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. 

Happy Opening!

So we were in at 8am again today. I'm getting used to this so its not too bad.

We already had County of Kings set up from the night before so we go right in to the set up and focus for the show. I thought it was going pretty fast - I was just matching focuses to other lights. But the stage manager was geting really stressed out that we weren't going to finish. So I kept trucking along. I guess Sean in the genie was having trouble so it was slow going for them, and thatvmay haw been what was stressng him out. So there was a problem with a bulb in a light I was working on and I was aheadish and Jarrod snapped at me when I couldn't figure out what bulb I was using...it was just high tension.

The stage manager requested that Jarrod program because it was faster. So he obviously didn't trust me and I was frustrated because I love programming. But oh well. I observed and learned a little bit about the keystrokes and everything. There was a problem with the gels, but we got it worked out pretty quick and it should be set for the rest of the rep.

So then we got in to the tech reheasal
And the stage manager had more light cues than we programmed. Andhe didn't know which ones were programmed or not. So he called all of them and I hadto figure out when my go was real or not. A lot of the times his cues were off or wrong or he would say the wrong number or the wrong label.  It was awful. He would say standby when it should have been a warn, he said go when there weren't goes, he saidbthe cue number 30 seconds before the go so you're waiting like the cue is imediate and it's not. It was so hard not to like...say something. But we have to be polite. So finally, he called the show next to me in the booth and I just read my cues over his shoulder to clarify what he was calling. It's going to be a long run.

The show was okay. A couple screw ups, but we blamed it on the SM. After that we did the change over to the Taylor Mac show in 30 minutes which was rockin. So we just kind of..hung out until the next show.

I did my pickle before the show and it was awesome :) I will post pictures later. Sean did the Taylor Mac pickle and it was also awesome. But he tried to do three pickles together and only the first one lit. It was too bad, bit it was still cool. The Khmeropedoes pickle is tomorrow and then we're done with pickles until the second rep.

So yeah. I got to watch the Taylor Mac show and it was great- controversial, funny, entertaining. Back at the house now chilling with the house mates, and I don't have to go in until 12:30 tomorrow. Awesome. Easy posting from now on, loves.

Tech It.

Today's been really chill and I'm super enjoying it. We were called at 9 instead of 8, so I got to sleep alittle longer. Sean and I went early to Jack's Cafe which is across the street from our theatre. It wasreally cheap and super delicous and the employees were amazingly friendly. It was great to start the day off with a solid breakfast. Anyway, that's slightly off topic of the work day.

So we got in at 9, talked for a bit about the day, and then jumped right in to the set up for Khmeropedies, the show that is up for preview tonight. We had to move the horsecock on the 1st electric because it was bumping lights (great name for the giant cord, right?), which involved a ton of breasting of other battons and re-picking and tying ad everything. Tedious, really. We rehung some of the legs and then "dressed" them, which basically means you fold the bottom under so it stays straight and pretty. I'd never done that before but it has a neat, clean effect. Once that was done, we added some side gels to the deck lights to stop the bleed, pit some black duvetine on the outside doors so the sunlight wouldn't come in. I guess that's the standard black fabric that they use to cover over things that need to be blacked, but still accessible. We just pull black fabric from the costume shop generally...I didn't know there was something specific you were supposed to use. We did some other minor tasks as well, but nothing too new or strenuous. It was nice, and relaxing.

After that, they started dry teching,testing, and cuing the show. Sean is programming and opperating this one so I was just on standby and I got to work on my pickle. I hate designing...it's not really my strong point and I don't like struggling for ideas. But the show I am doing the first pickle for - County of Kings - gave me some really cool ideas and I can't wait. It's about a New York native who grew up getting in to trouble, doing drugs, drinking, getting thrown in jail, and living on the streets. His set is a lot of black metal - some huge trusses and black metal caging on the bottom. So I have two black stands to weight down and string the pickle across the middle. Then, either I am going to carve the show title in to two pickles and string them across, or I am going to hang a scroll-type thing with the title in between two pickles (one on top and one on bottom), so they light up the scroll. It's going to look sweet. So I have three hours to eat and then head back to the theater to work on that. Then, at 8pm, I have to get back to work. We have to switch the theater over to the County of Kings show so we can focus and tech it in the morning. That show runs at noon and I am light oping, so that should be a busy morning (and fun because I get to display my pickle!) and then we do Taylor Mac at night, so I'll just be hanging out. I think I might stay and watch the show. Or work on the Khmeropedies pickle - I'm not sure what I am doing with that one though. So yeah, easy night, early morning, long day tomorrow. Let's do it. 

Focus!

Today was probably one of the better days. The exhaustion is getting to me and I can tell, but I am pulling through it. Obviously - there isn't really another option.

The morning was ridiculously easy. We did a lot of cleaning, a little bit of re-cabling and labeling, just busy work, basically. We took an early lunch and came back at 1 - and then we focused. I love focusing. It was a good 4 hours of focus, but we worked hard and got everything done. The stage manager was the one who came to focus instead of the designer. So that was cool. He came with a minor plot and spike taped and basically marked on the floor where he needed each light to be. It was a cool system. I've filed it to use later if I ever need to do a focus on a show - regular or touring. I want to sit down and talk with him about like...stage management stuff too. But I don't know that I will get a chance once we are busy with the run of the show. We are teching and doing a preview tomorrow, so we will be with the company all day, so we'll see. But the focus was good. I was nervous at first, focusing with a professional, but there was no need. It was easy and fun.  I learned that you can bang on a light if it doesn't quite do what you want. As long as it's off. Then the bulb wont break. So when I couldn't barrel it to get it sharp, we banged on the barrel. When I couldn't shutter-cut off a curtain because the shutter was caught, we banged on it. It was sort of fun, hah. I also learned that sometimes it's better to not have a sharp focus if there is a lot of light bleed or "flare" as Robert, the stage manager, called it. He was really helpful and eager to help Sean and I learn as we worked on the lights and it was a lot of fun.

After that, we switched over to Taylor Mac, the next show in our first repertory set. We took dinner, and then we came back and chilled. Focused a few of the Taylor Mac lights with Andy again, so I enjoyed that. Like I said, focusing is my home base. I know it and I am comfortable with it. Hopefully by the end of the festival, all the rest of the electrician stuff will be just as comfortable to me. Once Taylor Mac got there, it was pretty easy going. Jarrod is light operator for the show and he is programming that one too (Sean and I will get to program for Khmeropedies and County of Kings, which will be cool, and a little stressful). So we were basically on standby for most of the tech. I sat backstage and ran up the house lights when needed, but other than that, it was really relaxed.

Taylor was done with his tech by 8:45 or something, so we switched the rep back to Khmeropedies and get ready to go home for the night. We are supposed to be in show blacks for tomorrow, and Jarrod specified long black pants. I'm a little in screwed, because when I packed, I followed SVSU's rule that you only need long sleeves and long pants if you are seen onstage during a change. everyone else just needs clothes that are black. But that rule doesn't fly here. Everyone has long pants and a t-shirt. So I have yoga pants, and I will tape over the colored part on the waste. Then I will have to go shopping and find more suitable clothes. The little things you learn in the real world, right?

So, all in all, today was a lot better. Hopefully it stays this way.

And I keep forgetting to add! They told us Sunday (us being Sean and I, they being Jarrod and Andrew) that, as the apprentice electricians, we had to work on this thing called the Pickle. Every opening night of the shows, we have to electrify a pickle themed like the show. And I guess the pickles look really cool because they glow because of the salt. So I was really nervous about that because I don't really like designing, and I'd been screwing up so much I didn't want to screw up the pickle too! So I stressed a little. But Sean and I were talking and we have a lot of really fun ideas. I'm kind of excited to work on the Pickle - it will be a nice break from the real work of the shows. But we haven't had any down time to work on it. Jarrod said we were supposed to work on it at the theatre when we had downtime. But we work pretty constantly. And when we had downtime today while we waited for people to get there, we were on standby, so we couldn't really leave to go do pickle stuff. So I don't know. We have to make two by Friday. I'm not really sure how it will work out. But we shall see! Taylor Mac, the drag queen, and Lemon Anderson, the New York jail bird will have pickles! (We're thinking a disco ball glitter pickle and a pickle in a jail cell.) Maybe I'll post pictures when we get it done.

Hopefully I will have time to post in the next few days!