The Great Fire (or How I learned to stop worrying and distrust the media)
Whew it's been a wild 2 weeks I'll try to catch y'all up.
Last week we tech'd Cinderella. It was a horribly long tech that took forever. The director was horrible, the choreographer was worse, and the whole process took twice as long as it should have. That being said we finished previews and we looking forward to getting the show on it's legs and running.
We opened on Thursday night with a performance that was o.k, unfortunately the director had had a five hour rehearsel that day and changed a bunch of entrances and exits so it was a new show to all of us. We got through the performance all right and we all proceeded to head down to a restuarant that theatre was holding it's opening night party at. I left the party early at about midnight because I had a children's show the next morning for which my call was at 6:45 am.
Around 2am I get a call from my boss informing me that there had been a fire at the theatre and that the kid's show performance was cancelled. I informed everyone else in the house about the situation and went with one of my roomie's to see the theatre. When we arrived we discovered smoke pouring out of the top of the vents. We were told by the ASM that the firefighters had put out the fire and that we would be called the next day with more information.
The next day the news of the fire was everywhere on tv, radio, newspapers, gossip. I spent the day in Gloucester and Rockport, chilling on the beach and did a bit of shopping in Rockport. I drove back to the theatre later that day and talked with the facilities manager and found out that the fire originated in the pit and had burned for 2 hours. I found out sometime during that day that the rest of the performances for Cinderella had been cancelled and that our next show would be Abasynnia, which was after my contract ended).
The next day I awoke and bought two papers for posterity 1 Boston Globe and 1 Salem News (the local paper). I sit down to eat lunch and start reading the Salem News and on the front page is a picture of the burning theatre with a caption that states "Fogger causes blaze". These words made me want to vomit b/c it was my duty to turn off the foggers after every performance, which I was 100 percent sure I did. In the artice the fire inspector said when posed the question of if he believed that the fogger had been turned off he responded," It more than likely wasn't." I felt like the world had crashed on me. I now carried the guilt of destroying this amazing theatre. I sulked for 2 days and hung with friends to try to keep my mind off of it. It was killing me b/c I was completely sure I had done my job but here is someone reputable saying I hadn't.
On Monday we had the company picnic, which I was dreading being around sad people and being the cause of their grief. But I went down the hill into the picnic, my boss came up to me and asked me if I had read the article. I told him yes and he informed me that it was a bullshit article. The Fire Inspector never made those statements. The official determination was that the fire was electrical and started in a four foot radius which contained 7 different devices in which one of them shorted out. He also let me know that they knew the foggers were turned off b/c the l.d. and the board op tried to fix Q's after the show and they noticed that the foggers weren't coming on. So I feel completely vindicated.
I go into to work for the first time since Thursday tomorrow and hopefully the big meeting they are calling is not to fire us. At this point those who know aren't saying anything.
In other news:
Last night I went with one of my roomie's, Jeremiah to Boston and saw Wedding Crashers. The movie was hilarious funnier than Anchorman. I also saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was o.k. at best.
I know where I'll be living next year, hopefully. If everything goes as planned Mike Frame, Jane, and I will be living in the former house of Cassy, Amy, Raven, Charlie, and Wayne. ::crosses fingers::
and I also know that whenever I leave here I'm gonna be staying at Travis place on the way back to Tennessee, thanks again:)
Well I'm off. I'll try to let y'all know if I'm fired in the next coupla days.
laters
che
Last week we tech'd Cinderella. It was a horribly long tech that took forever. The director was horrible, the choreographer was worse, and the whole process took twice as long as it should have. That being said we finished previews and we looking forward to getting the show on it's legs and running.
We opened on Thursday night with a performance that was o.k, unfortunately the director had had a five hour rehearsel that day and changed a bunch of entrances and exits so it was a new show to all of us. We got through the performance all right and we all proceeded to head down to a restuarant that theatre was holding it's opening night party at. I left the party early at about midnight because I had a children's show the next morning for which my call was at 6:45 am.
Around 2am I get a call from my boss informing me that there had been a fire at the theatre and that the kid's show performance was cancelled. I informed everyone else in the house about the situation and went with one of my roomie's to see the theatre. When we arrived we discovered smoke pouring out of the top of the vents. We were told by the ASM that the firefighters had put out the fire and that we would be called the next day with more information.
The next day the news of the fire was everywhere on tv, radio, newspapers, gossip. I spent the day in Gloucester and Rockport, chilling on the beach and did a bit of shopping in Rockport. I drove back to the theatre later that day and talked with the facilities manager and found out that the fire originated in the pit and had burned for 2 hours. I found out sometime during that day that the rest of the performances for Cinderella had been cancelled and that our next show would be Abasynnia, which was after my contract ended).
The next day I awoke and bought two papers for posterity 1 Boston Globe and 1 Salem News (the local paper). I sit down to eat lunch and start reading the Salem News and on the front page is a picture of the burning theatre with a caption that states "Fogger causes blaze". These words made me want to vomit b/c it was my duty to turn off the foggers after every performance, which I was 100 percent sure I did. In the artice the fire inspector said when posed the question of if he believed that the fogger had been turned off he responded," It more than likely wasn't." I felt like the world had crashed on me. I now carried the guilt of destroying this amazing theatre. I sulked for 2 days and hung with friends to try to keep my mind off of it. It was killing me b/c I was completely sure I had done my job but here is someone reputable saying I hadn't.
On Monday we had the company picnic, which I was dreading being around sad people and being the cause of their grief. But I went down the hill into the picnic, my boss came up to me and asked me if I had read the article. I told him yes and he informed me that it was a bullshit article. The Fire Inspector never made those statements. The official determination was that the fire was electrical and started in a four foot radius which contained 7 different devices in which one of them shorted out. He also let me know that they knew the foggers were turned off b/c the l.d. and the board op tried to fix Q's after the show and they noticed that the foggers weren't coming on. So I feel completely vindicated.
I go into to work for the first time since Thursday tomorrow and hopefully the big meeting they are calling is not to fire us. At this point those who know aren't saying anything.
In other news:
Last night I went with one of my roomie's, Jeremiah to Boston and saw Wedding Crashers. The movie was hilarious funnier than Anchorman. I also saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was o.k. at best.
I know where I'll be living next year, hopefully. If everything goes as planned Mike Frame, Jane, and I will be living in the former house of Cassy, Amy, Raven, Charlie, and Wayne. ::crosses fingers::
and I also know that whenever I leave here I'm gonna be staying at Travis place on the way back to Tennessee, thanks again:)
Well I'm off. I'll try to let y'all know if I'm fired in the next coupla days.
laters
che