If you were asked what you SHOULD have started out with...

[forbiddenpluto]

So I was told today to make a list of everything my high school theatre "should" have started out with. (We're a 3 year old high school and apparently already falling apart) Here's a brief overview of what we have and I'm hoping for. Any input would be great. Be gentle, this is my first year truely doing all of the technical side and I'm still learning.

We've got...
3 motorized battens above stage
2 ancient spots (we got them from the other HS theatre, one is currently dead and we don't know why. The fan is on but the lamp isn't turning on. Bought a new lamp... still not working.)
4 MAC 550's
Levitron Innovator 48/96 (which went kaput today... no clue why)
Colortran i96 dimmer rack
Approx. 25 Shakepeare 30 degree
Approx. 35 Altman Par-cans
(I'm not there right now and I can't remember the specs)
6 Cyc lights (single color)
Clearcom system
A FOH that has no catwalk or motorized batton and I have to rip out a row of seats to get the Genie to it.
No access to house lights for replacement
A "Shop" that is 8X14 and only has 1 electrical outlet.
An equally tiny booth that isn't even elevated.
No box office.


Obviously I need to fix the broken things as well as figure out something to do about FOH. However, I also want a new board. I was recommended the ION as it's performing well and the ETC interface is something my kids will encounter in the future if they continue with this field.

Help?

[themuzicman]

I am at a 3 year old school too, in a county that has 2 schools on Newsweek's top 25 best high schools, and you still have better stuff than us...

I wish we were asked to make a list of what we should have.

[forbiddenpluto]

Really? Maybe the other high school is just spoiled. They generally have 4-5 pro shows going through a month.

I'm really stressing the lack of access to FOH and the now deceased board.

Buuuuuut since they asked I'm going to make a huge prioritized wish list.

[Van]

No FOH focus-ability is a major boo-boo on the part of your Architect/Theatre Consultant, I would recomend hunting them down and shooting them. As far as inventory and viability of the actual gear... Well we all wish we had the inventory of a broadway roadshow, or a Genisis concert, but honestly, it ain't gonna happen. Hey You have moving head fixtures, your about 20 years ahead of most High Schools I've worked with. I'm not as much a lighting guy, anymore, so I'm not nearly as qualified as a lot of the guys that are going to weigh in on this. The Leviton Board..... Hmm... I blame it on NSI but then I like to blame things on NSI. 6 single color cyc lights.... How wide is you stage?
Your shop space is definately under sized and a single outlet is ridicuous. What type of space is this you are working in ? what was the intention? Did they < School Board> think this was just a presentation space? did they think it would be a viable place to teach theatre/stagecraft with that small of a space?
Take it from a "Proffesional" that produces 8 show a season out of a shop that is literally half of a handball court, a small space will bite you on the butt. Small shop space with no storage for stock scenic peices, spell much higher build expensives.
Could you post a GP of the theatre?

BTW
If you haven't yet, < by the time you read this> Post a hello in the New Members Forum. Tell us about yourself , your background, your facility and whether or not you support the Cubit movement.

[soundlight]

Holy crap. If my school had that much, I'd have been so happy. That's amazing kit for a high school.

Console replacement: YES to ION. It's in place to become an industry standard along with the EOS, which uses the exact same software.

New followspots: Lycian, Strong, or Phoebus Manufacturing. What's the throw distance from the spot positions?

New accessories: some Rosco I-Cues and Apollo smart Move Rotators.

Get 8 to 12 I-Cues, put them on fixtures on the FOH batten. That way 8 of your FOH fixtures are re-focusable without going up to the FOH batten. If you have the money, DMX irises for all of those fixtures as well so that you can change the beam angle and the position remotely. Plus, each of those fixtures can do a number of different things in any given show. If you gel half with R33 and half with R60, you'll have both pink and blue (standard frontlight colors) refocusable fixtures.

I'd call Leviton-Colortran tech support about the board to get it up again right away if possible.

[forbiddenpluto]

Oh, I should also add that I don't have any software for any type of design.

Suggestions?

And I went on over and put up an intro!

[Van]

Well, outside of VectorWorks, or AutoCAD, both of which are standards for design, you could look into D/Ling the free version of SketchUp from Google. It's a great 3D drawing system, I use it in conjunction with ACAD all the time to do renderings. There is also a relatively cheap CAD program called TurboCAD which is easy to use/learn and imports/exports to VW, AutoCAD and has availible plugins for rendering etc.

[David Ashton]

The innovator is more than adequate for the job, the money you have should go on more lighting, inc full cyc lights, a different board will make no difference to the look on stage, although it may make the operators life easier, but the same amount spent on lights could dramatically improve the production.
Basics first-frills later.

[porkchop]

Your HS and mine were actually pretty close on the gear list, but I had a professional company supporting us (yay for convenient marriages).

When I worked in a house with no FOH access we had no other choice than using a BIG step ladder and taking a lot of time for focus because of it. For the rest of this I'm going to assume you have a reasonably small space.

{Standby} someone arguing everything I've said

If I was going to make a similar list of what I wanted it would be:

A fly system with at least 10 movable baton's (that's not a lot but with a shop that size I don't see a lot of flying scenery)

2 Robert Juliat followspots (Margot 1017's maybe)

The MAC 550's are really nice to have so keep those

ETC Ion

ETC Sensor dimmer rack

50 Source 4's (with something like 35 36 deg barrels, 15 26 deg barrels, and a few 50's and 19's)

20 Source 4 PAR's (EA is cheaper but MCM seems to be more worth the money in the long term)

Enough Altman SkyCyc 4 window fixtures wo cover the cyc (need more info, cyc fixtures are probably the thing I know the least about)

Clearcom system will be fine as long as you have enough headsets


Now out of fairy land. What my priority list would be in your situation:

1. An ETC board. The Ion if you can get the budget, but an express or expression will be adequate and get you programming in a more modern sense. I learned on an innovator and I pretty much had to forget everything I had learned to come work for Alex.

2. Better Cyc fixtures. Color mixing and variety are the point of multi window fixtures and that seems to be the standard.

3. At least one good followspot

4. 5 - 15 more Shakespeare's either 20 deg to 40 deg barrels, do math figure out which will be more usable or get some of both.

5. Kicking the architect in the balls for not giving you any kind of FOH access.



Other thoughts. I used that exact board, liked it and did some great work on it. But I could have done it in half the time on a modern board and would have more knowledge that is applicable to programming as a profession. The I-que's are a really good idea, but remember that although quiet they still make some noise. I didn't really list any DMX toys at all, but if I had to pick one it would be scrollers, they just give you so much more variety out of a small inventory.

{GO} Arguing people

[porkchop]

Wow two people posted in the time I was writing that. Oh well. One thing I forgot, the shop part...... What we did when I was in high school was recruit the woodshop class. People are graded on craftsmanship and wanted to be there, and that way we could use the woodshop for a little storage too.