Mark Woodard below gave the correct answer: --------------- Mark Woodard F.D.R (Warbucks u/s) in the ANNIE North American Tour It’s a safety issue. If a blackout occurs all actors should hold in place until it’s safe to leave the stage and management decides how best to proceed.

Safety first. We actually had a black out. Actors stayed in place, audience stayed in place until we got limited power back. Our production rescheduled, as it was going to be a long outage.

This actually happwned to me years ago…. It was a Christmas production at my church. Thankfully, we had a backup generator, we setup a portable sound system within 15 minutes so we at least had a couple microphones, most of the orchestra didn’t need to be amplified, and the lighting was just by candlelight (wedding candelabra’s). The emergency lights were on in the back so there was no safety issue

Enact show stop procedures (which all cast, crew and FOH staff should be aware of). Safety of everyone should be the first priority and calm clear communications with everyone until the situation is resolved.

Seguridad ante todo. Comunicarme con el jefe de Escenario, para que retire a los actores del mismo para saber la situación. En caso que fuese un corte de energía normal, pediría al actor que transmita calma a la audiencia y que interactúen con ellos dependiendo de la situación. Los apagones repentinos sin programar , tienen distinta índole de complicación hoy en día nos tomamos muy en serio este tipo de situación. Hoy con la tecnología que poseemos ha cambiado mucho el criterio de reaccionar a este tipo de situaciones. Normalmente si el apagón es largo se reprograma la función.

As others have already said, the priority is everyone’s safety. FOH staff should handle clearing the house calmly & efficiently while stage management & crew take responsibility for performers, etc. The unexpected is part of the magic of live performance! Legend has it that several years before I worked there, a show at the Fort Peck Summer Theatre in Fort Peck, MT had a blackout mid-show. So they opened the double-door exits in the auditorium side walls — it’s an old WPA movie theater — and several audience members moved their trucks around to shine the headlights through the doors onto the stage, & the show went on! The best kind of “audience participation,” & everyone loved it. TLDR: be creative; be in the moment. Good luck!

. Strangely, while safety codes require minimal aisle lighting to remain operating on back up generators, it’s often so minimal that evacuation is difficult. The reliance on arc-lighting in many arenas means power loss could mean twenty minutes of down time. The most important thing for actors and crew to remember is to stay in place until instructions can come from chain of command. Those instructions should start with stage management. Keep in mind that headset communication will probably not be functional

At Egyption stages we are used to blackouts and run few rehearsals on it .. also all floor managers hold torches or laser pointers to guide safe way out, but sure all rehearsals should have movinging on the dark action

It happened to me at a play once, suddenly darkness... "The Show Must Go On"... The actors in the scene stayed on stage, the stage manager brought a candle and we continued the scene... (we received a round of applause for that). A few minutes later electricity switched back on 🙏