We're Free!

Well, I guess there's only the last two days to update on.

It's kind of sad.

Wednesday we were back at the Ex-Hall, still working on the PRG boxes. We started the day at 8am as planned. We finally had the forklift we needed so we could stack things and make them fit. We started with the cable boxes - those things are heavy, but fit way better stacked. So the forklift got it done for us. Jarrod drove the forklift while the rest of us worked on getting the boxes in to place, lined up with each other, and made sure the wheels landed in the wheel cups so the boxes wouldn't roll off of each other during transportation.

All the stacking got done pretty quickly, so we had a little bit of down time until the first truck came, so Sean and I started working on the boxes that were missing things. Andy had a few things to drop off, so we were able to complete a few and we had to recount a few others and found some flaws in the count.

Then the truck came. But, when we planned for a truck 52 feet in length, 8.5ft in width and 94 inches tall...the truck wasn't actually that size. I guess there was already something packed in the truck, and  the doors closed a foot or two inside what counted for the length of the truck. So we lost a lot of room. The three truck loads were already going to be  tight squeeze, and we were already thinking we'd have to order another truck, so losing room on the first truck was not a good sign.

Although we had spent a bunch of time organizing the pack and planning out how all of the boxes would fix together, the plan was barely used. We packed all of the orchestra pieces in first, and then pulled the video material from the back of the plan and pushed it closer to the nose. Then came the cable crates and unit boxes and what not. We had one of the SP electricians come and drive the forklift while Chris and Katie were in the truck packing things in. Sean's and my job was to bring everything from the Ex-Hall to the loading dock and then help Amber (the SP) line everything up on the forklift. It took us an hour and 40 minutes to get the whole thing packed, but we got most of the boxes and everything on to the truck. There were a few unit boxes and some other small things that didn't fit, but it was better than we'd thought it would have been.

After that, we worked on reorganizing the second truck load that was to come in the morning and planned out the third truck, which would only be a half truck. We got two final drop offs - one from the Dock Street Theatre and one from the Memminger. They had a few complete boxes and a lot of boxes missing things, but what they were missing was not the things we had in out miscellaneous pile. We had to recount a few of the mult boxes and make sure the break ins and break out tallies were correct - and we found a few errors so that solved those problems. And then there was the case of the missing cable. We were missing a few Edison plugs and a few lengths of mult and DMX. and we had some extra mult. So Jarrod worked out a plan to reorganize where the extra things went, and then called Andy to make sure it was okay that some things weren't accounted for. Eventually, we just packed everything away and put some extra units in the unit boxes and reorganized the cable and called it complete. Odds are, the missing cable was just miscounted in to a box and so it wasn't accounted for in the paperwork or something. Eventually it would all make it back to PRG.

We were scheduled to have another truck come in in the afternoon, so we'd only have 2 trucks to do the next day. But it got canceled - the company didn't have a truck available to come do a pick up. So we spent the end of the evening stacking the new shipment and finished the boxes and generally cleaning up the ex-hall. We would be back in the next day at 8am, doing three truck loads. one at 8am, one at 11am, and one at 4pm.  It was going to be a long day.

Or so we thought.

We got in at 8am. Everyone was dragging. But Jarrod was on the phone - and when he got off the phone, there were new plans to be set up. The 8am and the 11am trucks were nonexistent. They weren't coming. So we had to find new jobs to do, and luckily, there were jobs to be had.

Hello, more days as an SP. Though this day wasn't have as long and arduous as the other.

We started at the Memminger, helping them strike what was left of the production party we'd had there the night before. Katie and I gathered all the tales that had been put out - they 13 that had to be found and stacked in the van and taken back to the ex-hall. Then we had to take out the left over wine and beer, clean the coolers, clean the food trays - basic party clean up. It wasn't too terrible. After that, we were off to the production office to find more work.

Katie got commissioned to drive trucks back to the rental place all day. Sean stayed to help the office people strike the production office so it could return to being the Gaillard Green Room. Chris, Jarrod and I got the wonderful assignment of going to the shop and helping out the SPs.

When we got there they put us right to work. I started easy - just cleaning and bagging all the coolers that were coming back from the work sites. Then, I got to put them in a loft above the garage door. That was kind of fun. Tom picked up a flat on a fork lift, we loaded to coolers on, and then I got to ride it up to the loft and put everything away. I'm starting to get more and more used to heights. I've a long way to go before I'm totally comfortable, but I take a few more risks here and there (safe ones though).

After that, it was time to start loading trucks to send equipment back. Basically what we'd been doing at the ex-hall, but not PRG. We moved tons of truss from a storage car to the shop to the truck. We also had to push boxes of 1-ton motors from the shop on to the truck - meaning heavy equipment packed in to little boxes getting pushed up a pretty steep incline. It was all I could do not to let the box win and bowl me over on it's way back down the ramp. But with enough people working on it we had no difficulties like that. People were observant enough to realize when someone needed help controlling the massive amounts of weight we were working with.

About the time we were finishing that truck, another truck with wardrobe came to be unloaded. It was right before lunch, so everyone jumped right in, ready to get it done so we could all go to break. The carts were a lot heavier than I expected and I tried to push it down the load ramp, instead of pull it so i could be in front of it and stop it. So it went out of control and almost hit one of the other guys working on the unload. It was kind of scary, but no one got hurt. Just the carts got bumped around a bit. But I learned my lesson. Always push on the front side because the carts will roll themselves down the ramp and they just need you to control and stop them.

After that, it was time for lunch and then off to the Ex-Hall for the truck that got moved forward from 4pm to 2pm. Luckily, this truck was the proper size and had fold doors rather than the sliding door and we didn't lose any room at all. The pack went incredibly smoothly and we actually fit extra stuff in. We had Chris and Katie in the truck again, Jarrod calling, and me, Sean, Rebecca, and Andrew (the last two being extra SPs) loading from the ground while Amber drove the forklift. Everything works really nicely when you have a system and hard workers.

Once that was done, we headed over to the Memminger again. they were setting up chairs after having struck the rest of the theatre. The whole theatre is basically a HUGE black box. The risers for the seats an be set up anywhere and then seats then set up in any configuration, as the chairs and the feet are separate and just need to be set together. We had worked with the Memminger chairs at the Robinson, so once the TD there told us the pattern, I was able to help people put things together using the system we had developed there. Set one side and bring the foot up to the other leg and then set it, rather than trying to set both the legs in the feet on the ground. There was a minor issue with centering the chairs and getting the pattern right, but the TD and everyone eventually figured it out and we got rolling once again. Once it was all set, we just did clean up. We put the extra hardware away and worked on sweeping the floors and putting the theatre back to the way it had been before Spoleto had gotten there.

After that, though we really wanted to go back to the Ex-Hall and finish packing everything out, everyone was sent back to the shop. The offices and departments that had been spending the whole packing up were now having their trucks arrive at the shop to be unloaded. We had everything from printers and copiers to wooden desks still holding paperwork to boxes of electrics material. Everything needed to be sorted and put away in the proper places in the shop. A lot of things went in to storage cars, locked up until the next year when they would be needed again.

Eventually, Katie, Chris and I were sent back to the Ex-Hall to pack the extra boxes that didn't get shipped back to the PRG in to Robert's truck to be stored at the shop until the next week. We were sent with 3 or 4 other SPs in order to get it done, rather than being sent with Jarrod and having it called like the other packs we had been doing. Instead, Robert a few other SPs planned to take the heavier boxes and put them in the front, following with the medium weight and putting the lightest in the back. We had just spent the end of the last day making sure the pack would fit and then it was pulled completely out of order to be put in to Robert's truck. Everything still fit, it was just different. We had worked out a system with Jarrod and we all knew what was going on, but everything we'd worked out on our own was moot while working with the SPs because they had their own ideas on how to pack the truck and getting everything accomplished efficiently. Both ways worked.

Once it was all packed in, we followed the truck back to the shop to unload everything was had just packed it to it. There was one scary moment when we noticed that we had packed all of the heavy cable crates in to the right side of the truck, causing to sit a little lopsided. When Robert drove around the corner, I swear the truck almost tipped. Chris and Robert said they were scared about it too while they were driving. So that's another good lesson to know...plan your packs to they sit evenly across the truck and it sits flat on it's tires and on the road, rather than being crooked.

But the truck got to the shop safely and was unloaded quickly. We fork lifted most of the boxes out of it rather than pushing them down the steep load ramp - but we did attempt a few. It took four people to do it while keeping the boxes under control. 2 at the front and 2 at the back. Everyone was extremely careful because the boxes were so heavy - one wrong step could cause an out of control box followed by a lot of damage and injuries.

Once the truck was unloaded, many people were simply working on organizing everything in the shop. The rest of us with less knowledge of where things went, were left to sweep the floors and make everything look nice and clean. Tedious work because of all the dust, dirt, and sawdust in the shop  - but it had to be done and we all wanted to go home so we worked pretty hard.

Once the shop was clean...we were released for good. Out of contract.
All of the theatres had been struck that day or a few days in advance. The last thing to put together was the shop - the head quarters of the festival besides the offices. All the equipment needed to be stored properly so it would last through to the next year and everything needed to be clean so it would remain in good shape. It took everyone who was left at the festival working together in order to get it done in a timely fashion and we were all eager to help and go home.

The final release was incredible and so worth it. We all knew we'd worked hard and we had all learned and grown so much. No one really wanted to leave and go home, but everyone was relieved to be able to shut their alarms off and not go to work in the morning. We were all ready to kick back and relax in the beauty of Charleston.

This whole experience has been incredible and I am so glad that I did it. I am so much more confident in my work as an electrician and I can't wait to start working back at SVSU and start applying everything I have learned.

I have met so many cool people and wonderful contacts and connections that I can use in the future--it's been real. I will miss everyone and everything down here in South Carolina, and I can't wait to come back.

Counting In

Well, today started the big PRG count in.

The day started off really slow. There were a few sets of road boxes already at the Ex-Hall. We sorted them by which ones were complete and which were incomplete. Then, the sized of the truck is taped out on the floor. So we organized the first truck load in the outline in order to get a feel for where we were. Then, we took the sets of miscellaneous rental pieces that needed to go into their proper boxes and started completing the boxes that were incomplete (A box is missing a source 4 from the Gag, so we find a miscellaneous source 4 and put it in, etc). Then from there, the newly completed get arranged on the truck and we continue on our way. But we ran out of miscellaneous supplies to complete the boxes, and we didn't get any new truck loads so we did a lot of waiting for the trucks to come. We got two spaced really far apart before lunch, but that was it. So the morning was pretty easy.

Then, we came back from lunch and had a lounging early afternoon, until 4 or 5. Then the big trucks started coming. We got three truck loads within 30 minutes of each other. So we were pulling boxes off the trucks and pushing them in to the hall for a while and it was pretty exhausting. Some of those boxes are heavy. Throughout this, Andy the lighting coordinator was bringing us loads of miscellaneous items from various theaters that needed to be matched with their rental boxes, so we had a lot of incomplete boxes that we were able to work on. The whole process tested my knowledge of instrument names and equipment and cable names, as everything was labeled and we just had to find it. It was also good to watch the system that Jarrod used to check off the shipments we were getting and fill the boxes and make sure everything went to the right place. It's all stuff that could come in handy as a stage manager - or even as an electrician if I ever have to work with rental lighting equipment.

But most of the day, besides the counting and sorting and labeling was just moving around the huge, heavy rental road boxes in order to plan the truck packs. The first truck comes at 10am tomorrow morning and we have the whole thing laid out. A few of the boxes had cups on top to hold the wheels of a box that could go on top of it, so we have sets laid off to the side that will be stacked tomorrow when we get or fork lift, and we have boxes laid the length of the truck outline. So tomorrow, we just have to move down the line and load it all in. Basically, more heavy lifting and moving and everything. It's a lot of work but it's not so bad. It all  has to get done so the equipment gets to the proper place. Someone's got to do the bitch work, right?

We're back at 8am in the morning, working until 5 or 6. We have to load the outgoing trucks, and are expecting a few small incoming trucks with what's remaining of the road boxes. So we'll be doing a lot of counting and sorting too. It should be a good time. Stay tuned if something crazy interesting happens. 

The Beginning of the End

Well, yesterday was officially the start of the Robinson strike. We started in the recital hall, taking down the booms and a few lights along the apron pipe. Chris went up in the genie, so Katie and I pushed him a long (Katie did most of the pushing though) and we struck the lights. Jarrod headed the count in for all the cables, lights, and other pieces of equipment. It was incredibly systematic, as everything had to be accounted for. Each piece was sorted, and then Jarrod told us which pieces to put in which box and what order to put them in, as he checked off his list. This process was pretty much how the Robinson was going to go, as well as most of the PRG count in after our own theater was struck.

Once the recital hall was done, we moved back to the Robinson and started pulling and counting in all the cables. They had to be sorted by length and gage and then bundled in sets of 5 or 10. We had to make sure Spoleto materials stayed separate from house materials and rental materials. We packed up all of the PRG cables from the Robinson, then all the Spoleto cables, and then put house materials back where they belonged. All of the gels had to be pulled and sorted, frames going back to their home in the light booth. The booms had to be struck, the electrics needed to be stripped of cable (though we left the lighting units for the next days projects), and we helped the sound crew get all of their equipment out as well. The last thing we did was switch the light boards back to their original spots. Most shows in the Robinson work on an Express board, so the Element that we'd been using got put back to the side and the Express and to be re-set up. After moving the Element around so many times for tech rehearsals and programming, Sean and I had it down to a system. The one thing that threw us off was finding the power for the Express since the hookup was different than the Element, but I got to use my tech-savvy and looked at the connection and found the right cable. I like being a nerd sometimes.

The tasks were pretty quick moving and we trucked right along. We were done by about 2pm and had the afternoon off for the finale of the festival (a blue grass band playing at Middleton place with fireworks to follow). It was a fun time and a nice evening - though a late night with an 8am call the next morning. But still, worth it.

Today, we got in at 8am and started the rest of the strike. Sean and I pulled the lighting units that needed to be hung on the electrics so the house plot could be reset. I went up in the genie and redid a few picks on the cables running to the electrics so they would be out of the way and not getting caught on all the other batons like we'd been struggling with for the run of the festival.

Once that was done, I got to go up in the grid and throw weight with Chris. I've been taught the idea and theory behind throwing weight, and been walked through the process, but I'd never gotten to go up while it was actually being done and be a part of it, so I was pretty excited. It was a lot of sitting around while we waited for the ground crew to get everything set on the batons and then tell us approximately how much weight would need to be added or taken off. Mostly, I just handed Chris the bricks while he put them on the line-sets. But I did get to do a few. It's kind of scary because you absolutely cannot drop anything off of the arbor. Anything falling from the arbor would go with so much force that it would bounce and shoot out in to the stage, and could probably kill anyone in it's path. So you have to be really careful when you bring stuff up with you (I didn't bring anything but work gloves and Chris only brought a wrench and his phone), and you have to keep two hands on the bricks at all times, except the split second when you have to slip your hand around the ropes of the line-sets. It was king of scary knowing everything that could possibly go wrong while up there. But we were careful.

We also had to untwist the cables of the shivs for one of the line-sets. It was running okay, but you could see where they were twisted together along the grid instead of running in line like they should. So Chris and I had to go up to the grid and figure out how best to untwist the cables without completely undoing all of the shivs. Then, we would tell the crew on the ground which to undo, Chris would pull the cables up to the grid, we would get everything fed properly and then dropped back through the shiv, where the ground crew would get everything re-attached. It was cool to actually see how everything actually got hooked up in the fly system. Most of the time you just work with the batons or just with the weights - I've never gotten to work with the actual shiv system and all the hardware and cables. It's good stuff to know.

When I got back to the floor, Andrew had me go up in the genie and rehang some things along the apron pipe. It went a lot smoother than the first time I'd gone up. I could actually tell which lights were hung and how far apart they were, and communicate with Jarrod on what needed to be done. I'd already gone up and pulled the gels and cables the day before, so today was just putting the units back in order. It went really smoothly.

After that, everything in the air was reset to the house plot that was loaded when we first got to the Robinson and we were ready to start working on the floor. Sean and I had some cables to re-count and sort because some of our numbers from the day before were a little off, but that didn't take too long. Then we had to pull up all the Marley and roll it up. I requested to work on that project because I'd been so bad at it at the Memminger. Chris and Katie were doing it quickly by attaching the Marley to the roll, and then getting pushed across the stage on a dolly while pushing the roll. Then, they would stand the roll on it's end and push it down to make it even, set it back down, and roll it over a few times to tighten it up before taping it off. This was efficient, but it wasn't the process the tech crew was using at the Memminger. I knew it wasn't the "official" way to roll Marley, so I had Chris show me the way they had been doing it. You have to have two people - one on each end - rolling evenly. And if one person gets ahead, they hold their end tight while the other person bumps their end forward and then pulls the roll tight. If the Marley rolls a little crooked or starts to hang over the end, you pull it tight and then push the roll back in so it stays even. It was really difficult and time consuming. Chris said the guys who were doing it themselves, and quickly, at the Memminger have been doing it really often (like weekly) for years so they have a system to it. So I felt better about not being able to do it. We stuck with the quick way with the dolly for most of the strips, but the last one I tried to do the regular way. It worked for the most part, but we did have to stand it up and even it out at the end still. Oh well. Andrew cataloged the pieces that we used as well so we wouldn't have to go through it all next year to find the good ones. So we re-labeled everything with the direction and placement it had on the stage to make the next year go a lot smoother.

We also had to get the chairs back the way they were supposed to be. This may have been done before the Marley - we had to much to do I can't even remember what order it went it. Oh well. We removed all the chairs we'd installed from the Memminger and then Sean and I went up to the catwalks and retrieved the set of chairs that had been removed for the sound table. I struck that and then Robert helped me reinstall the chairs. It was pretty simple..set it in place and bolt them in to the floor with a power drill. Easy peasy.

Katie painted the floor where it had been ripped up by the gaff tape, we extreme swept when that was dry. We had to take down the motors that were used to raise and lower the sound speakers. We pulled all tie line and gaff tape that was lying around. We finished reorganizing and cleaning the road boxes (and we all got to sign the Robinson electrics box). We organized everything that's going on the truck tomorrow, and we did a final look over to make sure everything had been taken that belonged to Spoleto and that everything belonging to the Robinson had been put back in order. And then we were done. The Robinson was struck and ready to go back to normal procedure. Chris and Andrew are going back in the morning to load the truck, but Jarrod, Katie, Sean and I will be at the X-Hall starting the PRG count in. It's weird that it's over. I feel like we just got here and just started working. But it's been 3 and a half weeks already. I've learned so much, it's amazing. I can't wait to go back to SVSU and put it all to work.

Stayed tuned for the rest of strike! The next few days will be long and tough...6 people loading 3 trucks in two days - And Andrew can't really do any of the lifting or moving because he hurt his hand earlier in the festival and the doctor finally put the block on him using it (remind me to post that story later). So he will manly be calling the pack while we get it done. So it should be fun. We're in the final stretch - keep reading.

SP Central

Well, let me tell you, a shower has never felt so fantastic.

Today I lived life as an SP - our Special Projects Crew. They do all the odd jobs, load ins, changeovers, and load outs for the outdoor theaters as well as other venues around the festival. All the hard work and long hours that us venue people only pull occasionally. Robinson got farmed out to work with them on the Cistern load out, the X-Hall load out, and the changeover at the Memminger. Lots of work to be done.

We started work at the Cistern at 8:30am.

First off, the trucks arrived and had to be prepped for loading. Easy enough. Then, the whole stage had to be taken down and loaded onto the trucks. Heavy platforms that had to be carried and lifted up to the truck. I was rocking the platform carrying - it wasn't as bad as I'd remembered it being when we put the stage together originally. But I couldn't life them up to the truck. I could get a small corner high enough for the on deck loader to grab and situate, but I was pretty useless aside from that. I didn't let it stop me though. I put all the effort in to it that I could and was just as ready to move everything as everyone else was.

Once that was done, the framework of the deck had to be moved. That stuff wasn't as bad, it was just awkward. The truck bed we were loading it on too was also lower.

After that, all the scaffolding towers were ready to come down. The SP Electricians had been diligently working on getting the lighting instruments and cables down from the tops of the towers and the carpenters were able to move in and begin disassembling them.  Basically, it meant more heavy lifting and carrying for everyone. But I was okay with it. At the beginning of my time here, when we did the load in, I struggled to find my place and find things that I was able to carry. But now, I knew what I could carry. I knew people I could ask for help if I couldn't carry it. It went really well. The towers came down quickly and easily. I started moving the scaffolding pipes with everyone, but eventually they needed the walkboards too, so I Started moving those instead. I basically moved every single walkboard while everyone else worked with the scaffolding. One of my other proud moments - I grabbed an iron I-beam Without realizing how heavy it was going to be, and I managed to get halfway to the truck with it all by myself. When you turn the corner out of the Cistern though, I had to shift it around a little because the sidewalk is narrow and you can't hit the bricks. So then I lost my control over it and Katie came to help. But I was still proud of how far I'd gotten it. Paul Hunter (one of the SP coordinators) and Andrew were pretty impressed with the hard work that I put in to the day. So basically, we did a lot of heavy lifting and moving for the majority of the morning.

We also had to load all the electrics boxes on to the truck, which took a good number of people just to hold the boxes so they don't fall off the truck lift. Not a big deal.

And then (Yes, there's more) we had to load up all the chairs. They are lettered and numbered in order to create the seating system used on the tickets. So we had to stack them in order and load them in to crates which then had to be covered with a plastic sheet and saran wrapped so they wouldn't fall out while in the truck. We had to teams of about 5 people so it went pretty quick.

Once that was complete, we did some general clean up around the Cistern and went to a 20 minute break before we met back at the shop.

Yep. Break. At this point it was only 10:30am and we had the rest of the day ahead of us. During the break, Andrew commented on how far Sean and I had come since our first day - we could lift and do more, we knew what was going on, and we jumped right in ready to work. It was pretty cool.

After the break, we were back at the shop - time to unload all of those trucks we'd spent the morning loading. This went a little faster than the morning because the scaffolding pipes came off as a whole stack with a forklift instead of each person taking one pipe at a time. All the chairs were stored, the decking for the stage got stored. We had to unload the frame for the stage and stand it up in it's storage space, so that took a little time and effort but it wasn't too bad. Just more heavy lifting.

At one point, there was a box that needed to be broken down and thrown in to the dumpster. So Andrew and Jarrod sent Sean and I to go find some sledgehammers. We found one, and I got the honor of wielding it. Mind you, I could barely lift it to swing it, but I was up for it anyway. We started on one side, and I had to swing at the top joint and then the bottom joint to break off one side of the box. Jarrod took the final swing at it though because I ran out of steam pretty fast. Then he did the other side and handed the hammer back to me so I could break off the front piece. It's not every day that you get to swing a heavy tool at a something with the means to destroy it. It was great. Random SPs would walk by and cheer encouragement - it was funny. So that was my big moment for the day. Swinging a sledgehammer at a wooden box. It was pretty awesome.

Anyway, after that I could feel how tired I was. My arms were a little shaky and I was hot and sweaty and gross. I looked dirty - You could tell I'd gone at the day with everything I had and that I'd worked hard and got things done. I was exhausted, but I felt great looking back at everything we'd gotten done.

There were some other small things to move - pipes, wooden barricades, empty flats, etc. Everything had to be put away. But pretty soon after the sledgehammer fun, it was time for lunch and to move on to the next project. All I wanted to do at that point was curl up and sleep and take a shower. But there was no time for that. I figured I should look semi decent if we were going out in public, so Katie lent me a clean shirt to throw on over my tank top, I washed up a little in the bathroom, made my hair look a little cleaner in my ponytail, and we were off to lunch. Gotta love the dirt and grime!

While we were all standing around waiting to go to lunch, Jarrod made the joke that he should leave me in charge of the show at the Robinson and he could go to the beach and enjoy his evening. Obviously it was a joke, but it's a joke that's been made multiple times - that I can handle my job at the Robinson and I can do the channel check and run the shows and everything. It's a nice confidence booster, even if it isn't really going to happen. Hopefully it all carries over and I can be in charge a little back at SVSU. We'll see.

After lunch, the day went on. Hard to believe, I know. We moved on to the X-Hall so we could strike everything that had been up for the Trombone Shorty After-Party. Basically, there was a stage with some lighting on it, a TON of purple curtain that had been hung floor to ceiling around the whole room, and a lot of piping and booms with black curtain on it. So team Robinson got put on the black curtains and the booms and piping that went with them. Simple enough. Andrew had the idea that instead of getting a ladder and having to climb up and down it every time we had to move it, Sean and I would get up on a rental box and he would push us from point to point. But I was fast at untying the knots than Sean was, so he had to get down and I got to ride around and take down all the curtain. It was a fun time and fast work. When we had long moves while I was on the box, I pretended I was surfing. It was fairly enjoyable.

After all the curtains were dropper, we folded them up (which there is a system for!) They would get laid out all nice and even, face up. Then we would all get on one side and fold it long ways in half twice. Then, It would get folded to center with about a foot space between the "fold to" point on each side. Then, each side would get folded over until there were two neat stacks at center, and then it would get folded in half at the center line so it made a nice, neat, roll of curtain that slid in to a bag. It makes a lot more sense doing it than typing it - but everyone seemed to know this system so it's probably a good thing to remember if I want to keep working in theatre.

After that, we had to go back and take down all the piping. So I got to get back on my box and roll around and take them down. Each pipe was cheese-burrowed to a boom on both sides, so two people would get up and undo the cheese-burrows and then pass the pipe down to the others who would move it to the rack.

Then, the booms came down and the boom poles would come off the base and everything would get stored on it's proper rack, ready to be loaded on to the truck. We continued to do this for the rest of the boom poles around the hall that had been used by other crews as well. Some of the booms I could get undone, but some of them needed a pipe wrench, which I still couldn't undo the booms even while doing it. But I was super determined and Katie and I worked together on one, and it still took all of our strength. It was ridiculous. But we got it.

After THAT was done (well, more around 3 o'clock. The project wasn't done, but Andrew, Katie, and Sean stayed with it), Chris and I went off with some of the other SPs to do the change over from Circa to Emilie at the Memminger. I was the only girl that got sent with them, so I felt a little outnumbered. Going over to the Memminger took me out of the comfort area that I had found in the rest of my work with the SPs. The group going had already done the changeover once, so they knew what to expect and they knew the process already. I had no idea what was going on.

We got there a little early, while the show was still going on, so we had some time to sit around for a bit. Then, we went in to strike Circa. There was a bunch of Marley that had to come up and a bunch of rigging that had to be taken down. So we started ripping up tape. Easy enough. The guy tarted rolling the Marley up as it came free - I was still working on tape at this point. But then there was one bit not getting so I stepped up to roll it. I'd never rolled my own roll of Marley before, but Andrew had explained the technique to me when we were working with Marley at the Robinson. So I tried it, but couldn't get my roll to go straight and had to start over a few times. Raj (in charge at the Memminger) got someone to help me and said not to worry about making it perfect, just get it rolled and don't break the Marley. So with the second person we got it in good shape and got it out of the way.

Then, a group started working on taking up the gym mats that had been below the Marley. I joined the crew that was working on west coasting the RP screen and the legs. Easy enough. You hold your arms out and catch the screen as it comes in so it folds up in your arms and then you tie it to itself so it's nice and folded up and then it got threw in a hamper. The legs got tied up and then folded over the top of the truss they were on. Then, the truss got taken down of the rigging, folded in half, and rolled in to the shop on a set of dollies.

At some point in that set of tasks, I was looking for a job to do. So Raj sent me to go finish loading the Marley cart. I don't really think he was thinking when he told me to do that. A roll of Marley is heavy when two people are lifting it - even two strong people. So me going to lift 10 rolls of Marley on my own was ridiculous. So I went down and started struggling with a roll. But there was no way I was going to get anywhere with it. But when I looked up for help, everyone was working on their own projects. Finally, Gillian - a girl I'd met a time or two before on the porch - came over and offered to help. So we got all of the Marley loaded and pushed in to the shop. If she hadn't stopped to help though, I don't know what I would have done. When I told Andrew and Jarrod about it after we'd gotten back and gone to dinner, they just laughed and said Raj doesn't always think.

Anyway, once the stage was clear of all the Circa stuff, we tarted loading in Emilie. This is constructed of 3 raked stages that had to be put together. So we had to move the raked framework from the shop on to the stage a long with the black masking flats and the deck pieces before we started working. Each frame got put on it's spike mark and then fit together with wooden locks. Then, once we made sure everything got put on the spikes properly, we started laying decking. Which was pretty much more of what we'd been working with at the Cistern. After it was all laid out and put together, the masking had to go up to hide the raked framework underneath. There were also a series of cut out projector screens that had to be rigged and flown above the stage.

Raj put me to work with a crew on the screens, but there were so many of us working on it, eventually there wasn't really a job for me. I started out well working with the rigging and everything, but then it got taken over and I found myself searching for a job again. Another guy on my crew and I got clearance to move ahead and set up the next few screens while the riggers flew out the ones we'd already done, so that occupied me a little bit, but I know I still did a lot of standing around not knowing what to do.

After those were flown we moved on to masking. I could place it in the right spot, but everything had to be secured with a screw gun, which I didn't have. So I got back to standing and trying to help where I could, but mainly watching other people do a lot of little tasks. It was at that point that Tom said they usually had clearance to leave because the bulk of their work was done. So we hung out by the stage and waited for Raj's approval - which he gave and we headed back to the X-Hall. I left feeling a little less confident about the things I could do, and I felt like I had been in the way a lot at the Memminger. Some of it was because I had never done that changeover before, but I wish I had been able to jump right in and get everything done. Raj still thanked Chris and I and said he'd appreciated the extra hands though, so we'd at least helped a little bit.

I was surprised to find the Robinson crew and the other SPs still hard at work there. They had just finished loading all of the trucks, but the piping from the curtains and booms didn't fit. So we had to load all the pipes off of the carts and put it on a flatbed. It wasn't too bad. With everyone who was left there working, it went really fast. The truck came again for one box that needed to be loaded in, but other than that we were done. Many of the SPs had been cut before we had to reload the pipes. The other SPs had to stay and finish up the cleaning and everything. But team Robinson was done for the day.

It was a long day - we got a lot done and worked really hard. I finally realized how much I'd learned during my time at the festival, and how much I'd grown just in general. I'm beat - I put in a good days work, but I feel great at where I am right now as a worker in my field and as a person in general. I like working hard. I would rather work like this and have something to talk about and than do the easy show calls like we've been doing at the Robinson. I love the Robinson, and all the tech work I've done there has been awesome, but I like being able to come home and say look at all of this work I did! It's great.

Tomorrow we are back at the Robinson  for a half day. We are striking the Recital Hall and then preparing for a full strike and reset of the Robinson on Monday. It will be a long few days, but if the strikes go anything like they did today, I'm happy. 

The Random Test.

Well, today is going to be another nobrainer of a post. I did have a minor, random test from Jarrod today though.

Call was at 6pm for the final showing of Cedric Andrieux. I got in and Jarrod put me right to work. I had to go in to the catwalks and count every light and keep total based on type. Functional lights were anything hanging on the beams or in the meat racks. Nonfunctional lights were anything sitting along the walls or in the light booth. I got to test my knowledge of light types and everything, as well as my counting skills. It was fun. Most of the lights had labels of I didn't know what they were, and the ones that didn't I was able to describe to Jarrod and he knew what they were. I now know the difference between 6x9s, 6x12s, and 6x16s a hell of a lot better than I did before. So it was a good exercise that occupied the hour before the start of the show.

We did channel check with know issues. We did the show with no issues. And the changeover out of Cedric and in to East 10th street went really smoothly. We got our stuff done and then the lighting designer went through and changed the boom lights with me. Originally, he had them run out of focus and then shuttered where he wanted them. It made the whole effect really muddy and unclear. So today, we went through and sharpened all the lights and then reshuttered the lights and dropped a frost in with the color. Tha way, the light is still soft edged like h wanted it, but give a good, clean, sharp look to the light. It makes the whole picture cleaner and brighter. It looks a lot nicer now.

So we got that done and I was free to go. Sean convinced me to check out Trombone Shorty at the Cistern since he coulde make it because of East 10th... so I'm sitting on the street checking it out. And it's amazing! Jazzy, funky, pop with trombone...it's a great dance beat and a great energy and I'm loving it.

Working at 8:30am to strike the Cistern tomorrow and continuing to work with tthe SPs all day. Should be lots to post about tomorrow- stay tuned!

Here We Go Again...For the Last Time.

8am day today, but it wasn't so bad. We got in and got right to work. Sean and I reset the tech table and got the board ready for focus. Edgar Oliver, the actor for East 10th Street, actually had his lighting designer come for focus instead of having the stage manager or one of Team Lighting do it. So that was new. There were very few lights to do, but it the focus seemed to take longer than most of them. The lighting designer seemed to know what he wanted, but he struggled vocalizing it. He had a very thick accent, so I wonder if maybe he didn't have the words. But then again, he always got them eventually. Maybe he was just thinking a lot about what he wanted to do. It was weird. It took me a little longer than it should have to focus the front of house lights - I had to keep moving unused lights out of the way so I had focus space. I've never had to do much of that, so it was weird and annoying. It just means resetting the house plot will take that much longer. I got to utilize the technique of beating lights with my wrench that I learned from the stage manager of Khmeropedies in the first rep. A few of my shutters wouldn't cooperate...so I hit them and got it to work. I was proud.

Once focus was done, it was Sean's turn to program. But I guess he didn't really program the last shows we did. He just fixed preexisting cues (since Khmeropedies brought all their cues on a flash drive and loaded them in). So Jarrod had me "backseat program" and sit with Sean while he worked in case there were problems or questions. So I got to test my programming knowledge and walk Sean through a few things like copying cues and changing timing and doing follow cues and the like. It made me really confident with what I know about programming and the ETC Element and stuff. There were a few things I didn't know that the lighting designer had to prompt us on, but for the most part I was good to go. I felt good about it, and I was glad that Jarrod trusted me to know my stuff and keep everything under control.

While we were focusing and programming, we were also waiting for the rest of the company to arrive and start tech. According to the lighting designer, they "liked to sleep." So they were just...not there yet. It was strange to me, that you would waste the time that was set aside for tech. Wouldn't you want to use it and get everything down pat so you could be confident about it? I wouldn't want to show up late and rush things together and not get it right.

But they showed up at 11:45 for a tech at noon. They got there. Just kind of late. And they forgot the costume so we had to do a bit more waiting so that could get there. It was a lot of sitting around. Not a huge deal, but still.

Then they started tech. The artist came across really strange..weird..creepy...not the kind o guy you'd want around your children. So I let my judgments get in my way and I didn't watch. Instead, I worked on my pickle rig. I covered a milk crate in black fabric and hung a stand in the middle. I wanted to use 4 pickles and make a E shape (for East 10th Street and for Edgar Oliver). The the E would light up on the black background and look pretty sweet.

Once tech was done we were off on a 4 hour break until show call. I had time to get lunch/dinner and relax a little so that was nice.

We came back and did a show of Cedric Andreiux. It was still odd..flat..dull..but a little interesting. I payed attention to different sections tonight so I got a little bit of a different stuff from it. I'm still unsure of how I feel about it. The Cedric has an interesting story as a dancer, I just get bored so easily watching it. I wish he had music. But the whole thing is that he learned dance without music. So I don't know. We'll see how I eel at the end of the run. But everything went smoothly...no hiccups or problems or flukes.

We smoothly changed over into East 10th Street - go the blackout and then strip lights set. No issues.

I did my pickle - the E shape didn't hold very well but the pickles lit up nicely, so it still worked out. Last pickle of the season..it was kind of sad.

Then, I decided to get over my judgments of Edgar Oliver and watch his show. And it was great! I mean, I still think the guy is creepy. He scares me and makes me a little uncomfortable. He has a very strange sense of humor and has had a very strange life. But the way he tells his stories, and the scenarios he found himself in, and the people he came across..they were hilarious. Strange, but told in such a matter of fact fashion, I had a good time and had a few good laughs. I'm glad I got over the first impression and went.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the lighting though. There were lots of shadows and I couldn't always see his face. The strip lights faded in and out at weird times too. I found myself searching for meaning behind it instead of really focusing on Edgar. I love the music they played though. Pre-show was weird and kind of jarring. But they played an opening song and then played it again at the close and it was really pretty. It kind of made his life seem sort of fictional or mythical. It was a cool effect. So the tech was a mix of decency and things that I didn't understand. But that happens with a lot of shows.

I have most of the day off tomorrow. In at 6 for show call and the final show of Cedric. Then I am going to see if I can't make it over to the Memminger to see Circa. We'll see. Saturday I am working with the SPs all day - 8am to 7pm. I wanted to see Emilie, but I don't think I will make it on the SP schedule. Oh well. Then we head right in to strike...It's weird how close the end of the festival is. I don't want it to be over already!

But alas..there will be new adventures soon.

Keep checking back!

Same Old Same Old

Well. We got in at 9am today. We focused at 9:30. But Andrew, the lighting guy not our TD or the SP (haha) did the lights on over the stage and then front of house, instead of doing them together, so I did a lot of sitting around for the first bit. I wasn't the biggest fan of focusing with him either. He wasn't very vocal. And I guess technically you don't have to be - he stood where he wanted the light and I focused it to him and he was happy, but I had to stop and ask if it was good and then prompt him for the next step instead of him being snappy with what he wanted. It worked out okay, and it went fast, but it was just different and it wasn't a manner which I preferred. But the focus was really repetitive so we got into a good system and we got it done, no worries. So no big deal.

The cues were really easy, so Jarrod did the programming and we took a long lunch. When we got back, the artist was in and we looked at the cues and stuff. I got to sit at the bored with Andrew and fix a lot of the cues. He was more fun to work with that way. We talked a lot about the different types of boards and what he'd worked with and problems he'd run in to. It was interesting.

So yeah. The artist want a bunch of front light though which was weird. Andrew classified him as "shadow-phobic" in that he wanted the front lights to wash out the shadows on his face and on the back, and that he though side lights would throw more shadow. When in reality, the side lights would wash out the weird shadows and give him a little dimension. But we work a the Festival of Yes, and we gave him what he wanted. 3 rows of face light at 90% and 4 rows of back light/top light at 70%. The stage was so bright it kinda looked like house lights were on a low glow as well. But the artist was happy, so so were we.

We rebuilt the cues that Jarrod had programmed in order to include this uber-bright effect. So I did get to program a little. Then we teched. The show was built around the bare minimum and focused  a lot on waiting. There was a pause and slow cues and lots of dead space with silence. It was very weird. So a lot of the cues were taken just a few seconds after something happened, or he would enter a few seconds after the lights came on. It was a very awkward affect, but it kind of worked. It was interesting to see how the audience reacted to it.

He starts the show monotone, talking about his life. And he continues that way. He does some example dances with no music - sometimes he kept beat through them, sometimes he talked or cracked small jokes. And he went on like that. At the end, he did one dance to music. But the dance was him looking at the audience (the dance does what the title says: "I'll Be Watching You by The Police"...so you get it). So it was the same awkward bareness. I dunno. I didn't completely dig it but you could see what he wanted everyone to get out of it and it worked for him. There were funny moments and sad moments and interesting moments and dull moments - it had a lot of levels, honestly. Just  a different way of achieving them.

No colors in the lights, no sound but his voice, no set, just a blank stage and blank movement. Very much the reality of dancing..what's behind the movement without the music.

I got to do a cue and everything though. My inner stage manager shining through. There is no stage manager with this show, so Andrew (the TD) gives me the house and lets me call the pre-show announcement and start the show. And I take all my own light cues. So I sort f get to do a little SM work. I felt proud of it, at least.

So yeah. I get to do that for the next 3 nights. And tomorrow we load and tech East 10th Street so that will be going on too.

Long day tomorrow. Then it evens back out. Check back for how tomorrows focus and tech goes.

Thesis Research

While I've been experiencing the exciting world of theatre in the south, I have been continuously thinking about my thesis: new topics to look in to, new angles to take, people to talk to, etc.

Two things that have come up in the past few days:

1. People consistently show up nearly 45 minutes late to shows. We'll be sitting on headset and the stage manager will give warnings for light bleed because so many people just walked in to the theater. In the north, the show starts at 7, house opens at 6:30, people usually start arriving at 6:15 to get their tickets and get in line. We might hold the house if there is a big crowd to make sure everyone gets seated, but we'll pretty much start on time at 7.

This doesn't happen in the south. In the south, the show starred at 7, doors open at 6:30. People trickle in at 6:30. We hold the house because so many tickets are unaccounted for and the house is empty. We start the show 15 minutes late. At 7:45, there is an influx of people. The don't care that they missed half the show, they don't care that they're late. They take their time, and they work on their own time, not your time.

It's interesting. I've talked a lot about Spain and the show time being at 7 but them not starting until 8 because the theatre and the poeple are taking their time. Everyone relaxes. Here it seems the theatre keeps its time and the events keep their time and the people just happen to be there...or not. It's a very..."stumble upon it" type of business and society down here.

I difinitely want to talk to more of the Spoletians about what they've notoced and experienced about the differences down here.

2. It came up at lunch that there isn't really "real theatre" in Charleston. Katie and Chris have both worked in New York and they knew exactly what each other was saying. Working at Spoleto is my only real "professional" theare work, so I don't really have a comparrison and needed an explanation. Neither could really give a great description of it...it's more something you have to experience (and I hope I do soon!). For the most part, they said people in the south are a little behind in what's available. It probably goes hand in hand with the take it as it comes slow going life style down here. Katie, being a painter, used the example that there are better paints to use in a space with so little climate control, and that they wont go bad as fast. Or there were different types of paints and coatings that the charges didn't know about. She told Chris if he started working down here that he would question a lot of their methods and materials, because they'd found different, better ways of doing things in New York. I'm curious to work more in the north and experience this difference for myself.

I'm getting more confident with my thesis topic the more I talk to people around here, and I know I am making positive connections that I can easily contact and interview and use for my research. It's great to see the project coming alive.

Really Wrapping It Up. Really.

So, we worked for a grad total of 2 hours after lunch. We sorted and counted mult, breakins, breakouts, twofers, cable, gel frames, side arms, lights...everything. We packed and labeled return boxes. We rearranged the boxes in the shop. We fixed some of the goods. We swept the stage. Busy work for the most part. But it got done fast. Katie and Chris painted the Garden Box, so we had a big unveiling. We got the schedule all worked out for the next few days. And then we got the night off. We went to this delicious seafood place- everything was deep fried and awesome. And we just hung out on the docks until sunset, which was pretty. But took forever. Saw Pirates of the Caribbean in Imax...fun bonding things.  We're skating by on easy jobs until the big strike. It's nice. I'm probably  a little spoiled. Maybe more than a little.

In at 9am tomorrow. Focus at 9:30. Then we program and tech Cedric and we do a show and we're off on the third rep. Woo hoo!

Check back for the end of the festival...time is quickly running out. Sad :(

Wrap It Up

Good afternoon! I actually have time to post on my lunch break - it's glorious.

We went in at 8am this morning, back to the lovely Robinson Theater to finish out load in for the third rep. I got to sleep off my sickness yesterday afternoon for four hours, and slept pretty well last night, but I am still dragging. My head is a little foggy and I'm still coughing. I'd like to think I have my strength back and can work along with everyone, but let me tell you - I was shaking pretty bad by the time lunch rolled around. Luckily, when we go back we have a short afternoon and just cleaning to do. Hopefully I will get to sit down.

But anyway. We left the Robinson on Sunday with the electrics hung along with half the goods. So this morning it was right back to the grid for Chris, while the rest of us started pulling out the goods. We had three sets of legs to hand, a full black out, and two borders to get situated. We had trouble with the border and the blackout at first - they were getting caught on the spine of the cables running to one of the empty electrics. I had to transfer the crosbies over from the now empty line-set to the original placement of the electric, so I am thinking I must have dropped the spine a little bit so not it's getting in the way. We were going to move it back up to it's original position, but we aren't using that electric for this rep, so we just flew it to the grid and figured we would deal with it later. Once that was out of the way, everything came in pretty smoothly. One of the batons was a few inches stage left of center, but Robert moved it over on his own so we didn't have any trouble with it, really. 

Once the goods were done, we moved on to taking care of electrics business. Katie and Chris worked on the 4 booms while Sean and I worked on the 1 and 2Beams in the catwalks. There was a minor misunderstanding on the 1Beam with the reference points for the lights. Jarrod told me the light that was channel 4 on the last rep was now unit 14 on this rep. But where I had hung the light for channel 4 was stage right of center. And it was supposed to be stage left. No one had noticed or called me out on my mistake, so we went through the whole run with it wrong, and it didn't throw us off until now. Funny how that worked out.  So instead, we used the center light as a reference which worked a lot easier and we got all of the spacing and everything right. We only missed one light - the lights on either side of center were supposed to be two-fered, with the light at center in between them. But we missed the second light in the twofer. So when Sean was dropping color, we had an extra gel. But instead of thinking that something might be missing, we just ignored it and moved on. But when we got to channel check, there was a light missing. So I had to go up and check, and finally noticed on the paperwork that there should be two lights two-fered instead of just one light. It was an easy fix to cable and label and everything. So we got that working. Jarrod reminded us that we don't get extra color and that the extra gel should have been a warning sign - one of those things where I need to start being aware of my surroundings. I'm getting better, I think, but I have a ways to go I suppose.

But besides that, the 2Beam was hung just fine. I cabled and labeled while Sean dropped color. Then we went down and worked on the booms. Katie and Chris got the light hung, but they were circuited wrong. So Sean and I went through and re-circuited and labeled everything correctly. Jarrod did the channel check while I finalized the labeling on the booms, and then we moved on to the cleaning process.

We had to put two 40 degree Shakespeares on floor stands. Jarrod had told me to grab two stands that were in good shape - so I took the only two in the light booth. They looked like they were in good shape, just pretty dirty. So I cleaned them once they were down, but then all the chips in the black paint were noticeable. So Katie had to paint them. It was a little glitch, but it didn't take too much time. Then, we put the extra barrels on the source-4s and put their yolks back to the standard sized (they were all shortened in order to be on the booms). Once they were all back to their original form, we packed the rental box to get the lights out of the way. Everything has to be recorded as it gets packed so we know everything is accounted for and that it goes back to the right place. Once that was done, we cleaned up some other lights that were sitting around and sorted and replaced the gels from the last rep. The scene shop is looking like it's in pretty good shape so far. Once we go back from lunch, we are going to sort a bunch of multi cable and get that in order - more cleaning so that the shop is even cleaner when the company comes in tomorrow.

So, we're just wrapping up the load in pretty much. Tomorrow we get back in to focusing and programming, and then we're right back in to show calls for the last rep. It should be an easy few days. Sunday starts strike week for the festival and then we're outta here. It's crazy how fast everything is going.

Check back in the evening for the post-lunch update - shouldn't be anything too crazy, but we'll see. 

Getting Farmed Out...Or Not.

So we all thought today was going to be a tough day. We were supposed to get farmed out to Middleton to help with their load it. It's a big outdoor theater with no shade in the middle of summer. So we would be building platforms and scaffolding and hanging lights in the hottest heat of Charleston. Not one was looking forward to it but Jarrod. And then Jarrod got transferred to working on an electrics project at the Memminger, so it would just had been Chris, Sean, Katie, Andrew, and myself.

Then, they told us we would only be at Middleton until lunch, since there were so many crews going out to help and it would get done really fast. Awesome. Only a half day in the hot hot heat. The evening would be spent at the Memminger helping them load in Circa, a circus piece which we were assuming would have a lot of rigging and stuff to be done.

Then, Sunday evening at our grill out, Andrew got a call saying there were too many crews going out to Middleton and that the Gaillard crew needed help putting in their sound wall. So, hooray we didn't have to work in the heat! Boo, we have to do the grunt work for the sound wall. No one really new what to expect, but everyone knew it was going to be really difficult. After that was done, we were still scheduled to help out at the Memminger.

So we get the Gaillard, and we're ready to go. We started with 26 plywood 4x8 slats that needed to be moved from a storage room in to the theater where the sound wall would go (right underneath the balcony). We worked in teams of two, and Andrew carried by himself. It was exhausting. I'm still sick, though getting better, but I am a lot weaker than I am normally - and I'm not even that strong then. So I was struggling, but we got it done. We worked out a good system of tabling the slats and then angling them through the doors, and then tabling them gain to get them across the seats of the auditorium.

Once those were in, we had to move the 26 metal frames into the auditorium, and place them downstage of the slats. These were a little lighter and could be carried by one person. But I couldn't do it. I could carry the weight, but the shape required me to hold my arms above my head, and my hand were shaking by the time I got to the drop point. So Andrew had me stop and just help lay them out. Chris got frustrated, but I didn't care. I was still helping as much as I could.

Once those were done, the other began to bring out the 26 poles that would hold up the plywood and the frame. I started working on the hardware, screwing in the eye-bolts that the poles would be hooked to. Someone would bring in a pole, and I would clip it in. It was a good system and we got done pretty fast.

And supposedly moving all of those things was the easy part. Then, the metal frames would get attached to their poles. The plywood would get dropped into the frame, and then the frame would be stood up and the top would be attached to the poles. It was tedious. It took three people to flip and transfer the plywood, and three people to line it up properly in the frame, and three people to stand it up and attach it to the poles. So Katie, Andrew, and I flipped and moved the plywood. Andrew, Chris, and Sean dropped the plywood into the frame, and Sean, Chris, and Rick (one of the Gaillard crew members) would stand everything up on the pole. It seemed to be an okay system. But when we got to the center, we had to avoid the tech table. So Katie and I would flip the plywood, and the two of us and Andrew would drop the plywood into the frame. Then We would pas the set to Chris and Sean and they would help Rick attach it to the pole. I guess not one at the Gaillard has ever done it like that before, but the system  worked really fast and were were done in no time. We told one of the house crew member and he liked the new system so he made note of it to use in the future.

Once that was done, we hung a pipe from the ceiling going downstage from the wall on either side. Then, we had to get on ladder (which were on the rake of the house, so they weren't entirely level) and tie up curtains to hide the seats that were lost behind the sound wall. It took a little bit to get started and get everything lined up right, since we were working in the air, rather than at the floor like we would if we were bringing batons in on stage. But we got it. Andrew and I were on ladder and we leap-frogged each other, me tying while Andrew took weight, then him tying what he had taken while I took weight.

The whole thing was supposed to take us 3 hours with a good crew (and we didn't know if we'd be considered a god crew), but we were done in 2.5. Which was good, but we were all joking that they would select us special to come in and do it next year. Hopefully not. But we'll see.

So Andrew called Raj at the Memminger, expecting that we would go over early and then get out a  little earlier in the evening. But Raj didn't need us. He said it, and then double checked jut to make sure, but they were cruising a long as well and didn't need the extra hands. So Andrew called Rhys, expecting that we would get farmed out somewhere else. There had to be more work to be done. But there wasn't. We were let go. We were supposed to farmed out all day, working until 5, but we got out at 11:30. We had the whole afternoon off, called back to the Robinson at 8am to finalize our load in for the third rep.

So here I sit. Trying to figure out what to do with my time off. I want to keep working and learning! But a nap would be nice too...sleep off the rest of my cold. We'll see.

So it was an easy day today. We'll see what tomorrow brings. 

Ready. Reset. Roll.

Well, in my time off, I got a ticket to see Kneehigh Theatre's The Red Shoes. It was amazing. This girl looses her mom and stuff, so she's sad, and she doesn't have shoes. So she paints her feet red. This old lady finds her, and makes her wear proper clothes and has new shoes made for her. But instead of getting proper black shoes, the girl gets red. She gets cursed with her red shoes to dance in them for the rest of her life, and she becomes miserable. She can't get the shoes off of her feet, so she cuts of her feet, but the shoes still haunt her. The church wont save her, but then God comes down and tries to take her to heaven, but she refuses, grabs the shoes, and renounces them on her own. She exits the stage, clearly free. The narrator says most people think she went to Hell, but the narrator disagreed. So basically, they took a story meant to tell people to follow the crowd and twisted it around to say that you should dance to the beat of your own drum. The whole thing was done with the cast in whitey-tighties and white wife beaters and the narrator would tell the story and pick who would play which role, so they would grab a suitcase labeled what they were and don the minimal costume inside of it. The set was minimal, but the doors would fold and unfold, white on one side and black on the other, and the stage would become the different places that the narrator spoke of. There was minimal talking besides the narrator - mostly dancing and music  - but you still got all of the emotion. It was incredible..I was pretty blown away. Spoleto Festival pulls in some great talent. I'm so glad that I can say I was here and that I worked with that talent. I've gotten to experience so much.

After the show, I had just enough time to debrief a little bit while I ate and changed and got ready for my own show call. We had two shows Saturday - one at 7pm and one at 10pm and then strike. It was going to be a bit of an evening. I was coming down with a cold too, so that wasn't helping much. But I took some antihistamines and got on with my day. The first show went pretty smoothly. I felt bad for the stage manager though - at the end of every show he has cues planned for an encore and he always tells Katie to watch and see if the band comes back. Even when he really thinks there will be an encore, they never come back. Finally, on Saturday, he stopped planning for it and let them keep walking of stage. You'd think at some point he would have talked to them about an encore, but he never did. I wonder if they are used to playing in front of huge audiences who really dig the indie style of music. The crowd here is a lot of older, uppity people with some younger ones mixed in, so it was probably a really big difference in energy and response - and you know the performers could feel it. It's not only loading, teching, and managing a show that changes across cultural and local norms, it's the performance too. The whole show changes. That will be something good to thing about for my thesis.

Anyway, in between the first and second show we had time to eat. I ran to CVS - I think my cold got worse during the show so I grabbed some last minute necessities like Kleenex and cough drops and the like. I was pretty miserable. I tried to balance in and doze during the second show - I paid attention to the music and the stage manager and never missed a cue, but I was not fully attentive though the whole show. It wasn't very professional, but I got through the evening.

Once the show was over, we got right in to strike. The band and their roadies got the instruments and all their personal equipment out of the way. We started pulling up the Marley that masked the cable clusters in front of the monitors. All the sound cable was pulled and coiled. We pulled up carpeting from the booms and everything - basically just clearing the stage so we could work on booms and electrics on Sunday. It was pretty fast going and we were done a little after midnight, called back at 8am.

So we went home. I got straight in bed. I didn't need to wear myself out anymore than the sickness already was. Morning came pretty quick and we were back at the Robinson to start the load in for the third and final rep. We were only working a half day though - off at noon so we could relax before our tough day Monday (We were scheduled to go to Middleton and load in the outdoor theater there and then help with a bunch of rigging at the Memminger). We got right to work bringing in the electrics and preparing them. We were changing over from 2 electrics with 20 fresnels each to 4 electrics with 10 fresnels each. So Chris and Sean went up to the grid and started transferring weight while the rest of us stayed on the ground and started transferring lights. We also had to move some of the legs, borders, and raceways in order to get the electrics in the right spot but it wasn't too bad. Basically, we were putting most of the line-sets back to the way they were before Spoleto got there, so we all knew the process and got it done quick. It will make our final strike at the end of the week go a lot faster.

I think Jarrod got a little too confident that we knew the system though - I knew what was going on and I knew which cables to leave on the pipes and which to strike, but Katie doesn't do electrics so she didn't have as much information. So she struck a few cables that shouldn't have been struck and Jarrod got frustrated that we had to re-do them- it was a minor misunderstanding. But it goes to show, even when you have all the steps down and you know what you're doing, you still have to be just as careful and not cut corners and take all of the same precautions. Whether it's simply transferring cable, transferring weight, or doing a whole load in. We've all learned a lot and done a lot, but we aren't perfect yet. But even despite that, we got all of the electrics hung and cabled in no time.

We began striking the booms and coiling the multi off to the sides. The lights got stored still with their sidearms because we were just going to have to turn around and build new booms later. But that was for another day. Once the stage was cleared and safe, we were done for the day. We took the afternoon off and went to Jarrod's beach house and grilled out and swam in the pool in order to relax before our tough upcoming day. 

Board Op. and Such

Well.

Nothing crazy interesting to post.

I got home from the shop on Thursday and had time to post and lounge around. I made it to show call at 7pm. We fixed a few cues here and there - just changing some of the levels of the lights to highlight different areas. It was pretty straight forward. The show went really smoothly. The audience was good. So after that, saved the show and shut the board down and we were good to go for the night. This rep has been really easy like that. The company keeps to themselves a lot. Scott, the stage manager is really funny and he comes and talks to us a little bit. He's fun on the headset too - you can tell he enjoys the show he's working on. He's good with his cues - so I can play Bejeweled on my phone if I get bored with the music and I know he will warn me, I can pause my game, hit go, and go back to playing. He's on his game, and I know my cues well enough to catch them if he ever messes up or has to take  care of anything. It makes both of our jobs really simple.

So Friday we went out in the harbor for the day, since call wasn't until 7pm again. I am pretty burnt even though I used sunscreen like crazy. We had just enough time to get home, clean up, change to blacks and eat before we were right back in to the show. We didn't have any cues to fix, so after a really smooth circuit check we just lounged in the shop until it was time to start. I am to the point in my circuit checks where I know what Jarrod will call so I can have it read and bring it up right when he calls it, so our checks go really fast. It's nice. Better than my earlier keystroke stumbles and circuiting problems and everything. Lots of improvements on this end. So the show went well, saved everything and shut the board down at the end of the night...it's a system and it's working really smooth. Easy.

Jarrod let me pick which show I wanted to do in the next rep, so I am working Cedric Andreiux - some dance autobiography. I figured, although I would love to work east 10th street, I worked the show last time so Sean should get to do the show instead of the dance. I guess the lights are really easy for it too, which is sad, but that's okay. I don't mind. I will have a little bit of time off, so I might go work in the shop again. I had fun when I did that.

We have an easy change over in to the third rep planned. We have two shows tonight - one at 7pm and one at 10pm. Then we are striking the instruments and changing over a few of the lighting things. We should probably be done by midnight or 1am I think. Then we are coming in early on Sunday and putting in a half a day to reset the raceways, run some cable, and do some final load in things. Monday we work Middleton, which is an outdoor theater load in. Tons of sun, no shade, heat, and heavy lifting...should be great fun. So we put in a half day there and then go to Meminger to do a load in for their Circa show (it's a show based around areal circus stuff, so it should be cool) - so we finish our day there. Then, Tuesday we get right in to focus and tech for the third rep and we're almost done! It's crazy how fast this trip has gone. I wish I could have come down in early May like the others and been here longer. I could have learned so much more in those few extra weeks!

But there're always future festivals to work.

Stayed tuned for updates after tonight. 

The Art of Programming, and Other Random Theatre Jobs.

So. June first.

We got in at 8am. we didn't really have much to do...we got most of it done on Tuesday, so we just had minor things to take care of before the company got there to focus and do tech. So we covered over some cable with Marley and did some other minor things. I helped Robert, the video guy, runs some cable. When Scott, the stage manager of the incoming show, came, we started focusing. I went up in the genie and did the two electrics (consisting of 40 fresnels). It went really fast. There was one light that I could not move to save my life. I broke a legit sweat wrestling with it for like 10 minutes. So we had to skip that one and Chris went  up and worked on it after I got the rest done. Sean did the 4 lights on the 1Beam and then the two of us did the four booms. It probably look an hour, tops. Which was pretty awesome. Once that was done, the company started showing up and setting up their sound equipment and the instruments and video and everything, so we had a nice bit of down time and lunch time before the programming session and then tech rehearsal.

We had a small task to take care of before tech though. The lighting designed picked R59 (a deep purple color) and a green color (I cant remember the number), both of which are really saturated. This means they have to take in a lot more light in order to shoot enough of the proper color light out. So they burn really fast when put up to the powerful source fours like the designer did. So we had to put heat shield between the light and the gel, which is a clear gel-like sheet that absorbs the heat before the light gets to the gel. But the gels still burned through in about 15 minutes. So we had to order replacements really fast and figure out a way to handle the problem. So we framed the heat shield separate from the gel and put the heat shield in the slot closes to the lamp and the gel in the next one. This seemed to work a lot better than having the two together, and the gels lasted a lot longer.

So after lunch, Sean got to work on the pickle (Jarrod assigned him the task of circuiting 13 pickles together, instead of just decorating and lighting up one, so he had his work cut out for him) and I finished replacing the burned gels and everything. Then, I finally got to program. I was pretty excited. I don't know why I like programing so much. Jarrod refreshed me a little but on the keystrokes to the Element and then I got right to work. Scott started by arranging groups of lights (done by putting the desired channels at full, and then typing record+group+#+enter. Then, you take everything out and select the next channels that you want. For some reason though, on the first round, all of my groups just recorded everything that we had patched in to the board. I had no idea what was going on and I was really frustrated. But Jarrod came up and cleared everything out. Then he recored a group and instead of taking everything out after, he just hit go to cue zero and then started from a blackout. So that seemed to work and Scott and I re-recorded all of the groups, not issues this time. Then, we worked through the cues song by song. He would bring up the video (each song was written based on one of Andy Warhol's screen tests) and he would go for a certain look based on the song and the video. He would tell me a certain group or a certain channel and what percentage he wanted it at, I would type it in. If he liked it, he would tell me what cue to record it as and what time he wanted on the transition and we would go from there. It went really smoothly. I even remembered to keep typing "cue only" before recording and updating cues (otherwise, the Element will track the things that you type in and record and add them to the upcoming cues in advance. It can be both helpful and annoying) and got to record a submaster without needing help.

So then went by really nicely and I remembered everything and was able to do everything that he wanted. It was pretty awesome.

Then, we had about an hour break until we met back for the tech rehearsal. It was a little different than a regular tech. We used the cues that I had programmed, but the rehearsal was to get a feel for order as well as a filming session for the press and for the company's website. So instead of going straight through, we stopped and started a lot. The singers didn't introduce their songs and do their transitions like they would during the real show, and we messed with the lights a lot. The videographer needed certain levels to be able to get a good look on the camera, so we would go to a cue and then Scott would tell me to go through and change certain levels and same some things but discard others until we got a good look. So I got to do almost double the programming and board work that I would have at a normal tech rehearsal. So that was pretty cool. There was a little bump in the road when there was a problem with the bassists instrument - something was vibrating or making a funny noise or something - but that was the sound people's problem to deal with, so I just had to sit for a little bit while they worked it out.

Once that was done, we had an hour and a half for dinner and then we were in to the opening of the show. It's pretty easy going...there are the standard preshow cues like preshow, house to half, house out, etc. Then there is a "transition light" where the singers talk, and cue for the song, and then back to transition, etc. So there are 2 cues every 4 minutes. A few times, we skipped the transition or something and they would change, but it's a really easy show to be board op. for. No worries.

So we got through the show, and Scott was really cool and gave us extra back-story about some of the videos as we went which made it a lot more interesting. There is no strike or changeover to do once the show ends because it's our only show for the rep, so we finished the show, saved the show on the light board, locked up and went home. It was great.

So, long day - 8am-10:30pm. But it went really well.

I got convinced to go in to the shop and do extra hours this morning too, so I had an early morning (van leaves at 7:30am). Andrew and Jarrod had hinted that we had a lot of down time, but the shop opened at 8am if we wanted to go. But they weren't going to make us. I didn't know if I wanted to go, but going in meant I would have something to do for a few hours, I would meet more of my coworkers, and I would be able to make a good impression on the people in charge there. So I went in.

The ride in was super fun in itself - The people who work in the shop (listed as "Special Projects" people, so we call them SPs) are really cool. So I went in and everyone got coffee and breakfast and sat around for a few minutes, and then they met and figured out the tasks for the day. I got put with the SP Electricians, but no one was expecting the extra person (I guess we are supposed to call and warn Steph if we are coming so they can be ready) so they didn't really know what to do with me. So I worked with one of the SPs sorting camlocks for feeder cable by otts and whether it was male or female. I've never really worked with feeder cable so I guess that was sort of interesting. I still don't really know what it does or what it's for. Maybe I will google it later.

We did a few other basic inventory things, and then we were set of to the Cistern to do some busy work there. Becca and James went up on the lighting trusses in harnesses to re-run some of the cabling - the amount of lights being used was overheating the cable and damaging the circuits and creating a lot of hazards, so they were trying to rework it so less lights would be on at one time per cable. I worked with SP Andrew (not my TD Andrew, haha) counting, straightening, and cleaning the chairs. There are at least 2000 chairs in the Cistern Yard and we worked on every one. It makes you appreciate the janitorial work, the ushers jobs, and the other things that go in to theatrical maintenance. If someone didn't keep the chairs looking nice, the patrons would think the cleanliness and presentation of the theater was poor and they wouldn't want to come back, or how uncomfortable they were would affect what they thought about the show.

So, we did a lot of cleaning. It was nice to be outside for once, but it was dull and hot work. But we got it done. Once that was over,  I was done for the day. Since they didn't really know I was going to be there in the first place, they didn't have anything planned for me to do, so I probably would have been in the way a lot. So I got a little work in, earned a few brownie points, and now I am done until my own show call at 7pm. We will iron out some cues and sound stuff, do a smooth show, and then get on with the evening. It should be pretty easy.

Updates later if anything interesting happens. 

Second Rep.

So today we started the load in for the second rep, which consists of one show, for which the only set is a projector screen and their instruments (so a lot of sound work to be done, rather than lights. So it was pretty fast moving.

I guess technically we started it last night, after the County of Kings Show. We had the normal changeover, which went perfectly, a show which went pretty perfectly, and then strike. We loaded out County of Kings and then started bring in the the electrics. We moved around some of the legs and borders and stripped the electrics, dropping from 6 to 2. We pulled off all of the lights and hung only fresnels. Once that was done, we went home for the night at 11:3pm.

Then, this morning we went back in and started circuiting and labeling. It was pretty fast since we already knew the system from last time. We dropped gels, which we had framed and put in order the day before and got everything set. Chris and Sean threw weight to get everything set and we finished the arrangement of the legs and borders.

Then, I went up and uncircuited the catwalks and pulled all the gels. We're now only using 4 of the lights on the 1Beam in the catwalks, so everything had to go. But it was fast moving. We are using the taildown as well,  which is basically what are balcony rail is at SVSU, only there's is at back of house dropping from the catwalks since they don't really have a balcony. So I circuited and geled that as well. Sean, Katie and Chris worked on the Boom poles - we dropped from 6 down to 4 so that was pretty quick too. When I finished my job and went to help, I only had to circuit 2 of them. Everything else was done.

Once that was done, we went to lunch, came back and tidied some things up. We did a channel check and everything was plugged in where it should be and had the right color in it. So we took a quick break and then broke the mult. that had been run up to the catwalks. That took a little longer since it had to be fed down with a tie line, but it got worked out. We packed up all the extra lights and cable that we were no longer using, sorted the gel frames and gels that we were no longer using, and put everything away. We got off at 6:30pm instead of 10 or 11 like we were supposed to, so we busted our butts and got out a little early. It was really nice.

So basically, you can tell we've already learned a lot and we are all in the swing of things. I got to do tasks on my own, which means that Jarrod actually trusts that I know what I am doing and I can get my work done fast. After all my worrying from the first few days, that means a lot to me.

I actually get to program the show that is coming in, instead of the SM requesting that Jarrod do it. So that will be exciting too. Going in at 8am to focus and cue the show. Then we do a tech run, and we're off on the second rep.

I'm really excited about how much I can already tell I've learned and how comfortable I've become with the job that I have.

I can't wait to see what the next rep brings! 

What's Next?

Today was another easy day. I was out late socializing and talking with my house mates so I tried to sleep in. But I still got up at 8:30 or 9. once you're in the swing of getting up early, sleeping in doesn't mean much. But I still got to hang around and relax.

I went to the Robinson at 12:30 to do the change over from Khmeropedies to County of Kings. Sean bet Jarrod dinner that we would get it perfect this time. I got all my stuff done and double checked it. I'm to the point that I know which gel colors go where and I know exactly which circuits change. I just use my paperwork to double check. I triple checked the things that I'd missed yesterday. As I was moving Sean down the 1st electric in the genie so he could do the gel change there, Jarrod walked around and checked everything, trying to catch hiccups before the circuit check. He didn't seem to find any, so I felt pretty awesome.

I went to the board and we started doing the circuit check. I got kind of cocky with my fast programming fingers, and I started screwing up the typing so I had to slow down and get everything accurate (hey, whatdaya know?) but everything went smoothly. There was one light that didn't come on, and Sean almost owed Jarrod dinner, but it was a loose connection in the wires. The cables were all plugged in and in the right spot but the light didn't come one. that shows the importance of doing the circuit check, instead of just checking the plugs and the gels by sight and moving on.

So we had a basically perfect change over. We were done a little after 2.

County of Kings went smoothly as well. The stage manager wanted to run a few cues, and then we went right to house open. We did the show and the audience was really good tonight. I only missed one cue. I zoned out and didn't hear him call it. But we covered it well. No worries. The change over went amazingly fast in to Taylor Mac. There were not circuit or gel problems - just one light was bumped from it's focus. So we had 2 perfect changeovers tonight. Jeff was having problems with his sound stuff, but Andrew let the rest of us go since we couldn't really be of any help to him.

Tonight was another early night off. Tomorrow will be another late morning in. Then I guess, since there's no Taylor Mac show, we're going to hang out and watch movies and then strike until midnight. It should be a pretty easy going night. Tuesday we don't have any shows. Wednesday, 13 Most Beautiful opens (so I'll have another pickle to do!) and then we are in to the 3rd rep. 3rd rep well be a lot simpler than the first, and lot more spaced out. It should be nice. Hopefully I can apply everything I've learned to the second load in/load out. It'll be a nice test.

In other news, we got to talking about what everyone on our crew is doing after the festival. It seemed odd to me. I'm going back to Michigan and I'm going back to school. I have no summer shows officially lined up, and then the fall season and fall classes and craziness of Roberts Fellows begins. But I left it at returning to school when I answered the question. I guess I hadn't really let it settle in that these are the actual jobs of the people who work here. They do theatre for a living. After the festival is over, they probably have some other form of theatre lined up and waiting for them. Katie is working for TTS, so she is going to stay in Charleston and work as a painter on American Idiot and some other Broadway shows. These people are really making a living doing what they love to do...It's awesome. I can't wait for the day that my answer consists of a list of shows and jobs that I have lined up. I still find it really daunting when I think about the people that I am meeting and working with. But it's really exciting too.

5-28-2011 EOD

I should start labeling all of my posts like we label the shows at the end of the day in the light board. But that would get super boring.

Anyway.

So we had a show tonight. It went pretty smooth.
I got there, the SM was there. He thanked us all for being awesome. He bought us lemon cupcakes (because the actor's name is Lemon, haha). We fixed some cues and some timing and he went through the cues that I had and marked which ones not to call. So the show tonight went a heck of a lot smoother than it did last night. It helps when the stage manager actually starts getting organized and on top of things.

We had the change over afterwards. There are no lights on the 2Beam that are listed to rep, but I always run through and check to make sure everything is plugged in. So tonight I went through and one of the Taylor Mac lights was not plugged in. Some other extension was plugged in to the circuit. So I plugged it in and moved on. Then I went back to the board for circuit check and one of the lights was wrong and it wouldn't come up and Jarrod was getting frustrated. So I pushed to go check the connections on the 2Beam, thinking maybe I had missed something or screwed it up when I tried to fix it. So he tried a bunch of other things and then let me do it. And what I had plugged in was right according to the label, but I guess the light got switched but the label didn't, so I had unplugged the right light and plugged in the old one. So I felt bad that I had caused the delay. I apologized when I got down to the stage, and Jarrod made it clear that when he gets frustrated it's not at Sean or me, it's just at the situation and not being able to figure out the issue, which is understandable when it should be the same and run smoothly every night. That's why we have the system that we do. So it was okay and we got the problem worked out and moved on.

Tomorrow we are shooting for a perfect changeover, with no stumbles or frustrations during circuit check. So I guess tomorrow will be the time to start practicing my focus and thoroughness on my tasks.

We'll see how it goes - fingers crossed.

Mid-Festival, Mid-Day, Still Learning.

I love it when all of your hard work, frustrations, and learning experiences pay off.

Spoleto Festival USA 2011 is officially open and I have it maaade with my schedule. I am the light operator for the County of Kings show, which means my show call is at 6pm. I also have to do the change over from Khmeropedies to County of Kings, so I have to be in at 12:30pm, work for 2 hours, and then chill until show call. After the show, we change over in to Taylor Mac and I am off by 9:30pm. So I have A LOT more down time. Which is nice, because I can socialize with the people at the festival for once, but also kind of a curse because I don't know what to do with myself and everyone else seems to still be working ridiculously hard.

But I won't complain. I like my schedule. The next rep I will probably be working 2 of the 3 shows so I will be a little more busy.

So we did the change over in to County of Kings and it went pretty smoothly. I have the gel swap and circuit change on the boom poles down to a smooth system. I know which circuits rep and where they go and where they end up. I did forget to plug in the down stage right fresnel, and it threw us off in the circuit check. But I could have swore I had checked it and it was plugged in. There was a little bump where we changed the circuit rep in the catwalks and Sean had forgotten it so we were missing like 5 lights in the check, but again, easy fix and it got taken care of.

So in the grand scheme of things, thinking back to all of the things that got my frustrated throughout load in and set up and all the mistakes I made and what happened today, I learned some really good things to keep in mind. It's not that I lack knowledge of the workings of a theatre; it's not that I am incapable or incompetent; it's not that I can't be good at my job if I try really hard - I just don't think through things enough or pay attention enough to work through and ward off mistakes. I go fast because I want to get things done and usually I am not completely focused on what I am doing. My mind is always jumping ahead to the next thing instead of one thing at a time, making sure they get done right. So I miss things like plugging in the fresnel, or knowing I need a multi with a female break-in, but grabbing one with a male break-out. I'm just not thinking. And it gets  me in to a lot of trouble. Learning to relax and focus and pay attention will help in all aspects of my theatre jobs, whether I am an electrician trying to follow someones instructions precisely, or whether I am a stage manager trying to give precise directions and ensure that all pieces of the production are set up, safe, and running smoothly. It's a personality trait that can benefit me at times because I think ahead to everything, but can also hold me back when it is not in control.

Sometimes the things you learn are not the actual techniques or the terminology or the strategy of your job - they are processes of execution and the fine tuning of your knowledge to be able to direct it and control and use it to your complete benefit.

Good things happen when you get hit in the face with completely new experiences.

On a side note, I have also been forgetting to post about black-wrap and black-tac. Black-wrap is a role of thin metal sheeting that is workable and completely blocks out light bleed. Black-tac is the metal tape that goes with it and secures metal on gel frames or instruments of black-wrap and also blocks out light bleed while holding pretty securely. It's quick and efficient and really cool to work with. It can also replace a barn-door for a lighting fixture if you don't have a proper one.

Learning on all levels? Check.

So I am off to kill 3 hours until show call. I may try to talk to the stage manager even though I don't like his technique at all - it might be worth it to learn how not to stage manage, or how he got to where he is despite his faults. Also, his wife was the production stage manager for "O" once it opened. So. I want her contact information. Yay networking!

Stay posted, loves.