I’m stage managing the school show and so far it’s been about going to rehearsals and marking down exits and entrances. Not a big deal. The real game started on Friday with figuring out all the technical bits to the show.
While all day Friday was a HECTIC tech day. (All day in the theatre, hanging microphones, hanging lights, running out of cable, chasing around the school for power chords, falling off a ladder, and lots of taping… Not to mention dress rehearsal, setting all the lighting cues, and figuring out all the audio cues.)
Saturday was crazy though.
Had to go in and as quickly as possible fix the hanging microphones, all 4 of them. This involves lowering the pipes by hand and fixing their lengths. I had a crappy morning and dropped 2 of the mics while removing them, and while raising up a pipe I snapped one of the microphone cables. On with the show! We were doing a complete run through, with lighting and audio cues. Lighting had written down and done all their cues on Friday, but for saturday I had to call the lighting cues. What this meant was copying down the cues from the other binder, while calling them, while following the show, while reading the script, while calling audio cues. I got yelled at very early on because I kept messing up the curtain call. (It really was a bad morning…) The people I have backstage are new and are confused by the house lights, and by the curtain. They’re new to the game, but that was the most frustrating part of my day. The curtain and houselights are the first thing we do, they have to be done right.
Thankfully I’m blessed with an amazing lighting guy, he’s seen the show maybe 3 times now? But he has good instincts. I was freaking out over all the new lighting cues. (There are A LOT, and they’re all pretty specific.) My audio guys left me alone during this, and are pretty much set for their cues, thank god.
I also have an awesome other-stage-manager who kept track of all the lighting for me because I know jack about lighting cues. But she won’t be there for when we do the actual show since she’s doing another show and I’m going to freak out without her.
Today is my break, and I’m going to relax. Tomorrow is another hectic day. 8:30 call for a tech dress rehearsal, and then we’re actually putting on a show for some kids from another highschool!
I’m freaking out, but I think I can do this… It’s been completely overwhelming and I still feel a little thrown into this position, but it’s been the greatest thing I’ve ever done. Given me a whole new look at theatre and spending full days just plain WORKING on something like this gives me the greatest buzz. I’m really, really thinking of going into this at a college/university level. (I kind of even want to do what our tech teacher does, and go back and teach this to a bunch of bratty highschoolers…) Highschool theatre and professional theatre are two really different worlds. We’ll see how it goes.
