CONTENTS

Understudy: alt, u/s, s/b, s/w, e/c, t/r

Titles: master, pro-shot, house-cam, soundboard

Locations: Broadway, Off-Broadway, West End, etc. (yes, these have Official Definitions. Who knew?)

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Understudy Terms:

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-- It turns out that "understudy" isn't a generic name for performer who steps in when the usual person can't play the part at a given show. It's a specific type of backup performer.

 

-- I had no idea

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-- alt is alternate (but you guessed that.) An alt is a backup performer who is scheduled for regular appearances as the role. It's usually used in lead and very demanding vocal roles, like Christine in POTO (standard) or Valjean in Les Mis (because there are so many good ones).

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-- u/s is understudy, a member of the regular cast, usually the ensemble, who moves up into a lead or bigger role

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-- t/r is temporary replacement, a performer who plays a part regularly for a set amount of time while the usual cast member is taking a break for the production (surgery, vacation, engagement in a different short-term production, what have you)

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-- s/w is the attempt to make an acronym out of the one-syllable swing, a member of a cast who does not play a regular part on stage, but can step into ("swings on") a variety of roles as needed. Because they have to know all the different parts ("tracks") so well, they spend a lot of their non-performing time helping new/future cast members learn their own role(s)

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-- s/b is standby, a not-regularly-appearing cast member who is regularly on call to fill a specific role when needed. I think that someone can be a standby for multiple shows at the same time.

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-- standbys also often have to be available during shows, in case the performer who starts the show can't finish

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-- e/c is emergency cover: someone in the rough geographic area who knows a role/the show and can fill the part if there are no understudies, swings, or standbys who can. An e/c is often a former cast member, whether or not they played the specific part before

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-- I read on a couple of sites that there's a fairly standard order for choosing which type of back-up. But I also know from looking at the patterns individual shows follow (RENT, looking at you here) that everyone has their own rules

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-- "RENT, looking at you here" is the unofficial motto of this site

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-- The different types of backup are official. They determine the minimum salary that shows on Broadway have to pay each category of performer

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Titles

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- Master (1): The person who recorded the bootleg

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- Master (2): The original copy of the bootleg itself, made by the person-master (so, "spelunkingsailor's master" means the video, but "spelunkingsailor" is also the video's master). Sometimes this is also used to refer to any copy of a boot by the person-master, in the sense that it still belongs to them.

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- ...just roll with it

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- Proshot (or pro-shot): A video produced by the theatre, generally high-quality and with good zooms. Sometimes these are shot with multiple cameras and edited together like a movie. The Disney+ Hamilton movie is a great example of a pro-shot that was later released commercially.

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- House-cam: Another type of video produced by the theatre, except this is from a single camera at the back of the theatre and capturing the whole stage. These are not always as good quality as proshots, but you get to see everything that is happening at the same time instead of a zoomed-in small part. Two popular videos that are good examples: Les Misérables - Fourth UK & Ireland Tour - January, 2019 (House-Cam's master), and Wicked - First National Tour - May 2006. Sometimes these are labeled "proshot from the house camera."

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- Conductor's cam: Most often, a video of the conductor during the show---not the stage. So you do not see the performers, and the sound is probably louder for the instruments than the performers.

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- Soundboard: Also produced by the theatre itself. Takes its audio directly from the performers' and orchestra microphones. Sometimes these sound awesome, like a studio recording (when they have been remixed/edited); sometimes they sound a little dull.

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Locations

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- "Broadway" is a common street name in the U.S. (possibly elsewhere, too

 

- Broadway for us is the name for a group of 41 theatres located on or near one part of the Broadway in Manhattan, NYC

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- A Broadway theatre is a professional theatre with more than 500 seats located in Manhattan

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- An Off-Broadway theatre is a professional theatre with 100 to 500 seats, also in Manhattan

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- An Off-Off Broadway theatre is a professional theatre with less than 100 seats

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- Since it is harder to sell more tickets, Broadway is the most prestigious. Some shows never aim for Broadway. Others start Off-Broadway, and if they are successful, move to a bigger Broadway theatre. RENT and Hamilton both had Off-Broadway runs before they upgraded.

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- West End is the name for London's equivalent of Broadway: 39 large, professional theatres located in London's West End neighborhood

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- Off West End is more of an unofficial name for London's smaller theatres, shockingly NOT located in the West End

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- Touring company: a professional cast sponsored by the show's rights-holders/main producers that travels around a given region, usually performing several shows in the same theatre before moving someplace else

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- Sit-down: a professional cast sponsored by the show's rights holder/main producers that plays in a single theatre in a single city (besides New York or London) for a long stretch of time. For example, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco have hosted sit-down productions of Wicked.

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- Non-replica: a performance of a popular show that uses different staging, sets, and costumes from the standard Broadway/West End ones. These are usually produced by regional theatres---theatres that produce their own shows rather than hosting a touring company

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Other

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- Workshop: basically a performance of the rough draft of a show, although not all workshop shows will ever be officially produced

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- Sitzprobe: an early rehearsal with everyone in the cast and usually the full orchestra/band, but sitting or standing around in street clothes to get the singing and instruments right 

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- Restaged: when the replica-style productions, run by the company who holds the rights to the show, change the set, blocking, and usually other things of replica productions. For example: the original staging of Les Misérables opened with the convicts chopping rocks in a quarry. This was true of all replica productions--Broadway, West End, tours, etc. In 2010, the production company introduced a new set and costumes for all those official productions. Now the show opens with the convicts rowing a boat into the harbor. This is the restaged version.

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- Wait. If all Les Mis replica productions have been restaged since 2010, why does the video of the [2011-2019] West End production have the original staging? This is because, through July 2019 when it closed, the west End production had never stopped running. Only when the original production closed in July and the "revival" opened in December, were they able to use therestaged version.

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