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Mr. Lowell
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bullet Topic: A Cast Party, by any other name...
    Posted: 3/26/07 at 1:02am
What do you call your Cast Parties?
 
I sometimes get the feeling that the term "Cast Party" slightly alienates a few sensitive members of the technical crew, the orchestra, the house crew, and other non-actors.  Cry
  • But "Company Party" just doesn't have the same ring to it.  Sounds sorta' like a "Staff Party" at work.  What a drag.
  • I guess our party after strike could be called a "Strike Party"...but would the uninitiated think we are protesting something?! 
  • In the film industry they have a "Wrap Party".  (Not to be confused with a "Rap Party", which might involve a karaoke machine!) 
Or what?
 
It would be fun and interesting to hear what other theatre companies call their end-of-run celebration.  
 
Thanks, Dana
 
Mr. Lowell,
Lighting/Set Designer & Tech Director,
for the Linda Sloan Theatre,
in the Davison Center for the Arts,
at Greensboro Day School
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Theatrestation
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bullet Posted: 3/26/07 at 3:15am
I think the attitude of the director really sets the tone of how everyone feels about the "cast party." If everyone is made to feel valued during rehearsals and production there doesn't seem to be a question that the "cast party" includes everyone involved in the production.
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Mr. Lowell
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bullet Posted: 3/26/07 at 11:22am
That is an outstanding sentiment.   Thanks.
 
And in our case, that's the way it had been for 20 years.  But what brought up the issue was that a couple stagehands decided not to attend the party yesterday.  They were feeling unappreciated by the lead actors during the run, and felt like skipping the party to do their own thing.   I hate to see clique-ishness...so I will make a point to foster better cast and crew friendship next season.   -Dana
Mr. Lowell,
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for the Linda Sloan Theatre,
in the Davison Center for the Arts,
at Greensboro Day School
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GoldCanyonLady
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bullet Posted: 3/26/07 at 11:22am
We call it a PRODUCTION PARTY and that includes everyone from Ticket sellers to actors. But quite frankly few of the others except back stage helpers ever show up. Unless they are there for the closing performance, they don't come just for the party.
Barb
Barb Hofmeister,
MountainBrook Village Players, Gold Canyon, Arizona.
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theatrejunki
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bullet Posted: 3/26/07 at 12:22pm
I think Theatrestation has made an excellent observation. As a director for a small CT I make it a point to encourage a respectful and friendly relationship between cast and crew which usually results in a very harmonious production. When we have a cast party everyone is invited, often attends and feels welcome.
 
On the other hand,  I just finished as SM for a big name director in our area who treated my running and tech crew with little or no respect which was reflected in the cast's poor attitude toward them as well. These kids worked thier tails off and got nothing but my thanks in return. In addition, the theatre gave all the cast members a small gift in appreciation for thier hard work and the crew was given nothing.  
 
After this expericence I personally will work even harder to show my respect, admiration, and gratitude to all the crew of my shows. 
Theatre is like a virus, once you get it you can't get rid of it." Robin Boisseau
Jennifer Dove
Stage Left Theatre Company
Medina, Ohio
www.stagelefttheatrecompany.org
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B-M-D
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bullet Posted: 3/26/07 at 1:06pm
Originally posted by Mr. Lowell

What do you call your Cast Parties?
 
I sometimes get the feeling that the term "Cast Party" slightly alienates a few sensitive members of the technical crew, the orchestra, the house crew, and other non-actors.  Cry
 
Oh come on, aren't we being just a bit too "politically correct" here.   Who gives a sh*t what you call it.   Everyone involved with the production knows that everyone is invited to these things.   And anyone who's ever so precious sensibilities are offended or alientated by what the darn thing happens to be called is probably a miserable human being to be around anyway.    Please, just go to the party, eat, have fun and don't go home until the wee hours of the morning.
BD

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bullet Posted: 3/26/07 at 5:12pm
Regardless of what the party is called, the way the crew is treated by the director and other "higher ups" will dictate how they feel about attending any production related parties.
 
You can call it "Santa Claus and Warm Fuzzy Party" but if the production process is unappericative of all those working on a show cast OR crew, then no one will want to come any party and odds are they will think twice before volunteering for a director/organization again.
 
BTW we call our events "Cast/Crew Party" and they always happen the same night of the run (second Friday, that way no one is hung over for a Sunday matinee Wink)
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bullet Posted: 3/26/07 at 10:54pm

I really had to pause about this discussion.  Although I felt that B-M-D’s response was a bit harsh, I understand it and, at one time, shared it.  As a tech-friendly manager and director, it just pressed my buttons once too often to hear the Rodney Dangerfield shtick from crew members.  It is amazing what I have learned since I have left the creative side of the theatre!  And one of them is that old saying, “you can argue facts, but you can’t argue perceptions”.  If there is a generally accepted perception of disrespect amongst a theatre’s technical artists, then there is a problem that has to do with the entire theatre. 

I do think it relates back to the discussion topic of saying thank you.  But I also think there are ways to insulate a specific production from the general dynamics of an entire organization and the buffer is the director.  The director can and must set the tone and must go out of the way to reinforce in any and every way possible a production atmosphere of mutual respect and interaction.  There was one director who the theatre no longer invited to direct because he was known to be so antagonistic toward his tech crews that he couldn’t find technical artists to work on his shows! 

In my opinion, this is such an important issue that if I had a(n) actor(s) or other production team members who sabotaged the expectation of mutual respect, the first step would be a one-on-one discussion about it with a warning.  If it continued, I would replace the offending individual.  That’s right.  You can fire a volunteer! 

But I’m on the verge of a divergent tangent, so I’ll get back on track, here.  In one theatre I was at, the V.P. of Production (the title given to the volunteer who was roughly equivalent to the theatre’s Tech Director) set a terrific precedent when he first assumed his role and kept it up for the entire time he filled the position.  He along with the show’s tech crew threw an opening night party in the theatre’s shop after the show.  The tech crew foot the bill for everything, brought all the food and refreshments, made the shop “party-safe” and decorated the shop.  These parties became so much fun that everyone looked forward to them.  They even helped to sell opening night tickets because people wanted to come to the “shop party”.  Because he did this throughout his tenure, I thought this would establish itself as a “tradition” and would continue after he stepped down from the position.  Unfortunately, it did not.  However, it seemed to me that during that period of time – almost two years – there was a rather interesting drop in the “nobody loves me” perception.  I left the area shortly after this, so I can’t say if it had a lasting effect, but I always thought it was a great idea. 

The lesson:  maybe they give us costumes, props, a set, sound, and lights, but when the theatre’s technical artists give us some food and a beer, we sit up and take notice! 

"Security is a kind of death." - Tennessee Williams
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bullet Posted: 3/27/07 at 12:46am
OK, ready for another one of my long-winded stories? I'm sure it will take me a while to get to the point (that heavy sigh you just heard was Mike), but I promise this will eventually be about cast parties.
 
Years ago, we had a director who'd been a vital and important part of our theater's early years, but who had not been actively involved for a long time; she was on the board for ages, and after that assumed a sort of emiritus position, but she was no longer involved in productions. The bug bit once more, though, and she asked to come back and direct again, and of course the board said yes.
 
Unfortunately, she didn't understand that some major changes had occurred while she'd been out of the loop, which shows how little you really know about a theater group if you confine your activities to the front of the house. During her inactive years, we'd attracted a sizeable group of talented young whippersnappers; none of them had any idea who she was, and she was in the same boat. Some of those, including myself, wanted to direct, and eventually we put together a training program to expand our pool of directors. Because we believe a director needs to understand what's possible in our theater before they ask their crew to deliver it for them, and to make sure that they're serious about working with and learning from us, the board required that aspiring directors, including people who've directed elsewhere, work backstage, in the light booth, and in other jobs before allowing them to assist an experienced director, and eventually direct.  We found this not only produced directors who stayed on, like me, but also gave us actors who were great stage managers, lighting techs who loved being on stage, and other strange combinations that gave us a lot more choices when putting together a show.
 
Because of this talent pool and the way we train, we have "a partnership of equals," with many members easily and frequently switching hats from actor to director to crew. We've learned from experience that in every theater job, the glue that holds us together is a combination of hard work, respect for the audience and each other, and a sense of fun. The "actors vs. crew" attitude can't survive in that kind of atmosphere, and neither can the animosity and bickering that tear some groups apart. I firmly believe that all of that hard work, respect and most of all, fun, should be properly celebrated with a raucous cast party every chance you get. It just makes the glue stick tighter.
 
But our Comeback Director came from a different place entirely. She'd worked with us when the group was new and in the hands of one director with a powerful personality and an iron fist. From the stories I've heard about Sug (as in "Sugar" -- she was anything but), she was talented, egotistical and struck fear into the hearts of hale and hearty men. I only saw her a couple of times; by then she was in a wheelchair and on oxygen from her years as a chainsmoker, but meeting her for the first time was still like being presented to the Queen of England, and probably just as terrifying. The hallmarks of her reign were public humiliation for anyone who screwed up, and threatening to cancel the show during tech week because it wasn't ready to open (she made that threat for every single show she directed). I think some people are still scared of her, even though she's been dead ten years.
 
Comeback Director didn't realize things had changed and came in with her diploma from The Terrifying Dictator School of Directing signed by Sug.  Needless to say, it was not a happy production, and I thanked my lucky stars I wasn't involved. Where she really blew it, though, was with the cast party. (There! TOLD you I'd get to it!)
 
Like I said, socializing is an important part of the glue that keeps a group together -- in fact, we used to go out for a drink after almost every rehearsal in our younger days, which is hard for me to believe now. We're a group that holds a cast party after every show -- I'm not talking about one cast party for every show, I mean six nights, six cast parties. We used to have a party after Sunday matinees, too, until we eventually had to admit that was too much even for us and stopped doing that some years prior to this story taking place. Parties are usually at someone's house, "BYOB and bring something to share," although with smaller shows (and older cast members), we sometimes go out to a restaurant or bar together after the Friday night shows now.
 
Comeback Director ignored this tradition -- maybe she preferred her cast and crew to go home and get a good night's rest instead of partying, or maybe she just wasn't aware of what our cast parties mean to us. But there was only going to be One Cast Party, a beef and beer party at her house. It was going to be held after the Sunday matinee, the one show that nobody wanted to party after. As a final gesture of magnanimity, she was going to pay for the party with the $75 that our board gives every director to help out with cast and crew gifts to commemorate the show. It was her way of thanking everyone.
 
Closing Friday, cast and crew started to show up at the theater. "So how was the party?" "I don't know, I didn't go." "Oh. Neither did I." As more people arrived and were asked whether they'd been to the party, the realization eventually dawned -- not one person had shown up on Sunday. Nobody had planned it, there hadn't been a boycott, and they were all rather horrified about it, but there it was. I'm not sure what the atmosphere was like for those last two shows, but I'm awfully glad I wasn't there.
 
I don't know exactly why that cast and crew didn't just get together on their own, but I imagine it had everything to do with a director who used the power of fear and shame to get what she wanted rather than the power of bonding. That was the last time Comeback Director came back, and I believe there's only one cast member from that production still with us.  The show was good for the audience, but not for the cast and crew; in the world of community theater, that's not a successful show.
 
A director plays a very important role in getting all the elements of a production to stick together, and this one didn't use the right stuff. She might have been forgiven or at least tolerated for her style, but she crossed the line with the cast party. Cast parties, no matter what you call them, are important. To my chagrin, I've started skipping them from time to time, and I don't stay as long as I used to -- it's been a good long while since I watched the sun rise in the company of the best friends I've ever had in my life, at the end of a night that was a blur of dancing, talking, off-key singing and rock and roll oldies, and with a belly sore from hours of laughing. But I will always be there for the first and the last one, and as many as I can stay awake for in between, even if at some point I'm reduced to Putting In An Appearance like Sug in her wheelchair.
 
And for that next generation of Young Whippersnappers that we're grooming to take our places, this advice: Party loud. Party often. Don't worry about what to call it, just do it. Celebrate the wonderful thing you've accomplished with everyone who made it happen. You won't regret it.
Chris Polo
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bullet Posted: 3/27/07 at 12:13pm
gee if I tell people the booze is free they all show up anyway! As to the whole respect your techies thing, I think folks forget that the actors get praise form the house every night, the director gets kudos if the show is good. For most techies if the punters can even see what we do that means we did not do it right, We can leave the theatre and noone will even know we worked on the show. We take no bow and get no public pat on the back as it were. The only thanks we get is from our fellow company members, and yes we can get a little bent out of shape when we don't get it. As actors wouldn't you be uspet if the crowd just sat there after the show silent? Thats what I thought...
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