i just finished a very successful (for my company) run of Seussical Jr.
on closing night i come into the theatre to turn on everything and get ready (i was acting as well as a sort of TD for the show). we open at 7 and its now 5:30. i go into the booth and turn everything on. i turn the board to the first cue and nothing happens. thinking maybe that it was the cues that were messing up, i changed it to submaster mode and checked that. nothing happened. i checked to make sure nothing had been patched wrong. it hadn't. next i went to the back and turned off both the dimmer rack and the main power. i tried one at a time and also both at the same time. nothing happened. the board still didn't control anything.
my next step was to do a focus check directly from the dimmers backstage. it works. however i still can't control the lights from the booth. its now about 30 minutes until we open and my mood is getting worse and worse (it was my light design and i was proud of it).
normally i would run the show from the SM's panel from backstage but that had recently broken (another stroy in and of itself involving lightning and reluctant and slightly careless electricians). so i check. all we have to light the stage is white lights from electric strip lights above the stage and two followspots.
so, i told the spot guys to illuminate the stage and especially whoever was singing/ wherever the action was. then i got a stagehand to control the white lights to go out at certain times during the show. the show went great and we closed strong. and the guys who ran the spots are getting a hearty congratulations for how well they handled the show. but i'm still worried.
the equipment is about 20 years old. the dimmer packs i'm pretty sure were made in 1996, and installed in 2001. i assume the wiring was installed at the same time. the Light Desk was built in 1991, and installed in 2001. all of the lights were installed in 2001 and most of their lamps haven't been replaced but once since and some not at all. this has happened before during the last show, but turning the power off reset it and we haven't had trouble of this sort until now. any thoughts?
on closing night i come into the theatre to turn on everything and get ready (i was acting as well as a sort of TD for the show). we open at 7 and its now 5:30. i go into the booth and turn everything on. i turn the board to the first cue and nothing happens. thinking maybe that it was the cues that were messing up, i changed it to submaster mode and checked that. nothing happened. i checked to make sure nothing had been patched wrong. it hadn't. next i went to the back and turned off both the dimmer rack and the main power. i tried one at a time and also both at the same time. nothing happened. the board still didn't control anything.
my next step was to do a focus check directly from the dimmers backstage. it works. however i still can't control the lights from the booth. its now about 30 minutes until we open and my mood is getting worse and worse (it was my light design and i was proud of it).
normally i would run the show from the SM's panel from backstage but that had recently broken (another stroy in and of itself involving lightning and reluctant and slightly careless electricians). so i check. all we have to light the stage is white lights from electric strip lights above the stage and two followspots.
so, i told the spot guys to illuminate the stage and especially whoever was singing/ wherever the action was. then i got a stagehand to control the white lights to go out at certain times during the show. the show went great and we closed strong. and the guys who ran the spots are getting a hearty congratulations for how well they handled the show. but i'm still worried.
the equipment is about 20 years old. the dimmer packs i'm pretty sure were made in 1996, and installed in 2001. i assume the wiring was installed at the same time. the Light Desk was built in 1991, and installed in 2001. all of the lights were installed in 2001 and most of their lamps haven't been replaced but once since and some not at all. this has happened before during the last show, but turning the power off reset it and we haven't had trouble of this sort until now. any thoughts?