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Theater etiquette for actors

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cocacola35:
Currently I am in a Christmas production at my local community theater.  The cast is quite large and is a mixture of children and adults.  I love to act, but quite frankly the lack of professionalism demonstrated by some of the cast members is really starting to ruin the experience for me.  Here is the current list of grievences that should NEVER be committed when you are a cast member:

1. If the director buys your costume with her own money treat it with respect.  DO NOT throw it on the floor and allow it to be stomped on when you are through with it and then complain that you can't find your costume during the start of the next performance.

2. When you are asked to lower your voice when you are backstage DO IT.  Sometimes we slip up and need to be reminded a couple times to keep it down- but it is inexcusable for the stage manager to have to remind certain individuals 20 times per performance to shut up.

3.  I know that I am short and look like a teenager, but I am 27 years old.  After five weeks of working with me you should know this.  One 13 year old started shoving me as I passed him to get into place- since I couldn't make a comment to him (the show was going on) I just grabbed his arm and gave him the look of death.  He immediately apologized.

4.  I don't care how small your part is- you had better be deathly ill or dead to miss a performance.  Sure, you have one of the smaller parts but what if EVERYONE with the smaller parts decided they had something better to do that night?  Sometimes there are other things that I want to do to, but I'd never skip a performance and ruin the show for everyone else.

5.  The backstage IS NOT a daycare center.  Your child who is not in the show and is making all that noise during the performance is not welcome backstage.  The least you could do is make your child be quiet, not whine to the stage manager about how you don't want to be mean to him.  You should have arranged for someone to watch him.  You knew about these perfomance nights when you signed up for this gig so you could have arranged for childcare ahead of time.

6.  When the stage manager or director tells you to do something DO IT.  Don't stand there and argue with them for five minutes- you don't take orders well don't be an actor.

7.  DO NOT play with the props.  It really puts me in a bad mood when I am scrambling around backstage to find a prop that isn't where I put it.  God help you after the show if I find you playing swordfights with it before I go onstage.

8.  DID I MENTION THAT YOU NEED TO BE THERE FOR EVERY PERFORMANCE!!!

9.  DO NOT stand at the stage entrances to watch the show!  I don't care how quiet you claim you are, you are in every actor's way who is coming on and off the stage!  Are you really so self-centered and stupid that you don't realize that?!  >:(

Yes this is community theater and yes you are not getting paid, but you still are required to act like a professional and treat others with respect.  You also don't have the right to ruin the show for the people who are paying money to see it.  Okay, I feel a little better now.  Thank God this is the last weekend of this show- I don't know if I could keep myself from throttling anyone any longer.

 

jfulle5:
Is there any kind of manual or chart hanging up so people can see the basic rules? I know it seems like common sense things but some people still need it in writing :)

kingsrings:
Having been involved in theater for the past 12 years, I hear you on every single one of these. I've experienced every single one of them in one form or another, and it's so aggravating. I think the problem lies in that some people just don't have respect for community theater or take it seriously because it's mostly all volunteer. Therefore, they don't take it seriously and slack off on the committments necessary to make things run smoothly. They would never act that way at their full-time paying job. It has come to the point where the last audition I went on, the first thing the director did was stand up in front of us all and tick off a list of rules that we must follow if we were to be cast in the show. They were all about the things you mentioned in your thread - being late, showing respect, etc. She has probably been driven to the point of having to do that since she'd been burned one time too many in the past and is trying to nip it in the bud now. Isn't it funny that adults have to be told they must be responsible if they accept a part in a play?? Unfortunately, they must be told this, although it will probably just go over the head of the offenders.

Bob Ducca:

--- Quote ---4.  I don't care how small your part is- you had better be deathly ill or dead to miss a performance.  Sure, you have one of the smaller parts but what if EVERYONE with the smaller parts decided they had something better to do that night?  Sometimes there are other things that I want to do to, but I'd never skip a performance and ruin the show for everyone else.

--- End quote ---

This reminds me of my all-time favorite theater story.  In college, a group of my friends who were theater majors were doing "Dr. Hero," and a bunch of us music majors came to watch.  Dr. Hero has a cast of 12 (I think) and only one part is names (Hero).  The remaining 11 cast members constantly shift into different characters in different scenarios, and the interplay in terms of dialogue and blocking was very intense and rapid-fire.  Opening night went well, I heard, but the second night...

One of the ensemble didn't show up.  I later found out that she was out to dinner with my MIL (?) and just "didn't feel like" being in theater anymore.  Take one person out of the ensemble, and it made no sense.  But the show must go on...

I was there.  It was brilliant.  They never missed a beat, and the combination of scripted drama with the necessary improv that would accompany a missing actor was really thrilling.  Of course, the next day they re-scripted and re-blocked, but I will NEVER forget the looks on the faces of the actors when they realized "Suzy" wouldn't be showing up.

I love the list, and wouldn't change a thing.

kingsrings:
One play I was in, the night of the dress rehearsal, one of the actresses called and said that she wouldn't be able to make it because she had just gotten tickets to a concert that she really wanted to see. She wasn't at all apologetic and didn't think that she had done anything wrong. Unfortunately because it was the night before opening, it was too late for our director to fire her, something she probably took advantage of in her decision to forgo dress rehearsal. Thank goodness there wasn't anyone but the stage crew in the audience that night. Another play I did, one of the small-part actors didn't want to be in the play and only agreed to do so because the director was desperate to find someone. He refused to come to the rehearsals until tech week, and refused to talk to anyone. Then when performances started, he left as soon as his part was done, which meant he wasn't there for the curtain call. A week into the play, he called the director and left a VM that he was quitting the play. I really hope the karma for such people gets back to them in the end.

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