Stage Doors & Truck Docks. . .

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I've only played Radio City twice, the first was on a music tour that was mostly playing clubs. It was nice to have plenty of wing space. Sadly I was sick as a dog, and there are few better spots to be unable to stand up for a load in the NYC. I was the rigger/kinesys guy for that tour and after the floor was marked I told the head carp and head elec that I was sick with food poisoning and I wasn't being disrespectful but once my rolling chair was off the truck I was going to sit in it and direct load in from offstage right. They loved it, and said they wished more road guys would stay out of their way. Tour Buses can't park at the venue so I spent any off time napping in a chorus dressing room on like the 5th floor.

The secound time was for a massive corporate and getting to chat with Eddy for a few days was nice but things were never calm enough for both of us at the same time for him to give me a tour.
 
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I've only played Radio City twice, the first was on a music tour that was mostly playing clubs. It was nice to have plenty of wing space. Sadly I was sick as a dog, and there are few better spots to be unable to stand up for a load in the NYC. I was the rigger/kinesys guy for that tour and after the floor was marked I told the head carp and head elec that I was sick with food poisoning and I wasn't being disrespectful but once my rolling chair was off the truck I was going to sit in it and direct load in from offstage right. They loved it, and said they wished more road guys would stay out of their way. Tour Buses can't park at the venue so I spent any off time napping in a chorus dressing room on like the 5th floor.

The secound time was for a massive corporate and getting to chat with Eddy for a few days was nice but things were never calm enough for both of us at the same time for him to give me a tour.
@soundman My apologies for transposing acronyms; I'd interchanged MSG with RCM (and then there's DMX and RDM; No, no;; forget I typed that.)
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
High on hit list must be Grady Gammage Hall at ASU.

Don't forget it's sister theater - the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts! Another curved ramp from hell. We always get them docked on the IN, but on the out we get a 2nd fork op who is just the shuttle up the curve and keep the trucks on the street. Frank Lloyd Wright made things look so so pretty, but damn did he not understand how trucks need to back into a theater and how to put enough bathrooms in a place!

Another "back down and turn" access was in Huntington, WV at Marshall University field house. It's been 25 years since I was there but I recall about 6 inches of clearance on either side of the truck from the HVAC duct work, and getting the turn at the bottom was... challenging. IIRC we backed down to the most level point and unloaded rather than try to make the turn. I wouldn't be surprised if the field house has been replaced.

The actual theater in Huntington is no better - there is maybe 4' of wingspace on either side of the proscenium. You load in through a hole in the wall Upstage Left and the ramp in extends so far it's like 4' upstage of plaster. You can't set up Ampland until after every truck is dumped because of this.

Century II Performing Arts & Convention Center - one of Izenour's. Oh my.

You don't love pushing a truck through a convention center, forking it onto the conventions presentation stage to push into the upstage hallway into another theater?! I love watching Fork Operators knock my sound towers over repeatedly!

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I'll add to this - Mother Lode Theater in Butte Montana, Grand Opera House in Macon Georgia -- both are external pneumatic elevators that hold almost nothing. A fair number of the "stagehands" tend to be junkies in both venues, they love to push boxes real fast, they hate to follow directions about where those boxes go. In both you street dump the trucks and shuttle what you can in on the elevator. The Mother Lode you're unloading onto a like 10 degree grade of a street that hasn't been paved in a decade. Every box is a murder box that wants to roll, hit a pothole, and flip over. The theater is one of the tiniest that takes in Yellow Card shows in the country, and when I was there all your "stagehands" were work release prisoners from the county jail.

The Capitol Theater in Wheeling, West Virginia, it's a street dump and a 200' push up a semi-paved alley. The loading door is only 6.5' tall so you need to flip most of the amp racks to get them in, and fully unload scenic carts on the street. It's wonderful in winter. The State Theater in New Brunswick, NJ was the same, but at least now they have a tiny baby dock after years and years of renovations. The biggest difference was that the Stagehands from Local 21 had a load-in at The State down to a science.

The Beau Rivage in Biloxi, MS - your trucks need to circle a parking garage very carefully to get to the single spot that is closest to the elevator. It's a 200' push in the parking garage from the trucks to the elevator, at least the loading elevator is pretty big and goes up 5 stories directly onto Stage Left.

Easton, PA - Used to be a hell of a street load-in on a grade. Now the trucks park on the roof and an elevator shuttles gear from stage level to the roof of the venue.

Pioneer Center, Reno, Nevada - The theater is underground, you load trucks 1 at a time from a tiny tiny tiny elevator. It's one of the most un-ideal loading situations in the country. You legitimately have to choose to either uphold artistic integrity of the show and get it all in, or cut scenery and maybe an electric or two so you have space in the venue for what would normally be back-load so you can get to your next venue on time.

Connor Palace, Cincinnati OH - Stage door is great, but you literally build the truck dock at the top of the call. Heavy steel grated plates. Boxes don't want to roll on them correctly, people get hurt building the dock.
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As far as Local 1 stuff, I'm not a member of 1 but when I'm not touring I predominately work in 1's jurisdiction.

Stage 42 is kind of tricky, it's a street dump with a huge hydraulic elevator to get things up to the 4th floor. Dyer Ave has a direct line to traffic coming in the Lincoln Tunnel so it's a pain when trucks have to circle, at least it's easy enough to get trucks parked on 41st street. Better than loading into any of the venues on Theater Row or at the Signature just because of how big Stage 42's elevator is. Doesn't make it any less tricky because the scale of show at Stage 42 tends to be a lot larger than those other venues.

Most of the Broadway theaters are just insanely dumb street dumps but nothing out of the ordinary for an NYC, and better coordinated than most every corporate loading situation. A standard Broadway IN is a walk in the park compared to a corporate gig with an event space, or an old hotel (The Plaza is pretty miserable push using elevators and hallways designed for 1900's needs in 2020). The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History at least have truck docks, and insanely regulated procedures for getting in and out - the downsides are the security checks to get trucks docked, and the insane paths to get around the most valuable artwork (Very much needed, adds hours to the call).

On Broadway you're paying a person to manage sidewalk traffic all day to keep the flow of pedestrians uninterrupted. You're constantly shuffling things from the sidewalk in and out of lobbies and alleys to make sure it all fits in a secure location by the end of the day and doesn't hit cars or pedestrians during the day. Truth be told, the good venues with better Production Management tend to flow really really well. Your biggest issue is when PRG totally bungles the delivery or pickup slots and then you have 4 trucks all vying to be docked first to make their next pickup/dropoff, the Teamsters are getting testy because they see 4 trucks and know they won't be getting an easy day, and you can't split loaders so they'll be at it until the back-log of trucks is cleared. Truth be told @RonHebbard I haven't seen any drinking on a Local 1 In/Out - times have changed, and I am very used to Producers or reps from the Producing Office walking around and breathing down necks to clear up any inefficiencies they see. The house folks always talk about the "good old days" when they could have a few lunch beers or do something harder at their tech tables or in their offices, but I haven't seen it in any of my experiences.

The hardest part of a Broadway In/Out tends to be the sheer number of people, many of whom haven't worked in that particular venue before. You get a lot of folks from the hall who may be trying out the Stagehand life and don't know too much. They see boxes, they want to push them. This is no different from a majority of touring venues around America. The difference is that these new folks (and I won't say young, just new, lot's of mid-life career transition folks, or people who bounce jobs and know when Local 1 is going to be busy with Ins/Outs) is the they don't know where the Teamsters/IATSE line is on the truck and in an urge to be too helpful piss off the teamsters to the point that all work grinds to a halt.
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The "OTHER" Local 1 -- If you want a good video of a MISERABLE loading situation, check out ITEA's videos of the Stanley Theater pre-renovation where they added a truck dock. ITEA Local 1, Only One. The crew would suddenly be on an endless coffee when they heard the word "Cadac".
 
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Once upon a time, we had a nice truck level dock. One day the powers that be decided to sever off part of our property, which they somehow managed to screw up and include our truck dock (as well as the star dressing room, production office and HVAC facilities). Our new neighbour was not amenable to the idea of us clogging up his parking lot with trucks, so he filled in the loading dock with cement.

I still feel a ping a rage every time we have to dump a 53 by ramp.
 
No one has even mentioned the "historic"second floor theatres with a loading door 10 to 20' above grade.

Little Rock, Arkansas.... symphony/concert hall downtown. When I was there the load in was via parking lot to a 10x24' scissor lift on the side of the building. Stage level was 3rd floor level IIRC. To get consoles to FOH they had a chain hoist in one of the curtain warmer cans... dropped the chain, put slings under the case and a tag line to pull it downstage of the pit (2nd floor) to land it.
 
The Minack open air theatre in Cornwall, UK, is "interesting".

Your access is from the car park, into a loading bay large enough for a single 10 ton rigid. The entrance is above all the audience seating, and the stage is, I'm not exactly sure, but probably 4 or 5 storeys below. It's built on the side of a cliff. Everything has to be carried by hand down through the seating to the stage and thence to the dressing rooms and backstage areas. You can guess how it comes back up. It's a fantastic place to put on a show, though, under the stars, surrounded by the rocks, with the sea crashing below.
 
Of the 3 venues I work or have worked in, venue 1 is all at street level with maximum height of 2.9m clearance to get on stage. Anything that is taller than that is constructed on stage and then has to stay in the wings when not being used. door width is 3.5m so wide enough. It opens up to a set of basketball courts and plenty of room fro trucks but we mostly see small moving vans and pickups there because it is a school and we don't see road shows come in just local schools, dance schools and theatre groups.
Venue 2 had (recently renovated) a dock that you could back a truck into (rigid trucks worked better here. Door straight onto the stage at about 900mm (3ft) above road height. Door height was great but width was just under the width of tailgate ramps on trucks so the truck had to be in a slight angle to let the ramp sit on the lip of the dock.
Venue 3 has a small loading dock with a door 1500mm (5ft) above the road with an elecric lift . It can be a bit awkward to load and unload trucks but we manage. Door is only 2100mm (7ft) wide and maybe 2700mm (9ft) high. This is loaded straight on to the stage the biggest restriction is moving between stages ( there are 2 side by side) the door between them is only 1400mm (4ft8) wide and 2700 (9ft) high. The stage levels are the same height but the area between is lower by the thickness to the stage top (maybe 25mm or 1in) so getting trucks between one area and another is interesting. When we have a show in they usually use one stage for the show and the other for props and sets storage while not in use.
All in all not as bad as some of the venues mentioned above but they have their own quirks.

Regards
Geoff
 
I worked for a while at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, the largest hotel by rooms and event space on the west coast outside of vegas.
Our main loading dock was underground and shared with 2 hotels plus a museum and you couldn't turn around inside, so a semi could technically fit but would have to get perpendicular on 4th street and then back down about 100' then turn 90degrees into the Marriott dock. Then you had a 20 minute limit.
Once off the truck there was a big loooong hallway which could be avoided if you were going to the 3 small ballrooms.
Back down the hallway under Mission Street to a "freight" elevator that was really a 16 person elevator that took you to to ballroom level, about a 200' push past stacked chairs and coffee carts to get to the back service corridor. If you had anything long though, like striplights, pipe or truss, that had to go down the escalator.
If you wanted to use the dock that was at ballroom level, that entrance was shared with Moscone Center, target, and two other hotels. Because it was shared, we'd also get teamsters harassing the IATSE staff even though our dock was non-union.
Also a local theatre I worked at for years was sloped toward the back of the truck, so just opening the roll up door of a u-haul for community theatre was a 10 person job to make sure everything didn't come crashing out.
 
I pulled a few overhire shifts in the scene shop at The Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey. Pretty nice and spacious shop space, easy loading into the box truck.

The theater is a lovely recently-ish renovated space that's beautiful. However, the stage is on the 3rd floor of the building. Sounds slightly trivial with all the advances in metalworking and elevators/lifts right? Wrong. The box truck backed up to a "lovely" wooden wobbly "loading dock" approx 10' x 16' (at dock height) that shifted side to side with every step. And then the loading door is about another 12 feet in the air.....
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Boise HS, Boise ID.
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Yes, that is the only loading dock. Now imagine needing to get a 45' tall lift in there so you can replace all the loft blocks.
 

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