holding House / curtain - need your input - thanks
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Theater Administration
Forum Name: Running Your Theater
Forum Discription: General questions about how to make it work
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4631
Printed Date: 11/22/24 at 8:34pm
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Topic: holding House / curtain - need your input - thanks
Posted By: satur91
Subject: holding House / curtain - need your input - thanks
Date Posted: 5/19/10 at 11:09pm
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So, I need some feedback to help settle a policy dispute. Your input is quite valuable to me... Understanding that ideally, no theater would choose to hold a house from closing / hold a curtain if circumstances were ideal... and the audience were on time... But I need your feedback... please answer a couple of short questions: Do you hold the curtain? or do you enforce an "on-time" Go? Does it happen often (holding)? What are the main / top reasons that you would hold? What type of theater do you represent (professional / community / academic) ? And where are you located? Thanks... |
Replies:
Posted By: lparks
Date Posted: 5/20/10 at 11:51am
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Do you hold the curtain? or do you enforce an "on-time" Go? In limited cases. Generally, holding for 5 minutes is not a problem for us at all. Above 5 minutes, there needs to be an overriding reason to hold. Does it happen often (holding)? We generally hold up to 5 minutes for most performances as a courtesy. That happens pretty regularly. What are the main / top reasons that you would hold? Up to 5 minutes = Many people still finding their seat, Box Office back-up, etc. More than 5 minutes = 1/2 the audience still not seated, actors not in-place, etc. What type of theater do you represent (professional / community / academic)? Professional And where are you located? Bloomington, IN ------------- Landon Parks, Producing Artistic Director, Bloomington Repertory Theatre Co |
Posted By: JoeMc
Date Posted: 5/21/10 at 2:01am
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Traditionaly it is the domain of the SM governed by circustances. I have held a show up for 1/2 hour, while awaiting for an ambulance to attend to a punter. {Sometimes it's easier though to place the body outside gate, as this tends to save all the paper work!  ------------- [western] Gondawandaland "Hear the light & see the sound! TOI TOI CHOOKAS {may you always play to a full house!} |
Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 5/21/10 at 9:06am
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It happens. We are small and can usually peek out the door to see if any of the unclaimed ticket folks are running in from parking their cars, and we have held a couple of minutes for that. Additionally, until recently, we have had some "less than desirable seats" in the house and when people in the center were know shows, we sometimes took a couple of minutes to shift folks around a little... Of course, then there are those times that the lead doesn't show up on time, or the light board crashes just before curtain, or the tornado sirens go off or the ....... you get the idea.. But we never hold for very long. Longest I can remember was 5 min.. ------------- Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.." |