Dead Polonius

As the large closing night party which was the final time all the actors and majority of the production staff would be together a startling realization came to light when Michael Broh saw his 2013 Production Assistants at the Shed that night...

During the Strike of R&G a certain prop may or may not have ridden down the hill on fancy in a folding chair...

And when said prop may or may not have made it down the hill it may or may not have found a way into Bravo...

And when said prop may or may not have made it into Bravo it may or may not have ended up in Michael Broh's office...

And in Michael Broh's office the said prop may or may not have sat down in the exit interview chair and filled out an exit interview form... Pen in hand...

And here for your entertainment is what that sheet may or may not have said:

And in early in morning the next day when Michael Broh discovered a certain prop that may or may not have been in his exit interview chair, he may or may not have let out a blood curdling scream that alerted the rest of Bravo as to what may or may not have been in his office...

He may or may not have thought it was a brilliant prank and may or may not have had a few choice words on that account... 

Strike

Strike was fast and furious. It took two days for Up The Hill to close completely for the season. Two Gents was the last show to close (all other sets and props had already been struck, we did a progressive strike which was something new to everyone). The scene shop, which consisted of a two man team of Nate and Bill, they struck scenic units that still needed to be struck or put into storage at Titus (the storage piles, just covered scenic units on a hill just around the bend from the stage). The seats were covered by the grounds crew for the winter with plywood and tarps to prevent severe weather damage.

The first day the PA's were put with lighting crew as it was one of the larger tasks to be accomplished as scheduling prevented and lack of storage space made it hard to strike specific lighting instruments after shows. While some of us went up the main lighting towers we had ground crew (in this instance me and two others) to catch and run lights back to the clubhouse for winter storage. We had to sort the lights by type and take out gel (not reused as it had been subject to the elements for so long, it is donated however to other theatre around Spring Green). When this was accomplished it was time for lunch. After lunch I got a chance to climb the permanent structure and strike the lights and cable there. Eliot our ME said it was the fastest strike he'd ever done there because he had us all climb because he trusted us with the equipment, again changes to the normal strike system they had before.

The second day we helped Bill and Nate take tools down to the shop and board up and take down changeover doors. This happened quickly and we didn't take a break until it was done. We had to sort out all the hardware that was recovered from the set that were struck as well as salvage what else we could. This was the majority of the day.

It doesn't sound like a lot to do but it was mostly tedious work that needs to be done as well as a fair dose of heavy lifting. It was also nice to spend some time winding down with the people I'd really been working the closest with too, the rest of the PA's. There's no better way to go out than a good strike.

Handoff

One rather unfortunate occurrence that is unique to my situation was the fact that the only show that I opened, Antony and Cleopatra, ran past the date my contract ended. Thusly I had the duty of having my boss shadow me while running the show and making sure the run sheet made sense to him. This happened very quickly as well so he only had once to shadow me.

My assistant stage manager had made a good run sheet for me detailing all the duties and props that I needed be in charge of stage right during the show. The particular difficulty was communication should anything go wrong. There were not enough walkie talkies for me to be on headset during the show so I had to run blind, which really means I had to pay extra close attention to where the show as at.

Briefly from the top of the show the main tricks that he had to remember was how to make "scotch" and the timing on which the sail (refer to production pictures I posted previously), a scenic unit, was hoisted and dropped. Timing was really the main thing, especially for door pages that were supposed to be silent.

I let him do the harder part of my job, such as making scotch for Jim DeVita which he had specifically requested be iced coffee. The trick to it was making it consistently. I made it 15 min. before house open. I added 5 ice cubes then two fingers of cold tap water and a one second dash of coffee to be placed in the greenroom refrigerator until it was time to be retrieved. This was to make sure that the color was consistent, the ice cubes consistently melted and the color to hold.

The other aspect of the sail, was the only aspect that needed work from my shadow. I specifically laid out the cue lines and roughly the blocking that happened on stage during the hoist and drops.

The first hoist cue line was simply "hoist the sail" easy enough, this left enough time to lash off and climb the ladder to get to the hook that attached the sail to the rope.

The second cue, the first drop, was taken on a the word "delicate" after Caesar and Thidias have exited. This is where my shadow had problems because blocking was not quite what it was every other night. As Jim DeVita and Jim Ridge exited the stage they usually didn't cross under the sail as the cue line was said, on this particular night they did and my shadow didn't drop the sail on the line. It was just delayed a bit. Nothing major but just enough to cause a slight rhythm change.

The second drop was far later in the show and the sail was hooked to a set point on the proscenium wall. No blocking was in the way and the timing was relatively simple as it the drop was taken a beat after "command."

There were a million smaller details that I had stopped thinking about while I ran the show and it was difficult to recount them despite really superb paperwork. It may almost seem a trifle to recount but it was a quasi-difficult event for everyone as I had been so familiar with everyone and with the duties of the show. It was just another reminder that people can't really be replaced but the duties can be performed by another person.

A Few Short Questions... Elongated...

I've received a few comments that merit response as it may help some additional facets of my job.

In no particular order.

Who introduced me to the dogbone?

My Deck Chief did at my job training on the first day I arrived at the theatre. I had one (not the one pictured) with a straight handle that I started with for lack of equipment dispersal. This quickly became remedied by request of the Deck Chief, thus the one pictured currently came to be in my use. The origins of where exactly the idea for the PA's to have the dogbones is somewhat unclear it is safe to venture that since Bill has been choosing the attachment hardware for scenic units that he may be the one who originally started wide circulation of them. They can also be used in the lighting world, though there are specific lighting wrenches that do the job even better. Definitely worth looking into purchasing at UWM.

Prop Storage? Where the heck is it?

Prop storage is in Bravo. Bravo (down the hill near the staff parking lot) is where the prop shop is housed as well as our administrative and stage management offices. When we strike a show's props we load them on the back of our truck (Fancy, yes it's the truck's name) and take them down to the shop, or Harlan's shop (he's our finish carpenter who also builds a good deal of difficult props). From what I've seen of prop storage it is fairly extensive, there are entire sections of storage that I've never seen. One of the more prevalent things that I do see on a regular basis however is a casting of a "dead" Brian Mani... Really very charming late at night...

A rough transition into our next question is what are our rain procedures?

We specifically have weather tracking equipment on site that stage management is constantly looking at to plan our days accordingly. Most of the time we do play in the rain as long as there is not a threat to our actors or crew (namely lighting or extreme weather conditions). Sometimes there may be rain delays to the house (it never happened this season, we changeover in the rain frequently) or hold the actual production. Props, this is specifically for you Sandy, are covered with tarps or brought inside when conditions take a turn. If they are damaged, or mold or mildew we attempt to inform the shops through stage management or address the situation as best possible. Most of the equipment like lights and speakers are weatherproofed to some degree so we leave those out.

The "sail" thing?

That is what we like to refer to as the chute. It is a third of a jeep parachute that is hoisted up at six points on our lighting towers and one point on our permanent structure. After the initial point on the permanent structure the ropes from the lighting towers are tied on and hoisted up, lashed off, and excess rope dressed (this was a huge bane of my existence).  It is a necessity for our actors during warm conditions and shades the stage (it helps parts of the audience sometimes too but it's less for them). We set it up for all shows up the hill during the day (it doesn't effect lighting that way) when it is deemed necessary (wind is not too high, it's not raining, it's too cold, etc.)

Hope this clarifies a little more of the posts that I've already posted.

Metalworking Seminar

Another of Bill's seminars that was of particular interest to my coworkers and I was metalworking. There was a day before I arrived that he went over the basics of welding two pieces of steel together with a MIG welder (a skill I already possessed).

In this sort of part two of his seminar he went over some of the cutting tools that can be used to shape steel. Namely he taught us safety and working procedures of a horizontal bandsaw, a miter saw with lubricant and a diamond blade and a plasma cutter. As well as cutting steel we learned a few different bending techniques with a bending machine and the simple route of using mandrels.

Safety is important so he started by making sure we were wearing proper protective goggles (welding and plasma cutter) and safety goggles for the saws. We also wore welding smocks and gloves while handling hot steel as well as ear protection.

First we started with the horizontal bandsaw. This was a saw equipped to drop at an adjustable rate to slowly cut through steel at any angle desired. While it took some time to cut through the steel it was beneficial because it made very clean cuts that did not need to be ground down to make attachment points (also very handy for cutting legs).

The miter saw was similar in structure save for the process require a person be operating the throttle on the saw. This saw was lubricated to assure a clean and relatively fast cut (not too much friction). A good option when cutting needs to be done with a good degree of accuracy as well as be time efficient.

The plasma cutter was a particularly interesting tool to use as it uses some of the same principles of welding steel together to burn it apart. The machine was a small miller plasma cutter that used compressed air and an arc from a ground attached to the piece of steel to cut. You have to hold it about an 1/8" away from the steel you are cutting and drag the torch relatively fast across the steel to cut it.

The bending mechanisms were fairly simple. The bender used a clamp and a series of dies that you rolled steel in between, while compressing the clamp to create more of a curve. The mandrel was the same principle save for you had to rely on the mechanical advantage of your own two hands. In this case we were just bending rings out of pipe and smaller rods (respectively) for practice.

Overall it was an educational experience that I'm glad I now has some base familiarity with.

Design Seminar

I have to preface this post by saying as things are winding down and more shows are closing we get to spend some educational time with some of our higher ups. Specifically Bill our TD gives these seminars to the P.A.s to get our input on how he can better understand our process and build sets that are functional on multiple levels and to help us further our learning of things we are specifically interested in.

This particular seminar we were given a designers first scenic renderings of a production of Henry V. Then asked to come up with some possible problems we could find that would have to be considered during the revision of the design.

The set consisted of two large clusters of raked platforms on stage right and stage left leaving open stage floor in the middle. I found some production pictures of what the actual play looked like for reference:

http://americanplayers.org/assets/documents/King_Henry_V_Abstract.pdf

We primarily used the ground plan to determine where the structural issues may be. Some potential issues we came up with included: material of the structure, division of platforms, delegation of leg or gate system, making allowance for swelling, making plugs around the permanent structure, height of walls and interaction with lighting positions, assessing rake (if there was too much). I'm certain there were more as well.

We presented these first to Bill who tended to agree with our assessment and tell us how it was done the first time (the show was remounted). He told us the set was a hybrid of materials, both wood and steel that started out as a system of knee walls, platforms and plug system. The initial system didn't work too well because it was cumbersome to make attachments to.

The second time around they used a more solid state platform system that was modular. While heavier it took less time to make the attachment points and took less time to plug without having to worry to much about the rake.

The large thing that Bill highlighted however was the budget and time management aspects of the two different attempts at building the set. He said that the first time it was much faster and cheeper to build but with the trade off that it was hard to build consistently the same. The second set, while it took more labor and money in the shop (as well as more storage space in the clubhouse) was a good deal easier to consistently get built fast and accurately.

In the ways of critical thinking this was a particularly interesting exercise for me because of the fact that as a PA I often find awkward scenic units that could possibly have been engineered differently to alleviate problems. It was nice to see all the consideration and thought put into how I do my job and nice to find out that our arguments don't fall by the wayside.

This is a quick video showing the Up the Hill changeovers we've done this season. All credit to Phil Wooding, one of my bosses and the Sound Engineer here at APT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QioTFU8-hBM

See if you can spot me!

Striking and Closing Too Many Husbands

Too Many Husbands was the first of our shows to close this season. It was our third to open. This particular show required all of the P.A. staff backstage with the exception of me who ran the sound board. It was a heavy show for props, specifically furniture. As such it had a fairly significant amount of distress on the scenic units, especially the large cityscape flat which I know I've previously mentioned, which brought up the question of what scenery was going to be used.

Directly after the show I had to strike all my sound equipment like normal save for retrieving a wireless receiver and speaker hidden in the baby prop. That was strike for sound and then we did changeover into 2 gents for the next day. The real trick after that was to load all of the larger props, namely furniture, onto the truck and drive them to the prop shop. Now we had to pack a bedroom ( a queen size bed and bed frame, 3 chairs, a desk, small fire pit, a vanity, a pouf) a full kitchen (stove, table, 3 chairs, 2 stools, a large sideboard), a living room (a sofa, 3 chairs, coffee table, small table, and a stove). Oh, and it was raining so we had to cover everything in tarps. It was a gigantic game of helterskelter tetris but we fit it all in on one load.

The scenic strike was broken up a little bit differently because we weren't absolutely sure what was going to the burn pile (most scenery gets burned then whatever is left, mostly steel is salvaged). We organized it such that it was easily accessible for Bill and Nate (TD and ATD respectively) could decide at a later date. They ended up burning the main walls and windows and transporting the cityscape down to the shop for outside projects.

A PA's Best Friend

Friends let me introduce to you the indispensable tool of choice for a PA: 

The Dog Bone.

This precision instrument is a ergonomically curved ratcheting wrench capable of loosening bolts with a head the diameter of either 9/16" or 1/2". It is used on a daily basis. Specifically, the 9/16" is used on all the scenic units Up the Hill and the majority of them in the Touchstone. The primary reason this tool is so important to us is because almost every scenic unit is large enough to require some variety of bolts. It's curved shape helps fit into those tight corners where pesky bolts are hidden. Whether that is a modified stage screw or an assortment of regular bolts it is assured that a dog bone is behind tightening it. It is often used in conjuncture with box wrenches, of the 9/16" variety as well, drift pins, dead blows, screwguns, multitools, and a good amount of good old fashioned human leverage.  It's very durable which is a good thing as it's often used as a hammer as well. Platforms, walls, railings, stairs, are all bound together by the tightening prowess of the bone.

Jokes and specs aside this tool really is indispensable in my day to day duties. It makes bolts quickly without too much hassle and doing things quickly is an essential part of the P.A.'s job. The ratcheting function and the curved handle in conjunction with each other create a versatility that is indispensable on the fly.

Woof!

Time off and going back to school... What a week...

Had a huge weekend last week, as it was the last weekend we had all shows open. There were a few changeovers that had to be done quickly but we've gotten in such a rhythm we've been able to handle them efficiently.

The real trick has been weighing all my commitments with never being at school.  Financially things have been reigned in more than ever.

Getting away from all of that.

I was left a comment asking what could be improved here. So here is my answer to that:

I think the largest thing that is problematic for me is scheduling. Sometimes shows are set up then taken down immediately, only to be put back up again. It has to also be considered that during rehearsal and tech that we have a different set up (maybe putting up the chute or waters). The production assistants almost never know specifically when they will be needed until about 12 hours beforehand, if that.

I would say the fix for that is to have better communication between different department heads but that already happens. I think more than anything else it's just a reality that happens because of the nature of the job description. I don't really want to get into the hypotheticals of narrowing a job description and or hiring more staff because that's just going to create new problems. It's a necessary evil and it works but it is still a pain for everyone.

Another thing that needs mention is the specific packing of the clubhouse. It's packed incredibly tightly at the height of the season with all shows running and it creates issues when we start doing multiple show days. Sometimes we have to assemble specific pieces of a set before a tear down and set up on a two show day. For example when the Hamlet and R&G wall was new it took a long time to put together so we assembled pieces of it in the clubhouse. Not only is it a lengthy process that consumes a lot of space it also changes the dynamic of what is expected of the changeover. Another important piece of information I neglected to mention is we have extra hands helping on the large changeovers like that. We get acting apprentices that aren't busy with shows.

In short, this all leads to a myriad of problems that are fairly unpredictable. The added space, should it be added, would alleviate some of the need to assemble and disassemble the pack. It would also help with traffic flow onto the stage and allow larger scenic units to be stored easily.

I'm sure there are more things that I will think of in coming days but these have been in my mind for some time.

We start student matinees this week so the ever changing process continues.

Also worth mentioning is that PA requests have become more frequent as the season winds down. We've moved out apartments and also done a few maintenance requests. I painted a porch with two of my coworkers today.

I have a number of posts to put out soon as I'm trying to catch up on the old blogging (mostly just tidbits about my most used tools or running shows).

This week so far has been slow and restful after the stressfulness of the last two show day for me. Last weekend went off without any hitches but it was a great amount of running around. That was the way the entire weekend went and is expected to go again this weekend. With some changeovers that we aren't use to tensions were a little heightened and we took a little longer than usual.

With only one up the hill show tuesday through thursday a temporary reprieve from shows has opened up the production crew to help out some in some places that I hadn't yet had to deal with.

Namely on tuesday we came in early about 9 o'clock to help company management clear out some apartments and organize storage in preparation for the influx of unused company property. It's exactly what it seems like, we turned into a moving company. We took out some company vehicles and cleared two apartments of all the furniture and belongs. It was estimated that it might take two days but we finished in a few hours.

Another responsibility that has come to light is the maintenance of set pieces. Specifically the sets that have been in use all summer like Two Gents and Husbands that have gotten some miles on them. Husbands has 4 large series of flats that fit together to create buildings. With the constant strangeness of the weather the warping of the flats and the constant shifting of the pack have caused some of the muslin to tear and need staples or a pair a flats to be muscled into place. For Two Gents finagling the bridge and deck pieces has become something of an art in and of itself. The combination of coffin locking warped decking together takes a lot fudging and the combination of wood and steel and bolts on the bridge are never consistent.

The Hamlet and R&G wall  had been particularly frustrating as of late. Specifically making the bolts between the wall pieces and the trusses. The trusses are not even kept in the clubhouse and as such are subject to the full fury of the elements. So the heat swelling of the truss (particularly the stage right truss piece) has warped the straight truss into a bowed line. I had to bore out some holes to make sure the connecting bolts could be made.

Other than that it's been a good few days, shows running smoothly. I have 4 shows this weekend and I had A&C and Molly tonight. A&C is starting to hit a stride the past few runs (it runs again tomorrow). We have a hard few changeovers but then we have the break.

It's going to be interesting for me to start school over the break because I'll have to find new balance between everything. More on that later.

Technical glitches suck.

Last Friday was a long day. A two day show for me, with a morning changeover because the board members were discussing improvements up the hill. I believe I was on property for over 12 hours. My morning went fairly smoothly running Molly Sweeney. Then I went up the hill to run sound for Husbands.

The show was going well up until the last three seconds of the play. There are three cues. The first is a wedding bells slow fade up. The second, a bump up on the levels of the wedding bells and the third is a song for curtain call.

When the go was given for the first cue I pressed the button. No problem. The cue starts softly and I thought nothing of it when I didn't hear anything right away (I usually can't hear much, if anything, until the bump cue is given). This is the weird part. Qlab advanced to the next cue just like it normally does but for some reason wasn't playing the first cue. So the level bump did not do anything because the source file of the wedding bells wasn't playing.

This happened very, very quickly and as such I didn't have time to refire the first cue because I had no idea that it wasn't playing. So I played the next cue on pure faith that nothing had gone horribly wrong with the system. It worked which was also perplexing but a little sigh of relief did escape me nonetheless.

So my immediate diagnosis of what had happened was that something went bizarre with the software (since the last que played just fine, the patch was good and I was getting levels flowing through the system and sound on stage). The really strange part of the entire thing is that when I pressed go it advanced to the next cue without manual intervention and the active "play" symbol was present. If that wasn't the case I would have blamed the situation on myself for accidentally missing the go button and hitting the advance selection button but that wasn't the case (the two are right next to each other, which shouldn't be a problem). The only explanation was that something went wrong internally. I even fired the cues after the show to make sure something wasn't wrong with the source file or to make sure the levels didn't get reset.

I really hate when things like that go on performance reports from my end. Even though it's not my fault I still feel responsible for that moment of uncertainty. The orchestration of the actors and crew was thrown just ever so slightly and that's what I hate. So while I try not to let it get to me, not to over analyze after such a extensive diagnosis, I have to remind myself that it's a testament to how much I care about every aspect of the production. Because this particular instance makes me wary of a glitch of this caliber it makes me that extra bit more careful with all the other aspects directly under my control. So I continue to strengthen my resolve and continue to grow.

With that under my belt, today, I'm running two shows again. The first two show day that includes A&C and Husbands. We've already had some technical difficulties in Touchstone on Molly and as a result had to hold the house for a few minutes. So far it's been a brilliant performance by the actors with a phenomenal house but we still have far to go.

Looking forward to a social event tonight as well. Words Words Words a poetry night at the local bar.

Here are some production pictures of the Plays this season taken from a google image search of each play (photo credits are not my own):

Two Gentlemen of Verona

Antony and Cleopatra

All My Sons

Dickens in America

Too Many Husbands

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Hamlet

Molly Sweeney

These are mainly to reference scenic units I may mention

Also here's a link of a video to better illustrate the All My Sons set:

http://americanplayers.org/experience-apt/backstage-apt-blog-post/all-my-sons-audience-reactions

In short my time at American Players Theatre has been an absolute blast. I'm still in a slight state of shock because everything happened so fast.

To give brief narrative to how I came about being here, I need to start my story back in November of last year. I applied to American Players (in Spring Green, Wisconsin) for a Sound Assistant position last November on short notice. They had been hiring early. Originally, I did not get the job because the Production Manager thought that my school schedule would interfere with the season. Not so, as it turns out.

Anyway, early in July I got an unexpected call saying that the current Sound Assistant (or sound P.A., I'll get to what that means in a bit) had to leave because of personal reasons. The Production Manager, Michael Broh called me up asking if I could come in for an interview as soon as possible. Later that week, the 4th of July actually, I interviewed.

I was never wrecked to say the least because they ran me through the all of the duties I would be assigned... IF I got the job. I literally had about two seconds to sit down and explain what I could bring to the company then we toured the facility and met about 50 million people. At the end of the interview I was told I'd hear back in a few days.

I kept in contact and sent a thank you follow up and the next day I received the call to start the following tuesday. So, I packed up and flew off the hook and here I am.

When I got here I was immediately thrust into the full swing of things. With five shows already running(Three Up the Hill, our outdoor space and two in the Touchstone, our indoor space) and another three in rehearsal my "training"needed to be fast an furious. I shadowed the fellow I was replacing for the first week learning the ins and outs of my position, then I was on my own.

The bulk of what I had to learn was the way in which the scenic units had to be put together (facilitated by the Deck Chief, one of my bosses). This is because we run in repertory. So I had to learn where to put scenic units when the Production Assistants (P.A.'s) took them out of storage in our "clubhouse," where to make bolts, bent nails, stage screws, coffin locks what order to take them out in and what order to pack them back into the the storage bays. The shows I had to learn Up the Hill were Two Gentlemen of Verona (2gents), Too Many Husbands (husbands) and Hamlet. In the Touchstone I had to learn Molly Sweeney and Dickens in America. The difficult part of this is being fast, safe and efficient. This is especially important because changeover between shows often happens in about an hour, with a performance of one show then taking down then immediately putting up another with the performance directly afterwards. In addition to all of that we had rehearsal scenery for All My Sons (sons) and Antony and Cleopatra (A&C) and eventually sets that we had to learn from the scene shop staff and Technical Director (another boss).

This was on top of my show assignments for being run crew during the performances. I had two starting out. I run the soundboard for Too Many Husbands and am on run crew for Molly Sweeney. I would also be put on run crew for Antony and Cleopatra later as well.

My show responsibilities for sound are facilitated by the Sound Engineer and Stage Manager, two of my other bosses. It was relatively easy process to learn as the show was out of tech and the show file (run in Qlab) was pretty solid already. However, learning the overall system was a tad tricky as I wasn't accustomed to it and had 2 performances before I was left alone with it. Essentially I had to diagram it's signal path from source to speakers to understand. We run Qlab3 which was somewhat familiar but a newer version of software than I'm used to. We run that into a Yamaha DM100 digital mixer that is linked to Qlab through MIDI controls (also a new way of running things for me). This runs to a MOTU and various other signal processors in a rack, and wireless receivers for mics. This then runs to 8 speakers in the house along with the capability of having more satellite speakers.

I didn't have many problems picking up the system but one specifically I learned from was during performance I couldn't get a satellite just offstage right to work (even though I had it during sound check). It turns out there were two hard patch panels that had gotten switched that I hadn't been made aware of. We did manage to right the problem because I followed the signal path and found that somewhere between the amp and the speaker the path wasn't connecting, I just didn't know where.

During my run crew positions (which are both in touchstone) I am in charge of getting the scenic elements inspected and ready for performance, getting props in order, supervising actors' needs and being ready to oversee any technical difficulties with lights or sound. The lights and sound necessity comes from the fact that the stage manager runs both during the show. Other duties include cleaning the stage floor, helping stage management improve run sheets and whatever else anyone needs me to do.

 A quick an amusing anecdote about doing what people need us to do. My closest co-workers and I are commonly referred to as the Production Assistants, or as we like to referrer to ourselves as, The Practically Anythings.

Another thing I'll quickly touch on was the Tech process. I wasn't around for the bulk of it, save for the smaller second rep A&C tech. Essentially it was just to flesh out the smoothness of transitions of what needed to happen and to see was was arbitrary. I did however get be on standby to the Sound Designer Sarah Pickett should she need anything, which was really fantastic. Most of my duties lay with manipulating a sail and organizing props. One interesting aspect of the show was the planned life blank gun shot that I had to perform. One character, Enobarbus kills himself and they wanted a definitive end. The way that was preferred by the Director (Kate Buckley) instead of a sound cue was the live shot. I was trained on how to do that by Jen Trieloff (Props Director). After the first few attempts it was concluded that the sound was not quite consistent enough so we tried the a recorded shot. We eventually cut the sound entirely.

I'm sure there is plenty I've missed as I'm trying to recall a month in a single post.

One of the single discoveries I think it's of paramount importance to mention is the delicacy that it has required to come into this large of a production (really any size production) on such short notice. I've never tried to pass myself off as a "replacement," I'm simply newer than everyone else and I'm trying to add my own flavor to my nitché. I'm fresh eyes sometimes and other times I'm simply learning. More than anywhere I've been before I think that the people are what make this place work. We all work strange hours at strenuous paces and tensions can run high sometimes but we persevere. Everyone here has helped to make a welcoming environment that I'm quickly adapting to.

So a gigantic thank you to everyone who's made this experience possible, it's been more than a dream come true. While it's not exactly what I expected it'd be, it is wonderful on so many levels that I had no appreciation for previously.

Thanks again,

John

Here are a quick link to the APT homepage if there is anything you'd like more reference for, there are also blogs of other people if you explore too:

http://americanplayers.org/

Also, I'll be adding some production photos soon to try to give some reference for the changeovers I'm part of.