A Favor

Technical directors- when you put together the tech specs for your space(s), please make sure they are accurate. Don't tell me you have four vocal mics available when there are actually zero. Don't tell me you have a bass amp when said bass amp is not working. Don't tell me not to mess with your rep plot if there is in fact, no rep plot in place.

Thanks.

Freakin' Wybron

Wybron, as Stephen Colbert would say, you are ON NOTICE.

Wybron makes color scrollers. They like to deny that the power supply for their scrollers (aka "the brain"), can be defective, thus leading you to try at least 15 other time-consuming solutions, and keeping you on the phone for over an hour with the very patient and understanding ETC repair guy, whose product (despite having beer all up in its business) is NOT THE ONE FUCKING SHIT UP.



So folks, if you ever encounter an issue in which every time you hit any key on your express 250, all of your scrollers move, even though they have been working fine previously, don't call repair services until you have swapped out the brain. It's not "some weird ground loop", your board doesn't need repair, it's not the daisy-chained cxi, it's not the brand-new dmx.

Also on notice:
Scharff-Weissberg (for packing all heavy rental gear on top of light rental gear)
Selecon (for its falling-apart zooms)
KL Productions (for its 22-hour, one-break shifts)
NYC Fire Department (for always showing up at 8:05 for an inspection)

Blog Highlight: The Show Showdown and More

So there's this group of three guys in NYC who go to see an absurd number of shows. I don't know if they have day jobs, or lives, but amongst themselves, they bloggishly publish over 400 reviews a year. Impressive, no?

Here's the link. Enjoy.

Also, some new techie blogs are sprouting up:

Technical Theatre
Another Blog titled "Technical Theater"
TD Tidbits

On Playwriting with Technical Issues in Mind

So I'm writing this play about Elizabeth Bathory (pictured), which I had intended to be a 5-character, two-act, very produce-able play. It now features 8 characters and a scene calling for five doors. I don't know why, but putting up doors in a set has always irked me, work-wise. It's never as simple as it seems it will be, and getting it to stay up (especially if there aren't any flats attached) is a biatch.

I know that, sadly, a play with eight actors and five doors (written by an unknown playwright) will not be considered for production almost...anywhere. It's just a budget thing, nothing personal.

The purpose of the doors? I hate farce. I hate those door-slamming scenes from Moliere and Feydeau. See below: "A Flea in Her Ear". So many doors! Hilarity ensues! Yak.


So I wrote a scene in which every time a door opens, something traumatic happens, instead of something funny. I'm pretty attached to the idea, because I'm an asshole who likes to make fun of things that other people enjoy. So now I find myself trying to imagine a way of doing the scene sans doors.

Other than the doors, the entire play could be done on almost a bare stage. It's just this one damn scene...oh, and those three extra actors. Have you ever tried to get eight specific people together in one room at the same time in New York? Can't happen unless you plan it a year in advance (and offer alcohol).

You know it's time for a vacation when...

...you find yourself having an inner debate about whether the color of the night sky is closer to R67 or R68.

A Very Big Eff You...

...to whatever asshat, back in 1982, decided that there should be multiple (as many as 20!) circuits in the air for every 2.4k and 6k dimmer in my theatre.

More props to the jerkoff (probably the same person) who decided that our raceway circuits shouldn't follow any logical numeric order.