Standby For Everything: ISSUE 1

Many years ago, when I was in my twenties, a followspot operator in Australia told me a story about a show from Germany that was set up in the now demolished, Sydney Entertainment Centre.

Scott, known as one of the best followspotters in Australia, was hired to the show alongside a whole bunch of other local Australian crew.

At some point during the load in of the show, it became apparent to the local crew that there was no Stage Manager assigned to the gig and therefore, no one to run the actual show call or the execution of the event.

The way I remember Scott telling me this story, the need for a Stage Manager was brought up to the German company. A number of internal conversations within the group ensued and after much discussion, out came one guy, who was deemed “the Stage Manager”. This guy was ushered to the side of the stage and given a headset.

Clearly, never having called a show, and having a limited grasp of English, the German man gets on headset and says:

“Ok, standby for everything”
Slight pause
“And everything GO”

You can imagine how the gig went from there… LOL.

As a show caller for many years, I have loved this story and told it many times. In fact, many of my colleagues will know me for saying it on comms, it became my “go to” joke for when situations on headset got stressful or tense. It lightened the mood.

It’s also been my motto, having lived on 4 continents, and worked in many countries around the world. I have learned to standby for anything and everything in this industry.

I’m telling you my “Standby for Everything” story so you know the origin story to the title of this blog/opinion/newsletter.

I have some ideas of what my first few blogs will be about but who knows where this will go, so we should all “Standby for Everything” that might come out of this.

I am hoping that in this endeavour, I will be able to learn to articulate myself well enough to make some valid points, express valuable ideas and tell some good stories. Your feedback is most welcome.

I decided not to publish this blog on TheatreArtLife as the site itself has become it’s own voice and I love that voice. It is its own living breathing entity and I don’t want to influence it with my opinions as it’s Managing Director. And I want the people who follow this blog to get my honest opinions and thoughts on the industry, as if we were talking over a coffee or a beer, or backstage at interval.

So, if you see this fly into your inbox and want to read it… go for it. Hopefully I can make for some fun reading in your break times.

…….Standby for Everything.

If you think others may be interested, you can share with them this link to sign up HERE

Thanks for indulging.
Anna x