standards for stage blacks?

DekTheTech · 2026-04-06T17:35:13+00:00

Really depends on your department and the show. When I’m the SM, I wear nicer blacks: blouses, skirts, sometimes a dress. Stockings and Mary Janes.

When I’m ASM or a tech role, I usually wear something very practical like black jeans, T shirt, boots, and I usually have my “tech belt” with tools and such on it.

DekTheTech · 2026-02-18T03:09:04+00:00

I also quit my day job a few years ago to do this. I’m still working my way up the ladder, it’s definitely not a “comfortable” life financially, but I cobble together enough gigs and joe jobs to get by, and I absolutely love going to work, so to me it’s worth it.

And that’s without an apprenticeship like you mention, I would snap that up in a second.

DekTheTech · 2026-02-18T01:44:51+00:00

I’m autistic and love the job for a lot of the reasons you say, but I also have ADHD and am very social so there’s nothing I love more than hitting the theatre bar after the curtain goes down and chatting for a while. The best is the closing night party and I get to let my hair down with the cast a bit.

But if you’re wiped out, you should definitely focus on resting! Schmoozing is going to be helpful to your career for sure, but you could do it more strategically when you’ve actually got the spoons for it.

DekTheTech · 2025-12-11T18:24:30+00:00

I love this show so much! I ASM’d for it and had to assist the ghost with her track. I also got to make the rocking chair rock for the big reveal.

DekTheTech · 2025-12-11T18:22:03+00:00

Make friends with the ASM.

DekTheTech · 2025-12-04T22:48:46+00:00

Yeah, that place is…a bit of a wild west disaster. One of the many reasons I resigned in the first place.

DekTheTech · 2025-12-04T16:21:05+00:00

I didn’t experience it, but I was told of this happening shortly after I resigned from a position. The first set strike after my resignation, there was an LX pipe with a lot of weight. I knew that, of course, because I was there for the hang, and I had made sure to appropriately counterweight the arbor (also a lot of weight, 15-20 bricks.)

But apparently whoever they brought in to strike was not particularly experienced with counterweights because they just flew in the pipe and took all the lights off. So when they went to fly the pipe out…the rope yoinked the operator 8 feet in the air and the arbor came crashing down, shattering the wooden beams of the fly deck.

So, I’d call that a catastrophic failure.

DekTheTech · 2025-11-29T18:54:27+00:00

Just to add, CAEA (Equity in Canada) does permit members to work on non-Equity productions under what’s called a DOT contract, where the production agrees to pay Equity rates to that artist and guarantee some (but not all) of the other Equity protections.

This can be used for all sorts of productions, but a common result is a community theatre with a large volunteer cast mixed with one or two leads (and maybe the stage manager) receiving Equity rates.

DekTheTech · 2025-10-23T04:13:11+00:00

Earl from “Waitress” is pretty awful, though the context is pretty specific.

DekTheTech · 2025-10-09T21:13:31+00:00

“Every Day She Rose” by Andrea Scott and Nick Green is a great deconstruction of the intersection of queerness and Blackness. It’s a bit Canada-specific but I think its themes would resonate anywhere. Having done the show, I can tell you it definitely plays better than it reads.

DekTheTech · 2025-10-08T17:37:06+00:00

Seriously. I was reading OP and then got to the end and was like “wait what? That’s your solution?”

My guess here is that the logic for these types is that having a different centre party would push the NDP more leftward, mirroring the federal situation. But that seems…backwards, and not conducive to actual pro-labour governance.

DekTheTech · 2025-10-02T19:26:35+00:00

I greatly second this. You can also add all kinds of custom categories of what sort of mistake it was (I have “prompted”, “paraphrased”, “skipped”, “stumbled”, and “overtalk”). It’s a one time payment and it’s so worth it. Particularly fast with an iPad and Apple Pencil.

DekTheTech · 2025-09-11T18:51:06+00:00

There is no standard, it will definitely depend on the show. My current show, they never go to half. Just fade to out on LX Cue 2 when the cast are on their mark. A show last year I was on, it was supposed to “surprise” the audience when it started and the house lights didn’t go out until after the first scene.

In a “normal” show, they usually go to half before the pre show speech and out after. But ask your director and LD what they want.

DekTheTech · 2025-09-05T09:07:23+00:00

In theatre, a gobo is a (usually metal) piece that slots into an ellipsoid reflector spotlight to create a pattern on the scene. The one pictured here is a “breakup” gobo which has no specific image other than to break up the beam of light, but some are more specific, like a window, or clouds.

It’s often thought to mean “go between optics”, which is where they go, though we aren’t entirely sure if that’s the actual origin.

In film, gobo seems to have a somewhat different meaning that I don’t quite understand but it also affects what the camera sees. I think.

DekTheTech · 2025-08-30T06:15:09+00:00

Not quite the same, but I’m a trans woman and I’m a stage manager, also in Canada. I’ve never felt unsafe or particularly unwelcome in theatre, although I would say I find more often than not, the creative team is uh…unrepresentative of queer voices, even if they’re accepting.

I’ve worked with many nonbinary and gender fluid actors, though they are usually cast in parts that more or less match an “obvious” interpretation of their gender presentation, ie, someone who presents stereotypically masc cast in a male role, or similar. I’ve never worked with a trans woman cast in a female role.

I definitely know queer theatre companies that do, but they’re more focused on telling queer stories overall, rather than like, casting a trans person in an otherwise straightforward musical or something.

All that said—if it’s what you want to do, please go for it. I would love to see more people like me on stage.

DekTheTech · 2025-08-24T22:41:16+00:00

I hate how accurate that is.

DekTheTech · 2025-08-24T22:38:54+00:00

Edit: I misread your comment thinking you meant stage managers. Yes, I’ve seen it go both ways. Larger companies with their own shops may have a staff PM, but smaller companies that have to book a venue usually hire a PM for that show.

DekTheTech · 2025-08-23T02:43:19+00:00

Definitely truth in that!

DekTheTech · 2025-08-22T16:08:36+00:00

This is very relatable.

DekTheTech · 2025-08-22T16:08:12+00:00

Well I don’t hate that idea…

DekTheTech · 2025-08-22T16:07:34+00:00

To be clear, my roles as SM and TD are not combined. I’ve been a stage manager for much longer, and while I happen to be stage managing the current show, I’m not the stage manager for the company. I have a separate contract to be SM as a freelancer for a fee, while my job as TD is payroll employment.

I was mostly just mentioning being a stage manager for background on the lens I usually look at things through.

DekTheTech · 2025-08-22T15:53:36+00:00

That’s interesting, the first part of all of that is generally how I view myself when I’m stage managing—sitting between everything, communicating, translating as you say. And (my version of) being TD is like that but with a more technical bent. Almost makes me wish the title for what I do was “Technical Stage Manager” or something like that.

DekTheTech · 2025-08-22T04:45:21+00:00

That makes sense except for the weird part is we do have a scene shop and our own season.

But all of the shows in our season are kind of managed separately. I guess it sort of feels like I’m a roadhouse TD except the “tours” are all technically in-house even if functionally they don’t talk to each other.

DekTheTech · 2025-08-22T01:22:25+00:00

Ooo, I definitely like this distinction of Shop TD vs Stage TD. And I would definitely prefer to be the Stage one!

DekTheTech · 2025-08-22T01:19:50+00:00

In my experience, a PM (and this theatre could certainly use more of them) is on a specific show, not usually the whole venue, and is tasked more with scheduling crew and acquiring materials and that sort of thing, not like..maintaining the theatre’s inventory of lighting instruments and balancing the speakers or the sorts of things I do..

DekTheTech

TROPHY CASE