Avelandra's Blog

This place in San Antonio is awful. Just awful, for my show. Our tech rider says 30′ depth, we get…..17. I don’t know who decided it was a good plan, my boss or the presenter, but who ever thinks a show speced for 30 will fit in a 17, needs thier head examined.

So, I setup my lineplot, which is based on the house hang that I got in the tech specs. When I arrive, what do I find? That the previous hang is in, the house plot is not right. The pipe I wanted my screens and legs on is an electric, some other stuff is in the wrong place, and we have a union crew and a double purchase system, so it requires 2 loaders. Jeez, WTF, seriously, WTF

To fix the fact that the screen shots are somewhere in the range of half what they are supposed to be, I had to bounce the upsatge one off of 2 mirrors jury rigged together, and the downstage ones are matching the size and barley fitting on the 10ft mark Downstage of the screens. 

On top of that, apparently house management doesn’t think things through. Like if the crew isn’t here, or the work lights on stage are on, don’t let the kids in. I walk in at 25 to supposed house open, it takes me less than 5 minutes to get the show up, and there are kids sitting in the balcony already. And since I was 5 minutes later then 1hr, i am going to get chewed out, like I could of stopped it. Apparently this isn’t uncommon as one of the crew was telling me that yesterday a show started 5min before the crew showed up. The tech info states that the house opens at 30 to show, isn’t that what was supposed to happen. 

Once the show started, in walks another load of kids, noisy as hell, with the ushers doing nothing to stop em. 

Ugh, to top it all off, we are in the smaller of two theatres. The other one is huge, and currently dark, why couldn’t we have been in there? 530 loadin, 945 show, oh and an extra show added at the last minute and by last minute I mean after loadin, for 1145, and a 630 with loadout.

The other theatre fits it’s name, the majestic. It is fucking gorgeous, like breath takingly gorgeous. The house is so buetiful, it looks like the outside of a itialian square. The stage is large and has plenty of linesets, it’s is beautiful.

Ugh, I really hate this part of the job, I can’t wait to get home and be done with this show, it’s getting near the end, shit is starting to piss me and the rest of the cast off. 

We have a party in NYC the night before we all go home and fi is coming. I haven’t seen her in a while and I miss hanging with her, we had our ups and downs, but alas she’s probably one of the few people i know that understand the hell that this job can be and is at some points.

Touring is a special kind of hell, one where fun, pain and suffering all hook into one thing. And I am thinking of doing it agian, but as an ME on a full crew, instead of this one man show thing which is driving me up a wall. I want to run a venue someday, touring is definitly a good way to get there, but I just need to buckle down and do it, do it well, and do it with flair. 

Most if not all local crews seem to like me, I am kind, geniune and upfront. I don’t sugar coat, but i can be diplomatic if needed. I am flexible and I am very good at getting buyin on my plans. Just because I am the boss, doesn’t mean can always get what I want. When i worked under people, it made me more enthusied when my suggestion or plan was implemented, even if in part. 

As I once heard said, “authority should never be used as a club”. I can over-rule alot of things on tour, especially when it comes to loadins and technical aspects. But doing so is almost always against what the cast wants and, unless it’s really important and every can see that, it’s not a good idea.. I guess I learned in organizaltional behavior that I am an expert democratic leader, I take people’s opinions add my own expirence and ideas and come up with an executable plan. Also with this comes the ability to bend the plan if it is not, in application, going to work. I learned something else in my life; there are many ways to do things right. Accpet that one truth and appriciate what people bring to the table. It might suprise you that a fresh faced hand may have an idea to save an hour of hard work. Expirence only helps refine ideas, it rarely creates then. Expirence can tell you if the idea will work and if so, how to execute it and what to test before conutinuing on it. Ideas should never be rejected no matter where they originate. Suprisingly even corporate entities see this, if they are brainstorming , any and all ideas are written on the whiteboard or flipchart and considered. Ideas also have a tendency to build on each other, so a irrational and impractical idea can, through another person’s expirence become an actionable idea that will work. It happens, I’ve seen it.

I learned from IT about paper prototyping, and this ties into theatre very easily. In paper prototyping, a human playes the role of the computer, maniplutating thr interface as needed. In theatre, having a person hold up something that will be permently attached follows from this, and also from expirence. It makes trial and error really easy and quick, almost rapid prototyping like. Another thing is that no matter what you are trying to do; someone, somewhere has already done it. 90% of the computer code out there is copied from someother source and combined in a new way. The other 10% makes the rest work together. 

My style in theatre is an odd combination of quick thinking, planning, and foresight. No, planning and foresight are not the same thing to me. To me foresight is like not painting yourself into a corner, and planning is like a setting a route. Different levels, although a good ammount of foresight can add up to a coherent plan. The key, and the definition of the style, comes out of the combination of those things and how much of each we use in a given situation.

In addtion to be able to see the big picture, being able to monitor different groups is a huge asset. I can easily jump between things and not lose where I left off. This both a blessing and a curse. Although I can do so many things, I sometimes don’t spend enough time on one thing to see it through. I think I have it firmly undercontrol right now, and it is serving me very well, especially in fucked up loadins like yesterdays was.

So this post has gotten really really long, and I don’t know why. Probably because my life has got flipped turned upside down in the last 6 months. Tour Is hard, very hard, you just don’t know how hard it is till you do it. It’s hard in so many ways. Like imagine picking 5 random strangers and then seeing no one but them for 6 months hard. Try having your entire life, and all you have, fit into a suitcase, a duffle bag, a laundry bag, and a backpack. Doing laundry is fun, I did mine in Mississippi, that was about a week ago, some guys went to a laundromat yesterday, which is also apparently a diner, and a car wash. I try to do mine in a venue so it’s free.

Personally, I am tired of being alone. And I mean that in more ways than 1. On this tour, I don’t fit in as me. I have to hold somethings back, pretend I like things I don’t, and bite my tounge on more than one occassion. Some of this goes with being the TD, but sone so goes with living with 4 true actors, who eat nutella and insist on sub-way. One even carries his own food and goes to a super market almost daily. I think that’s got to be expensive. The other 1 is alot older than the others and i think humors me more than he likes to admit. I have a sense of humor that doesn’t go over well with this group, it would work well if there were other techs, but not actors who are fresh out of school like many of these guys are.

I sometimes find that those trained in the so called “ivory tower of academia” don’t often know what really goes on the real world. Now, school has it’s place, but allowing students to work in a perfect world, where roles are cast along who is better, or plots are hung exactly as drawn is misguided. When teaching how to draw a plot, it makes sense, but when it is being hung, getting a phone call or email from the ME saying, we can’t do that, should not be a problem. On the other side of the coin an ME that sends that message better be damn sure it can’t happen, and offer an alternate solution to the angle, or placement or effect that is desired. I have met really great lighting designers that have MFAs, I have also met some that I wouldn’t trust to place an already assembled floor mount that have MFAs. I find that the good ones worked for a while before going back, or worked then went back with no bacholers. Yes that is possible. I have heard stories of designers who couldn’t even focus a light. 

Another thing that pisses me off, is when a designer takes minutes on a light when the tech is competent and moving quickly. When I designer takes a minute just to figure out what the fixture is doing once he finds the channel, he needs to reexamine his life choices. If you drew the plot, you should know what each fixture needs to do , atleast in part. I’d rather we finish 89% of the plot in 4 hrs, and then spend an hour on the last 10 or so. Not 20min on 1 fixture, at the expensive of my and the crews time. USITT says that you should be able to focus a fixture in 14 seconds. My thoughts on that are that I don’t know ANY desgners that can move that fast. I think I know a few techs that can move that speed, but they can only go as fast as the designer can. In my opinion. A good designer can work 2 or 3 lights at a time, and keep the focusers busy the entire time. While one is moving the other one is focusing a light. This is efficent to me. 

On another note, I want to talk about the union. I like just about every local union guy I have had the pleasure of working with. Maybe it’s because we are small patatoes, but they are good at what they do, and they take problems on stride. I find that being very upfront with the steward about the plan, the crew divisions, and making sure everything is going swimmingly and with in the rules works well. If you are very honest with everything, they help you out. I feel bad about my previous attidtude toward the union cause of the one in Philly, I have heard from other locals that they have thier issues with the one in Philly. I especially like NYC local, those guys have thier shit together. I have thought about going union, if I do, I will probably want to work up to being the ME at a house. It’s the only way to get the big houses, but I always wanted to teach. But wait, no one said they had to be exculsive, I could be a part time professor in lighting and also be the ME somewhere. Must look into that. 

My future plans are to get another tour, hopefully with vee as an electric 1, and move up from there.  There is another tour I am looking at, but I am still wishy washy on it. The other option is cruise ships. I am young, I am unattached, nows the time to do it. 

Well, I think I’m spent, I’ve covered so many topics but alas it’s all written down now. Just a little about how and when this was written. I am currently sitting in my both, or box, and typing it on my iPhone. I have been working on this during the first show and the second one almost the entire time. I do go back to add to the paragraphs that deal with the topic in my head or mention something I forgot, or to proofread and clean up, but mostly the post comes out of my head in the order it is on the page. Finished before end of 2nd show!

Comments always welcome.

Next post is tbd; this was really for tour, which end ls in 10 days.      

So, my god has it been a while, I last chatted about south Boston. Which was a month ago. 

Well let’s first go over what is going on with the show, then my life.

So,  the techno was broken, massily like repair shop bad. I had to send it in to Chicago Starlite to get fixed.

The next venue we had was a god damn ballroom. They had to setup genie trusses to get all the masking we needed and the rig points. All in all the people at western illionis university get a ton of credit for getting that figured out. The next two venues were really chill and easy, one cooked us bacon and eggs for breakfast. No real problems.

Then we had 2weeks off, then we loaded into a suburb of st Louis, and sat thier for a week, which was like a mini vacation. Oh and inbetween I went home for the double wammy snow storm and some decompression. 

After that we went to another performing arts hall, which was lovely, and then to probably the best stop this leg, notre dame. Those guys were just epic, epic. Now we are entoute to Omaha, Nebraska, next venue is pueblo Colorado. Dead hung house, weeeeeee fun.

Upcoming we have a couple of scheduling things that are gonna make everyone pissy, like a 630show, loadout, 4hr drive, and a 5am loadin for a 930 show.  

Any way, personally I am falling apart. I am starting to hate the people I’m on tour with, I like my job, I love it, it’s just the people. The local crews are amazing and they are a saving grace. My friends at home are busy, I understand. I can not expect them to put thier lives on hold so I can vent, that’s one reason I have a blog that no one on tour knows about. If they find it, maybe it will give them insight into why I am the way I am. Names will not be used, but this will give you an idea of what my problems are. 

Below is an edited txt I sent to one of my friends at home. 

So I have offically stopped caring. I hate people who decide that talking directly to you about a personal problem with you, isn’t the correct thing to do and the correct thing is to talk to your boss, who is not on tour.  I also do not like people repeating lines they hear ad nauseum, it’s not funny, it’s stupid and annoying, as are inside jokes. It is childish. P.S I feel a very strong urge to destroy every copy of any Digital media containing any song by Lady GaGa or Britney Spears, I AM FUCKING TIRED OF THIER GOD DAMN MUSIC. The gay culture on this tour is really getting to me, and I don’t see any escape. I mean who needs fucking 7 bags for 1 fucking night, even the girls don’t bring that many in. All I need is my backpack. You don’t need a trip to the grocery store every day, and you don’t need to carry a god damn general store with you everywhere, WTF do you need a pantry for when you are gonna be at loadin for a grand total of 2hrs, then you go back to the hotel. If anyone needs a food store it should be me, I had a 5hr stay at the last venue because of problems. 

Actors are immature in some respects and that is one, another is that they hate confronation, even when it would make the other person more receptive to the situation. When you can be an adult about situations that require a large ammount of maturity, then so will I. And I know I should be the adult, but I have a new outlook on this, if I am going to just accquice to them, they will never learn. Just like my sister has never learned. And right now I feel like I used to when I lived at home and never won an arguement and was alwas told to be the bigger person. FUCK BEING THE BIGGER PERSON, some one else can have that job, I’m done with it.

Another thing that really starts gettig to me is the incessit need for hand sanitizer, and general cleanliness. I am going to explain this, so please read the whole thing before jumping to a conculsion. I know we need to be clean and that is not the issue. The issue that when you decide that you need to take a shower when you show up to the hotel in the early evening. Then you take one before you go to bed when the most exerting thing you did was drive 5min to the grocery store. Then take another when you wake up. Changing full clothes each time. I mean come on, I agree with shower before bed, and I can understand when a morning shower might be useful, but taking 3 showers in less than 24hours when there was almost no physical exersion, oh and we were going directly to a loadin in the morning, so it was not like we were traveling or anything like that, is absurd and wasteful. As for hand sanitizer, as I was typing this I witnessed something that is the perfect example. We were pulling into a mcdonalds for a pee break, and before we even stopped this same person used hand sanitizer. He also used it when it got into the van, and all he did was sleep and do a little work on his laptop. He then washed his hands when he a was done (agian this is completly fine) he gets in the van and uses more hand sanitizer. Human beings have an immune system for a reason,  when we start trying to “help” it when can actually be causing it to get weaker. Lip balm also has a similar effect, your lips actually stop producing thier own oils after prolonged use. The same goes for diet. On the road, food may come from what ever one can get to, most times you can only garantee that a mcdonalds or its ilk will be nearby, so being able to eat it when nessecary is useful. Not to say that you shouldn’t strive to eat healthier, I usually eat simple and at panera or a casual dining place like applebees or outback. If we stop on the road, we sometimes have to take an hour to go to a subway, or even a grocery store so that everyone can eat, even when the pilot just off the highway has an Arbys or something like that. I personally am tired of subway. 

Another thing that I hate, and it’s a personal prefrence thing, but apprently I am in the minority, is the early start to. travel days. Van call this morning was 645EST. The GPS has us arriving at 420 CST, with stops for lunch and other stuff that puts us at about 600CST. Would it really be bad if we left even an hour later? Apparently, it does.  I only got 3hrs of sleep last night, all my fault, but if I got 3hrs and we left at say 9 I wouldn’t be nearly as pissed as I was this morning. When we leave and it’s dark out, I’m going to be pissy, especially when our next loadin isn’t until Friday night. All 3 of the other guys are all early risers, like they will be up at 4 or even earlier for a 5am van call, where I will roll out of bed at 450, and will be gone out the door at 455. I’m a night owl, but apparently since I’m in the minority, I don’t count. 

Whenever an issue comes up like this, the company manager, who Is the only person I would hang out with after this tour says, ” we may be in charge, but we also out numbered”. But fuck, even the minority gets what they want every now and then. 

When ever I run a crew, I feel like the people under me come first, just like a CO in the military, my highest concern is for  the people that work for me. But I am feeling less and less magnamous about everything. 

I have tried to think about why I am being this pissed about things at this perticular time, and I have cone up with a few reasons:
1. My future – still up in the air. I know I am going to work in theatre, the question is, where and in what capacity.
2. Seasons- I’m always pissy in the winter.
3. Stress- heh have you read the blog?
4. Homesick- yeah I miss friends, family and dog
5. Personal life- these guys seem so happy, and I am possibly resenting them for it and taking it out on them  

All in all, writing this all out has helped me calm down a little. Feel free to comment as nessacry, and offer any adive that you may have. It’s always nice to know people are out there.

That’s all for now.

Ave  

So, we arrived in Ohio on wensday, to loadin at 6pm, at a place called Ada. If you have never heard of Ada, that’s not suprising, it has Ohio northern university, no cell phone signal and that’s about it. The crew was college and a the 2 professional staff. They were good but the one part of it all that amazed me was the hospitality lady. She was smoking, and by smoking I mean she dressed for it. Tight black dress and heels, you would think she was trying to get one of us, but alas not. The loadin went smoothly, and we had an early morn and late night show. That wasn’t all, we had to drive immedititly after loadout to Tiffin, and load in at, yup, 530am. 

Tiffin, how you have done something that has only happened at a high school, killed my show in the middle. 

Midway through the circus, the mac and projectors die. We blew a circuit, a quick reset and the show continued. After the first one, we checked circuits, move some things around, I even ran through the part that caused it WITH THE LIGHTS, and nothing blew. Second show begins, and at 28minutes into the show, pop, all dead. Even he house guys where confused. Agian we reset, I pulled a dimmer, and contiued, or as I say, limped the rest of the way home. We find out after the show, that the 1st death was cause the same circuit that was powering a dimmer, also had the mac on it. Ok, fine, my fault, I moved it to an upstage outlet that had nothing else in it, save for 2 60 watt light bulbs, and was assured by the house guys that the circuit was it’s own and not shared. 

Well, they were wrong. It was shared with, gues what, the opposite sides upstage outlet, which had a dimmer in it. Why both of the lasted all the way up to circuis, I will never know. But now I am much more anal about my power distribution. 

We left there, went back to the hotel, where I promptly answered emails and passed out. I slept well, ate breakfast, and headed off to Purdue University, in IN. 

We got to the hotel at like 6pm Saturday, and load in was the following morn, and we had a show at 3pm, load was smooth, show ready in 3:10, even with soft good moves and an improper pre-hang. 

We did the show, and went back to the hotel, where we were staying till today. We did not have any shows yesterday, we had nothing yesterday; it was a day off. It’s rare thing, and I enjoyed it. Slept in and all that stuff.

So, we are now performing, and I’m sitting here with a local guy who almost did the truss spot for Lady GaGa, he would of if she didn’t collapse, apprently they made it through the first opener before the decsion was made, and the second one went on anyway. 

We load out of here and head to Memphis, TN. We will stop for the night in St. Louis, and I am sure something will happen there. 

Happy Trails

No Venues, but pics from the traveling, there is a lot of white.

2nd half, and so it goes

So, thus the second half of tour started bright and early on wensday. I had an awesome night out on Tuesday and was fairly rested and ready to go. Leaving was no issue, we hit traffic on 76 but what else is new. Even the heat was working in the truck, so this looked like the gods were smiling on us. 

That was until we hit Harrisburg and Terry goes “I think it’s getting colder in here.” He was right, the heat had stopped. This was the main issue of the day, it was getting colder, snowier, and icier. With no heat, there is no defroster, so the windshield became an ice sheet more than once, sometimes when I was driving. 

Eventually we get to the home strech to the stop over in south bend, indianna (Notre Dame). We perform here in february, but right now it’s conviently half way between Philly and grand rapids, MN. Yes minnisota, not Michigan. 

We have through the miricle of enchantment theatre, an international dealer waiting for us in south bend. Me and Terry drive the truck in, and send the rest of the guys to the hotel. 

We are waiting for about 15min before they call us in to show us the problem. The problem: the expansion valve for the AC. Now you wouldn’t think this to be  a problem in the heart of winter, but the truck uses it to add humity to the heat, and because it was broken, it froze solid. Part of it lives under the dash, and it was an ice box. 

The dealer, his name is mike btw, most awesome mechanic ever, disconnects the AC from the system, so the heats works, but no AC. They thrawed it with heat guns and hairdryers. The ingunity was much appreciated. My thoughts on the AC: I won’t need that till march at the earliest, so what-ev. We can get it officially fixed later. 

Anywho, this means me and Terry don’t get to the hotel till about 1am. We are leaving at 7am. I get some sleep, enjoy the free breakfast and leave the hotel.

I am navigating the van for the first hour to finish the shift from the prevoius night. Zac leaves the parking lot and makes the left, into the oncomming traffic side of the divided hiway, to the cries of me and Terry going “wrong way Zac”. Anyway disaster averted we continue on, my shift ends, I go to sleep in the back of the van, and we continue as normal, or so I thought.

We hit weather, and by weather I mean, hiway closed weather, we also gain an hour (9 becomes due to the time zone switch, but anywho, we are going slow and he GPS keeps adding time. We pullover at a mickyd’s and break out an oldskool atlas, figure out an alternate and execute execute execute. 

It’s still slow going, but we are making progress, we finally get to the hotel at 1am. There is only one problem, we have loadin at 530, van call at 515, in the AM, oh and 3 shows.  

The loadib ran smooth, we had some issues I knew we were going to have to fix, so I had them already in the schedule. House opened late due to tech issues, which were not handled when I asked someone to handle them, but the house hadn’t switched it’s sponsorship hobos either, so it’s all good. 

As I type this in notes on my iPhone we are approching the begining of the 5th scene, which means 20min to go, it’s 1050, we have a 1230 and a 7 then strike then NOTHING, no driving at all. Early bed time for me, me thinks. 2 20hr days in a row is something I can handle, but don’t want too. To quote my facebook status from last night/early this morning;

Dear North Mid-West:

WHY DEAR GOD WHY?!

Love, Stephen

So, I am currently sitting in the Prince Music Theatre with my show.  This place is awesome, except for the random movies that seem to interrupt the flow of my show. So much resetting after they have one, but such is life. Atleast I do not have to load-in, do a show, and load-out, everyday.

The hours also rock, I leave my house around 7:20, and I get home by 3pm, even with fixing notes. Since I am the only crew, I kinda made a small command center in the booth.  To give you an idea of how its setup, here is the layout.

In front of my is a large picture window (sound-proof) , where I sit with my laptop in front of me. To my left is a 5-disc CD changer, DVD player and the sound board, all stacked. The sound board is a 16×4 Mackie. One channel is my house mix (which is all I have for house sound), then 2 Wireless mikes for talk back, and a CD for Pre-Show announcements. On my right, I have another sound board, which is patched into the house system and fed from backstage. This is my SMTPE line, that controls my Light board (ETC Expression 3), which is sitting right next to it. Also sitting on it is the iPhone that I use to control the show.

I like being home, but I miss living out of my house. I’m thinking of moving out in the fall again, this time…for good. I’m not sure if I am going to do another tour, if I do, it will be where I am an ME, or LD, being a TD is alot, ALOT, of work and little sleep. Nothing has been set in stone, but alas, I still have another 4 months of tour ahead of me. (BTW if anyone wants a free beer, hit me up when I am in your city!)

I have also come up with some sayings:
Classical Physics: Things happen cause they are caused to happen
Quantum Mechanics: Things happen cause they can
Tour Physics: Things happen because they can and they are bad for you!

Also, Tour Motto: It is what it is!

Of course I have my personal favs, such as “Could be worse, could be raining <Lighting Crack><RAIN>”;

That is all for now, ttyl.

So, the last couple of venues, and by couple I mean 4 in 4 days, finish off the 13 in 17 days we just did. The cast is dead, I am destroyed, but other than that, the show is looking SWEET!

I am going to re-cap the last few days, from Saturday on to last night.

Saturday (Travel Day): Travel to University of Connecticut  from Maryland (We had a show on Friday), we were in Connecticut on THURSDAY! That night, we get to the hotel, and just check in when the fire alarm rings, so we all have to evac the building while they clear it. I do some work, then go to the indoor pool with some of the cast for some R&R. We see a lady in a waitress outfit run down the hall, followed by a guy in a suit. A few minutes later, maybe like 10 or 15, we see the lady heading back the way she came, adjusting her skirt and shirt, and the guy go out a side door, looking a bit worse for ware. We can only assume what happened. I go to the tavern in the hotel with some of the cast for food, and who am I in the elevator with, but BJ Novak from The Office. Apparently he had performed at Uconn. I didn’t get to talk with him, not really a fan of the office, but some of the cast did. Also, the same waitress that we saw run down the hall, was serving us.

Sunday (2 shows): We try to leave the parking lot, we destroy an automatic gate with the truck. We do manage to start load-in sorta on time @ 8am, though. While driving to the venue (we stayed on campus), there were cop cars all around and streets closed, we didn’t think any of it until we found out that a football player was stabbed over night and killed. Apparently the fire alarm the night before had something to do with it. Also, one of the actors had a pipe and drape fall on his head, and had to go to the hospital to get a CAT scan to check for concussion. He did not make the top of the show and had to jump in to it at the middle of the 2nd act (of 5). Load-out was uneventful, except for the golf ball size snow.

Monday (2 Shows): We leave the hotel at…..430am. Yes, we are going into NYC with a truck. We get to the venue early, but we don’t start loadin till 6am. Since WE HAVE BEEN TO THIS VENUE THE PREVIOUS WEEK, they still had all of the pre-hang up. Load-in took less than 3hrs. I love it when an electric is focused already. We then drive cross town, @ rush hour, to Lagaradia PAC, to load in at 6pm. Which we do, and the cast goes back to the hotel @ 8pm, for an 9am call. I leave the venue @ 1030pm.

Tuesday (2 shows): We perform the 2 shows at Laguardia PAC,  late. The Costumes were not dry until 1020am, for a 10am start.  Also, buses in NYC mean late children. We started 25minutes late with the show. Problem is, the next show was scheduled for 1130am, and the show is 63minutes. Yeah, second show did not start until 1155am. Then we were to drive to New Hampshire. The load-out took 2hrs, the show was late, the traffic was horrible, so needless to say, we didn’t make 8pm load-in. I had to call the TD and let them know that I wanted to push focus to the morning and if could get 4 or so electricians for a 6am call for 9am show.  We set a cut-off time of 11pm, if we don’t get there by 11pm, we push load-in to the morning. We did not need this option. SO, we get to the venue @ 1015pm. We knew of a problem, the towers (14ft long by 33inch box + 2inch Casters) need to go up a flight of stairs and then be lifted on to stage. We planned it, and it worked like a charm, that was the good thing. We setup everything, and at 1215am, broke for the night. NOW, it gets fun. So, we go to the hotel, they don’t have rooms for us, so they say to go to another hotel and see if they have any rooms for the night. We do this, and as we are haggling the price, we call the TD at the venues. He finds out they switched hotels on us at the last minute. By now the cast and I left the venue @ 1215, it is now just after 1am. We have been up all day and performing multiple days in a row, we are all exhausted.  We head to the 3rd Hotel of the night, and on the way, the van gets pulled over by a cop for speeding. 78 in a 65. The cop had to of seen  the tired and worn out people in the van, the sick person, all of the crap, and we explained the 3 hotel thing, and that we have a show in the morning. The cop lets us off with a warning. That is where the karma finally (I hope) flipped around.

Wensday (2 shows): So, I am at the venue at 545am, to focus the plot, cast arrives at 8am for the 9am show. Shows go ok, we are all exhausted, we load-out, and drive to Boston. I am now in a Comfort inn in Revere, MA.

OK, WOW, that was a weekend.