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.'"

Expression of the Night: "Hostile work environments are like toxic mold"

"Hostile work environments are like toxic mold, very hard to get rid of. Even when the heads change, the abusive environment and traditions in certain theaters remain."