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.

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?"

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.'"

Overheard Stagehand Line #48: "Her resume and skills don't match her ego"

 "That contract prop sub is unbearable. She's never done a show from scratch. Her resume and skills don't match her ego."

Term of the Day: to be Nerded

 to be Nerded--when a show closes during the load in, usually when an investor pulls out. The musical "Nerds" was loading into the Longacre Theatre in the spring of 2016, when a truck pulled up with a large scenic flat. The production manager or carpenter told the stagehands not to unload the scenery and the truck went back to the shop. The load in was over and the show was dead. A lead producer later admitted that financing was not complete, but they grabbed an empty Shubert house, which are hard to get during the spring theater season. The same producer said "Nerds" was postponed, but the show has never been seen again.

The most recent Nerding happened on February 7th, 2024, when the one-man show "My Son's a Queer, But What Can You Do?" a London hit, stopped work during spotting at the Lyceum. The stagehands in the theater then started the restore that same day.

Overheard Stagehand Line #47: "He knows everything...."

"That guy? He knows everything but the rules."

Term of the Night: the whole Megillah

  the whole Megillah--everything that is under consideration, all the work, or a long, complicated story with many moving parts. "I can't take next week's call. The carpenter at the other theater is going to give me the whole load in, the whole Megillah." From the Hebrew for religious scrolls.