Term of the Week: "using an earlier contract"

"Using an earlier contract": When a department head in a theater fights to get paid for something that is clearly not in the present contract, the roadman might say sarcastically, "He's using an earlier contract."

Term of the Day: slapped on the pee-pee

Slapped on the pee-pee--to get in trouble, to be reprimanded in a condescending, childish way from management. "The men on the fly floor were slapped on the pee-pee for talking loud during the quiet scenes in the play."

Word of the Day: Shoe-man Capote

Shoe-man Capote--a stupid stagehand, a shoe, "He's a real Shoe-man Capote," making a rhyme out of the dead novelist's name. (from Tim Altman, Broadway electrician)

Vocabulary Update

Here are some new terms I've come across in the past several months:

Getaway day: the last day of a loadout, when the final truck comes after the 10 a.m. coffee break and the stagehands leave early.
stay guy: The stagehand kept late for overtime when the other stagehands are cut at 5 p.m.
Broadway wrap--wrapping a prop gift box so that the lid can be taken off without ripping the paper. This enables the propman to use the box over and over.

Joke of the Day: Local #1 Interview

Despite being a fourth-generation member of Local #1 IATSE, the Theatrical Protective Union of New York City, I am embarrassed to say that I had not heard this joke. I had to hear it from a brother in Local #600 IATSE, which is the camera operators' local.

To understand this joke, you must know that Local #1 was once a fathers' and sons' local, where members could nominate one man (and it was all men back then) to join the local, and if you had two sons, you'd marry the second one to a local member with only daughters, so your son's new father-in-law could nominate him.

The joke is a man walks into his Local #1 interview. The union man interviewing him looks at him sternly and says, "I have two questions for you: Who's your dad and how is he?"

--Dylan Foley

Term of the Moment: Stay guy

stay guy--a stay guy is the stagehand who is kept for overtime while the other stagehands are sent home at the end of the straight-time call.

Term of the Moment: Getaway day

Getaway day--The last day of the load-in, where there may only be one truck to load. If the head is gutsy enough, he or she will let the crew go early, maybe after coffee, at 10:30am.