Never let a school design a theater

[Lightingguy32]

well if you've read my hello thread, as you know I'm the technical director for our schools brand new theater, the whole school is brand new.
Well to list a few things they screwed up big time on,
Stage Flooring: The school board desided they needed the front of the stage with a finished wood floor (waxed ect...) Not such a big deal since the red curtain cuts the black stage off when closed for regular events but for theater events it doesn't look too good.
Well so the black part that's suppose to be marley "spelling", is just regular wood with black paint over it, thus alls you can see is cracks as it's in no ways close together big gaps in it and the paint is chipping off. It scratches easy as hell so that's all you can see is imprints from things that were on stage.
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Communications- wired com system how ever no com hookups on stage, none by rigging, non up back, and none on the other side. No communication to back stage (chorus and band room), and No Wireless System.
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Back Stage Preview- A must for the plays, the wiring was cut out of the budget.
Alright so now the last part of your training I really don't want to say what this is, but I have too. This is the amp for your back stage preview system which they cut the wiring out of the budget.
we have the amp and the big speakers sitting in the storage closet but no way to connect it into the system.
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Projector System- The whole place is wired for a projector system front stage hookups, in floor hookups around the theater, a whole A/v setup in the front rack so the principle can just come in and play a video, and even the wiring was run. But they cut the projector out of the budget.
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The stage- In part with the wrong stage flooring put in, the waxed part is warping and it's un even, the front lip trim has snapped due to stress of being put in uneven and the front brown partical board part is chipping.
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The lighting system, the company abandoned us said they came out a year ago when no one was even in the school as it hadn't been turned over to the city yet. thus they were not obligated to train us on the system.
4,000 Software system (WYSIWYG) useless to us, they tried installing it on a FAT32 Formmated system (which if you read the manual it says it WILL NOT work on) and they just gave up. We had to fix it our self and find a company to train us on it.
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The part about a waxed floor and a cheaply painted black floor sounds familiar. Our school did the exact same thing when they renovated our auditorium. This is normally the school boards fault cause they assume this auditorium will eventually become a place for school board meetings infront of the curtain line, thus meaning the curtain is closed and the only floor visible is a waxed wood floor. Speaking of waxed floors, don't you hate the reflection of light of the the waxed floor and onto the ceiling during a production?

 

[stantonsound]

ummm....be careful with the fish tape if you don't know where the conduit is going. If it goes into a panel, you will likely have one more thing to complain about, namely electrocution. If you have an air compressor, make a little parachute out of a plastic bag, tie a pull string to it, and blow it through the conduit. It is a great deal safer, but still, you should be careful.

 

[Edrick]

Well tomorrow is actually my last thing, so I wont be worrying about it anymore. I'll do some finishing work before I take my complete leave next week. We actually ended classes last friday and then I had two finals to do this week and a major video to finish. Which after spending hours today finishing I have to get there early and fix something before we can show it. arrg. But anyways, thank god I'm finally done here. Not that I didn't enjoy doing the stuff it's just time to move on and off to Boston in August maybe ill look for a internship of some sort in Theater in boston.

 

[Dustincoc]

\
I've been waiting for 3 days to get the holes in the control room table put in so I can run the power and sound cables through them instead of infront of the table like they've been for the past 7 Months.

That's where a drill with a hole saw comes in handy...

 

[museav]

It's always easy to second guess what was done without knowing all the facts. I have been through many projects that had similar outcomes to those noted but in most cases for good reason or more as a result of politics than failure on the Architect's, designer's or contractor's part.

Things like high school districts that had us 'dumb down' the systems for a new school because although we were working with the same budget, what was designed was better than what was provided in the existing schools in the district. Or the one school that wanted us to design the sound system without a mixing console because they thought they already had one somehwere, of course they couldn't tell us what it was and when it was time to connect the console it turned out to be an empty road case for a mixer. Or the school district that had a 'standard' audio system design from a contractor that was so over the top on some areas that they couldn't afford some of the basics (L/C/R Renkus-Heinz arrays but very limited stage inputs and production communications).

Then there was the theatre that started out as a high school facility but evolved through private funding into a touring house with full time tech staff and that the students could not even enter without permission, not to mention that at the same time they awarded all the audio system to the low bid 'low voltage contractor' for the rest of the school who initally wanted to substitute Rauland and Dukane for EAW and Soundcraft. Or the middle school that inisted we design the sound system for a proscenium theatre space around the same 360 degree coverage PA speaker and mixer/amp used in the gym (we gave them our design using what we felt was appropriate and told them we would not provide a design we felt was improper or would not work).

It is very common to design theatres for future expansion and functionality that the initial budget cannot accommodate, thus having excess conduit, cabling, etc. for these functions should not be seem as a negative. Running these provisions during the building construction is almost always much less costly than trying to add them later. However, I have always tried to get the empty conduit to be provided with pull strings and identified as to purpose. And when it comes to construction costs, tech systems that are not related to code compliance or obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy are often the first victims of Value Engineering.

The partially wood floor is quite common with Architects and Owners who seem to visually relate that to what they see as a theater or auditorium. One of those things where they feel people expect to see it even if it isn't the best solution functionally. Also keep in mind that not only are many schools required to go with the low "qualified" (which is often not well defined in regards to theater) designer and contractor bidders, but these projects often have design fees that are the same fixed percentage of the construction cost as for any other school facility and no money allocated for specialty consultants. On some projects an Architect getting a consultant involved in a theatre design may quite literally be paying for that out of their pocket.

The point is not to complain about all the problems, but rather to point out that there are many factors that may enter into a theatre construction project and one has to be careful about placing blame or saying something is "wrong" without knowing all the facts. We can probably all benefit by trying to change the process and getting administrators and others to better recognize the special requirements of theatres.

 

[Stoldal]

Reading your guys posts, i find my self think that i am very blessed. I work at a high school, we dont have a theatre, but still we have produced some amzaing productions, some how we pulled of Cats. But really we are blessed with over 100k worth of lighting and sound equipment. I think reason why i really never thought how blessed we are because the drama dept is growing to fast, ad we are always need more things, o well. Fyi i live is las vegas, Nevada, and i volunteer my experiences in lighting and sound to any high school or middle school that needs any help with there tech dept.

 

[Edrick]

Well sadly to say the Tech Team for the High School has seemed to drop off the face of the planet. The only people that are left are my assistant from last year, who despises doing his job and pretty much only does work at our Media Center now. It's really sad to see that the school has almost no one now to do events.

 

[gafftaper]

Well sadly to say the Tech Team for the High School has seemed to drop off the face of the planet. The only people that are left are my assistant from last year, who despises doing his job and pretty much only does work at our Media Center now. It's really sad to see that the school has almost no one now to do events.

Rick that's just the way it goes in schools that don't have a tech director. There are periods of time that really ambitious students like yourself are there and the tech is great. Then those students graduate and it goes down hill for a while. But the good news is, you aren't "the chosen one"... there will be "another" who will follow in your footsteps in a few years and things will be good again for a while. He'll never know you existed of course as all your hard work will be lost to the wind by then, but that's just the way it goes. Thus the reason I keep telling people to volunteer as much time in high schools as you can. An hour hear or there can make a huge difference. For example, go back in a year or two and just spend an afternoon teaching whoever is there how to run the light board. It's not a big deal to you but it'll go a long way toward keeping things alive.

 

[Edrick]

I'm planning on helping out come this winter break, although I don't have to teach anyone or help out persay since the current person is there just in a less involved manner. I'd still like to go back and help out a bit and maybe a few pointers I thought about over the summer and things I would have done differently.

 

[gafftaper]

I'm planning on helping out come this winter break, although I don't have to teach anyone or help out persay since the current person is there just in a less involved manner. I'd still like to go back and help out a bit and maybe a few pointers I thought about over the summer and things I would have done differently.

Going back and helping out like that would be great. Just remember the flip side of it, you are a graduated adult and it's time for others to learn and struggle through. Some of my former students have spent too much time going back to the old high school to try to keep things going. They feel guilty about what has happened to our great tech program. While the thought is admirable, there comes a point you need to move on and not feel guilty about it. While helping out here and there is something you can do to really make a difference. Schools are users and will suck every last hour out of you that they can. You have a new life ahead of you, be careful or you'll find yourself stuck back in your old life too much.