Term of the moment: the Great Land Grab

the Great Land Grab--when the different departments during a load in grab different areas of the basement or other available places of the theater to store their road boxes, put chairs and tables, as well as to make sleeping berths. As a rule, wardrobe tends to grab most of the basement, the heads tend to have their own offices and the stagehands who work for the theater might have a crew room. The remaining space is usually divvied up among the contract stagehands, who work for the show. Often, the stagehand working the hardest, like the contract carpenter, will get screwed out of marking out space because he or she is trapped on deck during much of the production period while the choice spaces are being grabbed.