Last night, our high school's Performing Arts Center hosted the Philippino Culture Night. Imagine a disastrous trainwreck. Got it? Yeah, that's what we had. I'm not too sure where to start on this one. How about the beginning?
A few months ago, we were getting ready for this PCN, until it was pushed back. Well that's annoying, but it did give us time--until we realized it had been moved to the busiest time of the year, the last month and a half of school. We had multiple showings of drama's in-class play during the day this week, and dance concerts in the evenings. On top of the three shows we were getting ready for for this week, we also have the HUGE annual Broadway Review next week. Four big shows, four techies. (We actually have more, but of the people working shows, there are four of us.)
I have just been informed that there was a dress rehersal. This news makes me even more scared. Given the fact that we had to give a speech about not talking backstage and staying away from drapes and lights shortly before house openned, I don't think they did much. This is also when they told me they needed a light behind the rear traveller so they could see when crossing the stage. :neutral: I grab a light stand, a PAR, and a dark blue gel, and set it up to reflect on the cyc. This required finding a 30' twistlock and running behind a set of massive pillars (given to us by another school, we all want to burn them), behind all the strip lights from the dance concert, and up to the light in a way that the performers couldn't get at it.
I know I'm sort of rambling, stay with me.
When I get back to the booth, the CD player isn't working. Our theatre is a bit senile and a bit of a pile. Something can work fine one night and not at all the next. It took twenty minutes and our TD driving 65 down a 45 mph road to get to us to fix the problem. She pushed some buttons, kicked a few things, and cursed the show a couple of time and things worked.
Because nothing had been done at rehersal, we had no cues, no list of acts or tracks, and we found out AFTER the show started there were 2 movies they had to play. Not knowing this, I hadn't shown their person backstage how to operate the screen. Get on headset and just tell her, right? Wrong. Headsets don't work. They took 45 minutes to work out, thanks to our old and almighty TD who kindly drove down for us. We were using walky-talkies from the school's office, and PCN's person kept putting it down. Not that it made much difference, because she didn't use it when she had it. I had to go and show her how to raise and lower the screen (I thought about letting her just figure it out, but I feared she would lower the omnis, which are on the same panel).
I won't go too much into how that actual show ran, but needless to say it was horrible. We were alternately cringing and laughing in the booth, and occasionally franctically trying to get something to work or patching or running backstage (they managed to unplug the blue light I set up). Eventually, another person from PCN (who I actually know) got on headset and the show ran considerably smoother. I've said about a third of what actually happened, but I don't want to write a book. In conclusion, I am mandating dress rehersals next year. And bringing a large, blunt object.
A few months ago, we were getting ready for this PCN, until it was pushed back. Well that's annoying, but it did give us time--until we realized it had been moved to the busiest time of the year, the last month and a half of school. We had multiple showings of drama's in-class play during the day this week, and dance concerts in the evenings. On top of the three shows we were getting ready for for this week, we also have the HUGE annual Broadway Review next week. Four big shows, four techies. (We actually have more, but of the people working shows, there are four of us.)
I have just been informed that there was a dress rehersal. This news makes me even more scared. Given the fact that we had to give a speech about not talking backstage and staying away from drapes and lights shortly before house openned, I don't think they did much. This is also when they told me they needed a light behind the rear traveller so they could see when crossing the stage. :neutral: I grab a light stand, a PAR, and a dark blue gel, and set it up to reflect on the cyc. This required finding a 30' twistlock and running behind a set of massive pillars (given to us by another school, we all want to burn them), behind all the strip lights from the dance concert, and up to the light in a way that the performers couldn't get at it.
I know I'm sort of rambling, stay with me.
When I get back to the booth, the CD player isn't working. Our theatre is a bit senile and a bit of a pile. Something can work fine one night and not at all the next. It took twenty minutes and our TD driving 65 down a 45 mph road to get to us to fix the problem. She pushed some buttons, kicked a few things, and cursed the show a couple of time and things worked.
Because nothing had been done at rehersal, we had no cues, no list of acts or tracks, and we found out AFTER the show started there were 2 movies they had to play. Not knowing this, I hadn't shown their person backstage how to operate the screen. Get on headset and just tell her, right? Wrong. Headsets don't work. They took 45 minutes to work out, thanks to our old and almighty TD who kindly drove down for us. We were using walky-talkies from the school's office, and PCN's person kept putting it down. Not that it made much difference, because she didn't use it when she had it. I had to go and show her how to raise and lower the screen (I thought about letting her just figure it out, but I feared she would lower the omnis, which are on the same panel).
I won't go too much into how that actual show ran, but needless to say it was horrible. We were alternately cringing and laughing in the booth, and occasionally franctically trying to get something to work or patching or running backstage (they managed to unplug the blue light I set up). Eventually, another person from PCN (who I actually know) got on headset and the show ran considerably smoother. I've said about a third of what actually happened, but I don't want to write a book. In conclusion, I am mandating dress rehersals next year. And bringing a large, blunt object.
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