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Sunday at the Theatre
I did spend the bulk of Sunday in a theatre, but not in the way one would expect.
The LGBT Arts Consortium is doing a "lavenderized" version of "HMS Pinafore" (actually, they're calling it "DHS Pinafore," as in Dept of Homeland Security). I'm not a Gilbert & Sullivan fan and rewriting it into contemporary political satire doesn't help: I'd like to forget the current gov't mess, not have it rubbed further into my face. But Kent has been asked to design the lighting so I was sucked in by proxy to assist.
The theatre at Capital Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) is a very small & intimate black box space. Mercifully, it has had some upgrades over the years: the air conditioning now works (thank god!), newer bars have been installed onto which to clamp the lights, and the electrical system & controllers have been upgraded so we no longer have to worry about blowing circuit breakers and/or starting electrical fires. The bad news is that it is still a tedious process of digging out appropriate lamps, testing each to ensure they do work (repairing where needed), scavenging for gel frames, getting out the ladders, clamping lamps to the ceiling bars, aiming them appropriately, adding the gels and programming the controller board.
We had budgeted 3.5 hours to the process but it took closer to 5. Thank god for the air conditioning. I was largely bored to tears but my presence did knock off a couple of hours Kent would have needed had he been working solo. I'm a good stage and house manager but I have no patience for the mechanical stuff.
Did I mention how grateful I was that we had functioning air conditioning?
By 6 PM, we were on our way to a barbecue chez Steve & Rich in Alexandria. Half of those in attendance were square dancers who were also tubing the prior day; we woofed down burgers and compared our mild sunburns which formed interesting patterns depending on the washing effect of the creek and friction with the tube. It it were intentional, we could have called it art.
The LGBT Arts Consortium is doing a "lavenderized" version of "HMS Pinafore" (actually, they're calling it "DHS Pinafore," as in Dept of Homeland Security). I'm not a Gilbert & Sullivan fan and rewriting it into contemporary political satire doesn't help: I'd like to forget the current gov't mess, not have it rubbed further into my face. But Kent has been asked to design the lighting so I was sucked in by proxy to assist.
The theatre at Capital Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) is a very small & intimate black box space. Mercifully, it has had some upgrades over the years: the air conditioning now works (thank god!), newer bars have been installed onto which to clamp the lights, and the electrical system & controllers have been upgraded so we no longer have to worry about blowing circuit breakers and/or starting electrical fires. The bad news is that it is still a tedious process of digging out appropriate lamps, testing each to ensure they do work (repairing where needed), scavenging for gel frames, getting out the ladders, clamping lamps to the ceiling bars, aiming them appropriately, adding the gels and programming the controller board.
We had budgeted 3.5 hours to the process but it took closer to 5. Thank god for the air conditioning. I was largely bored to tears but my presence did knock off a couple of hours Kent would have needed had he been working solo. I'm a good stage and house manager but I have no patience for the mechanical stuff.
Did I mention how grateful I was that we had functioning air conditioning?
By 6 PM, we were on our way to a barbecue chez Steve & Rich in Alexandria. Half of those in attendance were square dancers who were also tubing the prior day; we woofed down burgers and compared our mild sunburns which formed interesting patterns depending on the washing effect of the creek and friction with the tube. It it were intentional, we could have called it art.
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