Term of the Day: to Lady MacBeth someone

 to Lady MacBeth someone--to undo another person through plotting and personal attacks on their character.

Term of the Night: sled dog

sled dog--a stagehand who works furiously, without complaint or question. Will carry any heavy thing offered to him/her and does tasks quickly and well. See also: a working animal.

Term of the Day: work scared

work scared--when long-time stagehands at a venue fear for their jobs, and as a result are hostile to new or younger stagehands that come in.

Expression of the Day: stomping on thin ice

stomping on thin ice--when a stagehand is doing his/her best to destroy himself/herself. Possibility of building on previous self-destructive behaviors. "You are stomping on  thin ice. You've already gone in once. Do you want to go in again?"

Overheard Stagehand Dialogue #49: "It's like eating dinner with a serial killer"

Stagehand #1: "Why aren't you friendly with that tech?"

Stagehand #2: "It's like eating dinner with a serial killer. Nothing good is going to come of it."

Expression of the Day: "That stagehand? Two stars on Yelp."

"That stagehand? Two stars on Yelp."--When you hire an inept stagehand, it would be great to warn other heads not to hire him/her. "In the crunch of the load-in season, I hired a TV commando in the second year of her card time, struggling to break into Broadway. With virtually no experience, she tried to order experienced stagehands around and threw a tantrum when 'wash up time' came around and she was still working. She was slow, had few skills and complained about the many stairs that our archaic Broadway theaters have. I would never hire her again. 'That stagehand? Two stars on Yelp.'"