Term of the Day: cleaning house

cleaning house--after regime change, a new head may clean house of the old head's hires, bringing new people in.

Term of the Day: read the writing on the wall

read the writing on the wall--to determine that something big is happening, that the show is closing, that you are about to be pushed out.

Term of the Day: eat someone's lunch

to eat someone's lunch--to make an aggressive move against another stagehand

Term of the Day: box-office poison

box-office poison--a leading actor or actress who is capable of killing a show. Sometimes, a crew member who has worked on a string of bombs will call themselves box-office poison. "The young stage manager, who had worked on a string of bombs, called herself 'box-office poison.'" "Baywatch's David Hasselhoff was box-office poison for the original 'Jekyll and Hyde' in the late 1990's."

Term of the Night: an actor/actress piece

an actor/actress piece--a small piece of cake, a reference to weight-conscious performers. "'Give me an actor piece,' I said to the ASM cutting the birthday cake.

Term of the Night: “back on your heads”

“back on your heads”--break is over (punchline of devil joke)

Term of the Day: to kvetch

to kvetch(Yiddish)--to complain, in a whiny way.