Friday, November 13, 2009

West Side Story - Thursday Brush Up II

I dropped by the theater to make sure the cues were set - esp since we had a disaster with the light board on Sunday.  I loaded the cues from my jump drive, and went thru the first act.  Everything looked good and was working as it should.  I made a few little tweaks, resaved it, and I was done.

The city tech I've been working with this whole run said they figured out what happened on Sunday.  We blew a circuit.  The light board has it's own battery back up.  It's then plugged into a UPS.  We also have a stand-alone instrument that the LD rented to display the logo on the curtain before the show, at intermission, and after the show.  That instrument was plugged into the UPS.  I think there was also a music stand light, as well as a few other things plugged in there too.  Well Murphy says 'If it can go wrong, it will'.  It did.  When the circuit blew, none of the backups worked.  The whole theater is plunged into darkness while the audience is escaping.  It didn't have anything to do with what the operator was doing, or anything else.  It just happened.  Thankfully, it didn't happen say, mid show somewhere.  So the city guys re-ran the power and distributed the draw evenly so history will not repeat itself.

Reminds me of when we did Into The Woods the first time, I inadvertently hit the toggle switch on a power strip while fixing a spotlight.  Of course the light board was plugged into the power strip, and there was no UPS.  Hilarity ensued. 

So that little problem is resolved.  The next thing the city techs were working on is getting a monitoring system for the thrust running.  The biggest problem when using the thrust is it's a sound dead zone for anyone standing on it.  There are no audio monitors in the building that will help the cast hear the orchestra when the cast is on the thrust.  So the city is running monitors that will be in the alcoves pointing at the thrust.  In theory, this should work.  Unfortunately, we are also having feedback issues.  If you turn those monitors up loud enough so the cast can hear, the sound feeds back thru their microphones and then you have an ear-splitting screech.  We don't want this.  We already have a problem with the amps that the orchestra is using.  I can't imagine this will help the cast and keep the feedback from becoming a problem.  But that's what they wanted to try.

Well, big Robert points out the feedback issue.  Everyone is arguing with him about it.  What are we going to do if we don't have the monitors?  The actress can't hear her entrance.  Blah blah blah.  He says, we understand that, but feel this is not the right approach.  So he wires a video monitor instead.  The camera is pointing at the MD, the tv monitor is in the alcove.  The actress looks at the monitor, the MD cues her, all is well.  I don't know what happened - I left while they were running the video cable. Whatever they decided to do, I'll see it tonight.

Tonight will be the first time in a while that I'll have seen the second act.  That is unless I get thrown off the light board again.  I don't see that happening, but one never knows...  I've been tweaking the lights in the first act for the last two weeks, but the second act I've ignored since I haven't been there to see it.  I'm sure tonight I'll have a fix list.  None of it will be major - just little things that annoy me.  So I'm not stressed about it.

I am going into the theater tonight with a positive attitude.  If the SM wants to give me lip - fine.  Whatever.  It's really not worth it.  The show will be good, esp since I have to be able to talk on the headset.  If the SM doesn't call something correctly, I'm not going to be afraid to say anything.  Wow do I wish I was calling my own cues...

On a lighter note - I saw a new physical therapist today.  While I really wanted her to rip my head off, she was great.  I wasn't in too much pain when I left, and I didn't end up with a blaring headache.  Yipee! Hopefully my level of discomfort will not worsen as the weekend progresses.  I still can't turn my head abruptly.  Looking in my blind spot really sucks.  So as long as I don't make any quick moves, I feel pretty good.  If the timing gods are in my favor, I may even get to have dinner with Mr. Blondie tonight.  :-D

1 comment:

  1. Overloading circuits is never a good thing! Glad to hear that PT went well, and I hope you remain headache-free.

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