Theatre production glossary

The vocabulary of putting on a show, as stage managers, directors, designers and crews use it. Each term is defined on its own, then says where that thing lives in CueCall. Written for the first-time stage manager and the parent volunteer who has just been handed a run sheet.

A

  • A2 — The A2 is the second audio person on a production, working backstage while the A1 mixes the show from the house: fitting and swapping wireless mics, changing…
  • Assistant stage manager — The assistant stage manager supports the stage manager in rehearsal — taking blocking, tracking props, setting up the room — and runs the deck during…

B

  • Bio — A bio is the short third-person paragraph about a cast or team member printed in the program's Who's Who: recent credits, training, and the traditional thanks…
  • Blackout — A blackout is a lighting cue that takes the stage to darkness, used to end a scene or cover a change. A snap blackout is instant; a fade to black takes a…
  • Blocking — Blocking is the planned movement and positioning of performers on stage: where each actor stands, when they cross, and where they end up, worked out in…
  • Board operator — The board operator runs the lighting or sound console during a performance, executing each cue on the stage manager's GO. The cues are programmed in advance…

C

  • Call time — A call time is the time a performer or crew member is required to be at the theatre or rehearsal room, as opposed to the time rehearsal or the performance…
  • Callback — A callback is a second audition for performers the panel wants to see again, usually for specific roles and often with sides from the script, a dance call or…
  • Character breakdown — A character breakdown lists every role in a script with a short description — age, vocal range, the size of the part, the scenes it appears in — and is…
  • Cold reading — A cold reading is an audition in which the performer reads a scene they have not prepared, often handed the pages minutes before. It shows how quickly an actor…
  • Conflict sheet — A conflict sheet lists the dates and times a performer cannot rehearse, collected at audition so the director knows before casting who will be missing when…
  • Costume plot — A costume plot is the chart of what every character wears in every scene: a grid of characters against scenes, each cell naming the pieces of that look. The…
  • Cue sheet — A cue sheet lists every technical cue in a production in running order, with its number, its department (lighting, sound, fly, automation, followspot…
  • Cue-to-cue — A cue-to-cue is a technical rehearsal that skips from one cue to the next, running only the moments of the show where something technical happens — a lighting…

D

  • Dark day — A theatre is dark when there is no performance: a dark day is the company's day off during a run, and a dark theatre is one with no production in it. A…
  • Deck crew — The deck crew are the people who move scenery, set props and run the stage during a performance, under the assistant stage manager. Each crew member has a…
  • Double casting — Double casting puts two performers in one role, each playing it on alternate performances. Schools and youth programs use it to give more students a lead and…
  • Dry tech and wet tech — A dry tech is a technical rehearsal without the cast: the crew and the operators run cues, scene changes and transitions on their own. A wet tech adds the…

E

  • Ensemble — The ensemble is the group of performers who play the unnamed or minor roles — townspeople, dancers, the chorus — and carry the big numbers. In a musical the…

F

  • Fly system — The fly system is the rigging above a proscenium stage — battens on counterweighted or motorised line sets — used to raise scenery, drops and lighting out of…
  • Followspot — A followspot is a powerful, manually operated lighting instrument that follows a performer around the stage, run by an operator who picks up and drops the beam…
  • French scene — A French scene is a unit of a play defined by the entrance or exit of a character: each time somebody comes on or goes off, a new French scene begins…
  • Front of house — Front of house is everything on the audience's side of the proscenium — the lobby, the box office, the auditorium (the house) — and the staff and volunteers…

G

  • Ground plan — A ground plan is a scaled drawing of the stage seen from above, showing the set, the furniture, the masking and the playing area, usually with the centre line…

H

  • Headshot and resume — A headshot is a performer's professional photograph, head and shoulders, used to identify them through an audition process; the resume lists their training and…

L

  • Load-in — Load-in is the move of the production into the theatre: scenery, lighting, sound, costumes and props brought in, hung, focused and set. It is scheduled against…

M

  • Measurement sheet — A measurement sheet records a performer's body measurements — chest, waist, hips, inseam, head, shoe — for the costume designer, taken at a fitting or…
  • Mic plot — A mic plot is the grid that assigns wireless microphones to performers scene by scene: which channel each actor wears, when a mic is handed from one performer…

O

  • Off book — A performer is off book when they have memorised their lines and no longer rehearse with the script in hand. Productions set an off-book date in the rehearsal…

P

  • Places — "Places" is the stage manager's call for the cast and crew to take their opening positions: the performance (or the act) is about to begin. It follows the…
  • Preset list — The preset list says where every prop and set piece must be before the show starts — on the prop table stage left, on the rail, on stage at its spike — so the…
  • Production meeting — A production meeting brings the director, the stage manager, the designers and the technical and production managers together, usually weekly, to work through…
  • Program — The program is the printed or digital booklet given to the audience: the cast list, the production team, the musical numbers and scene settings, biographies, a…
  • Prompt book — The prompt book is the stage manager's master copy of the script, with every blocking move, cue and standby written against the line or moment it happens on…
  • Props list and prop plot — The props list (or props master list) names every property the production needs, with where it comes from — stock, bought, built, borrowed, rented — and its…
  • Proscenium, thrust and arena stages — A proscenium stage faces the audience through an arch, with the action seen from one side. A thrust stage projects into the house so the audience sits on three…

Q

  • Quick change — A quick change is a costume change that has to happen in seconds, usually in the wings in a quick-change booth with a dresser, because the performer exits in…

R

  • Rehearsal report — A rehearsal report is the stage manager's written account of a rehearsal, sent to the whole production team the same night: who was there and who was late…
  • Run sheet — A run sheet is the backstage document listing everything that has to happen during a performance, in order: scene changes, prop hand-offs, quick changes, fly…
  • Running list — The running list, or shift plot, lists every scene change in order and what moves during it: which pieces come on, which go off, who carries each, and to which…

S

  • Scene breakdown — A scene breakdown divides the script into its scenes and records, for each, who is in it, where and when it is set, and what it needs: props, costumes, set…
  • Sides — Sides are short excerpts from the script given to performers to prepare for an audition or a callback — a scene or part of one, chosen to show what a…
  • Sitzprobe — A sitzprobe (German: seated rehearsal) is the first rehearsal of a musical in which the cast sings with the full orchestra or band, seated, with no staging. It…
  • Spike marks — Spike marks are pieces of coloured tape on the stage floor marking where a set piece, a piece of furniture or a performer must be placed. Each scene or cue…
  • Stage directions — Stage directions name positions on the stage from the performer's point of view, facing the audience. Stage left is the actor's left; stage right the actor's…
  • Stage manager — The stage manager runs the production from the first rehearsal to the last performance: scheduling and running rehearsals, keeping the prompt book, writing the…
  • Standby and GO — Calling the show is the stage manager speaking each cue to the operators over headset. A warning comes some way ahead; a standby ("Standby LX 12") comes…
  • Strike — Strike is the dismantling of the production after the final performance: the set taken down, lights and sound restored, costumes and props returned to stock or…
  • Swing — A swing is a performer who covers several ensemble tracks and goes on for whichever one is out, sometimes with a different track each night. Swings learn every…

T

  • Tech week — Tech week is the final stretch before opening when the production moves into the theatre and the technical elements — lights, sound, scenery, costumes, cues —…

U

  • Understudy — An understudy learns a role in order to perform it if the cast member cannot. Understudies rehearse separately, attend the main rehearsals to absorb the…

W

  • Wandelprobe — A wandelprobe (German: wandering rehearsal) follows the sitzprobe: the cast sings with the orchestra while moving through the staging, usually on the set, so…

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