CCCTU
Right now... Dark Forces are plotting against a Community Theatre. Tonights performance is in danger. And People that I work with may have to do the impossible. I'm House Manger Alex Ray, and this is the longest Friday nite of my life.
For those of you who don't get the reference, I was spoofing "24" in that intro. Tonight at CCCT was insanity. I felt like I was in an episode of "24" for awhile. And Emmy, I'm trying not to make this Journal just daily info, but I woulda been IMing or calling you all with this story anyways, so bear with me. I got to the theatre around 6pm when I usually do, I started my normal tasks, checking the fax, setting up the lobby, etc. Then One of the Follow-spot operators asks me why the kitchen sink doesn't work. I take a look, discovering that the water for the entire building was not working. No Sinks, no toilets, no water fountain. Myself and the Stage Manager, Todd Miller and I snap into action, getting on the phone with various people in the Theatre Heiracrchy.
I call East Bay MUD to find out whats going on. They say that there's a water main in the area that had broken and was affecting service in El Cerrito. Their estimate is that our service will not be restored for 4-8 hours. Far, far too late for us to put on a show. Why Can't we put on a show? Not because of no sinks, toilets and water fountains, but because we are not permitted to put on a show without our Sprinkler system for fires. I go to chekc the Nearby El Cerrito Community Center to see if their Water works, it does, we then check Eleanor, our Neighbor to the other side, her water was working too.
As it turned out, there was a work crew working on a Garden system in the nearby parking lot earlier that day, they somehow turned off the water and left us high (and very literally) dry. The East Bay MUD worker shows up and gets to work on getting our water back on, as I hear that the Orchestra can't get power to their instruments. Somebody had rather than turning off a switch, they had turned off the circuit breakers. Luckilly, I knew where they were, otherwise it would have been a big thing. The water eventually got restored, unfortunatly 2 toilets would not stop flushing, one of them was reparable, the other one had to be turned off. So, at that point we were able to open our doors and get our waiting patrons to their seats.
Now, you'd think, well that should be it. Right? Nope 2 minutes before the curtain was supposed to rise. The crossover between stage left and right backstage had a problem. The lights had shorted out. The area is dark, even with the lights that normally work, so repairing them was quite a challenge. As it turned out, we couldn't fix them so we had to find a portable light and set it up. So finally, we got the show working and the curtain up.
At the end of the night, all of us breathed one humongous sigh of relief, we got it done. To fully explain the "24" reference in the beginning, I felt the whole time up till curtain like I was in an episode of that show. And thats worrysome, cause I'm Not Kiefer Sutherland and everybody else tends to die in that show. Just barely made it for friday!
Signing off.
For those of you who don't get the reference, I was spoofing "24" in that intro. Tonight at CCCT was insanity. I felt like I was in an episode of "24" for awhile. And Emmy, I'm trying not to make this Journal just daily info, but I woulda been IMing or calling you all with this story anyways, so bear with me. I got to the theatre around 6pm when I usually do, I started my normal tasks, checking the fax, setting up the lobby, etc. Then One of the Follow-spot operators asks me why the kitchen sink doesn't work. I take a look, discovering that the water for the entire building was not working. No Sinks, no toilets, no water fountain. Myself and the Stage Manager, Todd Miller and I snap into action, getting on the phone with various people in the Theatre Heiracrchy.
I call East Bay MUD to find out whats going on. They say that there's a water main in the area that had broken and was affecting service in El Cerrito. Their estimate is that our service will not be restored for 4-8 hours. Far, far too late for us to put on a show. Why Can't we put on a show? Not because of no sinks, toilets and water fountains, but because we are not permitted to put on a show without our Sprinkler system for fires. I go to chekc the Nearby El Cerrito Community Center to see if their Water works, it does, we then check Eleanor, our Neighbor to the other side, her water was working too.
As it turned out, there was a work crew working on a Garden system in the nearby parking lot earlier that day, they somehow turned off the water and left us high (and very literally) dry. The East Bay MUD worker shows up and gets to work on getting our water back on, as I hear that the Orchestra can't get power to their instruments. Somebody had rather than turning off a switch, they had turned off the circuit breakers. Luckilly, I knew where they were, otherwise it would have been a big thing. The water eventually got restored, unfortunatly 2 toilets would not stop flushing, one of them was reparable, the other one had to be turned off. So, at that point we were able to open our doors and get our waiting patrons to their seats.
Now, you'd think, well that should be it. Right? Nope 2 minutes before the curtain was supposed to rise. The crossover between stage left and right backstage had a problem. The lights had shorted out. The area is dark, even with the lights that normally work, so repairing them was quite a challenge. As it turned out, we couldn't fix them so we had to find a portable light and set it up. So finally, we got the show working and the curtain up.
At the end of the night, all of us breathed one humongous sigh of relief, we got it done. To fully explain the "24" reference in the beginning, I felt the whole time up till curtain like I was in an episode of that show. And thats worrysome, cause I'm Not Kiefer Sutherland and everybody else tends to die in that show. Just barely made it for friday!
Signing off.