New York Stagehand Glossary

Stro-Magic: the prop heavy, often fantastical choreography of Susan Stroman, the choreographer of "The Producers" and director-ch...

flop sweat: when producers start to freak out during production or previews that they may have a flop on their hands, so the creatives are ...

to sandbag (someone) : to set a stagehand up for a dressing down in front of other people. To ambush a person, then to verbally abuse them, ...

"the nut": operating costs for a show. the weekly running costs, including cast and crew salaries, administrative expenses, renta...

Scenic Shop Builds v. Real Theater: Often scenery comes into the theater with pieces that don't fit, holes that don't line up and p...

Phantom lift: When a stagehand is pretending to vigorously to lift a heavy piece of scenery and is letting others do the real work. See als...

"When's the strike?" When the comedian Jerry Lewis was in the revival of "Damned Yankees" in the mid-1990s, every t...