Acting Tips: Backstage Etiquette

The way you act backstage is equally as important as the way you act on stage. Even though the audience can't see how you are behaving, everyone else you're working with can. Plus, if you do something absolutely ridiculous in front of the director, you can say goodbye to your job. Many times, the director doesn't have to see you because if you're misbehaving, someone else will tell on you. You want to avoid getting into trouble backstage and always present yourself professionally so you will be re-hired or asked to come back and volunteer. The following tips are full of secrets about how to act backstage, what not to do backstage, and what you should never do backstage.

First and foremost you always want to be professional, whether you are getting paid for acting or just volunteering. If you've never had acting lessons or you've never acted before, you can still act professional. It's like that old saying, "Just fake it 'til you make it." While you're backstage, you always want to pay attention to where you're supposed to be and when you're supposed to be on. It's easy to get distracted by talking to someone else and then you forget your entrance cue. Secondly, someone on stage could mess up and skip a few pages, and before you know it, you need to be on. Pay attention to what's happening on stage. This is your first priority.

When you are waiting in the wings to go on, do not talk, whisper, make noise, or do anything else that could distract the audience from the actors on stage. If you were on stage, you wouldn't want the other actors behind the flats or curtains to make so much noise that the audience stopped paying attention to you. Aside from that, suspension of disbelief would be lost and the entire show could be ruined.

There is one main thing you should never do backstage during rehearsal and especially the night of a performance: do not gossip about other people. If you go to another actor and say something about one of the other actors, your ex, their ex, your mother, etc., you can really throw the other actor off. When you are backstage before and during a rehearsal or performance, you should be focusing on your character, not other people's business. Talking about other people's business backstage is rude, unprofessional, and will not win you any bonus points from the other people you're working with. You'll get labeled as a gossip and no one will want to be around you. Remember, if you're hard to work with, you won't be asked to come back and work.