Theatrical Going Ons

Currently the theatre is dark - there is 4 weeks of work being done on the heating system (conveniently in one of the colder periods).

A week back I did my first show of the year - a dance show with a company that I haven't worked with before, although thats not too suprising since they only put a show on in alternate years. This dance school was fun to work with - well behaved, hard working and technically very good, however it was hard work because the staging aspects - lighting and set requirements - were being revealed to us as we went along.

However it was a good start to the year - next show is very different - Up and Under, which will be far more of a straight comedy play, but is likely to be quite creative in what they are doing. I hope to get to one of their rehearsals in the next week or so and get an idea of whats needed.

Of Bands and Bums

Yesterday was spent in the theatre dealing with a wind band concert.
At one level this is a lot of fun - this band are a good bunch who are enthusiastic, have a lot of ideas although they vary between good organisation and a level of anarchy.
On another level its a real slog - in the first hour we got out and placed just about all our staging blocks (close on 40, roughly 1 meter square blocks which are stored in a 3 or 4 high stack on their sides behind the stage backwall (cyclorama) - extracting them is seriously hard work because the bracing behind the cyclorama means that you have to manoever the blocks over the bracing. We also put the orchestra pit lid on and moved all the chairs that are stored in the cellar on to stage.
Those 3 jobs are probably the most physically demanding standard jobs we do in the theatre and I did all 3 in the first hour....
I didn't get all the lighting placed until the rehearsal had finished, which meant I had no lighting states set up whilst the band were in place - the performance had to be run blind from my point of view.
So (following a quick bite to eat) I sat down to sketch out how they wanted the lighting and effects set for the performance. I was a bit uncomfortable on the chair - there was a feeling as though I had got something sharp in a pocket stabbing me... although it appears the wasp I had sat on was even more uncomfortable. Not a good way to do planning.
So I busked the performance and then we had what must the worlds fastest strike of everything - just over half an hour for an awful lot of kit to get packed away (this band gets everyone involved with a fair amount of enthusiasm for the strike).
Today I ache. Thankfully the wasp sting went off reasonably quickly given the application of an ice pack to the posterior.

Theatrical matters

A gap in blogging - I have been running a show in theatre for the last week, which leaves little time for anything else (sleep is short too).

The main things learned, are never expect a stage gun to work - in fact expect anything technical to play games given the chance...

The abiding sound of the week was the click click click click bang of one of the stagehands attempting to get a working gunshot.