Go Team Followspot

Just finished teching for a show over the weekend. Let me just say, as a fair to middling member of stage crew as far as overall commitment is concerned, I seem to have a flair for followspotting (spotlighting for you Yanks). I would much rather have been doing stage crew things than a paper but the paper must get done before Friday and unfortunately no one volunteered to write my paper for me in exchange for stage crew duties.

I've also noticed that although the general idea is that the cast and set crew will cooperate, it's not usually so. Actors tend to be the WHAAAA! I'm an ACTOR! LALALALA BOING! type, while the crew looks on with raised eyebrows. At least that was the vibe I got as crew and cast (though the latter not voluntarily) attempted to move giant pieces of set from the workshop to the theatre.

I also got to dress all in black (though in London that's not so unusual) and wear a headset. Followspotting is deceptive; I'm not so high up on the stage crew totem pole but wearing a headset seems like a badge of some importance. On the other hand, the whole audience witnesses my random hand twitches magnified about fifty times so perhaps I have more power over the outcome of the performance than stage crew thinks. Bwahahaa.

posted by limeywannabe @ 5:48 PM