Author Topic: Um, the Curtain's Stuck.  (Read 4243 times)

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PSMKay

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Um, the Curtain's Stuck.
« on: Sep 25, 2007, 08:59 am »
(submitted by Jason)


     

I was stage-managing a production of the play "Life With Father."  Its
      a very simple play with an easy set, no moving parts more importantly, and not really a massive amount of light and sound cues.  Well,
      unfortunately we were short handed tech wise, so I was also keeping a freshman light crew in order, in addition to holding a small role in the
      production. (not my idea by the way, but someone quit and the show must go on.)  So I'm calling the show off a wireless headset, running back
      and forth between backstage and the booth, all while wearing a suit I might add.  Now to the fun part.  I had just finished a scene on stage,
      and the curtain closed for a scene change. It was an easy one that the run crew could handle for themselves, so I run up to the booth to check
      on the light crew.  Well, I'm up there going over stuff with them when one of my run crew comes over the head set and says, "Umm.....The
      curtain's stuck."  


     

Well at first this didn't concern me too much because we have an older curtain track and sometimes it gets stuck and you just
      have to back it up a bit and then pull it the rest of the way.  So very irritated that they bothered me with this I tell them as much.   Well
      they tell me it didn't work.   At this point were starting to loose the audience because they've been sitting there nearly 4 minutes.  So I
      sprint downstairs to do it myself.  However it doesn't work for me either.  The curtain is open about 5 feet, but I have to figure out
      what's wrong, so I pull out my mini-mag, and look up at the track.  I can totally see the whole thing hanging off the track and all snagged 

      up. 


     

Needless to say, the curtains not going anywhere anytime soon.   But the show must go on, so I get the tallest ladder I can find, and
      proceed to perform a very big no-no by climbing to the VERY top step. 
      I barely miss it while standing on my toes.  At this point the audience is getting very restless, because they've been sitting there going on
      10 minutes, and they can see this mysterious figure on a ladder in the middle of the stage.  Knowing full well that the shows not going
      anywhere till I get the stupid thing fixed, I have my light crew bring up a full wash, and tell the audience what's going on.  I then have the
      actors come out to "entertain" until I get done.  I then proceed to put up 3 levels of full size scaffolding.  To make an already long story a
      little shorter, after 20 minutes of grappling with this mess, I finally got it in half way functioning order.  But just as a precaution, we did
      the rest of the show with the curtain open, and the audience got a full view of scene changes.

     

      Here's the best part.   After the show, very reluctant freshmen run crew member comes up to me and tells me that instead of backing the
      curtain up when it originally snagged, he just jerked REAL hard, and instead of opening more, he heard a loud POP, and that's when he called
      me.  Believe it or not he turned out to be my best crew member and is now the SM.



 

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