Backstage Handbook
by Paul Carter
First, how you procure this book, because you will want to procure it: Whenever you see the third edition (1994) in a vendor's catalog, you order it or give them a call to see if it's in stock. Eventually you will get lucky. (The publisher maintains a web site where you can, perhaps, order a copy, but the work seems to go from scarce to unavailable on no schedule at all.)
Oh, and when you do get your book, do this before you commence using it: Take a black Sharpie and write your name on the front edge of the pages, real big and bold. You are going to take this resource into a hostile environment, a shop or theater whose denizens will innocently vanish your book if it isn't labeled. You know.
The famous Backstage Handbook lacks a lot of things. It won't teach you to paint or shift scenery or turn you into a Stage Manager. (More specifically, it will not replace Theater Backstage from A to Z.) But it does collect an amazing range of information you need in designing, building and lighting stage sets and getting shows ready to go up. Here are a few examples:
- Illustrations to help you tell zip cord, Romex and BX cable apart
- A trick for finding the center of a circle (and I thought I knew the easiest way to do this!)
- A summary of USITT standard symbols for use in lighting plots
- A table of the common and scientific names of chemicals you might encounter
- Information about how much you weaken a cord by tying knots in it, even if you do it correctly
- Lists of stock sizes of screws and bolts
- A picture of a five-way tool, though it does not identify the five ways
- A table giving the weight per cubic foot for 50 or 60 common materials, and another telling how much a stick of lumber weighs
- Riser and tread dimensions for the usual sizes of step units
It's 292 pages long, printed on tough paper and bound in flexible board. It contains a couple of thousand pictures (by George Chiang). It has only a few complete sentences. Its main shortcoming is that it won't fit into any of my pockets . . . which is why it has my name written in big letters on the front edge of the pages. I plan to have this book near at hand whenever I go to work on a set.
After all, one day I may get a beefy baby stand confused with a rolling highboy.
| Approved Ben Teague web site |
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Backstage Handbook