The Backstage Handbook: An Illustrated Almanac of Technical Information

I bought this to teach theatre scene shop. It's a great reference for the students and a terrific refresher for the teacher (i.e. me). Pretty much all hand tools and basic construction elements of theatre construction are covered. It's obviously not exhaustive, but it's plenty enough to work from. And it's just a nice aesthetic of a 'read'. The illustrations are clean. The content is well-organized and presented.I think anyone in theatre should own a copy of this book, whether they're building sets or reciting lines, not to mention that half of this book could be applied directly to home repairs. There's no reason not to know as much as you can about your world and have a basic understanding of fundamental tools, right?

I have worked professionally as an electrician in theater for six years now. Before now, I have never owned a copy of this book, but I've seen it around a lot. In college lots of professors had a copy. I decided to purchase my own copy mainly out of interest, because I'd never really looked through it before. Speaking particularly to the stuff that I know most about, electrics, and to a lesser extent rigging, this book is great for beginners to learn the basics. No, it doesn't really cover much on the "New hotness" of lighting (LED, DMX, and moving head units) but most theaters still rely heavily on standard ERS, PAR, and Fresnel instruments which this book covers well. This book also offers a simple and easy to understand guide to electrical properties and the basic properties of light.I enjoyed reading the parts that don't relate to what I do from day to day too. I even learned new stuff about areas of theater I don't know that much about like carpentry.The "Shop Math" section was also very valuable.

Years ago in what seems like a past life at this point, I worked on multiple stages as both a lighting designer / technician as well as a stage manager. Best years of my life. I picked up a copy of this book back then and it taught me more than I could imagine about the other disciplines in the back stage world. Rigging, set building, etc... This is a fantastic book for anyone learning stagecraft to have on hand. My niece has started to get interested in stage crew. I picked up a new copy of this book to give to her in the hopes that she can learn more about the discipline and may help ignite a passion in her similar to what gave me years of enjoyment and positive memories.

My grandpa asked for this for Christmas and keeps it on his bedside table

Has lots of pictures my kind of book

This a a GREAT book for the 1980s.... which makes it a little dated.It covers just about everything for "old tech"Which means it leaves out everything from the last 30 years, for example showing 1/4 inch and 1/8 inch head/ear-phone jacks but not mentioning the now dominate 3.5mmIt could use updating in fasteners (ie adding metric), modern glues, finishes, materials, etc, etc, etcTo say nothing about wireless, networking, etc, etc

First off, I am not a professional in stagecraft industry. However I occasionally work with stage technicians in conventions centers, theaters, etc. I want to make sure I ask the right questions and understand what they are telling me. I also want to reference the right thing/device/word for our needs.I saw this a theatre student have this book backstage at a local university, and went on a search for it, found it here on Amazon.This is one of those strange & great reference books, that you find yourself picking up to just surf through. It' has been a fantastic help for me in communicating to industry professionals.Quick Update: Just received another replacement order, I keep giving them away. while looking up a washer thickness standard today, I noticed the books illustrator George Chiang’s excellent sense of humor!Well played sir, well played! :-)

This is a must have for anyone getting in to technical theatre which is why we use to call it the “Bible for techs”. See how many jokes you can find in it lol

The back stage bible its a must for any student hoping to gain a foot hold in the theatre /film etc recommended

思っていたよりも多くの図表が掲載されていてこれからの仕事に役に立つこと間違いなしです。

Absolutely the most fascinating and useful book I have ever seen. It has a little of everything. Wish I had known about it decades ago.

Do not buy the kindle version. This is not an electronic version of the book but a very bad scan of a hard copy with the pages back to front!

It looks like it hasn’t been updated since 1994, but still incredibly useful. Tons of great information, including drawings of a wide variety of tools with names to help identifying them.