Follow directions!!!  If you have an issue, discuss it with the Stage Manager if the director has left.

 I hardly ever worry about the feelings of the performers position, in the pecking order!
What is more important is the mise en scene  & that of the production.
Even with the programme cast list, I have them in order of appearance & alphabetically in the role names, if there is more than one that first appears at the same time.
On posters or programme covers  I won?t have the Director or single out any ones name to be put on, except for the name of the Author & Rights courtesies.
Having said that there is a poster on our website, which I didn?t authorise, from our first show which has names

Originally posted by POB14 Anyway, it's better than going out into the lobby IN COSTUME and getting your accolades that way.? Ugh.

ugh is right.

I HATE it when community theatres and/or high schools do that.
It's sooooooooo tacky and 'pleading for compliments.'

I guess I slightly disagree with the previous comments on having the actors in the lobby after the show. For me personally, I could do without it. However, there are other dynamics involved at the community/high school theatre level.
 
   A sizeable fraction of the audience is there to see person X in a show, and may not have come to the show otherwise. Likewise, there is typically a fraction of your actors that are very new to theatre, and actually making the long road from audition to curtain call is a big accomplishment for them. Sometimes it is _the_ accomplishment, a checkmark on their life list of things they've always wanted to do. It's a good thing to stand out there with them, and let them receive their personal accolades from family and friends, while they're still "in the moment". Yes, you get to stand around for a few awkward minutes, sweating in a musty costume, and hear X's aunt tell you, "Oh! Um, you were good too! You were all good! This was really neat!" I just consider it part of supporting other members of the cast.
 
   As far as curtain calls; I think they are necessary, but should be short and sweet. There's a couple of standard formats, use one, and be quick about it. An actor who feels slighted about not getting his/her "bowing time," or feels that someone else got more, doesn't quite get it. The actor who is receiving applause is receiving it on behalf of everyone who made them look good. They looked good only partly because of their own talent. The rest was the interaction of everyone he/she was on stage with, the costumes, the makeup, the lighting & FX, even the fact that the SM shoved them on stage at the right time. An audience applauds these things, even if they don't realize that they're doing so.
 
   I agree with Shatcher's comment about having the tech crew take a bow. That's about as pointless as parading the props on stage for the audience to applaud for. I've never gone to watch a show because of the furniture pushers. The best compliment an audience can give to tech is to forget that they were even there. If the backstage crew has helped to make the audience suspend their disbelief for a few brief hours, they have done a marvelous thing. That applause that they hear during curtain call is part of something that they have done. That final approval of a show is the pride of a show well done that everyone offstage takes home with them that night.

Just my 2?,

-Tom

Ahhhh Curtain Calls.

I was always taught by my acting coach to behave myself during curtain calls. He was always very clear on how to bow, and be appreciative of the audience.

I was in a show once in which the whole cast danced around and acted like fools during the curtain call, much to the delight of the director. If you can't beat them join them I guess. But its the director's call.

Personally, I like to keep my curtain calls short, sweet and polite to the audience.

I don't have a problem with community theatres doing receiving lines, although it is very awkward if the show really stinks. I just tell everyone congratulations. A lot of theatres I've been to recently have small cast meet & greets afterwards. Not really a receiving line, but the cast can come gather in the lobby or receiving area in or out of costume and chat with patrons. Its much less formal than a line of people to walk past when you are on your way out.