Day 38 - Madame Butterfly, take 2

Tonight was the second performance of "Madame Butterfly". Most of my paperwork is dialed in, and i'm getting the chance to relax and focus on the show, rather than everything around it. This will be the fifth time we've run this show (including dress rehearsals). The intercom calls become crisp and the conductor seems much calmer, enjoying himself fully. In our control room above the sound board are two video monitors, one has the conductor's camera and one is usually a stage view. Both are remote controlled, so we can pan, tilt, zoom or focus to anywhere on the stage, or with the conductor cam, to some of the actual house seats. We don't move the camera during a performance, since these cameras feed throughout the theatre, but they're great during rehearsals to get a closer view of the stage.

Anyway, for the past several shows, there has been one person in the control room, along with two other A/V folk helping with the video monitor movements in the wings. Now, we're down to one. This one person has to move around the theatre quite a bit. However, there are times two monitors need to move at the same time, and even though it's frowned upon, I have to leave the control room to do these movements. I don't mind doing it though, it lets me really know what's happening with these movements, since they may have changed since the rehearsals. I take a wireless intercom with me to keep in touch with the stage manager, and notice that several of the moves HAVE changed, which lets me update them in my paperwork. It also keeps me in contact with the assistant stage managers and other conductors working backstage.

The show went very well, and tomorrow is a technical rehearsal for our last show of the season, "Albert Herring". Wikipedia calls it a genuinely funny comedy. Neat.