Recent content by garyvp

When we did Frankenstein I built two Jacobs Ladders and a 1000 watt tesla coil, plus lots of insulators from the local power company. We are considering now doing Young Frankenstein but the lab is the least of our worries; there are so many scene venues the set may be too much for us.

We are doing Sondheim's Getting Away with Murder and wondering if anybody has done it and how did they resolve the digital clock which introduces each scene.

We used a plastic garbage can, dryer tube, and a hair dryer for our small stage. Hot water from the sink. Worked well. However, the real problem was the cost and weekend storage of the dry ice.

See the informative and entertaining youtube discussions by Sabine Hossenfelder regarding the multiverse.

See Sabine Hossenfelder on You Tube - Why the multiverse is religion, not science.– - -

I agree - youtube all the way. I have done several projects with graining techniques and its fast and looks real. I stopped buying paneling. And, you can add fire retardant to the paint. I did a small set this summer where they would not allow foam set pieces without a FDNY certificate, but had...

Agree with Bill - the wires show long term overload stress...cooking... due to an overloaded circuit and probably loose terminals - the number one cause of electrical fires. I would not use those charred terminals and wire again and re-torque the rest.

Frankenstein - Most elaborate technical show I have ever done in community theater - Jacob's ladders, Tesla coil, bubble columns, real CO2 fog, (all built by me) and a wall encrusted with vintage high voltage switchgear, meters and insulators from a turn of the century power plant, donated by...

Agree...At our community theater I am the technical director and happen to be good a electrician - and the only electrician here. I have worked with many 'trained' lighting designers and only one had any electrical skills. This is important for several reasons - understanding phase load...

See this thread - had a similar problem with Gatsby.https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/building-a-car.35737/

We made 8 of them for some heavy tap dancing.1/2" ply rounds on 1x6 box frame, edged with 6" corrugated roll - online (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Thorntons-Singleface-Corrugated-Roll-A-Flute-6-x-250-Kraft-1-Roll/391974316030?hash=item5b437d67fe:g:nSIAAOSww-BadRcL) and then painted silver -...

Most recent set was for Lynn Nottages's Ruined, one of my favorite sets in recent years. Learned some new techniques - rusting the barrels, working with bamboo.

I built a door mounted in frame secured to a weighted base with jacks. It moved around the stage and had two sides. The same principle could be used for french doors. Keep in mind that this was a hollow core door and and the frame was really solid. I suggest you build the French doors out of 2x2...

OKAY....The latest recommendation by our most experienced lighting designer, and several of you in this thread, is that we get an ETC Element 40 channel controller and install DMX512 cards in the NSI dimmers (not a big deal). Cost about 6k.Any further comments are welcomed.

Well done!That was a good 'Duhhhhhh' discovery....and the customer is always right.I document, diagram and label everything, and label all breakers.....but no one ever looks at this stuff but me. Beyond using the breakers as our dimmer disconnects, no one has a clue to how it all works...