Hey, I thought we could share pictures of our shows...

[Stevens R. Miller]

The Sterling Playmakers is doing "42nd Street." They have a tradition of doing "silly" rehearsals at the final pick-up, where the actors adopt funny accents, wear goofy costume items, and ad lib a bit here and there. Typically, the stage crew will join the ensemble up-stage, and the sound tech will substitute comical fx for the actual noises. But lighting people have a hard time getting involved, because it's hard to be funny with a light.

But, this once, I may have found a way...

 

[Silicon_Knight]

The Sterling Playmakers is doing "42nd Street." They have a tradition of doing "silly" rehearsals at the final pick-up, where the actors adopt funny accents, wear goofy costume items, and ad lib a bit here and there. Typically, the stage crew will join the ensemble up-stage, and the sound tech will substitute comical fx for the actual noises. But lighting people have a hard time getting involved, because it's hard to be funny with a light.

But, this once, I may have found a way...

View attachment 15111

This is hilarious! Who says that techs aren't creative!?!?

 

[JohnD]

Wonderful Mr. Miller, but since you have thrown down the gauntlet how about:
Add rollerskates?
Add others as footlights?
A phalanx of minions as moving lights? (Is there a preferred collective noun for minions?....melange perhaps!)
Meanwhile what are the props crew doing? I envision some of them handing out crutches.

 

[Stevens R. Miller]

This is hilarious! Who says that techs aren't creative!?!?

Thanks! It went over quite well. The singer (Melani Drummer, as Dorothy Brock, and a bravura performance) is facing stage right. The bit begins with her actually at stage right, in spot, low GI elsewhere. The rest of the cast is upstage-left (behind her right shoulder, out of that shot). I walked up onto the stage from stage right, with the words on my shirt covered. I stood there without moving for a second, and then turned the light on (held the battery pack in my left hand). After she starts singing, Dorothy crosses to stage left. As she moved, I moved right after her, uncovering the words on my shirt. Got quite a whoop out of the rest of the cast.

But it got better than I planned. Melani didn't know what I was going to do (I only told her not to worry about it if I got on stage near her). She only saw it as it unfolded. But the song Dorothy sings at this point is all about how she realizes the man she just sent away is really the most important thing to her, and how much she realizes she needs him. What Melani did at that point was (as you can see in the picture) turn to face me, singing, "I guess I never knew how I needed you," as she walked up to me, draped that feather boa over my shoulders, and put her hands on my cheeks. The cast went nuts watching the star singing about how she can't live without her spotlight.

Sometimes, the gods just let it all work right.

 

[z2oo]

Meant to post these ages ago, but here's Our Town (reimagined to involve a ~14' high/40' diameter 360-degree projection). That much projection surface with mostly black & white drawings on it was... a choice... and washed out just about all of the lighting. Fun stuff involved: RC4 wireless dimmers for the lanterns, free-standing ladders rigged to a 30' grid, the 360 screen, and the drawing of the projections controlled by the Stage Manager character's hand gestures via a hidden Kinect.

 

[Van]

Meant to post these ages ago, but here's Our Town (reimagined to involve a ~14' high/40' diameter 360-degree projection). That much projection surface with mostly black & white drawings on it was... a choice... and washed out just about all of the lighting. Fun stuff involved: RC4 wireless dimmers for the lanterns, free-standing ladders rigged to a 30' grid, the 360 screen, and the drawing of the projections controlled by the Stage Manager character's hand gestures via a hidden Kinect.

Fantastic Concept !

 

[sloop]

Some shots from our different shows

 

[Aaron Clarke]

A few pics from our Stage One (kids) group's production of Holes.

Warm 'hot' feeling on the lower stage for modern time and the flashbacks were almost all done on the upper platform in a very cool color palette while the boys continued to 'dig'. on the stage in silhouette.

I placed two 1000k 8" Fresnel about 2 feet behind the scrim to play as the sun along with a handful of cloud gobos so each day could take on a different look.

Note: if you want that chipped, gouged, distressed look on your stage floor give 6 middle school boys shovels and tell them to pretend to dig.

 

[danhr]

Frost/Nixon at the Central New York Playhouse. We built a homebrew system of practical studio cameras, headset intercoms, TV monitors and projectors.

 

[Amiers]

Got to hang NIB ovation 190s and had to change the barrel and couldn’t help but take a barreless picture while focusing.

 

[sdauditorium]

Here's a handful from one of our final dress rehearsals of "Into the Woods" by Southern Door High School. Hope to get some better ensemble shots to give a bit better look at lighting.

 

[garyvp]

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.

 

[TheaterEd]

Just wrapped Almost Maine. My first time directing as well as running all the tech crews. Note to self: Next time you direct Hire someone to be your TD. Glad to have a week off before we start the build for Les Mis.
It was a lot of fun seeing the audience react to the Aurora happening over head. It also made a great distraction for the scene changes.

 

[Amiers]

Corporate world is a whole different beast. But worth showing. Picture doesn’t do it justice.

 

[Stevens R. Miller]

Corporate world is a whole different beast. But worth showing. Picture doesn’t do it justice.

Sweet. That's a SmartFade ML, is it not? What kind of cues/FX/etc did this setting call for?

 

[Amiers]

Sweet. That's a SmartFade ML, is it not? What kind of cues/FX/etc did this setting call for?

You got a keen eye. I was given no direction. Generally a corporate general session is logo colors and a few different looks.

Personally I set up about 10 looks. And try to get individual control over every fixture.

This called for 12 uplights. And originally 8 stage wash. They didn’t get the right room so I lost 4 stage wash lights as the truss didn’t fit the room but I digress.

My looks range from as crazy as a multi color fade to just a basic blue.

They never ask for much and I always go above and beyond because I’m still new to this world.

I ran everything from mem faders and turned on my bump buttons.

The tape is for people if I walk away the rest are for me to busk.

 

[Stevens R. Miller]

The tape is for people if I walk away...

What? Who would touch it? We all know that, if you leave your lighting console unattended, everyone is respectful and keeps their hands off of it .

If you don't mind my asking, how did you get the gig? And did you do it all solo? Certainly sounds like they got quality work.

 

[Amiers]

I am freelancing this one as just a L1. Through a company out of Cali called AVent Techs, they are nation wide in most major cities. I’ll let you do the research.

If you are looking for side work they are good to use. If you looking to make a job out of it then do your homework and know how to operate well and fast. Corporate is fast paced and don’t like rehearsals.

Lucky for me lighting is pretty easy. Set it and forget it. Unless you get bored and give a different look per speaker.

Oh and you must be able to sit and stay awake for 15 hours and able to function at the drop of a hat after not doing anything for 6 hours.

 

[Stevens R. Miller]

I am freelancing this one as just a L1. Through a company out of Cali called AVent Techs, they are nation wide in most major cities. I’ll let you do the research.

Thanks, I'll check it out!

Oh and you must be able to sit and stay awake for 15 hours and able to function at the drop of a hat after not doing anything for 6 hours.

A fifteen-hour banquet? Are you sure it didn't just seem like fifteen hours ?

Back when I was in politics, I was one of those people at the tables more often than I could count. Not only must one be able to tolerate long periods of boredom with sudden demands for attention, one must look interested the whole time, as well.

Although, I got to meet Buzz Aldrin at one of these things. That was pretty cool, and my interest was sincere.

 

[Amiers]

The count was 10 for load in, 15 in meetings yesterday, idk today but will be close to 15 + load out.

So yeah long days and totally different from theatre.