Anonymous asked: What’s your opinion on tech fanny packs?
I assume you’re talking about wearing on specifically backstage during a performance.
Wear whatever is comfortable and allows to carry all the things that you need to have on you. But be aware of your footprint backstage. Are there tight areas where you might have to press up against a wall to let someone pass? Can you get your tools out of the way comfortably, quickly, and quietly? Remember that you’re not working in alone backstage and in most moments your thing is not going to be doing the most important thing happening. There are other people that need to get to where they’re going with higher priority than you. Sometimes it will be more important that you are as small as possible than that you have all of your shit in arms reach. You need to keep as small a profile as possible. Nothing bulky, sticking out excessively. Personally I find that zippered, single
pouch storage is not easy access in the cramped dark backstage. You’re still digging and rummaging and wasting time trying to find things.
And how much do you really need to be carrying anyway? I have a tool belt for when I A2 that has all of my tools and consumables that I might need for a fix during a show, it clips to my belt and I don’t wear it unless I have to. Usually I would just grab things from it and run, leaving it wherever I was stashing it. However, when I’m pushing scenery, I don’t want to be encumbered at all, so I usually just have my gloves, a flashlight, and my run sheet on my person. Let’s say that you’re a dresser, though. In that case of course you need something to carry things in! There are too many things that could go wrong and such a small amount of time for you to go fumbling for something or running to the dressing room/wardrobe station to try to find a pin, or scissors, or whatever. To make that 30 second qui
ck change it needs to be on your person. So yeah, but most of the dressers I know wear an apron. Smaller profile and easy open access.
TL;DR: Wear whatever is necessary for your job, but be conscious of how much space it takes up. And think really hard about what sorts of problems you might be asked to solve that will require you to have the solution on hand in the moment.