Train Wreck

Just as I expected, our techs went too smoothly, and tonight was a train wreck. It began late afternoon when the new projector didn't want to play nice with the other projectors and cables. To bring you up to speed, one of the pieces in this program involves 4 image capture cameras over stage sensing 4 dancers and sending signal to a computer which processes and implements within the animation and capture programs and sends signal to 3 projectors (one onto the stage floor, one onto the RP screen upstage, and one onto the white scrim downstage). So the new projector (onto the RP screen upstage) didn't want to play nice.

The dancers for this particular piece were called at 3pm for a mark-thru before class at 4pm. At 3:15pm, I sent them away until 4 because their choreographer/tech guru needed to get different cables and we figured he'd be back by 4 and we'd do the run around 4:15. They were excused from class.

At 5:30pm, we still didn't have the projectors working, so we skipped the piece (the first in the program order) and proceeded to begin our (5:30pm scheduled) stop and start run with the second piece at approximately 5:55pm.

The first video for this piece was not displaying correctly. The colors were dimmer and darker than when we teched it last Thursday. Then we got to a point where two of the dancers throw a honeydew melon up in the air and it smashes on the marley downstage left at about quarter. There's a special light cue for it which I have dubbed "Melon SMASH!" Tonight, the melon landed just SR of center. Additionally, the melon clean up took over 10 minutes which meant we need to change the program order tomorrow, and subsequently adjust the gel changes, the light cues, the quick changes, the crew assignments, the sound, video, and deck crew run sheets, etc.

The rest of the night continued in this fashion. Technology failed (my ASM's headset batteries died so I lost communication with her, and then she replaced her batteries with barely charged ones, but then the rail operators batteries died, so my ASM swapped headsets with him, etc etc), new information was thrown at me and my crew without tech time (a new CD of the full show which negated the cue sheet I'd previously given my novice (dancer) sound op as well as almost all the levels we'd set during the individual techs and additional sound and video cues).

At about 8:35pm, we had finished the stop start run of the 4 pieces remaining after the 1st piece we skipped. The choreographer of the skipped piece, the production manager, and I had a quick pow pow and decided to devote a solid 15 minutes to making the projectors talk and play nice together before a run. If the projectors were working by then, the run would include video. If they were not, the run would not. Bear in mind that these 8 dancers have been essentially standing by for about 5 and a half hours at this point. 35 minutes later, we start the run, surprisingly (and miraculously!) with full projectors and video.

Tomorrow, though the original schedule had call at 5:15, we will all be in at various times beginning at 2:30 in order to meet, adjust, strike, clean, update, reorganize, discuss, troubleshoot, and otherwise make the 2nd dress happen on time at 7:30. I will begin updating paperwork from home before then because I do not believe there will be time for me to do the work needed AND update the paperwork within the time allotted. When I'm there I get pulled in too many directions, and I refuse to eat dinner at the tech table 2 days in a row.