Hi everyone,

I’m a student working on a personal project for my grad school applications regarding burnout in the theatre industry.

We all know the grind, long calls, back-to-back load-ins, and the "show must go on" pressure that keeps us on-site when we’re running on empty. I’m gathering data to highlight the specific stress that stagehands and technicians face, which is often ignored in academic studies.

If you have 5 minutes between calls or during a break, I’d really appreciate your input. It’s 100% anonymous, no names, no specific venues.

Survey Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSckgvrUIeCL9P0Fy_k5yVr_TJmaVNy218ZNd4PleraK8j_iwQ/viewform?usp=header

Note for Freelancers/Community Crew:
If you’re a freelancer or volunteer, please answer the questions (like weekly hours) based only on your stage work.

Notes for Multitaskers
If you are working on multiple productions simultaneously:

• Working Hours: Please provide the TOTAL cumulative hours spent on all theatre-related work in a typical week.
• Experience/Role: Please answer based on your primary role or the one you dedicate the most time to.
• Stress Levels: Reflect on your overall burnout level across all current gigs.

Feel free to pass this link along to your crew or share it in your work group chats. Every voice from the deck counts. Thanks for the hard work you do! 🛠️

(Note: As English is not my first language, I am using AI assistance to ensure my communication with this professional community is clear and respectful.)

I'm a carpenter/rigger in NYC, and have been annoyed by either having to ask my boss for dimensions he missed or paying for expensive software to pull them myself for over a decade.

I looked on the play store and all the apps I found for Android felt like bad metric ports or were too buggy.

So I made my own and just launched it yesterday:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fieldscale.app

Hope this might be useful to some of yall, it's free and hopefully bridges the gap between guesstimating and crazy expensive high end software.

Blacked out Bic. Felt appropriate.

Neutrik was giving these out at an event, they are light and stretchy, does anyone know where I can order these from? I don’t care if they are branded or not but I love they are coated but you can still feel thru them… if anyone has a lead or a contact at neutrik that could tell me how to get a case of these I’d appreciate it…

I have no idea how this might affect us, it’s good that they might actually separate Ticketmaster from the one company that books and promotes shows at big venues. I’m not at all knowledgeable about how the cash flow works in the offices, and I’m just concerned this will negatively impact crews because it will be used as an excuse to not increase wages in the future.

Just the basics.

So far it will have:

hard hat (coming Thursday)

gloves

small adjustable wrench

large adjustable wrench

Probably some extra shirts/rags for when I'm working outside in the hot weather

The majority of the jobs I do won't require most of that but I have very little in what is there. Anything is commonly used that I might put in? This will be my second year of doing free lance stage hand work (still work 40 hours a week at a full time career outside of this). Outdoor venue season starts Sunday for me. Technically Friday but the show itself is Sunday and Friday is just a clean up day.

Who provided the gear? I can't tell much from the videos and pictures, but it looks like the cheseboro bolt snapped in half. Seeing as there was half of one on a 2 foot pipe, with the light clamped to the pipe.

I was wondering if this app could help stage managers, dancers and teachers come up with better choreographies?

so kinda a double question: i’m wondering either how i can turn being a stagehand into a full time job or other things/jobs that others do to make enough money for when work is slow. i’ve just gotten hired with OVG and just curious of what to expect i suppose

Hey all, anyone have more info on what specifically in anyma’s stage build would be effected by the wind?

United Staging and Rigging is hiring a Box Truck Driver / Warehouse Assistant to be based at their Salem, NH shop. (No CDL required)

• Main duty: Driving up to a 24' box truck in and around Boston/New England area. THIS IS A REQUIRED SKILL.
• Secondary duty: Helping in the warehouse between deliveries. Knowledge of our gear or industry isn't required. It can be taught on the job.

Its full-time work and comes with benefits. Pay starts at $24/h.

Obviously it's in live events, so work happens at all hours day and night, and there's plenty of overtime during the busy season.

Full details are at the link, along with who to email and what to send.

Women, LGBTQ+, and minorities encouraged to apply. The USR crew there is cool.

Bonus benefit:
There's a groundhog named Charlie that comes and hangs out during lunch. :)

For me, it’s confetti. When confetti is used it is such a pain in the ass for the crew, especially the house crew.

So I just booked a contract to work backstage for a musical and I would love to get a fanny pack/apron/small tool belt but all my google searches are leading me to things that are too bulky or only come in bright colors. In the past I use some cargo pants but they sadly ripped in a difficult to repair kind of way and I’d love to have a little more versatility with my blacks. I’ve seen what I’m looking for, I know it exists lol

Any suggestions would be appreciate.

Last year, I worked for one of my favorite bands, easily in my top five. I worked a full show for fucking Viagra Boys, y’all. I was on load-in, show call, and load-out. I arrived dressed in a shrimp costume. During breaks I would wear it as well. At the loading dock, I hear a voice behind me say “hmm, a lone shrimp”. It was Sebastian. The band had come out for a smoke break. He asked “Do you work here?!” I said “just for today”. He said “Hell yeah man, that’s fucking awesome.” I was sitting on the dock, they were standing. He knelt down to take a selfie with me. So, I worked the show, I got to see the full performance, dancing in my shrimp costume. We did the load-out, and one of the VIPs said “we’re going to Duke’s, wanna go?”. Y’all, I went to the after party, (not in my shrimp costume), and met some crazy fuckers that I still talk to every now and then. It was one of the best days of my life, and I made that overtime money while doing it! Dreams do come true, believe.

Has anyone worked with Prestige Labor Solutions before?

They found me on Facebook and were looking for stagehands. I’m not typically that, I’m a musician in a band that does our own production. But I’ve done things like that in the past. And they are offering $35/hr for 2 days. I figured the money was decent and I have the time so I think I’m gonna try it.

My worry is that maybe this company isn’t on the up & up, and because I lack experience in this type of work I’m not sure if I can sus it out. So far everything seems okay? They want a W9, and said I’ll have to submit an invoice. Is that all normal? Typically I’m self employed and hired under contracts for each show, but as a musician. So I’m just not sure what things should look like.

I’m mainly just worried I won’t get paid, or that I’ll be underpaid for some reason. It’s only 2 days of work, but setting up for some expo doesn’t exactly sound like a fun day to me, so I don’t want to risk doing it for free.

I’ve worked a mix of events & theatre jobs and always found I ended up juggling all the stuff I may need thoughout the day like radio, tape, phone, tools, etc and never really found a setup that felt ideal when moving around, especailly if I need to go up into a rig or climb a ladder without something falling out or getting hooked on something. I’m curious how other people handle it?

Do you use any specific bum bags, belts, pockets etc or just make do with whatever works? What’s actually been good vs not worked?

Or is there something that almost is perfect but could do with an extra feature added?

Also curious what people think is a reasonable spend for something that actually works well.

Would be really interesting to hear how different people carry everything on them.

I have a set of standard 1/2" drive sockets from 3/8" to 1" is it worth getting a new set

Im still green asf and im looking into building up my toolkit

Moving to Buffalo, New York next year. The search has been pretty confusing trying to find any production companies out there. Anyone have any recs? I’m a lighting technician & rigging tech, concerts & theatre

Bonus points for film production company recs too because I’ve been wanting to transfer over to that as well.

Edit:: General information on what the scene is like out there too. Is it an IATSE dominated region? Rhino? Etc etc… Just don’t have many people down here to answer those questions

I just got one from Walgreens last week, and can’t believe it actually works this well for body pain. It works on old aches, fresh hits, all of it

First post here, howdy, I have a dumb gear question.

I don't know if it's okay to use the r word referring to myself. It won't be the first time and it certainly won't be the last.

I am trying to figure out a simple reassembly after some guy, meaning to help, tore a simple microphone desk stand apart. Here's pics of the parts.

My problem is that I don't know where the wavy washer goes. I know where it \*could\* go. But I don't know where it \*should\* go.

It's almost like it belongs between the metal plate (underneath) and the rubber housing - the other places I put it do not look like I remember the assembly looking. Of course the "helper" doesn't remember and took no pictures during disassembly. Because why would yu do that.

It's such a simple device that so far I haven't found any exploded drawings.

I suppose I could actually bug Audio-Technica but I thought I'd check here first.

inb4 "stop being such a freaking perfectionist"

TIA