A Shout Out to My Tech Boys

I just want to say "thank god" for my tech boys. Not only do I miss them terribly, but the amount of useful information gained over the past few years from the amazing men at Magik is extraordinarily helpful. Among the offers of skinny dipping and the useful information that I in fact do not want to get into any cages, they also taught me the ins and outs and tricks of sound equipment, lighting board and how to jerry-rig sets, costumes, and props.

Today I needed that information.

Badly.

The dance company that I am currently working for does not regularly produce performances. Because of that they do not have a tech crew that they are used to dealing with. Therefore they contract lighting designers, master electricians, spot ops, prop masters, costume designer and stage management. They also fit the artist, not technician mold and are not particularly helpful in terms of disaster relief. Very friendly, excellent performers, willing to assist but lacking much technical knowledge.

I came into the theatre today for our 3pm show. One of the speakers wasn't working, and I fixed that. The masking USR isn't covering the entrance, and I fixed that. The floor isn't really safe for bare feet, but I can fix that. One of the set pieces tends to lean to the left, but I can fix that. My spot op/ master electrician was late, but I can turn on backstage lights, change gels and power up the boards and dimmer packs. I even ran through a few cues just to check them. I noticed a few were looking awkward but I figured my Master Electrician could fix that.

At 2:00 my ME was still missing

Same again at 2:10.

So I called.

He thought the show was at 8pm and therefore wasn't coming in until 7. He can't make earlier because he has his daughter.

Oh shit.

I can run the sound board and the lights at the same time- at Magik that is pretty standard. I can't run the sound board and the light board and the spot - which is about 5 feet away from the boards. I call my NYC theatre people- all are busy. I pull my prop master to run spot.

Ok.

Then I run the dimmer check and notice that out of 36 lights only 10 of mine are working. All the side lights work. The curtain wash works. The spot works. However none of the FOH lights are working, none of my stage lights are working, and none of my rail lights are working.

I focus on all of the problem solving I have seen my boys run over the years and I run down the list. Board? Nope. Connection to Dimmer? Nope. Connections? Nope. Fuse blown? No. Lightbulbs out? NO. Dimmer power? NO. Electricity? Not a problem as far as I can tell.

I start calling.

I call the ME- he runs down a few solutions- none are the problem

Building Operator comes down and looks- no solution.

Call the LD- no answer

Call the ALD #1- no answer

ALD #2- no answer

Temporary ME from last night- no answer

Dave M, Dylan- no answer

Max- answer

THANK GOD.

We run through all of his suggestions and nothing.

At this point the show is 7 minutes late. So we start and I run the entire show off subs with 10 lights. No house lighting, except the fluorescents which take 5 minutes to turn on. And a follow spot operator that hasn't actually seen the show yet.

It was dim, and it wasn't perfect... but it went up.

Without the knowledge learned from my favorite boys I would have been screwed.

Thank you-

Tony *
Dave *
Dylan *
Chris *
Tim
Cam
Billy and Brian P
Max
Rick M
Ricky

side note (apparently the dimmers had been turned off from the back- but only the first 8 which is why when I turned them on from the front all of them worked except the first 8)