The SoD has a history of nominating people for humorous or joke awards called SoD Awards. Any member of the SoD may nominate someone by writing the nominee's name and the circumstances surrounding the nomination in the Bar Book, then signing their entry. This should then be seconded by another member. Only the Chief SoD may decide whether a nomination deserves an award, which is, if successful, awarded at the next SoD dinner or garden party. A person may not nominate or second without having first been quoted in the Bar Book. Variations and substitutions of these acronyms are common, as are entirely new awards brought into existence to adequately describe a particular situation. More about the Bar Book here.
Corrections or additions to this list should be emailed to webmaster@shaftofdarkness.club.
Acronym |
Expanded Form |
Explanation |
---|---|---|
SOD |
Shaft Of Darkness |
Awarded for patchy lighting, with visible shafts of darkness where the stage is unlit. |
WWG |
Warn With Green |
Can be awarded to someone who mistakenly uses the green cue light for a standby or warning. |
RLW |
Random Length Warn |
Can be awarded for excessively variable or unpredictable cue standby or warning periods. |
GROT |
Green and Red Omitted Totally |
Can be awarded to someone who hurriedly calls a verbal cue without using the cue light system. |
GWW |
Go Without Warn |
Can be awarded to someone who calls a cue without a standby or warning first. |
RSM |
Random Stage Management |
Awarded for miscellaneous stage management antics. |
BDSM |
Brailing Didn't Secure Movement |
Awarded to those who fail to adequately secure brailing. |
RTOPS |
Red Trucks On Park Street |
Can be awarded to someone who triggers the fire alarm at the ADC Theatre, resulting in the Fire Brigade being despatched. |
COPS |
Cops On Park Street |
Can be awarded if the Police are called to the ADC Theatre. |
POPS |
Paramedics On Park Street |
Ditto above, but with ambulances. |
CONDUIT |
Conversation Of No Discernable Use Inducing Tedium |
Can be awarded to those who participate in bikeshedding. |
SLAM |
Somewhat Lethally Aimed Makita |
Can be awarded to someone who drills or screws into one of their fingers. |
BOG |
Bloody Awful Gonk |
Can be awarded to a member of the fly crew who crashes something into the grid/stage, causing a very loud noise. |
G'THRANG |
BOG with tabs |
Can be awarded when the house tabs are crashed into the grid/stage. |
ABM |
Athletic Bar Management |
Can be awarded to a member of ADC staff for speedy bar service during a rush. |
DHC |
Dreaded Human Counterweight |
Can be awarded to an operator who uses their bodyweight to balance a set of counterweights, or who is pulled off their feet by an out-of-weight bar. Can also be awarded to the person who has to lift/attach the deadweight during personnel flying. |
MMMC |
Miles and Miles of Mains/Mic Cable |
Can be awarded to anyone who lays excessive quantities of cable. |
FART |
Frightfully Artistic Ripped Tabs |
Can be awarded to anyone who damages a set of tabs. |
TWIRP |
Totally Wrong/Worthwhile Interval Re-Patch |
Can be awarded to anyone who (mis)patches a lighting fixture, sound input/output, network subnet, or power or video circuit during a show or interval. |
GITS |
Gratuitous Ignition of Tabs/Technicians |
Can be awarded to anyone who melts or otherwise burns a theatrical cloth. Or person... |
DIMWIT |
Disastrously Incompetent Management With Insufficient Thought |
Can be awarded to any member of ADC Management (only) for general coarse decision-making. |
CAC |
Comedy Award for Counterweights |
Awarded for general coarse flying. |
USA |
Unscheduled Stage Appearance |
Awarded to anyone who has to come on stage during a performance to address an issue. |
SPLAT |
Set Painting Lacking All Taste |
Awarded for general coarse set painting. |
RFL |
Random Flashing Lights |
Can be awarded to anyone who causes unintended lighting effects. |
ROLF |
Ridiculously Over Long Feedback |
Can be awarded to anyone who causes excessively long audio feedback. |
RSG |
Random Sound Generation |
Can be awarded to anyone who causes unintended sound effects over the PA. |
FKA |
Frank Knight Award |
Can be awarded to anyone who constructs something which they cannot get out of the room in which they built it (e.g. too big for scene dock traps or built around the workshop pillar). |
BS |
Birmingham Screw |
Awarded for general coarse carpentry. |
UBK |
Ultra Bright Kneecaps |
Can be awarded for poor focusing of lighting fixtures. |
OWS |
Order of the Wobbly Set/Spot |
Can be awarded for general coarse set construction or follow-spotting. |
RSA |
Ridiculously Smoky Auditorium |
Can be awarded for over-use of smoke, haze, fog or CO2. |
PoS |
Peals of Silence |
Can be awarded to anyone who misses an important sound cue. |
PENFOLD |
Producing Excuses (Naturally Feeble) for Over-engineered Lighting Design |
Self-explanatory. |
GROAN |
GRossly Over Amplified Noise |
Can be awarded for general coarse sound design and/or sound mixing. |
UFL |
Unwanted Fairy Lights |
Can be awarded to anyone who uses cheap and/or tacky fairy lighting or LED tape. |
EFF |
Excessively Frequent Feedback |
Can be awarded to anyone who repeatedly fails to keep audio feedback sufficiently at bay. |
DISC |
Disastrously Incompetent Scene Change |
Can be awarded for general coarse scene changes. |
DSM |
Dead Stage Main/Manager |
Can be awarded to anyone who starts a show with stage power, lighting power, sound power or video power switched off. Alternatively it can be awarded to a member of the stage management team for general dereliction of duty. |
DBO |
Dead Black Out |
Can be awarded to anyone who fails to produce the necessary illumination on stage. |
OGG |
Order of the Gratuitous Gobo |
Can be awarded for unnecessary, unwanted and/or tacky use of gobos. |
SCSI |
Set Construction in the Sodding Interval |
Can be awarded if substantial set (re)building takes place during a show's interval. |
GASH |
Grand Accumulation of Suspended Heaviness |
Can be awarded to anyone who constructs a piece of set that is so heavy it must be flown using multiple counterweight/hemp sets. |
HEMP |
Hemp Epically MisPlaced |
Can be awarded for general coarse hemping. |
SCARF |
Safety Curtain Action Resulting in a Fuckup |
Can be awarded for general coarse antics involving the safety curtain in some way. |
VOMIT |
Very 'Orrible Mess In the Toilets |
Usually awarded following a show's after-party... |
FUCKWITS |
Failure to Understand Computer Kit While Installing The Show |
Can be awarded to anyone who causes a technical mishap with a computer/IT kit during or before a get-in or rehearsal. |
URL |
Unnecessary ReLamping |
Can be awarded to anyone who wastes their time changing a lamp superfluously. |
SAWDUST |
Scene dock And Workshop Disappearing Under Shredded Timber |
Can be awarded for excessive carpentry and/or failure to tidy up the workshop after oneself. |
KNOT |
Knotted Nest of TRS |
Can be awarded for general coarse mains cable management. |
CLEAR OUT |
Clearing Literally Every ADC Rack Of Usable Tech |
Can be awarded to those who empty the OP Quad, signal cable racks, Bar Roof Void etc. during the course of their fit up. |
DIP |
Doing It Properly |
The only serious award. Can be awarded for general excellence in the course of duty. |