By James C. Egan
There is a Zen saying, “When the show goes wrong, blame the stage manager.” Conversely, stage managers have a Zen saying, “When the show goes wrong, blame the technicians.” There is another Zen saying, “When technicians say they know what they are doing, they don’t.” This is why artistic people in the Theatre; actors, writers and directors, practice Zen. It allows for an avenue of blame that will not disturb the natural artistic balance so delicately achieved by the art department.
There is, however, an entire Buddhist movement emerging for technicians. With them, there is a Zen saying, “When the show goes wrong, drink plenty of martinis, or just straight whisky.”
The technical side of the business is very difficult to get into now-a-days due to so many millions of applications being filed on a daily basis. Most of the professional shows I’ve been in have gone without a hitch, except on a rare occasion when an actor would forget an entrance or a line. Even more rare would be a technical glitch. But when there would be a problem on the technical end, it was because the majority of the technical staff was sufficiently and religiously plastered.