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[0:24] Joshua Broadbent: Hello and welcome to Whispers in the Wings, a theatre podcast with your hosts Josh and Kelly.

[0:31] Kelly: Welcome to this week's toolbox talk.

[0:33] Joshua Broadbent: Now, for those who don't know, Josh, what is a toolbox talk?

[0:37] Joshua Broadbent: Well, a toolbox talk is typically used during bump-in, especially here in Australia, where you all stand around the toolbox, I was doing air quotes there, and you basically sort of list the things that need to be achieved for the day. So what each department's doing and you know what needs to happen by the end of the day there.

[0:53] Kelly: Yeah, so what I'll add to that, uh, at least in the UK, is a lot of our toolbox talks have to do with safety as well. So just making sure that everybody is aware of what's flying in, who's gonna be doing what, so we don't, you know, accidentally drop things on people.

[1:10] Joshua Broadbent: Well, Kelly, let's leave that there because we will go into safety in an episode in the future. But what we're gonna use our toolbox talk for is to expand on conversations that we've had within previous episodes. So any sort of theatre terms or slangs, acronyms, we're gonna expand on that so that you guys, the audience, have a better understanding of what we've been discussing.

[1:31] Joshua Broadbent: Kelly, we have had some brilliant feedback from our listeners that not everyone knows what spiking is.

[1:37] Kelly: Josh, what is your experience with spiking?

[1:39] Kelly: So spiking for me is usually using different coloured pieces of tape to mark down where you might place props or pieces of furniture so that the cast know if they're bringing them on or if say a member of crew is bringing something on stage, they know exactly where to put it so it hits the right light and nothing that is moving around it will hit it.

[2:04] Joshua Broadbent: Well it's to keep it all in place every single night to make sure everything lands at the same spot. So not only can it be used for furniture and set pieces, but it can also be used for actors to you know make note of where they need to stand. They might need to stand in a very tight special spotlight from above them. So it's you know, they're gonna be in that exact same spot every single performance.

[2:23] Kelly: Sure, absolutely. So in my experience in the UK, we generally use LX tape to mark up.

[2:32] Kelly: Sorry, Josh, what?

[2:33] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah, so I know that in Australia you guys normally use a cloth tape.

[2:38] Kelly: Yeah.

[2:38] Joshua Broadbent: Something similar to gaffe?

[2:41] Kelly: Yeah, very similar to gaffe.

[2:42] Joshua Broadbent: So you guys put something like a kind of clear tape over your cloth tape, is that right?

[2:48] Kelly: Yeah, it's just to secure it to the floor because obviously these spike marks are being danced on and you know there's high possibility that it gets pulled up. So putting a clear tape over which we use Roscoe, it's a quite a stretchy clear tape, and it doesn't damage the floor as well when you put it down and pull it up.

[3:04] Joshua Broadbent: Right, so it doesn't take off any paint or anything.

[3:07] Kelly: Typically not. Um obviously there is those rare circumstances that it does. But what it allows us to do, and especially on my experience with Come From Away, because we had so many spikes on that floor, yeah, that all you'd have to do is pull that top one up, put a new top one down. Rather than if you weren't if you didn't cover it and you lost that whole spike mark altogether, you'd have to do that. You've got to get your tape measures out, you've got to find what spike mark it was. You know, it can be it can be quite time consuming, so it sort of saves time.

[3:35] Kelly: But I have also had experiences with paint pens.

[3:39] Joshua Broadbent: We don't use paint pens in the UK, or in my experience, I haven't used paint pens.

[3:43] Kelly: You should try it.

[3:44] Joshua Broadbent: Look, I'd suggest nail polish.

[3:47] Kelly: So I've worked on shows where say at Full Monty, we had a metal great floor, and we you know we had a lot of chairs in the show that moved around and a lot of beer crates. So for the cast to know which scene which beer crate went where we would colour code the scenes.

[4:06] Joshua Broadbent: Of course.

[4:07] Kelly: Nail polish has so many different colours.

[4:09] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah, yeah. And because it was a metal floor, we would literally paint on it, otherwise our Alex tape just wouldn't stay down.

[4:16] Kelly: Yeah, absolutely. I've had that experience not using nail polish for the colours, yeah, but with paint pens, once we put that down, the same sort of thing, like it can after a few wear and tears of things moving over at people's feet and all of that, it does come off. So we would always put a clear nail polish, you know, lacquer down to just sort of lock it into place.

[4:36] Joshua Broadbent: Well, then I'd honestly recommend skipping the paint pen and just using the polish.

[4:40] Kelly: Yeah.

[4:41] Joshua Broadbent: If you're gonna put lacquer on it anyway.

[4:43] Kelly: Yeah, well, that's that's the thing. There's so many different ways of doing this and spiking things.

[4:49] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah, so you you were a little shocked when I said Alex tape, weren't you?

[4:52] Kelly: I am because in my mind, like that just doesn't stick to these.

[4:57] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah, no, so I I've actually had a think about it because I was shocked going over, and they were just like, What you guys don't use Alex tape? I think it's something to do with how hot Australia gets.

[5:10] Kelly: Oh, yeah, like the humidity, especially inside.

[5:12] Joshua Broadbent: And so the actual adhesive on it kind of melts and goes gross everywhere. But yeah, we just use LX tape for everything in the UK.

[5:21] Kelly: Oh, makes things so much easier.

[5:25] Joshua Broadbent: I debate that, but yeah, okay, maybe not over here.

[5:29] Kelly: Yeah.

[5:31] Joshua Broadbent: Excellent. So that's kind of what spiking is. And Kelly, there's so many ways of actually spiking different furniture.

[5:39] Kelly: Absolutely. Absolutely. So if you had a chair, like you had many in Come From Away, how would you spike a chair?

[5:47] Kelly: Well, two ways. I've done it two ways. We'd come from away, because there is so many spikes on the stage with different chairs, and sometimes multiple chairs might be used with different spikes.

[5:58] Joshua Broadbent: Sure.

[5:59] Kelly: Like the spikes, for example, would have the number of the chairs, so that's typically the starting position. So, you know, one through 14 was the number of the chairs we have.

[6:07] Joshua Broadbent: Were they colour coded per chair?

[6:09] Kelly: They were colour coded per scene.

[6:11] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah.

[6:11] Kelly: So yellows would be this scene, but you would find some scenes would go, okay. Well, in this scene, chair five, you're actually going to be using the brown eight instead of because just because of how many times the chairs moved around the stage and stuff.

[6:25] Joshua Broadbent: But these, yeah, these spikes would also, so they'll have the number and they'd also typically have the arrow, the direction that the chair would actually be in.

[6:33] Kelly: Sure.

[6:33] Joshua Broadbent: So are these spikes a 90 degree angle or no?

[6:38] Kelly: So this is this is the thing with with Come From Away is they're just straight lines.

[6:41] Joshua Broadbent: Right.

[6:41] Kelly: Okay. And I think that goes back to because the chairs can be used in multiple different scenes and different facing different ways, there's no one way that is it's always going to be.

[6:51] Joshua Broadbent: Sure.

[6:52] Kelly: But on most shows, you would corner spike it. So you would do two pieces of tape creating a 90 degree angle, and you'd put it on the back two corners. That's how I normally spike anything kind of box like.

[7:05] Joshua Broadbent: Well, yeah, yeah, it's a thing. You can do it for tables, milk crates.

[7:09] Kelly: Absolutely.

[7:10] Kelly: Beer crates. Or the the giant uh bookcase that is being used for Nine to Five, they've also got shell shaped corners, which are paint penned, by the way.

[7:19] Joshua Broadbent: There you go.

[7:21] Kelly: Right. So I also have experience, which I'm sure you do too, with cross spiking. So that's literally just two pieces of tape that you crisscross over, so it's like an X.

[7:34] Joshua Broadbent: Uh in my experience, I haven't really used that for cast members, as you mentioned earlier.

[7:39] Kelly: Okay. Uh I've never actually had a spike on stage for a cast member.

[7:45] Joshua Broadbent: Oh, okay.

[7:46] Kelly: We may use them in rehearsals just so they get the feeling of things, and we may still use it in tech until they know what's moving around them.

[7:56] Joshua Broadbent: Yep.

[7:57] Kelly: But we try to have as few spike marks on stage as possible.

[8:03] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah.

[8:03] Kelly: But what I have used crosses for are things like lamps, or we've also used them. Anything that you want circular in the center.

[8:15] Joshua Broadbent: Absolutely.

[8:16] Kelly: You try to put, say, a lamp, the circular base on the center of the cross.

[8:23] Joshua Broadbent: Which I guess you could actually just use a single line upstage of the cross.

[8:28] Kelly: Well, I was about to I was about to ask you that question because if the base is not see-through, it's a solid base. How do you know that you're actually getting the center on?

[8:37] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah.

[8:38] Kelly: Oh fuck.

[8:42] Joshua Broadbent: I've just been schooled in spiking everyone.

[8:44] Kelly: Absolutely. Nine to Five, they've got hat stands, coat racks, those, you know, long things with the arms out the side, you hang things on them.

[8:52] Joshua Broadbent: Sure.

[8:52] Kelly: And because they've got a see through, you know, base, like they're just hollow, you can actually see where the spike is. So they're centered, they're center spiked with the bigger.

[8:59] Joshua Broadbent: Oh, really?

[9:00] Kelly: Okay, that makes sense.

[9:01] Joshua Broadbent: So you're not wrong, but it depends, I guess, on what circular item is.

[9:07] Kelly: I guess I need to uh go back and reevaluate my whole stage management career.

[9:14] Joshua Broadbent: Evidently should not have been hired. And on Come From Away, we had these little mini beer bottles. Uh little booze bottles, sorry, that sat on top of the piano, and every one of us would always have it in the sort of a different position. So we just put a single dot on the piano and we just made sure that the dot was just in front of the bottle.

[9:32] Kelly: Yeah.

[9:33] Joshua Broadbent: So typically you would mark upstage, but in this case, because of where the bottles were sitting, it was easier to see and you know, so far away from the audience, and these dots, like you had to really look to see these dots.

[9:44] Kelly: So in my experience, I've also used glow tape to spike.

[9:50] Joshua Broadbent: Have you tape which for those who don't know, glow tape is almost kind of like a very light white green tape that when you run a torch or it has access to overhead light, it charges and it glows green.

[10:10] Kelly: Yeah.

[10:10] Joshua Broadbent: So on Phantom we had, you know, we had a manager's table that initially was pushed on by stage management and then was eventually automated. Which was so lovely. Uh because I kept on being late for that cue or being seen.

[10:29] Kelly: Oh god, oh god.

[10:29] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah.

[10:31] Kelly: Never want to be seen.

[10:32] Joshua Broadbent: No, never want to be seen, especially in that show. So we would have the tiniest, the thinnest strips of glow tape that we would have on top of our Alex tape on stage.

[10:48] Kelly: To which we would use Roscoe tape in that scenario because glow tape does not stay to put something over the top of it.

[10:56] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah. And so you would be able to, in a blackout.

[11:00] Kelly: Yes.

[11:00] Joshua Broadbent: The audience can't necessarily see it because it's so tiny. But you can see the little green line that you need to hit to make sure that it's where it needs to be.

[11:10] Kelly: That is what is good about glow tape. It's for blackouts. You know, if you've got the cast members setting something and they can't spatially aware because it's literally dark.

[11:19] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah, absolutely. Um it just helps, yeah, it helps them find that.

[11:22] Kelly: So that's yeah, really good. Also, glow tape is very expensive for those out there.

[11:27] Joshua Broadbent: So use it very lightly.

[11:29] Kelly: Yeah, I guess, you know, that's one of the reasons also why you use such thin pieces.

[11:36] Joshua Broadbent: Yeah, absolutely. Oh gosh, I remember being a rookie way back, very green, and being asked to glow tape some stairs at the very edge of the stair, putting a line of glow tape. I literally put a full thick line of glow tape on every single step, stage right and left.

[12:03] Kelly: And I learned very quickly how expensive glow tape was, and to never do that again.

[12:08] Kelly: Joshua, you weren't at Niter when I was at Niter, right? Because we had that same thing happen, not to me, but we got an email from a head of stage management, and the reason I said glow tape before is because that was the subject of the email was glow tape, and the glow had so many O's, and it was like some were capitalized, some were lowercase, basically being like, please do not use glow tape to spike things, you know, to mark out things like that. Because of how expensive was this person used the thicker glow tape and yeah, basically did the same thing and lines backstage for where you know casts should walk and stuff.

[12:45] Joshua Broadbent: They used, I think, two rolls of glow tape.

[12:48] Kelly: Yeah, I think I went through one and um I'm just really glad that did not come out of my wage.

[12:55] Joshua Broadbent: Absolutely. So Kelly, I should mention that there's no right or wrong way to spike anything.

[13:01] Kelly: Sure thing.

[13:02] Joshua Broadbent: In all honesty, it's just about communicating what the spikes mean to people. If you want to use a cross for something that is circular, like apparently I do, then make sure that everybody knows what's going on and what that cross is for. If you want to use an upstage line, and that's fine as well. It's just whatever your preference is and making sure you communicate it.

[13:25] Kelly: Exactly. It's all about communication.

[13:27] Joshua Broadbent: Kelly, I think that brings us to the end of our first toolbox talk.

[13:30] Kelly: Oh my gosh. Should we close that toolbox and go have a smoke?

[13:34] Joshua Broadbent: Absolutely.

[13:35] Kelly: Oh, I haven't heard smoke in so long, Josh. You know, as a as a child at growing up in YPT, we would use the word smoke o'd in like our interval breaks, which looking back at it, I do question it.

[13:47] Joshua Broadbent: Um right. Well, Josh, uh I don't smoke, but I'd love a smoker.

[13:52] Kelly: Nor do I, let's go get a Kit Kat instead.

[13:55] Joshua Broadbent: If you have any questions, please feel free to DM us on Instagram at Whispers in the Wings.

[14:01] Kelly: Or you can email us at Whispers in the Wings Podcast at gmail.com.

[14:05] Joshua Broadbent: Or you can send us a voice message via Anchor FM.

[14:10] Kelly: Josh, you have hit the nail on the head. All of that information is in the show notes.

[14:14] Joshua Broadbent: Thanks, Kelly, for an informative toolbox talk.

[14:17] Kelly: No, thank you, Josh, and thank you also to our listeners who reached out and wanted to know more about spiking, which is obviously why we wanted to talk about it in our first ever toolbox talk.

[14:25] Joshua Broadbent: See you next time.

[14:26] Kelly: Bye-bye.

[14:27] Joshua Broadbent: Bye.

[14:44] Whispers in the Wings acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community.

[14:51] We pay our respects to elders, past, present, and future.

[14:55] We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.