Day 2

The "wind walls" outside House Left, used to block the wind from entering the house. I can't tell if they help or not.

Picked up some earplugs last night, and slept much better than Sunday night. This morning we pulled the "Rovers" out of storage. They consist of a TV on a cart, with a speaker attached. They go in the four corners of the backstage (Upstage Left, DSL, USR, USL) and are fed with a camera feed of the stage and an ambient microphone feed, so those backstage can see what's happen on-stage (Very similar to what we have at Towson). They may move throughout the summer (or even the shows) depending on scenery, entrances, etc. There are additional TVs that we can place throughout the space on an as-needed basis.

Next, around 10am, it was time to hang the front-of-house speakers. They are Renkus-Heinz array-style speakers, but are tall and narrow. I know you have seen these before in K-12 auditoriums. They fit well in this space, giving the coverage needed without delay clusters or repeaters. There was a little futzing with the Euroblock connectors (some wires came loose since last season) but all was connected.I wish I had a chance to hear them, but I volunteered to stay in the control room and patch them in to test. I did a stop-motion video with my Nikon of the hanging, hopefully I can put it up here soon.

After a quick meeting with Andi to hand in some paperwork (and learned that she has a soft spot for caramel), we set up a projector and screen in the Orchestra Lounge for a meeting by the Production Manager, going over the scenic models with a PowerPoint slideshow. Lunch was on the back deck today, and I brought some things I picked up from Trader Joe's. I moved into the House for the rest of my break and iChatted with Caitlin (yay!) for a while before heading back to finish speakers. Next, up on the half-deck (you will all get a tour soon, I promise) we set up the two FOH effects speakers and subwoofers.

For those keeping count, that's 2 speakers for pre-show (Renkus-Heinz), 2 speakers for stage management paging (Bose speakers, sitting above the Renkus-Heinz) and 2 effects speakers. The subwoofers are for effects, but can also be tied into the Renkus-Heinz speakers. We went to test those also, and the effects speakers worked well, but due to my mis-reading a patch label, the subs took a little longer.

Next, we were off to B-Lift training. There are two on-stage lifts, one is the A-Lift (which i think is for the orchestra) which sits downstage, and the other is the B-Lift, which sits far upstage. If there were no upstage wall, the playing are could extend ONTO the B-Lift, which is about 50 feet wide (left to right) by 25 feet (up to downstage). We all received a crash course in lift safety and operation. Two of the lighting catwalks are positioned directly over the B-Lift, and i'm going to try and get my camera mounted for a stop-motion video of a change-over from above the B-Lift.

Another thing to keep score with: There are (what I can see) six levels: Basement, Props, 68, Stage, Half-roof, and Catwalks. The Basement is BIG, with high ceilings and storage for everything scenic and lighting. I was only able to stick my head into Props briefly, but I was impressed with the storage and organization. "68" could also be called the "orchestra" level, where the AV, Electrics, Safety, Design and Production offices are, as well as Dimmer Land. Stage level contains the AV Patch/Control room, Carpentry office, Stage Management office and wingspace. The half-roof is an intermediate step to the Catwalk level.

Today I learned that the "68" level is called so because it is 7,068 feet above sea level.

We played a bit more with the assisted listening headsets, testing them all before returning them to the box office, and cursed at the WiFi network for taking 25 minutes to download a 10MB file. We also tested all of the Subtitle screens (each of the 2,000+ seats in the house has a Subtitle screen which can display English or Spanish subtitles), cycling through the subtitles on every. single. screen.

On the way out, we watched the B-Lift rise from the Basement FULL of lighting equipment, what looked like 300 instruments of various brands and types. I can't remember if light hang is tonight or tomorrow, I think tomorrow.

Time passes so slow here.

See you all tomorrow!
-Matt