Tales of Stupid

[LxBoardOP]

Well, I have two stories

Story number one: This happened to our light tech before i got to the school, well she was doing something and all of a sudden our stage goes black, our LD/TD runs up to the booth to see what went wrong. When he gets there he sees that the GM slider had been slidden down, this was the Lx Board Operator's first play. It was funny, we are no longer alowed to sign anything and have it on the Lx Board.

Story number two: Last year durring a orcestra, and orchestra winds concert my sister, and our assistant tech director were on stage playing a song, and up in the catwalks they hear a pop, well being a techie and the Light board op at the time my sister wonders what it could be, well months past we are hanging lights for our spring musical, a source 4 19 wouldnt turn on so we check the bulb, as we open it up, we find the base of the bulb and the glass completely gone, no remains, we dont know who did it, but we are pretty sure it was the band teacher, yeah we were astounded.

 

[MillburyAuditorium]

So the play season is starting up, so whilst hanging lights and cleaning everything, I hear one of the new actors yell

"I can't wait to be in the lemon light!"

Almost dropped a light laughing





You know, lime...lemon, get it? heh

 

[edmedmoped]

So the play season is starting up, so whilst hanging lights and cleaning everything, I hear one of the new actors yell

"I can't wait to be in the lemon light!"

Almost dropped a light laughing





You know, lime...lemon, get it? heh

I have a band called lemonlight! hahah

 

[Soxred93]

I've had someone ask me if I had an XLR extension cord before...

 

[Les]

Well, I have two stories

Story number one: This happened to our light tech before i got to the school, well she was doing something and all of a sudden our stage goes black, our LD/TD runs up to the booth to see what went wrong. When he gets there he sees that the GM slider had been slidden down, this was the Lx Board Operator's first play. It was funny, we are no longer alowed to sign anything and have it on the Lx Board.

Story number two: Last year durring a orcestra, and orchestra winds concert my sister, and our assistant tech director were on stage playing a song, and up in the catwalks they hear a pop, well being a techie and the Light board op at the time my sister wonders what it could be, well months past we are hanging lights for our spring musical, a source 4 19 wouldnt turn on so we check the bulb, as we open it up, we find the base of the bulb and the glass completely gone, no remains, we dont know who did it, but we are pretty sure it was the band teacher, yeah we were astounded.

I had a hard time following your first story.

As for the second story,
No one "did it". It's called a Super Nova and it isn't an extremely uncommon lamp failure. The remains are probably in the lens tube.

 

[TheDonkey]

I've had someone ask me if I had an XLR extension cord before...

Haha, I can see myself asking that, then being like...wait...nevermind...

 

[WestlakeTech]

Well there's this new stooge teaching a Tech class at my old high school (and he has ZERO experience outside of high school and college). While teaching the Tech2 class how to replace an ERS lamp, he broke the lamp as he was re-attaching the back end to the fixture. So then he put in another lamp... and broke that one the exact same way. 2 lamps in just a few minutes... and they both had such potential.

 

[Les]

Sad day. $50.00 easy come, easy go, right

 

[Anvilx]

Well there's this new stooge teaching a Tech class at my old high school (and he has ZERO experience outside of high school and college). While teaching the Tech2 class how to replace an ERS lamp, he broke the lamp as he was re-attaching the back end to the fixture. So then he put in another lamp... and broke that one the exact same way. 2 lamps in just a few minutes... and they both had such potential.

Didn't the guy you had before leave to go work at the Long Center?

 

[zuixro]

I've spent a while trying to get a cue to come up, only to realize that the grandmaster is down. (for some reason, they insist that we pull the GM down before we turn off the board. Even though Emphasis clears everything out when you shut it down...)

Also, people start a new file on the server, then can't get anything to work. The patch in our default new file is blank. So every time I have to run up to the booth and set the patch to 1:1.

 

[Jackalope]

Funny, We had the same board and the same problem recently. we've upgraded with the new theater so it hasn't been issue

 

[WestlakeTech]

Didn't the guy you had before leave to go work at the Long Center?

He isn't a teacher. He's a facilities manager (at least for us). But no. He WAS at the Long Center for a little over a year before a new WHS job was created for him so that he could come back.

 

[shiben]

He isn't a teacher. He's a facilities manager (at least for us). But no. He WAS at the Long Center for a little over a year before a new WHS job was created for him so that he could come back.

So if I understand this correctly, the dude you had working there and then left and then got hired back still cant replace an ERS lamp? Also, what do you learn in tech 1? Im just curious here, it seems kind of funny to me that any tech (i even know a hum head who can) cant replace a lamp in an ERS.

 

[Anvilx]

Im just curious here, it seems kind of funny to me that any tech (i even know a hum head who can) cant replace a lamp in an ERS.

I must confess at my school I am the only student who knows how to replace lamps except for two of my friends who I taught and the teacher. But then again I am the only one who knows about a lot of things. (Everyone else take tech theater for an easy A)

 

[WestlakeTech]

So if I understand this correctly, the dude you had working there and then left and then got hired back still cant replace an ERS lamp? Also, what do you learn in tech 1? Im just curious here, it seems kind of funny to me that any tech (i even know a hum head who can) cant replace a lamp in an ERS.

No, but I'll clarify.

Once upon a time, there were 2 Tech Teachers, and 1 Facilities Manager. When the faclities manager left, one of the tech teachers was given the job. As the Old FM came back, instead of having him replace the guy who replaced him, they created a new job for him. And he hired one of his old students (quite un-necessarily) who now teaches Tech2. THAT guy is the Tech2 teacher who knows how to replace a lamp, he just thinks he's skilled enough to do it as fast as he can without even thinking. Kinda complicated, I know...

In the state of texas, all students in high school are required to get 1 Fine Arts credit. So many students take Tech1 thinking it will be a blow-off class. So the more in-depth stuff is saved for Tech 2 while Tech 1 is nothing but the most basic of basics. Trust me, you do NOT wanna see Tech 1s with lighting instruments. MY tech 1 class took the term "strike" literally. Instead of carefully taking apart the Peter Pan set, they took a bunch of sledgehammers and mallets to it in some sort of punk demolition frenzy before my teacher realized what was going on. (hey, another tale of the stupid!)

 

[shiben]

Thats why you call it the "out" or "load out" or something similar. That way, the teamsters and IA guys dont pull out signs, and the actors/other non-techies dont get sledgehammers and do their thing with those. Actually, in a funny quasi-related story, we had one girl who, when told that all theatre company members had to show up for strike, asked what it was (this is her 2nd year in the company, she ought to know, so the other crew heads and I didnt feel bad). We told her it was where we all got signs and stood around in front of the admin building demanding better wages. We also told her to dress warm and wear comfortable shoes, because it could take a few weeks. She actually brought a sign to the out. It was epic fun, and we gave her an easy job because she took us seriously.

As a serious note to all educators/crew heads in an educational setting: How hard do you think tech theatre classes should be? I am currently in favor of more difficult ones, because the ones I have taken so far so easy that I can not show up and get an A. Most of the ones I have been in so far are basically "this is a Source 4. THis is a screwdriver. This is a table saw. Memorize and write down on test". Anyone else think we should make tech theatre 1 classes hard?

 

[ajb]

As a serious note to all educators/crew heads in an educational setting: How hard do you think tech theatre classes should be? I am currently in favor of more difficult ones, because the ones I have taken so far so easy that I can not show up and get an A. Most of the ones I have been in so far are basically "this is a Source 4. THis is a screwdriver. This is a table saw. Memorize and write down on test". Anyone else think we should make tech theatre 1 classes hard?

Well, the trick is that you often have to serve vastly ranging skill levels within a single tech class. For instance, my college's intro to tech class was the only purely technical class that was required for all drama, musical theatre, and vocal performance majors. As such, in a single class there were people like me, winding up with a course average of >100%, and others taking it for the second, third, or even fourth (!!) time and still failing. What do you do in a situation like that? You can't simply make it harder, knowing that more students will fail. You can try to better motivate the performance concentrators, but many of them feel the same way about tech theatre as many of the posters here feel, I imagine, about singing or acting. Of course, now we're talking about stuff best put in the education forum, so suffice to say it's often a delicate balancing act that has to be looked at in the context of the program overall and the goals and abilities of the student population.

 

[len]

Isn't there some state or local standard that has to be taught to?

 

[GrayeKnight]

"this is a Source 4. THis is a screwdriver. This is a table saw. Memorize and write down on test".

That's more that my tech theatre teacher (high school) does in his tech one/two/three classes... combined. I'd pay to have him give a tools test, let alone tell people what a Source 4 is.

Our midterm exam? Write a ten minute play about a contemporary issue facing society. Am I in Tech? I forgot..

Here's a tale of stupid: My tech teacher allowing our backdrop to be painted black. Oh yeah, because that's easy to light. And paint over.

 

[shiben]

That's more that my tech theatre teacher (high school) does in his tech one/two/three classes... combined. I'd pay to have him give a tools test, let alone tell people what a Source 4 is.

Our midterm exam? Write a ten minute play about a contemporary issue facing society. Am I in Tech? I forgot..

Here's a tale of stupid: My tech teacher allowing our backdrop to be painted black. Oh yeah, because that's easy to light. And paint over.

First of all, thats what velour is for, black backdrops. 2, why is any playwriting going on in a tech class?

Three, how can you call it tech and not at least mention the source 4? its either the 1st or 2nd most common lighting instrument in existence right now, and easily the most prevalent modern instrument. When was the last time you saw a professional show with anything other than S4s or Selpacs (and even then, S4s are wayyyyyy more common)?