Overheard Stagehand Line #61: There are easy lessons and hard lessons...

There are easy lessons and hard lessons in the stage business...the young contract stagehand kept poking the house electrician in the eye, so he seemed to prefer the hard lessons.

Term of the Day: rank smell of self pity

rank smell of self pity-- when self pity lurks beneath the rage and violence. "During one of old carpenter's screaming tantrums on deck, I caught a whiff of the rank smell of self pity under the cursing and violence."

Term of the Day: talking out of his ass

 talking out of his ass-- when someone speaks with authority about something they know nothing about. "The stagehand was telling people that 'Mockingbird' was going to be moved. He was talking out of his ass."

Term of the Day: cold dead hands

cold dead hands--to take something away from me, I'd have to be dead. "If you want this job from me, you'll have to pry it out of my cold dead hands."

Term of the Day: bare-knuckle Broadway

bare-knuckle Broadway -- when all pretentions of art drop to the wayside and money is king. "The theater owners forced a show to close, hoping to make more money on the next show. That was an example of bare-knuckle Broadway."

Expression of the Day: balls in a jar

balls in a jar-- castration reference, possibly as a response to violent behavior or other serious trouble. "When the theater owners finally put his balls in a jar, the violent old carpenter stopped attacking his co-workers. He retreated to his office and stayed there, watching gun shows and screaming at the TV."

Term of the Day: the Big Three, the non-Big Three

the Big Three, the non-Big Three--the big Broadway theater owners, which are the Shuberts, the Nederlanders and Jujamcyn, are the Big Three. The Shuberts own 17 theaters, the Nederlanders own nine and Jujamcyn owns five. The non-Big Three include the Circle in the Square, the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Roundabout (which owns the Sondheim, the American Airlines and Studio 54).