Term of the Days: big-hair musicals

big-hair musicals-- big, epic musicals from the 1980's, like "Cats," "Les Misrables" and "Phantom of the Opera."

Term of the Day: "Once more, with feeling."

"Once more, with feeling"-- something to say, when doing a repetitive, boring or sometimes brutal task. Parody of old voice-coach directions. "As the stage manager had the prop person reset the file cabinet over and over during tech, another propman muttered, "Once more, with feeling."

Term of the Day: ticket back to the replacement room

ticket back to the replacement room-- when a stagehand burns his or her own bridges with a head. "The rude young extra man punched his own ticket back to the replacement room during the load-in. He would have to shape the union hall for work."

Term of the Day: "no church"

"no church"--this project is not fine carpentry, just put up something that works. "When I told the tech I was going to hire Bill, a cabinetmaker, to fix up the dressing rooms, the tech narrowed his eyes and said, "Tell Bill, 'no church,'"meaning that he was not building fine cabinetry for a church, just shelves for a dressing room.

Term of the Day: go to the forks

go to the forks--to drive a forklift, to work driving a forklift. "I can't work for you on Monday. I am going to the forks at another venue."

Overheard Stagehand Dialogue #34: a kiss-ass and a backstabber

Stagehand 1: Do you know that young, annoying contract propman?

Stagehand 2: Him? Yeah. Be careful. He is both a kiss-ass AND a backstabber. You have to watch your ass and your back at the same time.