Corn chips in the booth.

[tech2000]

True, that would be a good way of getting money.

 

[Clifford]

Or we rob a bank.... Actually, we thought about a bake sale. But then everyone was too lazy to do anything about it. Not enough lights and sound I guess. I mean really, we're not that bad off. We get along. If we ever had a major need of cash, I'm sure we could get at least most of what we needed. So we need an emergency.

 

[tech2000]

Yeah, at our school administration banned bake sales and stuff like that during school. (It might be the district) They wanted to cut down on the amount of fat, sugar, etc. sold at school. Drama club did those for a while and we still only made $50 or $60 a time.

 

[Clifford]

Hey, that's enough for a lamp! When you include tax and shipping. But a lamp none-the-less! Something we could use far more of.

There was a group selling Pat & Oscar's breadstick outside our theatre. The building is right at the top of the main parking lot and there's a big circle you drive around and all that. We might be able to do that. After all, who doesn't completely love Pat & Oscar's breadsticks? I'd sell my soul for them.

 

[tech2000]

I guess making any money is good money! (even if it only is $50) Just a few more sales and it could pay for those little things that are needed!

 

[Clifford]

And big things. And the old things that need to be fixed/replaced. I'd like to see our intercom working again.

 

[tech2000]

True, it would be great to get the intercoms at my school to work too but oh well. Other stuff needs to be done first.

 

[Clifford]

We've got wireless, and being able to light a show is more important than our intercom, nice though it would be to have.

 

[tech2000]

I have an entire list of stuff that would be nice at my school, but we have to buy a projector, and lamps for light fixtures.

 

[lieperjp]

I have an entire list of stuff that would be nice at my school, but we have to buy a projector, and lamps for light fixtures.

I too, have a list, but I don't make the final decisions, so... Actually, though, I get to recommend things, but there's never enough $$$.

 

[midgetgreen11]

We don't mic our actors in plays, but we rent/hire outside sound technicians for about$2000 a show. The booth is about 15 feet above the balcony back-row.


Sorry that may have seemed random; it was in response to posts a page or two ago.

 

[Clifford]

I too, have a list, but I don't make the final decisions, so... Actually, though, I get to recommend things, but there's never enough $$$.

I posted my lists in one of these threads. Maybe tech2000 will remember which. It's pretty long, and it doens't even include structural stuff.

 

[tech2000]

Apparently it's been broken for 8 years. If they didn't act in that time, I don't see why they would now. But I guess there's no harm in asking.

Incomplete list of things that don't work/are broken/missing:

-Booth elevator stuck in the up position
-Aisle lighting doens't work
-Lighting channels 60-69 don't work
-Motorized electrical battens control panel (we have to stick pencils into the fuse resets in the panel to operate them)
-We're missing the winch handle for the fire curtain apparatus
-The key for the scissor lift broke. In the ignition. Now anyone can use it.
-Lost key for the audience recall bell
-Button for audience recall bell (the only one that doesn't need a key) is broken
-30 or so capless Altman 360Q's
-4 broken/partly disassembled Altman 8" fresnels
-Many other lights that are useless because we can't get lamps for them
-A truly gross cyc; the bottom is all scraped and discolored
-The house was built with 368 seats. You can sit in 351 of them.
-We have 1 hammer, no screwdrivers, 3 1/2 handsaws
--We have 13 drills, 4 work
--We have the what is quite possibly the most useless drill press ever conceived. We don't even plug it in.
-The entire wired intercom system doesn't work
-Monitor channel A is blown
-Four of our eight trumpet speakers have been blown, with one of the basses

There are quite a few more, but I'll leave it there.

Is this the post you were talking about?

 

[Clifford]

Indeed it is. And as I said then, it's only incomplete. I would be infinitely happy if I could get half the things on that list fixed.

 

[lieperjp]

I posted my lists in one of these threads. Maybe tech2000 will remember which. It's pretty long, and it doens't even include structural stuff.

Here's mine:

-NO architectural system to speak of, house lights go on/off with a switch.
-House lights are CFLs
-Curtains Ripped/torn/stained in multiple spots, but thankfully most can't be seen from the house.
-Stage floor has been mauled by 15-20 years of misuse and no TLC.
-One, only one, catwalk positioned too close to the stage
-Catwalk electric mounted to floor, so lights have to be positioned upside down, makes some shutter cuts impossible.
-Three stage electrics from 1970, not 1-to-1 for lights, not stage pins but edison plugs.
-NO theatrical house speaker system.
-NO EQ or compressor for theatre shows.
-Outdated dimmer racks in the wrong locations.
-Still using lights from 1970 which I would LOVE to replace.
-Not enough Backstage space to hold theatre club sets AND band equipment.
-House seats from 1970, not very comfortable, some are broken.
-Stage not at ground level (it's about 16 in off the first floor level,) to bring anything in it has to survive some very sharp corners and fit through a single door unless you want to carry it up half a flight of stairs.
-We have an organ that covers up the extreme upstage left, but not too much.
-NO comm system to speak of, we use very cheap Motorola walkie-talkies that are sketchy at best.
-Tech storage room is a basement hallway
-Very few extra lights - only about 5 scoops that were replaced by fresnels 10 years ago.
-We can't get a lift onto the stage because of the buildings design, so we use a scaffolding.
-Many people aren't as safety-conscious as I'd like them to be (working on changing that.)

But I also have a list of what I am thankful for. (Maybe you should to, it helps me feel better: )
-We HAVE enough lights to adequately light a theatrical show.
-I get to learn how to take care of lights when I clean and bench-focus them in the Fall
-We have the equipment to semi-properly PA a show.
-Though our lightboard is a Leviton, it works, it's better than a two-scene preset.
-We have enough wireless mics (though yes, we could use more.)
-We have a growing theatre club (not part of curriculum.)
-We have a cool organ in the auditorium for church-style music.
-Though our sound system could use some EQing, it really doesn't sound too bad, surprisingly.
-We have some good equipment for recording fine arts concerts.
-We are supported by the theatre club and our music department.


And the thing I am the most thankful for:
We have a lot of fun putting together a show, and each show is an adventure. After all, we can complain about equipment as much as we want to, but if new and exciting equipment was the reason we were involved in theatre - most of us probably wouldn't be in theatre. It's taking what you have and making something spectacular for the audience that makes it enjoyable.

 

[Clifford]

I wish we had real houselights.

I guess I'm grateful for the following:
-Our theatre is actually fairly new, built ~1990
-More than enough lights to light our shows
-An overstuffed gel cabinet
-A working scissor lift
-Four general battens, three lighting specific omnis
-Newish drapes
-New ETC Express 48/96
-Perfectly operational Mackie 32-8 mixer
-Two confusingly full sound racks
-Our booth is huge and has a seperate general storage room
-Most of our 368 seats are usable
-Our stage is in pretty good condition, as is our cyc (except the bottom)
-We have enough flats so that we won't have to build any next year
-We have enough tools to do what we do
-We have more glow tape than we know what to do with (and trust, we've really tried on that one)
-A really great crew

...And these are few of my favorite things!

 

[tech2000]

I'm grateful for:
-Enough lights that we can get by on for shows
-4 lighting electrics
-47 lineset 50' fly system
-Working sound system (even though it has its problems)
-Wireless and wired microphones
-Shop tools
-583 seat theater
-Storage space/Workshop backstage (rest of the high schools in my district dont have much space backstage)
-Gels

Probably more stuff I didn't think of.

 

[Clifford]

Sounds like a big theatre. I wish we could have even a few lines on a simple fly system.

 

[tech2000]

It's big compared to probably a lot of high school theaters. The rest of the high schools in my area have about the same number of seats, but the fly system is much better in my school.

 

[Clifford]

I'll make due with our motorized electricals electricals and omnis. Even though we don't have any real fly space. However, when you consider the fact that we don't have a ture tech teacher and that this year, what with budget cuts, we almost didn't have a drama teacher, the safety factor would be a big problem methinks.