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!