Old Term of the Day: the shape up

the shape up--when job seekers show up in the minutes before a load in or loadout starts, hoping to be put on because someone doesn't show. In Local #1, shape ups are uncommon now because in the last decade, most last-minute labor needs have been put through the replacement room. Again, a shape up is a term borrowed from the longshoremen. Twenty years ago, there would be three or four stagehands outside the loading door shaping on the first day of a big load in. That would be the shape up.