Marauding renters

030366

Member
It's almost like they tried to sabotage us.

Between our Sunday matinee and our Friday night performance, a group came in to do some kind of seminar. Here's the kicker to this: nobody on the crew knew about it. And apparently nobody hung around and acted as TD when the renters came through. So we all came in an hour before curtain on Friday, thinking everything was kosher, and it turns out that nothing was kosher. Every cable was unplugged from the sound board and the monitors in the house. Lights were hung that weren't there before. Several of the lights used in our show (including the house lights) were unplugged so that the new lights could be plugged in. Set pieces were missing. Spike marks were missing.

Everyone went into Hyper-Adrenaline Panic Mode and a flurry of activity began to take place. After all was said and done, we opened the house a few minutes late and the show went on. Hooray for nimble techies and instrument schedules.
 
Wow, that sounds like a near disaster. I'm only in high school, but I can't stand when people "need" to use the theatre during tech week or the week between shows. They always come in, move/break/change everything, all for something that didn't even need to use the theatre. At least we have never had anything that bad.
 
It's hardly the renter's fault if the venue didn't provide oversight.
 
It's hardly the renter's fault if the venue didn't provide oversight.
For some of the stuff the fault completely comes down on the venue, as a renter, you should leave the place as you found it, at least for about 90% of the things. I can slightly understand a light no longer being in focus, but as a renter anything that I unplugged should have been re-plugged in before I left the way it was when I walked in, they should have re-patched all the sound board and light wires. And "missing set pieces" isn't understandable/acceptable no matter how much oversight was given by the venue.

We are only a high school theatre that only has small events that are not school run, but one general rule applies, leave the space EXACTLY as you found it, our tech crew and actors follow that, and about 2/3 of the time others using our space do as well.
 
Of course, you could look at it as a blessing that everything was unpatched. Can you imagine going in and everything patched wrong? If I was in charge of your production, there would definitely be changes in the venue policy after this incident.
 
It's hardly the renter's fault if the venue didn't provide oversight.
I agree completely. Yes, the renters could have been more considerate, but the potential for the problem could have been avoided completely if the venue had someone there to keep charge of the space.

And "missing set pieces" isn't understandable/acceptable no matter how much oversight was given by the venue.

Yeah, the strangest thing about it was that there was no rhyme or reason to it. Like....why in the world would you unplug all the monitors? Why would you remove some of our chairs and tables? It was all really bizarre.
 
Its a problem on both counts, a venue left with renters can have serious problems, no one goes up to the cats, moves flies, or does anything crucial without a venue tech there. Still this isn't the worst thing that could have happened, what if they just changed a few crucial things, like deleted the show from the lighting desk, changed the audio patching, and you didn't realise 'till the show was starting. Consider yourself lucky they were vandalistic enough to leave it so you realised. Our crew often complains about us getting to the venue 2 hours before a show starts, just to get everything fired up, this is why we do it. So problems like this can be fixed up.
Nick
 
Wow, that sounds like a near disaster. I'm only in high school, but I can't stand when people "need" to use the theatre during tech week or the week between shows. They always come in, move/break/change everything, all for something that didn't even need to use the theatre. At least we have never had anything that bad.

I'm in high school as well, absolutely nothing is allowed to happen in our theatre during tech week. When there isn't rehearsal, everything is locked up tight with the exception of a door coming through the work room which goes from the backstage/choir area so that door is monitored. Only a few people have keys besides that door and all of the doors have signs on them that warn that if you aren't in the drama department, don't even think about going in.

As for the renters, did you charge for damages/inconvenience? I would assume so as I know that I certainly would.
 
My school's auditorium tends to have a lot of renters who don't clean up after themselves. For example, after our last renter left, they basically did no clean-up work whatsoever, and left lights fingertight and without safety cables, confetti strewn all over everything on the catwalks, and more. We now do a complete safety check after a renter leaves us.
 
I guess I have a slightly different take on clients given that I'm not in a HS situation and that all of the shows in our venue are either presented or rentals.
My school's auditorium tends to have a lot of renters who don't clean up after themselves. For example, after our last renter left, they basically did no clean-up work whatsoever, and left lights fingertight and without safety cables, confetti strewn all over everything on the catwalks, and more. We now do a complete safety check after a renter leaves us.
Finger tight/no-safety cables, is unacceptable, but again, this is where oversight from the venue comes in. The TD or the ATD has to sign off on everything in the space. If one of those lamps were to fall and injure/kill someone, the venue is liable.

In my world, it is not the client's responsibility to restore the theatre. Clients pick up the cost of restoration, but there is no expectation that they'll do it themselves. Once their show is loaded out, they take off. Then its just me (and local crew if the show hired any) to restore the house hang, sweep/mop, etc etc.

Confetti in the catwalks, yeah, you'll never get rid of it all. There is still Weird Al money all over our ventilation ducts from last August. Good times ...
 
Ah, yes, our catwalks/stage/everything is covered in tree bark, hay, confetti, feathers, beads, foam shavings, sawdust, papers from steno pads, and other random crap. Always fun to find stuff a Beauty and the Beast production four years ago.

As for the badly hung lamps, the groups who use the space tend to bring their own student technicians, many of whom sometimes have no experience whatsoever.
 
My high school never rented out the space. That solved a lot of problems for us ;)
 
My theater rents out (as most do) but unless my boss gives the renter direct permission, our crew are the only ones hanging/patching/etc. lights and working the sound equipment. (Several events bring in their own sound techs and we usually let them, but not usually for lights)
Also, we don't usually have the issue of renters leaving a mess behind as they know they will be charged extra hours if we have to clean it up. If I have to stay longer and get paid, it's fine with me!
However, 030366's situation does appear to be unacceptable.
 

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