help help! the sky is falling!

ricc0luke

Active Member
I just started working at a small professional cabaret in a nearby town. Let me also start by saying that I am extreamly, extreamly underpaid... not that I am supposed to rake in the big bucks, but some are getting rich and I can cover my gas to and from and not too much else...

Anyway, technically, I am the TD. But I handle everything including getting the actors their water. Well... so the last girl left on bad terms... actually quit a week early, so I only got about 4 hours, including one performance with her of the main stage show. Ooo.. and a 2 hr rehearsal during the week of the mainstage show.

So I haven't really even had the time to look around and see whats in the place... the mainstage show friday night was uneventful.. a few mistakes but we made it through... then saturday there was a childrens show supposed to be at 1pm. I was supposed to get there early to go over all the cues... Never in my life have I been so happy I was running late. The owners/producers/directors got there just before... walking in as i pulled down street. I ended up parking 4 blocks aways so it took me some time to walk. I walk in, on the ground is the ceiling. The ceiling was made of a cardboard ceiling tile toung and grove system... The last TD before she left warned me that it sagged and that if it got really bad to use a screw and washer to hold it up. Well... the ceiling for 3/4 of the show room was now on the ground, on the tables, on the chairs. Nothing actually hit the boards, but they were covered with dust.

But as they say the show must go on! So the start time was pushed back an hour and everyone pitched in and helped and it was all cleaned up before the landlords even got there... and actaully the rafters didn't look that bad... it went right along with the exposed brick walls and plank floors...

So that was my first look at the attic where the dimmers and unsafe mess of cord left by the last TD. Also, the electric in the building had been a tad suspect prior to this... but now, with the attic open a whole butt load of code violations were exposed... there are exposed wires everywhere in the attic.... everywhere!

So that was yesterday... then today I was there and i was looking at the joists for the first time in an area where they were sagging...

Oh my god....

There is an old furnace that no longer is hooked up in the attic... to get it up there they cut the joists.... then... they patched them... if you would even call it that... some don't line up at all and aren't connected in anyway and others only overlap about 4 inches and then there were 3 done with 2x4s.

This is just a ticking time bomb!

Anyway... so tomarrow I am meeting with a wonderful guy and we have the wonderful task of at least handeling the electric disaster tomarrow for the landlord... the joist are another story....

So thats been my wonderful first weekend at this theatre...

Oh... and that the saturday night show was completely screwed up.
 
Dude, if they aren't paying you well enough, get out while you still can! This place sounds terrible. Or, do everyone involved a favor and get a building inspector involved.

But hey, look on the bright side, at least the fallen tiles didn't have asbestos on them. (maybe they did!)
 
Yeah, get an inspector in there quick. If you can. If not, just stay away and let them know that they have to get someone in to fix it up. Because if that stuff stays up there for long, there's going to be a problem, and you might just be in the middle of it when it happens. And that wouldn't be good at all.
 
As far as the inspectors go, its a joke... I mean... when the health department came when it opened they looked at the bathrooms and didn't even bother to go near the bar. The place has never seen a fire marshall either... Calls have been made though to get one in the past to approve the seating capasity.
The owers of the theatre had been unaware of these problems with the wireing and improper framing as well as the landlord.
The issues are being addressed... but as we address each one we seem to find 3 more. It's an extreamly old building that the history of is for the most part unknown other than that Lincoln dined there after one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

As far as the pay goes... yea... it sucks... but I'm working there for now... at least through the run of this show... hey, maybe it'll get better!

And for the record... all the people from the theatre company are awsome people... which is nice to work with people like that and the landlord is totally cool too
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back