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Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Student Stage Manager's Challenge #2
« on: Mar 03, 2008, 09:24 pm »
There are two or three things to do immediately. First and foremost, find out for certain that nobody is injured, and that the building is not on fire. Second, I would get the audience to a holding area where there is light, so they aren't freaking out, and have the director explain the situation, and beg of them fifteen minutes of patience. Then I would be talking to the ME and the TD, whoever was in charge of house electrics to find out if there is A) a generator B) backup circuitry, and C) any lights that were not plugged in, and therefore available for use if they can be powered. If there are lights and a way to power them, you hang them and point them, and go on with the show with a simplified lighting and sound design. If none of these are very readily available (ie they would take more than fifteen minutes to get going), you start getting creative. Open all the doors, get any natural light you can, get every flashlight you can find, if possible, park a car in front of the emergency exit, and turn on the high beams. A person with electrical experience might be able to rig a car battery to some work lights, but I don't have that experience. If the stage still can't be lit enough, get the set out into the lobby and perform scaled down. If you realize you won't be able to do any of this and get the show going again in under half an hour, call the show, and send the people home.