Crew roles

ASM (assistant stage manager)

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The ASM runs a section of the deck under the stage manager: a wing, the quick-change traffic, or talent escort. In theatre, ASMs execute the physical show the calling SM commands.

DSM (deputy stage manager)

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In UK theatre, the DSM is "on the book": sitting in the prompt corner calling the cues, while the stage manager runs the wider operation. The US equivalent duty sits with the calling SM.

Master electrician (ME)

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The ME leads the lighting crew: owns the hang, the power, the data, and the maintenance of the rig, executing the LD’s design. On tours the lighting crew chief plays the same role.

Board op

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The board operator runs a console (lighting or audio) during the show, executing cues on the caller’s or SM’s go. Distinct from the designer who created what the board plays back.

Spot op

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The followspot operator runs a followspot from a spot chair or truss seat, taking pickups on the caller’s standby/go and keeping performers in a controlled pool of light.

Crew chief

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The crew chief leads a department’s labor on site: assigns hands, sequences the work, and interfaces with the department head or PM. On tours, each department’s traveling lead is its crew chief.

Department head

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The department head owns one craft on a production (audio, electrics, carpentry, video, props) and its crew. In union houses, house heads run their departments for every show that comes through.

Steward

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The union steward is the local’s representative on a call: tracks hours and breaks, enforces the contract, and is the formal channel between crew and management. The steward’s watch defines when penalties start.

Loader

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Loaders work the trucks: on and off, dock to ramp. In many locals, loading is its own craft with its own call, and the pack’s speed lives or dies on their case-tetris judgment.

Pusher

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A pusher moves cases between dock and stage on big calls, the human conveyor belt of load-ins. Unofficial title, universally understood, first job of countless careers.

Backline tech

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The backline tech maintains and sets the band’s instruments: drum tech, guitar tech, keys tech. They tune, string, patch pedalboards, and hand off instruments mid-song like a pit crew.

Production assistant (PA)

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The PA is the production office’s utility player: paperwork, radios, credentials, runner dispatch, and whatever the PM needs next. Not the same PA as the sound system, a collision the acronym decoder chart enjoys.

House crew vs road crew

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House crew belongs to the venue (house heads, house electricians); road crew travels with the show. The daily handshake between them, road knowledge meeting house knowledge, is how touring works at all.

Over-hire

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Over-hire is supplemental freelance labor brought in beyond the regular or union core crew for a big call. Shops and locals both use the term for their extra-hands lists.

L1 / L2

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Corporate AV shorthand mirroring A1/A2 for lighting: L1 leads and operates, L2 supports the rig. Less standardized than the audio version but common on staffing grids.

Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.