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2. I need this as the last few days have been a bit nutso, though ultimately rewarding and not as much of a pain at all as I thought they'd be. Friday was the Notes from Underground opening and party at The Brick. I was hoping to set up a bit for Penny Dreadful on Saturday, but that proved to be impossible at the time - the show and the party were kind of more important at the moment, and needed to be handled.
Didn't see the show (maybe this weekend) but the party was great. At least the start of it. I left early as I had to be back early the next day.
Saturday was Penny Dreadful tech from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm. Longer than usual, but it was very difficult with the restrictions of doing it in the Notes set - as in, Notes is done entirely with practicals and there are no stage lights focused there. So I focused and moved some lights and wound up with six instruments with which I could light the show, including a scroller so I could have some color variation. And it wound up looking lovely, actually, even without the footlights which I had been thinking of as the trademark of the Penny Dreadful "look" - with the audience on all four sides of the playing space, there was no way to use the floor-mount birdies without blinding the viewers. And, of course, I couldn't actually see the show while I was running it because of the setup.
It was nerve-wracking to run the show blind, relying on an audio monitor (which had trouble with soft lines of dialogue), a video monitor (from one corner angle, not seeing all of the playing area), and Adam, the director, shining a flashlight up at the booth to indicate when scene changes had been fully accomplished. But it ran well. I made two sound cue screw-ups, one minor which no one but me and Adam would notice, one major (to me) that no one did notice apparently, but stabbed me in the heart because the moment was so much better with the correct sound cue (thing to ALWAYS watch for when using CD players with Auto-Cue - advancing to the next track at the same time as the machine is doing the same thing, putting you one track off where you think you are; Berit, about the best board op you'll find, notes that she's made this mistake more times than she'd care to admit, and that it accounts for the vast majority of sound errors she makes).
Sunday, I had to cover for Berit as stage manager/board op on 3800 Elizabeth while she made props for Cat's Cradle and Hiroshima. This also went well, and was moderately stress-free, apart from the live commercial that Gyda Arber and I did towards the end of the program - 3800 Elizabeth, being a sitcom, has commercial breaks. So far, these had been parody commercials made on video by Art Wallace and projected in the appropriate places, but creator Aaron Baker has wanted real commercials for local businesses to be done live in there too, and we had our first sale recently, so Gyda and I did the spot, which I had in my head vaguely for a couple of weeks and wrote down quickly for Gyda less than an hour before doing it.
GYDA ARBER, a tall, strong woman, is standing at center stage. She speaks cheerily, and a bit woodenly.
GYDA: Wow! I just saw a great show at The Battle Ranch, and I'm in the mood for dinner and a drink. But where can I go in East Williamsburg? I guess I'll have to take the L Train into Manhattan!
A deep, mellifluous and smarmy voice comes from offstage.
IAN: Hold it right there, little lady!
GYDA: (affronted) Little?
IAN W. HILL enters, wearing a plush, bright red bathrobe and carrying an empty martini glass.
IAN: There are plenty of fine dining options just a few blocks away!
GYDA: Why it's indie theatre impresario Ian W. Hill!
Title on screen: "Ian W. Hill - Indie Theatre Impresario"
IAN: (grinning to the audience) That's right, but I'm here tonight to let you know where to get a good meal at an affordable price.
GYDA: You say there are plenty of places nearby?
IAN: Sure, but only one of them is paying me to tell you about them. (to audience) That's right, I'm Ian W. Hill, compensated endorser . . .
The title on the screen changes to "Ian W. Hill - Compensated Endorser"
IAN: . . . and I'm here on behalf of The Lazy Catfish.
GYDA: The Lazy Catfish? Why's it called that?
IAN: (chuckling) I don't know. (suddenly serious, to audience) But I do know this: The Lazy Catfish is the place to go in the Williamsburg Theatre District for a good meal at a good price, plus a full selection of beer, wine, hard liquor, and specialty drinks.
GYDA: What's a specialty drink?
IAN: That would be, say, your frozen margarita, or my favorite, the pina colada.
GYDA: And it won't put a dent in my pocketbook?
IAN: Why, no! And for you starving theatre artists out there, may I recommend the "sides tasting platter" - that's a whole bunch of appetizers, more food than your normal entree, for one low, low price.
GYDA: Wow! Sounds great! And where is this?
IAN: That's The Lazy Catfish, at the corner of Lorimer and Conselyea. Just two blocks from this theatre.
GYDA: I'm going there now! Do you want to come along?
IAN: (patting his pockets, as if embarrassed) Uh . . . sure . . . I'll meet you there. Uh . . . do you think you could spot me? I'm a little short this week.
GYDA: (unhappy) Um, I guess so. I'll see you there.
She exits; IAN turns to the audience.
IAN: The Lazy Catfish - the Indie Theatre Sardi's of East Williamsburg.
IAN exits and quickly goes back to the light board to make the blackout.
This went over like gangbusters with the audience, which, granted, was a lot of friends or at least Indie Theatre people who got it (the "sides tasting platter" bit got some knowing applause). And I always love dragging out the "Ian W. Hill - Mr. Showbiz" character whenever I can.
Aaron Baker directs Michael Criscuolo, Iracel Rivero, and Peter Handy.
And that was fun. And I came home to find Berit cheery in her prop building for once - she was pleased that the creators of the first atomic bomb (she had to build a miniature replica) had made it approximately the shape and of a 1-liter plastic soda bottle, making her life much easier for a bit.
Yesterday was the load-in for Cat's Cradle, and I was there to get the video and some sound working and do whatever I could to help. Load-ins are often long, sloggy, unpleasant days, but this wound up being fast, and pleasant and fun and light. A good crew seems to keep it all light, even when wanting to scream about not having as many working dimmers as they had been told. Timothy Reynolds helped me in particular, handling most of the ladder work that he's good at (and I'm not) while I ran around buying cables and adaptors I needed and getting certain things ready.
Edward Einhorn and Art Wallace, who declared 10 years ago that Edward was "his evil nemesis," put aside their differences to peel up tape from the set floor. Timothy Reynolds smiles at this show of indie theatre brotherhood.
So, long day, yes, but fun, mostly. I had too much coffee and too many donuts and got a classic "tummy ache," abated eventually by a meatball hero and some ginger ale. Got the video working. All good. All fine. OK! I have to go back later today for some tweaks and to install a mic stand on the set's podium. I also have to drive out to Ikea in New Jersey to pick up a table for Hiroshima and go to BJ's Shopping Club in the Gateway Plaza for concession supplies. But I'm trying to put that off till tomorrow.
3. Videos of note that I've seen and wanted to pass on . . .
First, I've had Ted Cassidy's novelty single, "Do the Lurch" for a few years, but it didn't occur to me that he'd been out doing the teen shows to promote it, let alone that the man would really throw himself into "doing the Lurch" so much. Here's one such appearance (others are also available on YouTube):
And I'd forgotten about this, but a few people posted it in honor of yesterday's holiday, and why shouldn't I? Maybe I'll make this an annual tradition:
4. Alain Robbe-Grillet died. I'd be a liar if I didn't say I was more familiar with his influence than his work (apart from the amazing script for Last Year at Marienbad), but that influence is large. Large enough for me to have been daunted in actually delving into the work. Maybe I will now. Lovely tributes from Glenn Kenny and Tim Lucas.
That's it for now. Back to work. Or at least, breakfast.
well done
Date: 2008-04-05 10:11 pm (UTC)From: (Anonymous)