Do you give presents to fellow cast members on the last night?

Some people are really creative, funny, or just plain punny, but what's the best present you've ever given or been given, and why was it appropriate for the show or character.

I'll give you an example: When I played Kipps, I gave everyone a "Flash, Bang Wallop" film. They took ages to make, but looked great: I went down to my local photo processors and got hold of a load of empty 35mm film canisters. Then I opened them up and "loaded" them with strips of clear acetate onto which I had printed "Flash Bang Wallop, what a show, with love from Kipps, etc, etc". When they pulled the strip out of the canister they got the message. I even changed the outside of the canisters using self-adhesive labels so that it said "Kipps" instead of "Kodak". I was also GIVEN some great presents for tghis show, the best of which was a small wooden model of a theatre, complete with interchangeable sets and cutout characters. It was given to me by Chitterlowm, who was very artistic and had reproduced all the Half a Sixpence sets faithfully.

Two of the societies I belong to do the pressie thing. Can be a bit of a nightmare. Some people seem to spend a fortune on pressies, others just a quid or two but very imaginatively. Actually the only pressie I still have is a horseshoe, sprayed black and with "Fiddler on the Roof 1998" written on it in yellow. Still hangs in my kitchen to this day.

With one society in recent years they have decided to have a pot in which you can make a donation to charity instead of buying pressies. Does make it easier.

For the other society, where it's a sizeable cast, all those that want to participate put their names in a hat. You all then draw a name and you buy a present for that person to the value of ?5 ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM!!!! You can have a lot of fun with that and it means you don't end up spending a fortune.

The groups I belong to club together to buy presents for the production team. And when we did Shadowlands I had 2 tiny non-speaking parts as a waitress and a clerk, and when not on stage, did prompt. So as a cast member, I chipped in my money as usual, only to find that as I was also prompt, I got a small gift. So I suppose you could say I contributed to buying my own pressie, which was a box of posh teabags.

Claire

One lady in our local opera company does canalboat painting as a hobby, so everyone always gets a jamjar or a pot all beautifully decorated. I was overwhelmed the first time, as I was just third props girl on stage left, and didn't know anyone!

Mostly principals tend to give each other silly little things like topical keyrings or fridge magnets.

Cards are always in abundance.

I always leave a tin of sweets in each dressing room for the intervals.

QUOTE (Anne-Marie @ Apr 8 2003, 11:10 PM)

Mostly principals tend to give each other silly little things like topical keyrings or fridge magnets. Cards are always in abundance.

When we did Wizard I was Tin Man, and managed to get some bookmarks for The other principals. Was a nice touch. This time though (Music Man) I wasn't so lucky so had to make do with cards using pictures I'd nicked off a website (shhh don't tell anyone)

I always seem to get it wrong - either I buy loads of presents and no-one else does, or I don't buy many and everyone in the club buys them for me!

In fact the cards I send seem to be better received than the presents. I normally take - or rather, have a friend take - photos of the show at dress rehearsal time. I always get the pictures printed onto CD as well, which makes it easy to manipulate them on the PC.

The cards are made up of a montage of photos from the show, and then printed on shiny paper. People seem to like them!

An example card is the "Half A Sixpence" image on the front page of the Stirling Website.

regards,
/alan

We always do loads of sweets and biscuits, and of course cards. Last year I was in the premiere of The Junipere Affair, a musical written by one of the group, and as a lasting memento he gave us each a card with all our mugshots on, entitled the Original Cast. So once the show is famous, my card will be worth a fortune!

Claire

I always make a point of collecting "interesting" photos of members of the cast or crew during rehearsals (or from their families) and sometimes morph them on the computer. Pics of them trying on costumes, rehearsing or just hanging out. Then we run a caption competition each night, with the prize for the best presented at the vocal warm up each night of the show.

It encourages the cast to come along, no comments are banned from the competition, and everyone has a laugh. I usually ask a "guest" (theatre manager/visiting photographer/bar staff) to pick the best one. We all have a good laugh

I've kept every one of these posters, carefully taken down off the noticeboards over the years, and even now they make me laugh when I read them all.

They're my best memory of any show.

Alan - I'm with you on this. Cards made up of photos from the rehearsals or the show itself are always welcome with me. These are things that are KEPT - they make super momentos.

I've stayed out of this one because I have very mixed feelings on the subject.

a. Whether acting, directing, supporting or techie, are we not all doing it because we want too? So why prezzies at all?
b. A school I helped out (as a parent) called me up on stage to present me with a gift. I was extremely embarrassed, firstly becuse I can't stand being in the limelight, but especially when the group of schoolboys, who had done most of the work under my guidance, received nothing. How can anyone ensure no-one gets left out? As it was a bottle of whisky, I couldn't even share it! *hic*
c. There is always the issue highlighted by Alan and Maureen where there is no standard therefore as an individual you don't really know what to spend or expect. Additionally, and I doubt I am alone here, I've usually spent quite a lot of my own money getting the show on. From my side, it's usually gel, bulbs, gaffer tape, batteries, connectors as well as props. Others I know have put their hands into their own pockets for props, costumes, paint, material etc.
d. I really do like the momento idea. Two shows I did I was promised a video and stills and never recieved either. A photo montage, bookmark etc would have meant so much.

So to try to rationalise this rambling, it would seem to make sense to have someone made responsible for getting a 'momento' made up for each show and ensure everyone involved gets one.

Just my six penneth worth ..... Robin

The momento thing is by far the best.... my youngest played Capt Smolsky in Bugsy a couple of years ago.. he has a framed montage of various cast members on his wall and still talks about it. The friends he made etc ... such wonderful memories

I'm still open on the pressie giving front - It's great if I get a personal thank you card - that make me feel appreciated. You can run into so much trouble though when giving gifts as a thank you. For instance if someone gives up 3 days of annual leave for a show and gets a similar thank you gift to someone who's just turned up for the show- does that not make one person embarrassed and one feel un-appreciated?

I have to agree that we're not in this for gifts, as I said at the start it's nice to get a card - and it's quite special if the cast meet you in the bar and offer to buy a drink and thank you for what ever you've done - at least you feel as they know you're there (really I've been to productions where none of the cast hast said a word to the crew, not even inviting them to the after-show party)

The most offensive gift I ever had was when my ex and I were working on a show (her DSM me lighting) and we got given a joint card and gift - It was the fact they couldn't recognise us as individuals (the only conversations I help with her that week was over the cans)


Another Director used to always give a special present to his wife - for what ever role she performed which used to rub people up the wrong way

The most surprising gift I had was when the cast gave me a bottle of champagne when they usually only give cast gift to the Director and MD

The presents that went down the best was when the crew gave out little gifts that we'd made all linked with the show (normally topical) that was cool.

Pressies are cool as long as you don't offend people

but the best is usually a personal thank you

Cuddington Players always get a crate of beer in for the crew. Limited to one can each during the performance though - don't want to get them drunk. And then at the end of the run, we give every unpaid helper a bottle of wine.

Claire

QUOTE (Cuddington @ Apr 16 2003, 11:10 AM)

Cuddington Players always get a crate of beer in for the crew. We give every unpaid helper a bottle of wine. Claire

Can I work on your show??

A case of champers would go down well instead (use lighting chappies are more sophisticated in our tastes )

QUOTE (Cuddington @ Apr 16 2003, 11:10 AM)

And then at the end of the run, we give every unpaid helper a bottle of wine.

One thing that I think Martin meant was that a person who comes and helps out in a small way on show week gets the same bottle of wine as the person who has trudged to rehearsals week after week, spent hundreds if not thousands of hours designing/building/planning, probably taken most of a week off work as unpaid leave, and often done an overnight get-in.

QUOTE (Anne-Marie @ Apr 17 2003, 12:03 AM)

One thing that I think Martin meant was that a person who comes and helps out in a small way on show week gets the same bottle of wine as the person who has trudged to rehearsals week after week, spent hundreds if not thousands of hours designing/building/planning, probably taken most of a week off work as unpaid leave, and often done an overnight get-in.

Some of our helpers get decent plonk, while others get cheapo stuff, so there is a small element of differentiation. And the SM and our only unpaid member of the band (who also doubles as rehearsal pianist when needed) get whiskey.

Hey and I do the booze run to France to get el cheapo.

Claire

QUOTE (Martin @ Apr 16 2003, 11:52 PM)

Can I work on your show?? A case of champers would go down well instead (use lighting chappies are more sophisticated in our tastes )

Only if Tony Bowdery, our lighting expert is on holiday. Do you know him? He also lives in Guildford.

But sorry no champers.

Claire

QUOTE (Cuddington @ Apr 17 2003, 9:55 AM)

QUOTE (Martin @ Apr 16 2003, 11:52 PM) Can I work on your show?? A case of champers would go down well instead (use lighting chappies are more sophisticated in our tastes ) Only if Tony Bowdery, our lighting expert is on holiday. Do you know him? He also lives in Guildford. But sorry no champers. Claire

Oh Dear - small world - yep I know Tony - he's on holiday for SJ otherwise he might have been helping on the rig

QUOTE (Martin @ Apr 17 2003, 12:41 PM)

Oh Dear - small world - yep I know Tony - he's on holiday for SJ otherwise he might have been helping on the rig

Why didn't you just change the dates of the show? Thats what we did for Calam, when we realised our original dates, clashed with holidays for lighting and SM. They are important guys.

Claire

QUOTE (Cuddington @ Apr 17 2003, 2:14 PM)

QUOTE (Martin @ Apr 17 2003, 12:41 PM) Oh Dear - small world - yep I know Tony - he's on holiday for SJ otherwise he might have been helping on the rig Why didn't you just change the dates of the show? Thats what we did for Calam, when we realised our original dates, clashed with holidays for lighting and SM. They are important guys. Claire

Well I'm the Lighting designer for the show, I've got 3 other top people in lighting helping me (without doubt the best within 100 miles) - one as assistant LD - who's a top LD in his own right. Added to that I've got a 15 strong lighting rigging team for the fit up and get out. Tony was going to come along and help on the rigging as he'd never used moving lights

As you might gather this is a huge show - the lighiting budget alone is ?10,000!)

On top of that I've got another 15 strong staging team just to assemble the set after the lights go up. Me thinks there will be lots of bottles of wine being brought (and drunk!)

Like the cast - all the principle people backstage (SM/DSM, LD, SD,) all have a second so that everyone gets a night off or they have a back up if they get sick etc - The get in for lighting is estimated to take 10 hrs alone just to get the lights in the air

A lot of the plotting is going to start soon on specialist software which will be loaded into the board at the theatre which should cut down the lighting plotting time to about 36 hrs