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Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

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#1

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/16/10 at 12:24pm

hi,

so i'm pretty new to the city and going to a broadway show is a very big deal to me. i finally get to see the shows i've been listening to for years. i've seen wicked before, but this is my first time to see it on broadway.

i'm watching the show and loving it and then at the point where the monkeys come out flying, i see a guy in, i kid you not, a white t-shirt and jeans standing on a ledge house right about a third of the way into the audience. i don't know how your eye couldn't go to him in a dark theater and i'm thinking "what is this guy doing standing there in full view during a performance?" he's there for quite a while and it's not clear why, but it's really not clear why he's wearing a WHITE T-SHIRT. my friends all said their eyes went right to him when he walked out.

it turns out that he's a stagehand who helps one of the monkeys get flown in over the audience. still, i cant believe that he's standing there in street clothes. even in my podunk theater, all the stagehands wore black so as not to disturb the performance. how is this guy, who is working on broadway able to wear somehthing so distracting? is there no dress code for broadway stagehands? this wasn't a sightline issue. if i'm sitting house right and i can see him, then everyone center and house left can see him too. he was a good 2 feet out from the black scrim. i'm not attacking all stagehands, but it really seemed so unprofessional, like this guy couldn't care less. or at least not enough to wear black for the benefit of the paying audience.
#4

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/16/10 at 12:38pm

The white t-shirt is new two me... but I've seen the guy before, along with the guy who stands by the edge of the stage left wing for ten minutes waiting to collect Glinda's shoe rack after Popular, the one walking around with the flash light during the Cornfield scene, and the one with his feet hanging over the side staircase working the stage spot for the opening.

All these have happened just about every time I have seen the show, they really should do something about it.
2008: Feb. 18- Rent, Feb. 19- Curtains, April 18- Xanadu, April 22- Wicked, April 26- Legally Blonde, May 31- Wicked, June 13- The Little Mermaid, June 28- Wicked and Young Frankenstein, July 2- The Little Mermaid, July 6- A Chorus Line and Legally Blonde, August 16- Xanadu, September 13- Legally Blonde and 13, September 28- Xanadu and Spring Awakening, Oct. 12-GYPSY and [title of show], Oct. 19- Hairspray & Legally Blonde, Nov. 9- Wicked and 13, Dec. 14-13, Dec. 26- Billy Elliot, 2009: Jan 1- Shrek, Jan 2- 13 and Wicked, Jan 4- 13, Feb 17- In The Heights, Feb 19- Billy Elliot, Feb 22- Sweeney Todd (tour), March 28- Mary Poppins, April 4- Mamma Mia!, April 15- Jersey Boys (on tour), April 25- next to normal & 9 to 5 May 1- Billy Elliot, May 3- Spelling Bee (tour), May 8- Chicago, May 21- Wicked, June 6- Everyday Rapture, June 23- The Wiz, June 25- Hair July 15- Shrek, August 9- Wicked, September 7- Rock of Ages, October 11- Next To Normal, October 23- The Marvelous Wonderettes, November 7- Ragtime November 29- Dreamgirls, December 25- Billy Elliot, December 30- Finian's Rainbow, 2010: January 9- Bye Bye Birdie, January 16- Memphis February 17- The Phantom of The Opera, February 18- God of Carnage, March 7- Billy Elliot, March 31- American Idiot
#5

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/16/10 at 12:43pm

Well, no, there isn't a "dress code" per se, but stagehands who work backstage (actually, usually even FOH) wear blacks. I don't know about this particular situation, but maybe the guy was a last-minute sub, though you'd think there would be at least a black "T" somewhere he could borrow. He may not have realized how exposed he was - or maybe, because it's been running so long, they've gotten lax.

What you describe is not a common situation.
#7

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/16/10 at 1:41pm

White is better than red. One time I saw the Wicked on broadway and one of the men handling the spotlights on the side of the stage was wearing a bright red t-shirt. It was distracting against all of the dark colors that the set is.
#9

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/16/10 at 1:49pm

"Well, it's not common that the audience will see the stagehands, but it is common that they don't always wear black."

Let me rephrase, then. When it is likely that a stagehand can be seen by the audience, they wear black - that's always been a hard and fast rule for any Broadway show I've ever worked for. In the rare case of some shows where they are definitely going to be seen, they can actually be required to wear costumes to fit in. This happened a few years ago at the Vivian Beaumont, though I forget what the show was.

And no, it is never okay to wear a white shirt if you are likely to be seen.
#10

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/16/10 at 4:47pm

maybe his black shirts were dirty?
"I never had theatre producers run after me. Some people want to make more Broadway shows out of movies. But Elliot and I aren't going to do Batman: The Musical." - Julie Taymor 1999
#13

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/16/10 at 5:59pm

When I saw Young Frankenstein, one of the stagehands behind one of the laboratory set pieces was wearing a blue shirt and jeans.
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
#14

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/16/10 at 7:14pm

It drives me bonkers every time I see this in Broadway shows, which happens entirely too often. Its a pretty hard and fast rule in every theatre I've ever worked in, professional or not, that crew wears black. SOMETIMES you can get away with really really dark wash jeans or chucks, but I've seen crew get crap from other crew members for trying to pass with like navy and dark grey.
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#15

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/16/10 at 7:35pm

Someone mentioned stagehands on stage in costume at the Vivian Beaumont. South Pacific currently does this -- there are stagehands in sailor costumes who help to move some of the set.

My worst example of stagehands dressed distractingly was at the recent revival of Guys and Dolls, where a stagehand was wearing a royal blue and white basketball jersey and denim shorts, also with plenty of tattoos on his exposed shoulders and arms. Since Guys and Dolls is a period piece, it took me right out of the show. And I was sitting on the inside aisle of the side orchestra, so, although he was technically in the wings, a lot of the audience could see him.


"What was the name of that cheese that I like?" "you can't run away forever...but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start" "well I hope and I pray, that maybe someday, you'll walk in the room with my heart"
#17

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/17/10 at 3:12pm

so if it has obviously has happened many more times than just the day i saw the show, why are they allowed to do that? i mean, is the stage manager in charge of enforcing things like that? and is there anyone from iatse on this board who can verify that stagehands can wear whatever they want during a performance no matter how distracting? cause it really makes it look like those people just don't care.

and the thing is, i know that there are a lot of stagehands working hard on that show to make it run smoothly and safely so if i were one of them, i'd be mad that my co-worker showed such disrespect to all the effort everyone else is putting in to make a broadway experience a broadway experience.
#18

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/17/10 at 4:18pm

>>Just guessing, but maybe he was in white so he could be seen by "the monkeys"?
^^^^ this is what I was thinking as I was reading.
I will look for him when I see the show.
"Forget regret or life is yours to miss."
#19

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/17/10 at 4:29pm

Stagehands working the show are required to wear show blacks. Period. It's entirely possible that it was a last minute replacement who didn't have their blacks with them. There are exceptions. For example, RENT wanted their stagehands not to wear blacks because they wanted them to be part of the set.
#20

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/17/10 at 6:44pm

I hate when people come to a show and put there hands in the light.how about when they put there jackets on the stage no class.By the way I hear that some shows are going to start having the stagehands once a week dress in Hawaiian shirts.I think that would be cool. If your not working on any of the shows or a stage hand you shouldn't comment on what they are wearing.
#23

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/17/10 at 7:25pm

I remember a stagehand standing backstage with Sarabi when I saw Lion King.
Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you. --Cartman: South Park ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."
#25

Can someone explain how this is ok? stagehand at Wicked

Posted: 2/17/10 at 7:48pm

White Shirt, I also hate when people treat the stage like a shelf for their things (my friends in ROA have absolute horror stories about the disrespect the have encountered with drinks, jackets, feet all put on the stage).

That said, two wrongs don't make a right and the notion that dress codes are nobodies business but ours is dead wrong. If they can see it, it affects them. I'm not commenting on anybody at Wicked because I don't work there and I don't know what goes down. But in general, any crew that can possibly be seen by the audience should be in black or dressed to the unique requirements of the show. We all have an obligation to be professional and limit anything that takes away from the audience's experience of the story. And don't think I haven't caught myself joking around a little too much onstage which is just as bad.
If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them. - Ethel Merman

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