What do you prefer?
- Thread starterhsaunier
- Start date
sorry! i was on my dads account and not mine! so this is from me, Matt
My favorite shows to design are ones where I get to push the bounds for the venue. The next big project of mine is to design Metamorphoses. The show is supposed to take place at our outdoor stage, but if it rains we need to have a backup plan indoors. So if we do a 450-gallon pool outdoors, we need to have a 450-gallon pool indoors.
Our black box space has concrete tiers for the seating, creating a semi-circle around the stage area, with the lowest concrete tier 18" below stage level. I'm looking into laying down rubber roofing in a 20' x 50' sheet, wedged between the concrete tier and the stage (technically in the seating area) which we'd then dump 450-gallons of water into for two weeks. We may end up doing ground fog instead for that effect, but we're going over all of our options at this point.
The director and I haven't figured out exactly how we're going to get the school district to approve us doing that, especially because that performance space had brand new carpeting installed just two years ago. This will be probably our most complicated but also most exciting show that we've done in the past several years.
Our black box space has concrete tiers for the seating, creating a semi-circle around the stage area, with the lowest concrete tier 18" below stage level. I'm looking into laying down rubber roofing in a 20' x 50' sheet, wedged between the concrete tier and the stage (technically in the seating area) which we'd then dump 450-gallons of water into for two weeks. We may end up doing ground fog instead for that effect, but we're going over all of our options at this point.
The director and I haven't figured out exactly how we're going to get the school district to approve us doing that, especially because that performance space had brand new carpeting installed just two years ago. This will be probably our most complicated but also most exciting show that we've done in the past several years.
Let us know what you came up with! I'd love to hear this. Really wanted to do Metamorphoses... my college professors shot my idea down laughing..
gcpsoundlight
Active Member
I like musicals best, having studied guitar and piano, plus jazz and rock music for 9 years, I find I really connect with the music, and this really helps me to almost invisage the design in my head!
Did Metamorphoses at my school two years ago in a black box / 150 seat space. It was great. I only needed a rather large pond liner and a couple of inches of water to get the idea, but the play of light on water (and reflected on the back cyc) is pretty hard to beat.
I suppose that's the kind of show I like designing for: One that offers challenges beyond the norm, and has a rock-solid story and characters. Ideally, the show should be strong enough that it would already be pretty engaging under works, then I can help reinforce the magic!
masterelectrician2112
Active Member
My favorite show every year is the talent show. I designed lights for it last year and I think I am this year. The director always just lets me run wild with the lights! The variety of the acts also keeps it interesting.
Anonymous067
Active Member
uuuuuggghhhhhh
MarshallPope
Well-Known Member
I don't get chance to LD very often, but, as weird as this sounds, I really enjoy running sound for beauty pageants. Our school's pageants are very presentational in style, with a Court of Honor - 3 guys, 3 girls who perform modern pop/hiphop songs in between portions of the competition. We just finished up this year's pageant about 2 hours ago.
Something else that I really enjoy working on is our school's own invention - a show where most of the social clubs (our version of fraternities/sororities) compete with 7-minute shows consisting of popular songs given new words to fit a theme. In between the competing acts are performances by the Hosts and Hostesses - very similar to the Court of Honor, with quite a few of the same people. We call them HoHos... and a performance by our own version of Blast!. This past year I was stage manager, and it was my very favorite show to work on yet. 5 shows sold out at approx. 1600 people each.
Maybe I'm just masochistic, but I thoroughly enjoy hell week. There's nothing like having rehearsal from 4:00pm to 1:00am every night for a week or two, in my opinion.
Something else that I really enjoy working on is our school's own invention - a show where most of the social clubs (our version of fraternities/sororities) compete with 7-minute shows consisting of popular songs given new words to fit a theme. In between the competing acts are performances by the Hosts and Hostesses - very similar to the Court of Honor, with quite a few of the same people. We call them HoHos... and a performance by our own version of Blast!. This past year I was stage manager, and it was my very favorite show to work on yet. 5 shows sold out at approx. 1600 people each.
Maybe I'm just masochistic, but I thoroughly enjoy hell week. There's nothing like having rehearsal from 4:00pm to 1:00am every night for a week or two, in my opinion.
Sooooo. I'm at coffee with my stage manager for Metamorphoses and we realized my math was off. That's actually 4700 US gallons of water we need to flood our audience with. I'll post more about the show in months to come; don't worry.
That would be more then . . . So at 10 lbs / gallon, good thing you've got that concrete floor!
"A pint's a pound the world around." One gallon of water=8.345404 pounds. Make sure the floor can handle an additional 19.6 tons!
zuixro
Active Member
My favorite shows are the ones that pay.
Don't get me wrong, I love doing the theatre shows at my school, but the best weeks are when I do a show that pays. Though, if more of these events go as horribly as our last one (a lip synching contest), that might change.
Trying not to rant, but we let the Student Activities whatever organize it, and it was a disaster. Everyone showed up to sound check 45 minutes late. The MC was about the most borring person I've ever had to listen to. Groups were changing their songs AS THE HOUSE WAS OPENING. Two groups didn't even show up for sound check and still wanted to perform. One was let in because it was the teacher's group, but I would have said no. We're not letting them organize it again.
Don't get me wrong, I love doing the theatre shows at my school, but the best weeks are when I do a show that pays. Though, if more of these events go as horribly as our last one (a lip synching contest), that might change.
Trying not to rant, but we let the Student Activities whatever organize it, and it was a disaster. Everyone showed up to sound check 45 minutes late. The MC was about the most borring person I've ever had to listen to. Groups were changing their songs AS THE HOUSE WAS OPENING. Two groups didn't even show up for sound check and still wanted to perform. One was let in because it was the teacher's group, but I would have said no. We're not letting them organize it again.
Anvilx
Active Member
Agreed, when you do 50+ hours in a week of just Tech work, their should be some compensation. (I'll probably be ranting about this later)
I prefer:
- Super easy shows that I get paid for
- Hard shows that I either get paid for or have a strong goal to work towards
edmedmoped
Active Member
Syphilis
Active Member
I mainly design for plays and musicals, things with plots, and characters, and arcs, and such, and maybe that's why I enjoy it so much when I get to branch out and just do concerts. One, I get a lot more freedom in what I can design, and two, I usually get a larger budget to rent moving lights and I-cues and Ions and such.
But within more structured theatre, I always enjoy dark musicals. Something I can get behind, you know? I've been a technical assistant on Jekyll and Hyde, and I'm currently set and co-lights designing Cabaret, and the experience is so much more enjoyable than when I did, say, Grease, because if I personally like the material then I can get excited about it and spend my spare time designing new concepts and end up with a better product. Also, dark musicals just seem to work better for more exciting light designs. The use of hazers, for example, can turn any normal light design into an exciting mesh of beams and colors where before there was only a boring wash.
But within more structured theatre, I always enjoy dark musicals. Something I can get behind, you know? I've been a technical assistant on Jekyll and Hyde, and I'm currently set and co-lights designing Cabaret, and the experience is so much more enjoyable than when I did, say, Grease, because if I personally like the material then I can get excited about it and spend my spare time designing new concepts and end up with a better product. Also, dark musicals just seem to work better for more exciting light designs. The use of hazers, for example, can turn any normal light design into an exciting mesh of beams and colors where before there was only a boring wash.
Favorite shows to deign... Irish one act plays. Career... not persay set or lighting design anymore, these days I design custom lighting fixtures from napkin desig type sketches a designer wishes for mostly. Not design persay but enough of me in them that it scratchs the itch. Designing lighting fixtures in a kind of what is that motor cycle shop that does custom choppers type of thing? It's fun and a good career. Lots of science R&D etc. Than the moment when it all comes together and works.
