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.
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.
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