Hey all, I just wanted to share an entertaining story that happened to me last night.
I've been working with this group that is doing a dinner theater production of The Honeymooners. Basically, we took three episodes from The Honeymooners, and are recreating them as exactly as possible on stage. Recreating as in we've looked at the tapes, the set and costumes are black and white, it's fairly close.
This project started last year as a fundraiser for a community theater, in the theater. The producer, who owns a chain of italian restaurants, decided that he wanted to do them as a dinner theater show.
So, as I was saying, this summer we're doing it at one of his spaces. We've built a stage, and a set, and I'm supplying, designing, and running the lights and sound system.
In this space, my booth is the corner of the at the side of the room. Not a bad space, its a somewhat limited view, but not that big of a deal. My equipment is a small mixer for audio, my laptop running qlab (since there are around 60 sound fx in the show) and a small NSI lightboard running the 8 lights.
So, last night, house opened at 7:15, show was to start at around 8:30. So, at 7:00 the bar is being set-up, and they pore the ice into the container. And it spills. All over my equipment.
So, I rush over, and we all get the ice off, and I take some napkins and get the water off the consoles. No big deal, a little water, everything seems fine, no smoke, whatever.
At 7:05 I go to load up the preset for the lights. Huh, thats funny, why is that so dim? After a bit of trouble shooting I decide that the Grand Master slider has somehow been damaged, as everything is flickering at around 30 to 40% of normal level.
So, I decide to run to my old high school and grab their Express 125, just to have in the back of my car if the console doesn't dry out. (Yea, I have the keys.)
So, jump in my car and rush over to the high school, grab the console and adaptors and monitors, load them in my car, and rush back to the restaurant. Just as I was turning off the highway I get a call from the producer asking where I was, and telling me that the lights were flickering. Huh, well I didn't leave any lights on. I didn't unplug anything, but nothing was on at the console..........
I pull into the parking lot and rush in, and see the entire rig randomly flashing to full. Hum, well we can't have that, now can we? So, it's now 7:40, and I turn off the dimmers, unplug the dead lighting console, and set up the Express. I then commenced the fastest programing I've ever done. Set up the console for the new show, and wrote all the cues in blind while everyone was eating.
Wrote my subs in, used those subs to generate cues, checked all the cues, added in my fade times.......
And at 8:20 I was done, and the show started on time at 8:30.
Not a very fun experience, I'll tell you that. But, amazingly, all the cues were correct, and it didn't even look that bad!
Oh, and I don't know what the other console is going to do. I'm hoping that since it was only ice, it will dry up. I opened up the back of the console and didn't see any major damage, need to take the face-panel off and check in the faders, but I am hopeful that I can fix it.
I've been working with this group that is doing a dinner theater production of The Honeymooners. Basically, we took three episodes from The Honeymooners, and are recreating them as exactly as possible on stage. Recreating as in we've looked at the tapes, the set and costumes are black and white, it's fairly close.
This project started last year as a fundraiser for a community theater, in the theater. The producer, who owns a chain of italian restaurants, decided that he wanted to do them as a dinner theater show.
So, as I was saying, this summer we're doing it at one of his spaces. We've built a stage, and a set, and I'm supplying, designing, and running the lights and sound system.
In this space, my booth is the corner of the at the side of the room. Not a bad space, its a somewhat limited view, but not that big of a deal. My equipment is a small mixer for audio, my laptop running qlab (since there are around 60 sound fx in the show) and a small NSI lightboard running the 8 lights.
So, last night, house opened at 7:15, show was to start at around 8:30. So, at 7:00 the bar is being set-up, and they pore the ice into the container. And it spills. All over my equipment.
So, I rush over, and we all get the ice off, and I take some napkins and get the water off the consoles. No big deal, a little water, everything seems fine, no smoke, whatever.
At 7:05 I go to load up the preset for the lights. Huh, thats funny, why is that so dim? After a bit of trouble shooting I decide that the Grand Master slider has somehow been damaged, as everything is flickering at around 30 to 40% of normal level.
So, I decide to run to my old high school and grab their Express 125, just to have in the back of my car if the console doesn't dry out. (Yea, I have the keys.)
So, jump in my car and rush over to the high school, grab the console and adaptors and monitors, load them in my car, and rush back to the restaurant. Just as I was turning off the highway I get a call from the producer asking where I was, and telling me that the lights were flickering. Huh, well I didn't leave any lights on. I didn't unplug anything, but nothing was on at the console..........
I pull into the parking lot and rush in, and see the entire rig randomly flashing to full. Hum, well we can't have that, now can we? So, it's now 7:40, and I turn off the dimmers, unplug the dead lighting console, and set up the Express. I then commenced the fastest programing I've ever done. Set up the console for the new show, and wrote all the cues in blind while everyone was eating.
Wrote my subs in, used those subs to generate cues, checked all the cues, added in my fade times.......
And at 8:20 I was done, and the show started on time at 8:30.
Not a very fun experience, I'll tell you that. But, amazingly, all the cues were correct, and it didn't even look that bad!
Oh, and I don't know what the other console is going to do. I'm hoping that since it was only ice, it will dry up. I opened up the back of the console and didn't see any major damage, need to take the face-panel off and check in the faders, but I am hopeful that I can fix it.