Author Topic: Convolution Creep  (Read 12208 times)

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On_Headset

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #15 on: Oct 19, 2010, 06:52 am »
I had the good fortune to do my BFA in a brand-new arts building. (They were still installing tiles in September.) This meant we had keycard locks on every single door, which is fantastic: anyone can be given access to just the right doors, keys can be cancelled remotely, nobody needs to be issued a master key unless absolutely necessary, etc.

Many of these doors locked themselves "permanently" at certain times of the day, requiring a special key to open them again. Classrooms locked themselves after their last scheduled class, access to offices closes when the office does, etc. Some bright spark decided to do the same thing backstage, though, and had them on hourly timers (The door would lock itself at 6, then again at 7, then again at 8...), so we had to station an ASM back there with a key just to keep the dressing rooms and stage doors open, or else everything went to hell. It took 6 months for them to get all of the doors sorted out. There wasn't even a clear pattern: this door locks at 6, this one at 6:30, this one at 6:25, and these ones sometime between 6:40 and 6:50 depending on how they're feeling that day...

This same building was wired so that it was impossible to isolate use of the PA system. Ringing the chimes in the lobby meant ringing the chimes in the hallways downstairs, the offices upstairs, the men's toilets on the third floor, the art gallery... The gimmick was that this would allow fine art to seep out of the theatres and concert halls and into the full forum of the university (or something along those lines), in practice it just meant we had grumpy professors showing up in the lobby to yell at us for disturbing their classes. (And rightly so, but yeccccch.)

hbelden

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #16 on: Oct 20, 2010, 07:04 pm »
Kind of off-topic, and this may be more common than I think.  However:

At my current theatre, somebody from the artistic staff does a talkback (Question & Answer) after almost every performance (except on Saturdays).  There's about five of them, that rotate.  Actor participation is always completely voluntary, but usually at least two cast members go out after the show.  That's all completely fine.

HOWEVER:
If there is a Q&A, I need to play a pre-show announcement that includes that notice; If there isn't, I play a pre-show announcement that doesn't mention a Q&A; and occasionally there's a live announcement from the apron stage instead of a recorded announcement.

At the end of the play, on Q&A nights, as soon as the applause ends I have to play a short announcement introducing the specific person who's running the talkback.  So there are six different announcements to choose from.

SO: Before the show starts, I check the company's google calendar to see who's scheduled to do the talkback (and try to confirm with the House Manager, who doesn't know any more than I do but at least has had a chance of seeing who's in the building).  I have three different calling pages that I put in front of the first page of the script that take me from places to scene 1.  At the end of the play, I have six different post-its with the different cues on them to place in the correct spot after the house up cue.  In addition, in the calm before the end-of-show cue sequence, I have six post-its to choose from in order to warn the sound op which cue he'll have to skip to.

It's weird, I've just never had to call a show from a flow chart anywhere else.  Usually, you open your show and all the cues are locked into place. 
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Heath Belden

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Liz_C

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #17 on: Oct 27, 2010, 05:29 pm »
I used to work in a theatre where the only 2 entrances to the booth were through the house and through a 3' square hole in the wall that led backstage.  The hole was just high enough to be impossible to climb into comfortably without a chair or acting block underneath it as a step.  Unfortunately, the hole emptied the booth occupants out into a lane through which actors used as a path to and from the stage.  Of course, they would trip over anything I put there to assist in the climb up.  I finally settled on an acting block painted yellow and glow taped, but it would still get put back "in its proper place" in the rehearsal room by other well-meaning users of the space.  This was especially not fun when I occasionally had to leave the booth mid-show to assist with situations backstage and someone had "helped" by moving the block out of the way.

NomieRae

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #18 on: Oct 28, 2010, 12:53 pm »
I remember working on a show that had such a tight budget one week that my ME had to use the same bulb from the ghost lamp for a practical on stage....
--Naomi
"First, I honor life, and with it my life in theatre." -- Jacques Burdick

On_Headset

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #19 on: Feb 23, 2011, 03:12 am »
"Okay, this is important: do not plug anything into the wall outlet behind the LX station. The wiring is old and weird, and if you plug anything into that specific outlet, there's a good chance it'll blow the circuit that runs half the booth. So don't use it. Okay?"
"Okay."

*fzzzt*

"Okay, what happened?"
"I just plugged my cellphone charger into the outlet behind the LX station, and now nothing works!"
"Uh-huh."

I've had this conversation three times so far with three different board ops. Not a happy camper.

Scott

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #20 on: Feb 23, 2011, 11:12 am »
"Okay, this is important: do not plug anything into the wall outlet behind the LX station."
.
.
.
I've had this conversation three times so far with three different board ops. Not a happy camper.

Cover the outlet with tape.

On_Headset

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #21 on: Feb 23, 2011, 12:16 pm »
D'oh!  :-[

Jlong

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #22 on: Mar 10, 2011, 04:25 pm »
oh god here we go.

My theatre uses office headsets as our com system, but they only work when plugged into specific slots in the dock, and only work if removed in a proper order.

If the house lights (Which are a dimmer switch on the wall) dont work, we have to double tap and pray they work.

If we get enough complaints about it being dark in the theatre before the show (Dinner theatre) we open up the Spot light and light the audience at 20%

The list goes on.

SMLois

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #23 on: Mar 11, 2011, 02:25 am »
The theatre that I used to be the resident at has a bit of an odd set up in that the SM is the ONLY staff member on site during shows.  The box office and FOH is staffed by interns, and there are no technicians - the SM runs the show.  Sometimes the dimmer for the lights just stop working.  At which point you have to go blow air into them from a can of condensed air and pray.  Also, sometimes the sound just randomly changes levels for no reason at all.  My personal favourite, however, is the booth door.  If you don't actually PULL it shut, it doesn't latch, but if you pull it too hard, the handle sticks and your key won't turn.  I still get phone calls asking me how to get the door open.

On_Headset

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #24 on: Mar 27, 2011, 08:28 pm »
I've got an office! With a printer!

So here's the thing: there are twelve printers on the same network, all with very similar names, and the printer settings reset whenever you restart the computer. (It's a thin client and I've only been given a "guest" account, so everything resets.) Half the time I find I'm accidentally printing to a printer halfway across the building.

On Friday I even managed to run off a sign-in sheet on a box office ticket-spitter.

jayscott

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #25 on: Mar 28, 2011, 02:43 pm »
I worked in one theatre (Brand new building at the time) in a school that not only was the sound booth behind non opening windows, the water tanks for the restrooms were on the roof and so if they were not used enough during the day, the pressure would build up and it would rattle. It sounded like a helicopter was landing on the roof. I don't know how, but one of the volunteers for the front of house figured out if you flushed 5 of the toilets before the show that would resolve the problem. Which led to the phrase "Toilet flush go"

On_Headset

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #26 on: Jul 05, 2011, 01:41 pm »
The essence of a memo sent to cast and crew: "We don't know exactly why, but using cellphones in the vicinity of the clearcom station in the backstage hallway causes the entire system to feed back and screech in everyone's ears. Please do not use cellphones in the backstage hallway."

loebtmc

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #27 on: Jul 05, 2011, 03:30 pm »
Actually, this is a commonly known issue w clearcom. Any phones backstage must be totally off, or in a specific phone-challenged area downstairs in one house, off entirely no matter what in another. The alternative is easy - I can't hear the cast over the monitors, the crew can't hear me calling GO. So cues can't happen.

Samazon

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #28 on: Jul 06, 2011, 03:45 am »
Sometimes the dimmer for the lights just stop working.  At which point you have to go blow air into them from a can of condensed air and pray.

The theatre I'm at right does the same thing. We have a fan positioned in front of the dimmer rack back stage at all times and if it's not aimed just so, the lights flicker. Sometimes though, the lights decide to surprise us and it's a problem with the architectural controls which are located on the other side of the audience in the booth at the top of a spiral staircase.  There have been several mad dashes around the building once house is open.
“All things are possible until they are proved impossible and even the impossible may only be so, as of now."

MusicTheatreSM

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Re: Convolution Creep
« Reply #29 on: Jul 23, 2011, 06:37 am »
The theatre I am currently working in has several idiosyncrasies!

We are using a smaller space on the third floor of this theatre complex. Our floor is just a single dressing room and the theatre space itself. There are no bathrooms on this floor, so in order for actors/audience to go, they all use the same door to go down a flight of stairs (2 flights for audience) to use the bathrooms.

Because of the nature of our show, there is no intermission and no reentry if they leave, so we purposely start 5 minutes late to give the audience a chance to go to the bathroom one last time and also let the actors go. This has led to two unique time calls of "10 that's actually 15" and "potty call"

I have a set of rental SM keys given to me by the space manager. He has replaced them twice because my one key will not open the main theatre door. The same key will open the dressing room with no problems. The only key at this point that will unlock/lock the door is a master key, and as a rental contract, our company is not allowed master keys.

The booth entrance is outside the theatre door, up a second staircase that leads to the roof. It was an makeshift or afterthought of a booth. The a/c runs through the ceiling, so if you are taller that 5'6 you can't stand up straight in the booth.

If you run the a/c anywhere below 76 degrees it leaks in the booth and dressing room.

The house lights are on manual dimmer knobs outside of the dressing room. I have to literally hang out of the booth "cut out" (it is so not a window) to cue the an actor to take house to half and again for house out. And at the end of the show, by ASM/sound board op runs down the stairs to bring the house lights back up.