Going Crazy and Nightmares Becoming Reality
This last week has been one of the busiest of the year, if not my life. It's because of my role as advisor/director of the theater group at my school. This has been production week. I put in over thirty hours on it, outside of school hours. I've been living on Dunkin Donuts coffee. So much so that I actually enjoyed not having to get one Friday morning, because I was able to get more sleep than usual. How crazy is that? I didn't know I'd ever reach the point where I was feeling sick of DD coffee, but it happened. Of course, I'm quite sure I'll be back to enjoying my usual large coffee next Friday morning.
Thursday we had a school performance of the show, for which about 230 middle school students were bussed in. It went quite well, with the exception of a few sound glitches. The sound system in our school's auditorium is in desperate need of replacement, but no one has felt it necessary to spend tax dollars to do so, so it hasn't happened. So the Jazz Band director kindly offered the use of their sound equipment (speakers and amplifier), so we got that set up. It greatly improved things, and was a relief to have a sound system we didn't have to worry about cutting out on us in the middle of the show.
Then came the next performance, our first public show. The sound worked great! The lights did not. I was calling the show via walkie talkie in the balcony. I communicate with my light guy, my sound guy, and my stage manager, telling them when to play/hit cues, when to change set, etc. About fifteen minutes to intermission my light guy tells me we have a problem. The light board just went black. So I rush down to try and figure out what went wrong. Then I run backstage to see if some button has been pushed which might have made the light board go kaput. While I'm backstage, the lights on stage go black. Uh oh. I am about as panicked as one can get on the inside, while I try to maintain composure and stay as calm as possible for my stage crew. This is the stuff of nightmares. The lights go in the middle of a show, and I have no idea what to do!!!
My actors were great. They maintained composure, and just plowed on with the scene as if nothing had happened. They said their lines in the dark! We got some auxiliary lights up shortly, then were able to bring some of the others up without the light board. Fortunately the blackout happened just before intermission. During intermission I was able to diagnose the problem. At least I'm pretty sure I know what it was. The light board had simply come slightly unplugged from the surge protector it was in. We plugged it back in, turned it on, and it worked like normal the second act.
And I woke up this morning to find my hair has all turned white. I heard great stress could do this, but never thought it would happen to me...
Thursday we had a school performance of the show, for which about 230 middle school students were bussed in. It went quite well, with the exception of a few sound glitches. The sound system in our school's auditorium is in desperate need of replacement, but no one has felt it necessary to spend tax dollars to do so, so it hasn't happened. So the Jazz Band director kindly offered the use of their sound equipment (speakers and amplifier), so we got that set up. It greatly improved things, and was a relief to have a sound system we didn't have to worry about cutting out on us in the middle of the show.
Then came the next performance, our first public show. The sound worked great! The lights did not. I was calling the show via walkie talkie in the balcony. I communicate with my light guy, my sound guy, and my stage manager, telling them when to play/hit cues, when to change set, etc. About fifteen minutes to intermission my light guy tells me we have a problem. The light board just went black. So I rush down to try and figure out what went wrong. Then I run backstage to see if some button has been pushed which might have made the light board go kaput. While I'm backstage, the lights on stage go black. Uh oh. I am about as panicked as one can get on the inside, while I try to maintain composure and stay as calm as possible for my stage crew. This is the stuff of nightmares. The lights go in the middle of a show, and I have no idea what to do!!!
My actors were great. They maintained composure, and just plowed on with the scene as if nothing had happened. They said their lines in the dark! We got some auxiliary lights up shortly, then were able to bring some of the others up without the light board. Fortunately the blackout happened just before intermission. During intermission I was able to diagnose the problem. At least I'm pretty sure I know what it was. The light board had simply come slightly unplugged from the surge protector it was in. We plugged it back in, turned it on, and it worked like normal the second act.
And I woke up this morning to find my hair has all turned white. I heard great stress could do this, but never thought it would happen to me...
posted by redsoxwinthisyear at 2:48 PM
3 Comments:
I heard things went well. So congrats! nothing like aging early. Of course, that isn't for everyone :-)
I was extremely impressed w/ the way your students kept right on going when the lights went out... some even ad libbing. Good for them - and YOU!
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