the circus has left town
A brief outline of the last two days of my life:
Thursday: arrive to circus site, 7 a.m. Circus all day long, running around stage managing 200 children and their enormous props.
Oh yeah, and the heat index was approximately 108.
Then I went to Godspell, which was a total nightmare. Tate (oddfellows technical director) and I were trying to light a show with 3 cans on either side. Not frenels, just pars. Basically flood lamps with, you guessed it, a can over them. And the dude they hired to do the sound and lights for them is a huge jerk who I got into several spats with. Surprisingly, shockingly, the show itself looks ok. Much better than it did a week ago, and as I've decided to grade it on progress over actual quality, much better than a week ago is a good thing.
Arrived home around 10, did circus work, fell into bed.
All in all, a 17 hour day.
Friday: arrive to circus site, 7 a.m., in the rain. Put up backdrops, bring down props. Cover backdrops with giant plastic sheeting and all the props with tarps when it looks like it's going to rain, which it didn't. Dry tech, children arrived, and the show went up! Stage managing 200 children who are on unicycles, rolling globes, stilts, doing acrobatics, juggling fire, and jumping off 9 ft. tall platforms is definitely one of the more stressful things I've done in my life.
I also accidentally came out to the entire running crew when I was looking out at the audience, saw elaine, and said "there's my ex girlfriend" to myself. But out loud. And then I said "I'm on headset, aren't I?" and Greg (one of the assistant stage managers) was like "yup. yup you are."
I thought I would feel a greater sense of satisfaction when the circus was all over, but I keep thinking about all the things I didn't do right (like when the crash pad, a mini-tramp, and the giant toilet all came out about 2 minutes early on my cue and then had to just stand there for most of an act), and I think my brain is fairly seriously fried from that much time in the sun.
post getting too long...
Thursday: arrive to circus site, 7 a.m. Circus all day long, running around stage managing 200 children and their enormous props.
Oh yeah, and the heat index was approximately 108.
Then I went to Godspell, which was a total nightmare. Tate (oddfellows technical director) and I were trying to light a show with 3 cans on either side. Not frenels, just pars. Basically flood lamps with, you guessed it, a can over them. And the dude they hired to do the sound and lights for them is a huge jerk who I got into several spats with. Surprisingly, shockingly, the show itself looks ok. Much better than it did a week ago, and as I've decided to grade it on progress over actual quality, much better than a week ago is a good thing.
Arrived home around 10, did circus work, fell into bed.
All in all, a 17 hour day.
Friday: arrive to circus site, 7 a.m., in the rain. Put up backdrops, bring down props. Cover backdrops with giant plastic sheeting and all the props with tarps when it looks like it's going to rain, which it didn't. Dry tech, children arrived, and the show went up! Stage managing 200 children who are on unicycles, rolling globes, stilts, doing acrobatics, juggling fire, and jumping off 9 ft. tall platforms is definitely one of the more stressful things I've done in my life.
I also accidentally came out to the entire running crew when I was looking out at the audience, saw elaine, and said "there's my ex girlfriend" to myself. But out loud. And then I said "I'm on headset, aren't I?" and Greg (one of the assistant stage managers) was like "yup. yup you are."
I thought I would feel a greater sense of satisfaction when the circus was all over, but I keep thinking about all the things I didn't do right (like when the crash pad, a mini-tramp, and the giant toilet all came out about 2 minutes early on my cue and then had to just stand there for most of an act), and I think my brain is fairly seriously fried from that much time in the sun.
post getting too long...