Call boy is the job title of a
stagehand
A stagehand is a person who works backstage or behind the scenes in theatres, film, television, or location performance. Their work include setting up the scenery, lights, sound, props, rigging, and special effects for a production.
General
S ...
in the
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...
. They are hired by either the
director,
producer, or stage crew chief. They report directly to the crew chief, are usually paid by the hour, and will sometimes rotate between several groups from one
performance
A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Management science
In the work place ...
to the next.
Primary roles
The primary responsibility of the call boy or girl is to move from backstage to the dressing rooms and
green rooms alerting actors and actresses of their entrances in time for them to appear on stage on
cue. For example, they might call out, "You're on in five minutes, Miss Bernhardt."
The call boy or girl also calls the "quarter hour" and "overture and beginners", the preparatory warning that signals for the
orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
to start the introductory music and the beginners, those performers who appear on stage at the beginning of the first act, to get into their opening positions. The call boy or girl also assists with scene changes.
Etymology
The term was already current at the end of the 18th century, when the Shakespearean scholar
Edmond Malone
Edmond Malone (4 October 174125 May 1812) was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of William Shakespeare.
Assured of an income after the death of his father in 1774, Malone was able to give up his law practice for at first p ...
claimed that
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's first job in the theatre was that of "call-boy".
Notable people
Usually actors themselves, they have historically taken roles and done crowd scenes as needed. The actor
William J. Ferguson (June 8, 1845 – May 3, 1930) was the call boy at
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre is a theater located in Washington, D.C., which opened in August 1863. The theater is infamous for being the site of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. On the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth entered the theater bo ...
in
Washington, D.C., when actor
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth ...
killed
President Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
and fled.
["The Call Boy's Story". '']The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. Apr. 18, 1915. p. X 6. Ferguson was described as the last surviving eye witness. He said he and actress
Laura Keene
Laura Keene (20 July 1826 – 4 November 1873) was a British stage actress and theatre manager. In her twenty-year career, she became known as the first powerful female manager in New York. She is most famous for being the lead actress in ...
were standing off stage at the first entrance, opposite the president's box, when it occurred. He heard the shot, looked up and saw Lincoln's head slump, then Booth jumped to the stage and rushed between him and Keene.
The term pretty much became obsolete in larger theatres in the mid-20th century, when most call boys were replaced by
loudspeaker
A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or ...
s placed in each dressing room and green room.
See also
*
List of theatre personnel
Pre-production
These positions are responsible for the development of a production from conception to performance. Typically, although there will be
significant involvement in the fabrication and initial development, these positions will not b ...
References
External links
Destination Theatre Company*
*
{{Running crew
Stage crew
Stage terminology
Theatrical occupations