rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft

Frequently Asked Questions
Web edition
This is currently the most up-to-date version of the FAQ available. An older version containing information about netiquette and the use of rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft can be found at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/theatre/stagecraft/faq/

• 
  
• How do I make my own gobos?
  • First, do you really want to? You can make rough breakup gobos fairly easily, but standard stock breakups are only a few dollars. If you have specific artwork you want to make into a gobo then you'll need to make it by etching.

    You have three options, of which only the first two can be recommended!

  • 1 Get it professionally etched. Your local lighting supply company should be able to point the way to a company offering this service.
    ROSCO make custom gobos, but their pricing and delivery time may not be competitive with someone closer to you.

  • 2 M&M make an etching kit in a briefcase called the M&M gobomaker. This is available for hire from a number of rental companies worldwide, or if you think you'll be making lots of custom gobos you could buy a kit.
    Contact www.mandm.co.uk (website); info@mandm.co.uk (email);
    +44-171-284-2503 (phone); or +44-171-284-2503 (fax)

  • 3 If you really like spending time and money and playing with dangerous chemicals, follow the instructions below.

  • For abstract break-ups or very rough gobos any thin sheet metal will work. Scrap printing plates (lithoplate) from a newspaper printers work OK. I've even
    seen gobos made out of flattened coke cans (tho' the thin aluminium softens). Cutting a pattern is easy if you have access to a pillar drill. The thin aluminum used for lithoplates can be cut with sharp craft knife.

    For photo-etched gobos:
    1 You need high contrast original artwork, with completely opaque black areas.
    * Computer graphics laser-printed onto transparencies works well, artwork photocopied onto transparencies is OK
    * The black areas must be completely opaque. Any holes or grey areas can be filled in with a black spirit marker
    * A product called 'Lasercolor' will bond to toner, making the image more opaque
    * Scotchcal 8007 reversal film, usually used for making photoetched PCBs makes great artwork
    * Surround the image with an opaque shape leaving the outline of the gobo - that way the gobo will fall out of the blank when etched
    2 Choose and prepare the gobo material
    * Brass, copper and aluminium are the possible choices.
    * Stephen Lane recommends 0.2mm brass shim, available from model shops or a non-ferrous metals dealer.
    * Aluminium is cheaply available from scrap litho printing plates from a local newspaper, or from a flattened drink can. I've seen aluminium gobos soften within a few seconds in 1kW lanterns
    * Cut a blank an inch or two larger than the gobo you're making
    * Clean the surface thoroughly, getting rid of any grease and removing the oxide coating.
    3 Photoresist
    * Coat one side of the blank with a positive photoresist (such as Electrolube PRP200).
    * Coat the other side with a protective laquer (such as Electrolube CPL200)
    4 Fix the artwork to the blank
    * Put the side of the artwork with the toner on it touching the blank (this improves fine detail)
    5 Exposure
    * The blank needs to be exposed to 'enough' UV light to expose the resist in the uncovered areas, but not enough to expose the remainder
    * The best way to expose it is to use a hobbyist PCB exposure box. If you intend to do many gobos, or intend to make any PCBs it's worth looking at one of these
    * Fluorescent UV tubes are the next best option, with the artwork fixed to the blank with four bulldog clips. This takes 50-90 seconds at a range of two inches
    * Mercury vapour worklights and sunlight can be used, but aren't recommended. The worklights produce a lot of heat, which can damage the resist, and sunlight is a bit unpredictable.
    6 Next develop the resist, using the relevant developer (eg Electrolube PRD200)
    7 Any holes in the resist can be touched up with a spirit marker or a 'resist touch-up pen' from the same supplier as the rest of the PCB stuff.
    8 Etching
    * For brass or copper the best etch is ferric chloride. Ammonium persulphate works too, but you have to be careful of fumes given off, and heat produced can make the resist flake off.
    * For aluminium one part hydrogen peroxide, one part hydrochloric acid (what strength? -- SRA) to four parts of water works well. This is a very corrosive mix. If you don't know about safe acid handling precautions don't do it. Use acid-proof gloves, apron and eye protection. Use glass, or maybe plastic containers. Don't store unused etch, dilute it a lot and dispose of it safely. Another reason not to use aluminium for etched gobos.
    * Keep an eye on it as it etches. If anything starts to etch that shouldn't you can take it out of the etch, flush it with water, touch up the resist with a spirit marker and drop it back in the etch.
    * Serious electronics hobbyists use small 'bubble etch' tanks. These heat the etchant and blow bubbles through it. This gives a faster and more uniform etch
    9 Acetone, or whatever solvent the resist manufacturer recommends, will strip off the resist and laquer

    Loosely adapted from posts by Stephen Lane of Apollo Lighting, with extra bits from David Gibson, Clive Mitchell and Steve Atkins.

    Practice a couple of times on some scrap to get the exposure time correct. The first time I use an exposure box I coat a piece of scrap with resist. Then I cover most of it with a piece of foil and expose for 15 seconds. Then I move the foil down a half-inch and expose for another 15 seconds, and so on. Then when I develop and etch this test piece I can see how each exposure time works -- SRA

    The whole process of making brass gobos is very similar to making PCBs, so hobbyist electronics books may be useful for more info and pictures (Stephen Lane intends to make photos available on the web sometime soon). The PCB FAQ, posted to sci.electronics or available at http://www.ecn.uoknor.edu/~jspatric/faqs/pcb.faq is well worth a look.

    Variations to this are the toner-transfer and direct methods

    Direct etching is pretty simple. Rather than use photo-resist you simply draw your pattern onto the blank with an etch-resist pen, or coat the blank with laquer and scribe your design into it. Then you etch the blank as described above.

    The toner transfer method is popular for making simple low-tech PCBs. I've never heard of anyone trying to make gobos with it, and the longer etching time needed for gobos might make it difficult to get toner-transfer to work well. Basically you photocopy the densest, blackest artwork you can onto paper, or better, special toner-transfer paper. Then you put the paper over the blank, toner touching the (sandpapered clean) blank. Then you iron it with a hot iron, fusing the plastic component of the toner onto the metal. The you soak it in water to lift off the paper.

    Toner-transfer instructions can be found at http://clarc.phoenix.net/laserpcb.html

    If anyone trys toner-transfer for gobos, please email me to tell me how well it works.

    In the UK all of the equipment and chemicals are available from Maplin Electronics ( http://www.maplin.co.uk/ , full address elsewhere in the FAQ).

    The chemicals are available from Electrolube Ltd., Blakes Road,Wargrave, Berkshire, RG10 8AW, +44 1734 404031.

    Check the ads in any electronics magazine for local suppliers

  • How can I make a flicker effect?

  • Most programmable lighting desks have an effects unit with random and regular flicker effects.

    If you don't have an effects unit and you need a random flicker you can try the classic fluorescent starter trick. Wire a bulb in series with a fluorescent starter. It will flicker on and off at random, slowly for the first 5 or 10 seconds, then a little quicker.It's worth buying the proper bases for the fluoro starters, as their terminals don't like solder! Note that the starters have a maximum rating of 40 or 60 Watts.

    The on-off random flicker from a fluoro starter is a bit unsubtle on it's own. Pair the flickering bulb with a bulb that's permanently on for the best effect. (Steady blue and flickering white works well for television, steady red and flickering yellow for a fire).

    For a really top-notch fireplace, use a red bulb non flickering (but possibly on a slow fading sequence) plus two flickering bulbs, one in orange and one in yellow.

    See 'flickering candles' under the /props/ section of the FAQ for flicker dimmers and flickering bulbs.

  How do I get rid of spill (stray) light from my lanterns?

  • Fresnels tend to spill a lot of light. Always using barn-doors helps a lot - close the doors so they're just touching the edge of the beam.
  • For some models of lantern an accessory called a "snoot" is available. This looks like a top hat with a hole in the top, and sits in the colour frame runners.
  • For profiles or PC lanterns many spill problems can be fixed with black Cinefoil ( http://www.rosco.com/film_video/cinefoil.html )
  • Be careful about blocking too many ventilation slots on a lantern - they're there for a reason.
    
• Where can I find more info about DMX512?
• The full spec itself 'DMX512/1990 and AMX192 standards' is available
  from USITT for about US$26. See
  http://www.culturenet.ca/usitt/publications.avail.html
• There are also pirated copies of the spec floating around the net if you look hard enough. US$26 isn't much though, and you can grab a copy of 'Recommended Practice' for US$8 at the same time, so get the real copy from USITT
• PLASA & USITT publish a book "Recommended Practice for DMX 512" by Adam Bennette that discusses usage of DMX512. PLASA can be found at http://www.plasa.org.uk/ and USITT at http://www.culturenet.ca/usitt/publications.avail.html
• Highend Systems have some DMX protocol info for Cyberlights, Intellabeams & Studio Colors available at http://info.highend.com/hes/DLDS/dmxprot.html
• DMX protocol is discussed occasionally on comp.arch.embedded and sci.engr.lighting . Also checkout the lighting control developers list (see the mailing lists FAQ entry)
• What's the pinout for Socapex?
  

1 - live 1 2 - neutral 1 3 - live 2 4 - neutral 2 5 - live 3 6 - neutral 3 7 - live 4 8 - neutral 4 9 - live 5

10 - neutral 5 11 - live 6 12 - neutral 6 13 - earth 1 14 - earth 2 15 - earth 3 16 - earth 4 17 - earth 5 18 - earth 6

[Thanks Gareth g.hughes@zetnet.co.uk]


• What's the pinout for Lectriflex?

1 - live 1 2 - live 2 3 - live 3 4 - live 4 5 - live 5 6 - live 6 7 - earth 8 - earth

9 - neutral 1 10 - neutral 2 11 - neutral 3 12 - neutral 4 13 - neutral 5 14 - neutral 6 15 - earth 16 - earth

[Thanks to Gareth g.hughes@zetnet.co.uk]


• Are there any lighting symbols freely available for download?
  There are some in DXF format at the following sites
  * http://waapa.cowan.edu.au/lx/ (lots of good stuff, including a lot
  of CAD symbols in both DWG{AutoCAD} and DXF format.)
  * ftp://maurice.cph.uh.edu/informat/cph/

• PROP MAKING
• Cutting styrofoam or Polystyrene

  For small parts where finish isn't critical a bread knife is pretty good.

  A hot-knife cutter is the easiest way to cut these foams, and gives a good smooth finish. A typical hot knife is a length of wire stretched in an insulating frame with a constant current passed through it. The hot wire melts it's way through the foam.

  There are some health issues with polystyrene: It gives off styrene monomer which is listed as a weak animal carcinogen.

  MSDS exposure levels are as follows:STYRENE
  PEL (OSHA) : 100 ppm, 8 Hr. TWA 200 ppm, Ceiling 600 ppm - 5 Min. Max.
  TLV(ACGIH) : 50 ppm, 213 mg/m3, 8 Hr. TWA, Skin STEL 100 ppm, 426 mg/m3

  Most foams probably give off fumes when heated, so always make sure you have good ventilation.

  Another good way is to use a electric carving knife. The same kind you use on a turkey at Thanksgiving. This works best on foam rubber.

• Foam surface treatment
  • Am looking for recipes for the treament of foam prior to painting. In particular, I'm looking for a good recipe that fills cracks and voids that is easily sanded. Other recipes/tricks would be appreciated.
  • AWAITING ANSWER
    
• Vacuum-forming information
  • Stiegelbauer Associates (NY, USA) do custom vacforming and stock a range of standard (brick/stone/column) vacforms. See http://www.panix.com/jviii/pclients/stiegbr.html .
  • The Prop Builders Molding and Casting Handbook, ISBN 1-55870-128-1 has plans for building a vacuum forming machine.
• Stage Blood recipes
  • Edible
    • Karo syrup (light corn syrup), black-cherry Kool-aid powder and smooth peanut butter
      4 parts liquid glucose, 1 part water, chinese red food colouring
      Ruby orange juice, with the bit strained out (sprays nicely)
      Corn syrup, red food dye, a little blue & green food dye.
    • From murr@vnet.net:
      MB2 Blood Formula
      Flour Base:
      7.5cc to 10cc plain all purpose flour per cup (250cc) of water. (7.5cc = 1/2 level tablespoon , 10cc = 2 level teaspoons) Mix flour into water completely (no lumps) before heating. Bring to boil then simmer for 1/2 hour. Stir frequently.
      Let cool before adding food color. Stir in any surface scum. Makes a good base for stage blood. Slightly slimy. Fairly low surface tension. Soaks and spreads well.
      One cup batch of MB2:
      1 oz (29cc) Red food coloring (Durkee (R) brand or equivalent) 1/8 teaspoon (.6cc) green food coloring (Durkee (R) brand or equivalent) Add flour base described above to a total of one cup (250cc).
      This is both much more realistic and simpler than the old Karo (R) corn syrup, Hershey's (R) chocolate syrup and food coloring based formula. There is no sugar and very little food in the MB2 formula so it's probably less attractive to insects. Shelf life is fairly short (days) at room temp. Does not go rank but ferments a bit and looses viscosity. I have not tested refrigerated or frozen storage. This formula will temporarily stain skin. Seems to wash out of cotton cloths OK.
  • Inedible:
    • Adding a little washing-up liquid to any of the above may make it easier to wash out of costumes.
      Adding blue washing detergent has been suggested - it makes the blood easier to wash out, and darkens the blood. Be careful of this, washing detergent can cause severe allergic reactions.

  Commercial Stageblood

  (From Rich Williamson of Pierre's Costumes, http://www.costumers.com/
  NJ, USA, 1-888-PIERRE1)

  Ben Nye

  Best all around blood. Flows very well. Color is deep and shows up well
  on video or film. A little too dark for black actors. Moderately
  washable. Bonus: Edible, and mint flavored. Also available in Thick
  blood (excellent) and dried scab (browner and older looking) Ben Nye
  also has a full line of product in his Moulage line...(for EMT and
  Disaster training) Geleffects can creat great wounds without messing up
  clothing (product is made ahead of time and is dry once used, you can
  spray glycerine to "freshen" or moisten it). He also provides a great
  product. Dried blood powder. It is a very economical way to go...you can
  splash it all around or stain clothes with it...designed to simulate
  horrific crash scenes in emergency training exercises.

  Mehron

  The worst on the market....too light....too runny...looks like watery
  strawberry pancake syrup. Don't waste your time

  Kryolan

  Excellent products...they have blood that dries to the touch (great for
  clothes) Eyeblood (cry tears of blood)...their film blud is great for TV
  and video...it has a yellow pigment in it that reflects nicely under
  lights.it also smears very realistically. Film blud is available in
  arterial (light color) and venous (darker). Frankly they have many more
  products...they are the most comprehensive carrier of blood...I just
  don't need the others...but I can get them if someone needs them.

  Reel

  Fred has the best bloods on the market. He is a little know secret. He
  has been a make-up artist for the last 30 years. He works on major first
  run movies. His blood is available in "original" (great bright color,
  washable, runs well, great all around blood for most scenes and skin
  types) "Lung" (brighter for either gruesome spurting scenes, or use with
  darker skinned actors. Bubbles very well for gushing wounds), and aged
  (darker for that "I cut myself 15 minutes ago and it hasn't stopped
  flowing yet" look. He also provides thick blood. Fresh (great brush
  burns and scrapes...stays in place), aged (older scabby look) and old
  dried (dark brown look) ...mixing the 3 together in appropriate streaks
  and blobs makes the MOST realistic looking wounds for TV and Film

  (BTW Reel is the best source for custom tattoo painting systems. It is a
  cross between real tattoos, stencils, and an alcohol based painting
  system. There are over 5000 styles avail. ranging from gang to prison to
  biker to tribal. They can't be discerned from real ones up close...even
  when you rub on them)

  The most washable of all bloods is Reel

8. Toffee glass / Candy glass bottles?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By weight mix 7 parts sugar, 3 parts corn syrup and 2 parts water. Add
food dye to colour, or use brown sugar for brown glass. Heat until it
melts/dissolves at 225F or 108C. Let it cool - as it starts to harden
pour it into the mould, then tilt the mould to cover all the surfaces.

Monta Elkins found that this didn't work at 225F, but 300F worked well.
Also, use the clearest corn-syrup you can find, as the slight yellow
colour shows in the completed glass. Adding vanilla essence makes the
failures taste good enough to eat.

Dave Porter suggests covering a bottle with a carefully smoothed layer
of foil, then many more layers of possibly crumpled foil. Cut this in
half and use it as a slip mould for toffee glass bottles.

Be wary of hot sugar syrup. It hurts. Use gloves.

Toffee glass is hard to get right and incredibly messy when it goes
wrong. A number of people have recommended using casting resin to make
breakaway glassware instead.

ANA have been recommended for breakaway bottles, furniture etc.

ANA Special Effects
7021 Hayvenhurst Ave.
Van Nuys, California 91406
(818) 909-6999

Another source for breakaway resin (ordinary polyester or epoxy resin
isn't any good for this) is:

Zeller International
Main Street
Downsville, NY
USA 13755-0375
tel 607-363-7792

They have a catalogue and price list of their breakaway and other SPFX products.

Refilling beverage cans

I'm trying to empty a beer can and refill it with a less inebreating liquid. If I use water, I can reseal holes punched in the bottom with tape. If I try to use a carbonated beverage, it leaks. Any suggestions? If you can find a can of soda or another beverage which just fits inside your beer can (many do), you can cut the top off the beer can and slip the other unopened can inside. This has the advantage of allowing the actor to pop the top on the "beer". The beer can top has to be cut off BELOW the rolled rim, so that the cut edge will slide up under the rim of the outer can. Be sure this edge is flat and as smooth as possible. You'll still probably want to wrap a strip of clear tape around the whole edge for actor safety.

SET / SCENIC

• Turntable / Revolve
  • One of the most worthy turntable tips is not to mount the wheels on the
    turntable, but mount them upside down on the floor so that the turntable
    rides on them. That way debris can't gather on them and bring the
    turntable to a sudden crunching halt. :)
    Clive Mitchell
    http://www.bigclive.com

3. Why are stages painted black?

To reduce reflections of stray light. They should be matt black, rather
than gloss black to do this successfully.

SET PAINTING

• Glaze
• I'm applying glaze to a painted floor. No matter what type of glaze I use, it always ends up with white patches all over it. What am I doing wrong?
• Cloudiness is caused by air bubbles in the glaze. Avoid them by stirring the glaze gently (not shaking the can) and rolling over a given area only once per coat, gently. (extra coats and later touch-ups are fine, but wait till its completely dry) Brush what is reasonable. (Brushing will only ever need one coat) Don't point a fan at it. Practice. It takes a lot of patience.

SOUND

What's the pinout of a 3-pin XLR connector ("Cannon")?

Well most manufacturers use pin 2 hot:

Pin 1 = Shield ground
Pin 2 = Positive balanced signal
Pin 3 = Negative balanced signal

Mnemonic: XLR = Shield,Live,Return

But I've also seen pin 3 hot and heard of pin 1 hot, so check your manuals.

What is phantom power?

[Paraphrased from the excellent rec.audio.pro FAQ at
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/AudioFAQ/pro-audio-faq/faq.html

Condenser microphones have internal electronics which require power. In
phantom power (DIN spec 45596) the positive terminal of a 48V power
supply is connected via 6800ohm resistors to both signal leads of a
microphone and the negative terminal to the ground connection

A dynamic or ribbon mic can be connected to a phantom powered circuit
without damage. The only risks are a shorted mic cable, or some old mics
with a centre tap - these will be damaged if connected to a phantom
powered circuit.

How do I connect balanced and unbalanced equipment?

[Paraphrased from the excellent rec.audio.pro FAQ at http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/AudioFAQ/pro-audio-faq/faq.html amongst other places]

The correct way to connect balanced and unbalanced equipment is an audio balance transformer

To connect an unbalanced output (typically on a phono connector from some home audio equipment, eg a CD player) to a balanced input (almost always an XLR connector). Connect the centre pin to pin 2 of the XLR connector, and the ground ring to pins 1 & 3

To connect a balanced output to an unbalanced input is trickier. If it's a floating (passive) balanced output you can connect pin 2 of the XLR to the phono pin and pin 3 to the ring. If it's an active balanced output then you may be able to XLR pin 2 to the phono pin and pin 1 to the phono ring, leaving pin 3 unconnected. If that fails try connecting XLR pin 3 to the phono pin, XLR pin 1 to the ring and leavin pin 2 unconnected. Both of these approaches may well cause distortion or more noise.

How do I ring an on-stage phone?

The Tele Q, made by CEI Inc, PO Box 51, Deborah, IA 52101 Tel: +1 319
382 0041, Fax: +1 319 382 0041 is one gadget to do this. Approximately
US$110-120. It's US$18 for a power supply, but batteries last a long
time.

Norcostco at http://www.norcostco.htm/ have it in stock for US$120 at
the time of writing

Maplin MPS, PO Box 77, Rayleigh, Essex, UK, +44 1702 554400 make a kit
called the 'Autoring', P/N LT19V. Maplin live at http://www.maplin.co.uk - they list a number of overseas distributors there.

Pricing anyone? It's an expensive call from New England.

19.95 (pounds sterling) in their 96/97 catalogue.

Jech Tech Inc, 13962 Olde Post Road, Pickerington, Ohio, 43147, USA
Tel: +1 614-927-3495, Fax: +1 614 927 3493
Sales & service : jectech@infininet.com
...make a small PCB module generating 180V pk to pk at up to 20 Hz, ringing up to 5 REN (ringer equivalents). Frequency is adjustable for non US phones. Requires 12V DC power supply. US$49.95 plus shipping and handling. They have a web site at http://www.infinet.com/~jectech/

http://www.hut.fi/~then/circuits/telephone_ringer.html has general info on ringing telephones along with several means of producing ring voltage. Links to commercial equipment sources and to scratch built plans as in the Wenzel link below

http://www.wenzel.com/pages/mystrylb.htm has complete plans for a phone ringer providing ring voltage and cadence control, provisions for talk circuit and audio input. It's in PDF format so you'll need Acrobat from http://www.adobe.com. Looks like c.US$20 component cost.

In the UK, phones are rung with 50V A.C., at 25Hz. If want to ring a phone where the clapper oscillates between 2 bells, remove one of the bells, and run it from a transformer giving 50VAC, 50Hz. If you want to ring a more modern phone, a lot generate the ring frequency themselves, which makes it easier. Get hold of a master socket (the type with the surge arrestor, out of service resistor and a capacitor inside), and apply 50VAC 50Hz to the terminals A and B, and the phone will sort out the frequencies itself.

[Thanks to Murr Rhame for most of this info]

5. Script publishers information

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dramatists Play Service
440 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10016

Tel: 212-683-8960
Fax: 212-213-1539

e-mail: postmaster@dramatists.com
web: http://www.dramatists.com

Samuel French (New York Office)
45 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10010

Tel: 212-206-8990
Fax: 212-206-1429

Subject: 1. What are cue lights?

They're small lights controlled by the stage-manager allowing her to cue
stage-crew and front of house operators.

Most people who've used them far prefer cue-lights + headsets to
headsets alone. Many, particularly sound engineers & flymen, are happy
running with just cue-lights

There seem to be two main flavours of cue lights.

The type I'm familiar with seems to be common in the UK. Each remote
cue-light position has a red light, a green light and a button. The
stage manager has a red light, a green light and a three-way switch for
each remote position

The SM moves the switch to 'standby' and both red lights start flashing.
The crewman presses the button to acknowledge and the red lights go to
steady-on. Then the SM moves the switch to 'go', both red lights go out,
both green lights go on. The SM releases the switch and both lights go
out.

These are nice, as the SM has feedback from the crew, and with an
explicit 'go' light it's easy to cue rapid sequences of cues (standby,
acknowledge, go, go, go). The downside is slightly more complex
hardware.

An even better variant of this has separate switches at he SMs desk for
standby and go. The go switch is a three-way, centre-off biased one-way
toggle switch. Moved to the biased position it turns on the go light.
Moved to the non-biased position it transfers control to a master go
switch. This makes it easy to go on multiple crew simultaneously.

The other flavour I know of is a single light at the remote position
with a switch at the SMs desk. These are used on-for-standby followed by
off-for-go, I believe. Anyone familiar with them want to correct me?

Well, this is what I have:

Pens, lots of pens. Pencils.
Notepad, larger pad of paper.
Yellow post-it notes, big & little.
White-out. Highlighter pens. Spirit markers.
Painkillers & plasters (note, giving these to people is a very
bad idea under some legislatures, including US & UK. I allow
people to steal them, but would *never* give them to somebody).
Safety pins. Needle and thread. (For when wardrobe have vanished)
Sellotape, LX tape, Gaffer tape - black and white.
Masking tape for marking up cue-lights.
Paper glue, stapler (good for costumes as well as paperwork...)
Screwdriver. Stanley knife.
Chocolate, for those endless techs.
Stuff to keep actors amused & quiet - this started when I did
kids shows, but is handy for adult actors too - cards, travel games.
Wet wipes. Tissues.
Copies of company contact list, props list, local list of 'phone
numbers (printers, fire marshall, local hospital, places to get
*anything* at short notice).
Maglight or other torch. Dark gel for dimming down working lights.
Glow tape.

Probably overkill - if you have co-operative wardrobe & tech-crew
around they'll deal with the problems and you'll never need half of
this stuff.

Further research

Books

2. What are some good books?

PLASA list a number of books, with brief descriptions and ordering info at http://www.plasa.org.uk/techbook.htm

Effects for the Theatre by Graham Walne, ISBN 0-89676-136-3 US$25.
How to build flaming torches, flash pots, scissor lifts, colour
changers, gobos and lots of other stuff.

Sound Design in the Theatre by John Bracewll
ISBN 0-13-825167-3, Prentice-Hall. Out of print.

Magazines

3. What magazines are there?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lighting and Sound International
Great mag, my favourite. Contact information, online subscriptions
(visa/amex/MC/switch) and selected articles are available at
http://www.plasa.org.uk/publicat.htm . UKP50/yr in the UK, UKP65 or
UKP90 outside the UK
Lighting Dimensions
Recomended by Bill Staines. Check out their web site at
http://www.etec.org/ld/ . For subscriptions contact ldsubs@etec.org
(US$29.95 for 11 issues, US only) or by mail LIGHTING DIMENSIONS,
32 WEST 18 ST, NEW YORK, NY 10011-4612 or fax +1 212 229 2084
(Canada US$40.95, rest of world US$57.45 surface or US$79.45 air).
Payment by cheque in US dollars or some other currencies (including
sterling) or by credit card - email for details.
Theatre Crafts International (TCI)
Formerly Theatre Crafts. Recomended by Bill Staines. Check out
their web site at http://www.etec.org/tci/ . For subscriptions
contact tcisubs@etec.org (US$24.95 for 10 issues, US only, AmEx,
Discover, Visa, Mastercard) or by mail to TCI, 32 WEST 18 ST, NEW
YORK, NY 10011-4612 or fax to +1 212 229 2084 (Canada US$34.95,
rest of world US$49.95 surface, US$69.95 air). Payment by cheque in
US dollars or some other currencies (including sterling) or by
credit card - email for details.
Connections, Australias Entertainment & Technology Monthly
Web site at http://www.conpub.com.au . A$39.50/yr in Australia,
A$70 Asia, A$95 USA, A$100 UK & Europe. To subscribe email
mail@conpub.com.au and they'll call you back for credit card info
Dramatics
Web site at http://www.etassoc.org/dram-mag.html . Educational
theatre magazine published nine times a year. US$18/yr.
CineFex
Cinema effects, published quarterly. US$26/yr in USA, US$36
surface/US$46 air elsewhere. 800-434-3339, Fax 909-788-1793.
CineFex, PO Box 20027, Riverside, CA92515, USA.

4. Any other online resources?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jon Primrose maintains a very complete glossary of stagecraft terms,
acronyms and jargon at http://www.ex.ac.uk/drama/tech/glossary.html

The historical costuming FAQ can be found at
http://www.jcave.com/~dybitter/faqs.html

The rec.audio.pro FAQ can be found at
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/rec.audio.pro/

There's a list of stagecraft resources at
http://www.yahoo.com/Arts/Performing_Arts/Theater/Stagecraft/

The stagecraft list archives at
http://www.ffa.ucalgary.ca/cgi-bin/wais-stgcrft.pl have a good selection
of info

The Society for Creative Anachronism have a lot of useful information
for historical costuming, props and production at
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/arts_and_sciences.html

The page for costuming info is http://users.aol.com/nebula5/costume.html

Theatre Crafts International have a good selection of tips and howtos at
http://www.etec.org/tci/howtos/howtos.shtml

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

alt.stagecraft
The original stagecraft newsgroup. This was supposed to be replaced
by rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft but like many alt.* newsgroups it
refused to die. alt.stagecraft is lower traffic than r.a.t.s..
There are often interesting threads on alt.stagecraft that don't
get crossposted to r.a.t.stagecraft, so it's well worth reading
both
rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft
The 'official' stagecraft newsgroup. Lots of noise, but lots of
signal too. Discussions are mostly about set, props, lighting and
sound but any backstage topics are welcome.
net.theatre.stagecraft
The Usenet2 stagecraft newsgroup. Pretty much the same charter and
content as rec.arts.theatre.stagecraft but as part of Usenet2 it
should be nearly free of spam. See
http://www.blighty.com/nettheatre/ for information on how to get
access to it and some posting rules
rec.audio.pro
A lot of good stuff here. Most people are discussing studio
recording rather than sound reinforcement, but there's a lot of
overlap. At the moment it's swamped with 'for sale' ads (so it's a
good place to find second-hand equipment....) but it will hopefully
split, adding a .marketplace subgroup sometime soon.
sci.engr.lighting
Primarily for architectural lighting professionals, but you can
occasionally pick up some really good ideas.
alt.pyrotechnics
Just one word. Don't. Look at rec.pyrotechnics instead.
rec.pyrotechnics
There are a lot of very knowledgable readers lurking here, and a
lot of useful information, particularly about making your own pyro
(and why you shouldn't). Most of the Kewl Bomz crowd get squashed
fairly rapidly.
rec.org.sca
I'm not even going to start trying to describe the Society for
Creative Anachronism, I'll just say they're a nice bunch of unusual
people and as a group they probably know more about historic and
pseudo-historic costuming than anyone else. If you're a costumier
or you do props it's well worth lurking here, if only to grab ideas
and commercial contact info. (Also, if you need good, really good,
historical costumes and are prepared to pay for them, some SCA
members do commercial work.) rec.org.sca is a group with it's own
rules, more so than many. If you're not an SCA member yourself you
should lurk for a while before even thinking about posting a polite
inquiry.
rec.crafts.textiles.sewing
Lots of general sewing stuff - worth a look for a costumier
rec.woodworking
Well... It's about woodworking and woodworking tools. It may be of
interest to the occasional setbuilder.
comp.cad.autocad and comp.cad.microstation
If you use one of the big two CAD tools these groups are a great
support resource.
sci.electronics.*
Electronics design and finding odd components
rec.arts.dance
There are occasional relevant threads, but it's a very high traffic
group with very little of interest to designers, or even
choreographers.