Show dictionary · Production Management
Call Time
A call time is the time a person or department is required to be present and ready to work. A production day is a stack of calls: riggers at 6, audio at 8, band at 3, orchestra at half hour. "You are called at" is the operative phrasing.
In practice
Calls encode the build order and the labor budget simultaneously: every hour of crew call is money, so departments are called when their work can begin, not before. Union agreements attach minimums and penalties to calls, which is why changing one is a production manager conversation, not a text.
The culture around calls is unforgiving in the best way: on time is late, fifteen early is on time. Theatre formalizes the performer version with the half-hour call and its countdown to places.
How you’ll hear it
"Audio call moved to 7:30; riggers still at 6. Check tomorrow’s sheet tonight."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.