It Ended with an Odd Dream

Since the End of October I have been working on a boring show.
A 3 hour musical lacking conflict, character development, catchy songs, flashy dance numbers or sexy costumes which makes it barely seem like a musical at all. In fact it was more of a series of vignettes featuring a number of the same characters and the plot was merely a series of events that followed each other. Eventually I’ll write a more detailed entry of my experiences.

This morning I awoke from a dream where me and a few stagehands were discussing excel formulas.
That’s right I dreamt that a group of fellow workers and I were exchanging the best way to calculate your hours. Not the sort of dream people find interesting. Hell even in real life that isn’t the thrill a minute conversation that occurs on a call. It happens but it’s hardly the sort of thing people enjoy discussing… unless you really like excel.
Which I don’t.

Consistency

The second to last day isn't a time to try something new. Especially when that change puts the stagehand on a collision course with a set piece. The time to discover was weeks ago now it's all memory and that little change can cause disaster… good thing it didn't.

Quote of the Moment

When I start complaining I can't see is when people should be worried.

School Show Day 3 of 3

Ahh Everett.
I’m gonna see you a little more at this ungodly hour but at least I won’t be doing this dull show. This nearly 3 hour monstrosity that is slow, lacks characters and who’s plot is merely a series of events that follow each other. But that’s another post entirely.

Yesterday it became known that the director wanted to give a tour to 50 students, sounded like 15 at first on com but on second hearing it was 50. Plus side of not being in charge: I got to sit in the green room and drink coffee while this occurred. This made the show start late, of course, and why didn’t it happen after the show?
‘Because the buses would leave’
Apparently schools in Everett charter their buses with Greyhound or Public Transit because most charter buses I’ve been on won’t leave without you. Especially if you’re a child. In a seedy downtown. During the day. At a theatre. But I digress.

While this tour went on I sat in the greenroom drinking coffee trying to wake up enough to remember my track. I’m no morning person but I’ll try dammit! And eventually we begin and the first 90 minutes goes well enough. Kids don’t get it but honestly neither do I expect for an odd mic problem.
Then intermission and this director wants to do a little presentation but wants a mic for it. Which can’t be turned on because audio is fixing a show issue. Now with an additional audio person this wouldn’t be a problem but you’ve got to cut somewhere right?

Intermission runs long, act two begins, the kids have woken up a bit and get into it. The awkwardly tacked on romantic story gets a better reaction than any adult crowd but the inflation laugh doesn’t get any. ($250 for 4 years in Redmond)It goes on and on and at some point it becomes apparent we might get some overtime today.

Just need to break that hour and we get overtime to do the reset.
Don’t break the hour, don’t do the reset and go to lunch get the usual wage.
Curtain call ends and I see this.

So close to getting that extra bit of money but 3:30 too far. Just sooo close. So I do what reset I can, check my watch at 1 and ask ‘Are we doing overtime?’ ‘No’, my master says ‘I’ll see you at 7’ and I walk away for my break.

Or rather I try to but my car is blocked in by other cars, 2 buses and some traffic. Now I could go and finish my preset (off the clock) or I could go sit in the green room, eat an orange and wait for the blockage to move on.

That orange was delicious.

Watson Wisdom Wednesday

An FNG once asked Rich what he was doing on a day off.
Rich's response:
Here's what you do you go by del taco 'cause they got TWO tacos for a dollar, then you go by the liquor store and buy TWO beers, go to the store across the street and get a magazine (they're cheaper there), then go home and lock the door.

You’re not working?

Each time I have an evening off my family ask me this. And yet for the first time since January 1st I’ve had one.
And then I had a second.

The first day started late, was filled with plenty of couch time, internet surfing and not grocery shopping. It ended with me catching a friend’s band play at a small venue in the Market.
Spent a good chunk of their time looking at the powered speakers on truss, led lighting and doing the general facility critique that is all too common, my opinion: not a bad space but for what they charge people for a table I’d have expected more. But hey that’s me.
Good show glad I went.

Next day also started late. Checked movie times, swung by the library, post office, got lunch, and deposited a few pay checks. Then I caught an early afternoon showing of ‘Black Swan’, tried to go to a drunken doodle night at a bar but it wasn’t happening, saw a bit of the State of the Union at another, went to the cell phone store with a friend and then bubble tea, topped the night off with a trip to another bar for taboo, peanuts, Doctor Who pinball and inventing rules for shuffleboard as we couldn’t understand the rules for it.
I blame the rules having too many words so we played a bocci ball like game and then see who can get closest to the other side without going over.

And this morning I wake up at 7am for no apparently reason.

Tweeting who?

Regret is something I often feel.
Maybe it’s taking the call instead of sleep, going back for thirds at catering or deciding to try for a life but today is my first regret of the new year.

Working an event where people discuss the importance of having a social media presence to CEOs, excs and other people of importance with a chamber of commerce and there’s a twitter feed of the event.

I have a smart phone.
I may have made a twitter account at some point.
I was playing with my phone.
How is it I didn’t tweet ‘says hi from the sound board’?

Watson Wisdom Wednesday

During my first Haunt Rich and I were sent to get some plywood from the Asylum Maze. Being new I had no idea where the maze was so trusted Rich that it was on the Stagecoach Trail. Now a big thing to remember is that carts weren’t allowed to drive on the trail during park hours but I follow Rich’s directions.

On the way onto the trail some our fellow techs may have called at us from near the main gate or may not have I’m not sure though Rich swears it happened. So we get to the entrance to the ride and the coach departs, Rich tells me to turn around and head back the way we came. So there we are two tech in an area we shouldn’t be, doing something we shouldn’t, trying to out run a stagecoach in a taylor dunn cart and if we get caught things won’t be good. It was a good thing we had ‘The Fast One’ that day because we beat the coach, avoid trouble, remain unknown (or at least no one mentions it), and don’t discover if a cart will beat a horse in a crash. As we leave the trail the coach goes by, I’m shaken and Rich is laughing.
Finally he says, ‘I think they moved the maze this year.’

Always find the humor.

Easy Gig

They told me to show up at 4 and I’d be done at 10.
I showed up at 4 quickly taken through that today is going to involve a mic check, then a quick show and one by 6:30.

Mic check happens and it’s a song from a musical to open in a few weeks performed by the female leads that are rather good. Goes well no problems. Then I wait.
Not too long and the Executive Director from one theatre and the Managing Director for another talk about the co-production and introduce people and I realize I’m in the room with a number of the board members of 2 major theatres perhaps not movers and shakers but damn these are the ones that call the shots in my field. And to believe I thought this was going to be nothing big.

Event goes up a bit late, no problems and then people mingle, have food and drinks and I hang out and wait. When the place is nearly deserted I’m called down to take some food home. Delicious deserts, some savory wrapped things, and veggies. I power down, say good bye and head home for an early night.

Don’t worry free food I’ll give you a good home.

So Very High School

My first theater was a converted chapel hidden near the freshman lockers and activities director’s office. A small speck of a building with more potential and energy than it deserved. A fixed grid above a slight rack above the upstage with the apron being well over double the depth and width of the rest of the stage, there was some circuits at the grid, we’d put booms on the apron and we had a FOH pipe. All of this was controlled by 24 dimmers and an ancient lepercon board.

To this day I look fondly on this space and assembling the scaffolding to work on lights FOH, the odd ladder work on the grid and just how the space wasn’t really useful for the shows. A few people influenced me enough to try it professionally. Had that small push not happened… well my life would be quite different.

My High School dreams of sets like this.

Today I had the fortune of working for a friend at a privileged high school on the Eastside. The place is ‘Three Penny Opera’ and the director is strange but the facilities were so much better than what I had over 10 years ago. The high school me looked at this space with shock and awe. A 500 something house, half fly with more lights than the board can handle, a decent looking sound system, spot lights and a person in charge of the whole thing.

Down side is the cynical bastard that has been working in the trade started finding the problems. Poorly maintained equipment, strange positions, odd design features and a whole mess of things that show time and skills were lacking perhaps not both but each in its own way. I sat in the cats and watched part of the ‘run through’, though it was a start and stop rehearsal, and wondered if these kids knew this would be fleeting. There were a few of talent who might go somewhere but by and large they were there for fun.

There was also a high schooler helping us and he seemed interested and took it more seriously than I did. He had reason to be invested this was his school, his play and people would talk about his work. I am just some guy that was brought in a for a day and it’s hard when I’m not getting paid and it’s a favor. He was good if I was lacking and if he wants he might find a life in this business and some might not curse the kid but it’s his choice not mine.

Still it was a hard day. Things didn’t work, plans changed, we lost 5 hours because of the rehearsal where ‘tech talk’ was restricted. Didn’t help we were understaffed and by the end of the day all of us were tired, one guy was rather sick and another had to leave for dinner. It was harder and harder to keep going but at least we got it hung, colored and I got a picture in a Sergeant Pepper style coat.