10, 2012)

Ours is our stage managers office which is just off stage right. It started out where you had to be asked to sign the wall, acts that came through, techs that had been there for years and were moving on etc. It's a hard thing to keep control of though, we've had lots of local ballet dancers sign the wall without permission taking up lots of space and writing over other peoples stuff.


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## Footer (Jan 10, 2012)

Tagging is pretty common. One of my friends that tours devotes a small part of her work box to tagging gear and does some pretty killer work. In our space the only tags that are out there are from crew throughout the ages and its usually somewhere high up off the beaten path. 

Personally, I kind of like it. Gives a bit of history to the space.


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## howlingwolf487 (Jan 10, 2012)

At my university, we had an autograph wall above the grid. Each year, graduating crew members would spray paint their initials and year of graduation on one cinderblock.


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## chausman (Jan 10, 2012)

Next time I'm at the Bing, I need to take pictures of the green room and offices. They have posters from tons of events that were in there. I'd take a picture of the projection booth, but theirs only a bunch of burnt gel and cigarette butts up there (thats where all of our FoH is reached).


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## Lambda (Jan 10, 2012)

In our place it used to be that everybody would sign the wall in the stage left wing, and there were signatures dating back to the first productions from the 1960s. But a few years ago the director ordered it all painted over. If you look at the paint in the right light, it's still possible to make out some of them. 
It's still common, however, for the tech crew to sign the upstage side of the fire curtain or the walls and ceiling of the flyspace.


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## bobcatarts (Oct 4, 2012)

Don't mean to be mean, but no, you will not write on the walls. I will paint over it, and you will buy the paint.

I think it's unprofessional (despite how many pros may do it) and sets a bad example. If you want to remember a show, go to the archives! Older houses that have lots of history - I get that, and love the photo archive idea! Don't disrespect my space. I don't care about who you are, just the work you do. 

If you want a kinder, gentler answer: Theatre is temporary and ephemeral; let the show fade back to nothing but a pristine, hollow space, leaving us with nothing but these base tokens and memories. Jerk.


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## Call911 (Oct 4, 2012)

I work in a school setting, and signing any walls will buy you a week of suspension. We have a hard enough time getting the students to not scratch lockers and bathroom stalls. Openly allowing them to sign walls only brings on more troubles.


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## porkchop (Oct 4, 2012)

Totally depends on your kind of facility. I certainly agree it's not appropriate in an educational space because kids (and sometimes adults) tend to get out of hand. I could even agree that in a professional strictly theatre space it is inappropriate. There are some still professional, but more multi-use places thought where it's can be done well. The only buildings I've seen it in that I liked are arenas, but I can imagine some others as well. The pyro room in the arena in Birmingham, Alabama and the whole of backstage in Forest National in Burssels, Belgium are examples that I like. In Birmingham it's all done with chalk and is mostly the year, name of the act, name of the shooter, and number of points in the rig. It's really crazy to see the variety of shows and the ridiculous increase in points as years go on. Forest National, on the other hand, is a whole different beast as almost every bit of backstage that isn't visible to the public is covered in paint. Some tags are just a simple name done with a rattle can and others are detailed 3' x 5' paintings done by the shows props department and signed by the whole show. Last time I was there our props department was running low on paint and had to ban everyone from using show materials to tag the building in fear of running out completely. There is some serious art in that building and it's certainly fun to come back to a building years later and still see your name there. Basically if the building management is alright with it, it stays reasonable for your space in terms of amount, language, and content, and can't be seen by the public I don't see the harm. Once you don't have one of those you kind of have to decide whether to put a stop to things entirely or to fight a never ending battle against it.


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## DuckJordan (Oct 4, 2012)

I'll have to get pictures of our backstage walls, we have autographs from casts of shows to people like Bill Cosby. I think its just fine as its kind of a badge of honor. Plus returning acts love to look back and see who from the cast and crew has made it back to the venue.


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## Morydd (Oct 4, 2012)

At our school, you get to sign a brick in the scene shop when you graduate. Only when you graduate, and it's done at a time set aside for that activity, so it's supervised. Any other writing on the walls is considered vandalism, and gets you a trip to the Dean. At the other building, they don't have a scene shop, so they sign bricks in the dressing rooms with the same rules.
At my college, there was a tradition that for each show someone would write a quote from the play with one word replaced with "brick" on the bricks in the men's dressing room bathroom. Last I heard, that tradition was still going strong. Traditions are a good thing, but write your name because you did one show isn't much of a tradition in my opinion.


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## Aman121 (Oct 4, 2012)

The prop and lighting storage room in the Jr High School theatre (its waaayyy out of the way, I doubt any of admin has even been up there) is full of signatures. When people are freshman and move on to the sr high musical, they sometimes sign there names back there. I didnt, I think all of the organized equipment inventories and the properly (more or less) lit stage means allot more than a few words in Sharpie. The Sr. High School is freshly renovated, and there is no signing of walls over there. Their theater is very small and is rarely used for anything other than musicals and plays, so most of the action happens in the Jr High anyway.


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## josh88 (Oct 4, 2012)

My old college theater had the walls of the grid signed all the way back to the 30s. Including some updates after the WW2 where people had gone back up to indicate friends who'd signed but been killed in the war. That was when I realized the vfw post in town was named after one of the guys. It was a neat piece of history.

Edit: apparently I had a similar thought as this back in January. Doh


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## gafftapegreenia (Oct 4, 2012)

In high school we were certainly never allowed to write on the building walls. They used to do that before that part of the school was remodeled (back in the 1990's), but it's long since been ended. However, we certainly wrote all manner of things on the back of flats and set pieces. 

At my college's theatre, there is a secret spot us tech-only students signed. It's a traceable lineage.


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## DaveySimps (Oct 5, 2012)

At an old road house I use to work at, the tours that came through were offered a ceiling tile to decorate. It was really cool to walk the backstage hallways and see all of the artwork and the history of the place.

~Dave


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## kiwitechgirl (Oct 5, 2012)

My old theatre has a "tunnel" which runs under the seating bank and is usually the only way from one side of the stage to the other, depending on the set. Every show is allocated a space on the tunnel wall, and cast and crew all decorate and sign it - some are way more elaborate than others but there's a lot of history there. Sadly, the building, being an old building in Christchurch New Zealand, is currently inaccessible due to earthquake damage - the company has relocated and built a new theatre within an old warehouse - reopened less than a year after the February quake - but we live in hope that one day someone will be able to get back in there and at least photograph the tunnel, if not rescue it by taking the board off the walls. They'd also like to rescue the 40 years' worth of costumes and props which are still in there, and maybe the lights hanging in the grid too...they did get the Ion, the Element and the LS9 (as well as the computer servers) in the ten minutes they were allowed back in...


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## Chris Chapman (Oct 5, 2012)

For each mainstage show my students complete, they sign a portion of the wall in our catwalks in chalk. That way if someone does something inappropriate it can be cleaned off easily. This is our 15th year doing it, and we are roughly 1/2 way around the catwalk. (Out of sightlines of course.) It's neat to see complete crews for shows stretching back in time, and gives the students a nice sense of community and tradition. Especially with siblings. A single student quickly can identify that they are part of something much larger.

Signing the wall is the last thing done at strike, and is an incentive to stay for strike as well.


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## gafftaper (Oct 5, 2012)

The high school I used to teach at had a long tradition of signing the walls and ceiling in the shop and costume storage room. There were names going back to the 60's. One of my students found the section that her dad signed. She did some restorative painting and then added her own name to the same "square" on the wall. When I left that job, my crew "secretly" worked for a week to dedicate the back of a door to me and have everyone sign it. It was a wonderful tradition, but there are a lot of places it wouldn't be acceptable.


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## tyler.martin (Oct 5, 2012)

Our venue has two spaces for signatures, one is in the attic, where the original projectionists signed the ceiling beams from the 1930's-1992, and on the Fly Rail and Loading Rail where our crews have signed since the venue reopened in 1997. Some of the artwork is pretty outstanding for being done with a Sharpie.


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## MarshallPope (Oct 6, 2012)

For venues where signing isn't allowed, maybe a sheet of painted masonite is an option. In my high school, we all signed a luan smiley face hanging in the booth, left over from some show in the distant past. When that theatre was torn down shortly after I graduated, the signature smiley was moved into the new theatre. The roadhouse that I work at allows some of the bigger names that perform there to sign a backstage wall in metallic sharpie. There are names such as Tim Conway and Harvey Korman on the wall, and there is even a framed signed photo hanging there from one of Elvis's concerts there. The college that I graduated from and currently work at doesn't really have a signature tradition, except for the names and dates written in the dust in the grids and catwalks of both theatres.


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## MNicolai (Oct 6, 2012)

chausman said:


> You can always paint over it again later if it gets out of control.



This is a bad idea. Once the tradition has started, stopping it is a huge morale killer.

At my college, you got your name on the wall after you finished all of your practicums, something many people don't finish until just before they graduate. Worlds collided when one girl had just finished her pracs and was ready to climb up the scene shop door to sign her name at the top of the wall with the other names. The same day she was ready to do that, a new TD started at the theatre and handed a can of spray paint to a student, telling him, "Go up there and paint over that graffiti." The girl watched, horrified, because she had just reached the "inner circle". She burst into tears and ran across the arts center to the roadhouse theatre to cry in the other TD's office.

Didn't make it through his first week without alienating an entire department's worth of students, and he didn't stay very long before he was forced to resign for an unrelated matter. Once the sentimental ball gets rolling, best not to stand in its way if you know what's good for you.


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## gafftapegreenia (Oct 6, 2012)

MNicolai knows. I could talk for days about the drama, scandal and politics of what happens when an authority figure decides to break with established sentiments and traditions. These are not decision to be made lightly.


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## JonasA (Oct 7, 2012)

Specifically on this kind of stuff happening in schools/colleges/educational institutions of all sorts:

A lot of people have said that this kind of stuff is an absolute no-no in schools/colleges/educational institutions, but I know that everyone - staff included - is really proud of the pro arch in our Drama Centre. Every year, graduating drama students and the occasional graduating tech sign the back of it in the wings. I guess because it's a really strong tradition, people take it seriously enough to avoid being offensive and stuff, and there's some great art on there because of it. It's often a bit inspirational for the kids, because you can see all the past students - some of whom have gone on to professional theatre - and know that they were once like them. So, all up; positive thing. And I know I'll be adding my name next week before I leave the school.

On the other hand, it's totally forbidden in our auditorium. Probably because it's a more public space and more people use the stage, anything more permanent than tape gets you anything from a stern word to a detention. (This means you, juniors who think it's amusing to draw phallic symbols on the music stands!). And that's fair enough, because it's a public space. If we have shows, people stick up programs and posters and sign them.

So, while I agree that it can be graffiti and rules are rules, sometimes schools are the best places for these things to stay: Inspiration is hard enough to find when you're 16, you're stuck at high school and your parents are cursing you for not wanting to take business studies at college. Let them have their little doodles - the positive ones can mean a lot. (But paint over the phalluses.)


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## bobcatarts (Oct 9, 2012)

MNicolai said:


> Once the tradition has started, stopping it is a huge morale killer.



I hate stopping people from doing things they really love if it's generally harmless. The camaraderie/morale built within a production department is invaluable, and remarkably fragile. I don't want to be put in a position to damage that, so I won't let it start. That just means there needs to be some other way!


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## cpf (Oct 9, 2012)

Another idea I've seen that can be a "safer" alternative than marking up walls is to have a copy of the show's program printed in large format, and let all-concerned do the signing in it. Once complete, laminate & bind. Where I saw this, a whole bunch were "on display" in a binder back stage.


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## ravenfan91 (Oct 11, 2012)

At the high school I work at now, we allow the seniors to sign a part of the wall after their final show. It used to be more out of hand, but we changed it to help keep it under control. Alas, we are running out of space. One of the directors wants to paint over the signatures, but I, perhaps selfishly, do not want to, since this was where I went to high school and my name is up there.


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## JFRHorton (Oct 13, 2012)

When I was in highschool, we had a wall of signatures going back to the 40s, along with scribbled cartoons, poems, and all sorts of other fun stuff. My senior year, I found out they they were going to gut backstage and replace almost everything (it needed it badly). So, half an hour and a sabresaw later, I liberated a piece of history. The best part is that it has Dennis Leary's signature on it.

I think keeping an orderly autograph wall is a great idea. It builds a sense of community and history, which is pretty central to a good working theatre. Most places I've worked have had one.


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## FTKD (Nov 6, 2012)

When I was in high school, we had a couple of bricks designated for each show down in the orchestra pit. We also took a cast photo and all signed the matting around it--it was a nice way to display it in the halls. Now working in a roadhouse, I think that they are very valuable. When we show our space to potential donors, it's nice to take them over and say "this is where B.B. King signed the wall" or whatever that person's favorite artist may be. For anyone who may be starting a new facility, or a signature wall, make sure to ask the artist to date it or do that yourself after they're gone. If you're really diligent it's also nice to keep some documentation about who and where people have signed. Cinder block and sharpie don't always go well together so that helps to remember who's been there.


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## Dreadpoet (Nov 10, 2012)

I'm a huge "fuddy dud" when it comes to this topic. In my estimation, especially in educational theatre, you are teaching students wrong headed ideas if you allow them to put there name on anything other than a playbill. Theatre is temporary at best and all together allusive at worst. We build sets-we break sets....we never keep sets; having people place there name on things is similar...nothing permanent. A right headed approach to theatre is "what's next" not what bush did I tinkle on 10 years ago. It all takes me back to junior high when billy bob and sally sue want to write there name on everything just cause they could.


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## DuckJordan (Nov 11, 2012)

I'd agree but I know of several Pro venues that ask performers and crew to sign the walls that they've performed in.


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## josh88 (Nov 12, 2012)

Dreadpoet actually reminded me of something. I'm actually fairly used to saving sets. Packing it all up and saving it for another performance in the future or for moving it to a summer stock theatre. One example is Christmas carol. Without fail my old university would do it every two years or so. Always with the same set, so it had collected all the casts over the years on the upstage sides. That was kind of a nice perspective.


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## techietim (Nov 25, 2012)

We have a wall near our DSM/ASM Desk that people are welcome to sign for each show - other than that no-ones ever written elsewhere....to my knowledge!!


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## Dovahkiin (Dec 24, 2012)

At my High School, seniors get to sign/write a quote on a small wall in the room where we store our props and they get to scratch their name and year into the paint of a vent going down into one of the tool rooms. When four year members graduate, they get to paint a brick in the paint room. Up in the booth behind all of the sound equipment is a little space that only the sound and lighting techs usually know about. They sign their names and the musical/UIL One Act that they worked on. That's the one I really care about.


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## JonCarter (Dec 24, 2012)

When I was on the Jr. High crew we signed the ceiling of the scene shop/trap room. In High School we signed the proscenium wall someplace--I picked above the grid. (Everybody wanted to sign next to Eleanor Parker down at floor level--very crowded!) This was in the late '50s--both buildings (built in the '20s and '30s) are gone now. Does it matter?

JC


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## len (Dec 25, 2012)

I like seeing names on the walls, etc. It reminds me of the talent that has come before. Knowing you were lighting the same stage where the famous, the soon to be famous, and the unknown but deserved to be famous played keeps things in perspective. 

But a school is a different thing. Something permanent but not part of the building would be more appropriate.


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