June-uary....
Over the course of the end of the month I bounced from STING to The Eagles, who returned to do the make up concert that was canceled earlier this month ( which netted me TWO Eagles paychecks - a minimum 4 for the canceled one - " getting paid to Sleep in...Yaaayyy" and then I was HE ( Crew Chief / houselights ) for the second show...
It was a huge road crew who were in really great spirits as this was a last stop, " we get to go home tomorrow " show. Our local crew was huge as well, and really new as the old cats were busy on the Opera. So, I was kind of the perfect crew-chief of the moment as I knew most of the newbies from all the BC place events ( U2, Madonna ) and The Olympic calls. And those crews at times were twice the size. So, I did a pretty good job, even a couple of the riggers noticed and said how well it went. That we were often in lighting keeping pace or even waiting on them, which usually isn't the case.
And now it's June....
The first part of june in Vancouver is always wet and cold. Oddly they always seem to start putting on outdoor shows in Stanley park right at the this time. They're the odder Alt. ones: LSD, Soundsystem, Xavier Rudd, Massive Attack. I guess the promoters get the grounds for really cheap., so they can make a bet that one or two of them will be huge like deadmaus and Samantha Ronson ended up being , during the Olympics.
Setting up shows in a rainforest means bugs, bogs, and mud are the pests, not electrical tape and gaffer tape shrapnel on your boots. And as far as I'm concerned that kind of stuff should only be encountered, while camping or mountain-biking. And as I hate camping I avoided the Malcolm Bowl shows till there was no work elsewhere.
I 've been sleeping weird hours when I haven't been working [ and I work odd hours...]
Oddly I've been tired like crazy every evening around 7pm till 11pm and then I wake up and watch old Doctor Who episodes or surf the web till morning... It's playing havoc with everything. Then again I never know when I work right now... and I should just let my body do as it pleases when it comes to sleep. I think, that I'm too used to working at the times zone for the last 6 years on ACT show runs. And now that I'm not on one, so my body goes... " there's no stress... I'm going to just shut down." ( or I'm PTSD - Post Touring /Show Disorder - As I'm having odd dreams too... Some have been maddening, " Stuck in the bowels of a show or theatre company I don't like " kind of dreams - As apposed to all the falling dreams I used to get when I actually worked shows that were very stressful/ full of unsafe issues. )
There was a whole NEW stress show the other day...
I got a last minute call to be the Head carpenter at a Grad show....At the Orpheum. It's a very senior gig. If it's not worked by the FT city guys it tends to be worked by the elder stagehands ( seriously 55 + for the most part City Casual Roster - our first roster ) It was odd jumping into a venue that I'm used to being a grip in and suddenly being the boss of guys who were first members of the local when I was maybe 5 years old. The guys I watched in 1983, strike David Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour, and they're really my inspriation to work as I do now. On top of that was the stress that I didn't know where everything was ( I knew some stuff )
But, It was just really ODD being the titular crew boss of people who usually tell me what to do. So I just decided to be the best stagemanager of the day, that I could be in the situation.
I forget how easy it is to be a good SM....
Massage the talent and then rely on the crew to do all the cues...I kind of have bad feelings about the last group of SM's I've been working with regularly in the last few years... That's why I really want to work on Lion king if it gets to me. I miss the really professional SM's that the American tours have. The local ones here are inconsistent. ( which to me just reeks of amateurism ) there's the fantastic Opera SM's ( that crew is just so solid ) everywhere else its hit and miss. Some really good young ones... either that or I'm too busy noticing how cute they are... and then there's some really bad older ones ( like Nurses with bad bedside manners - that just annoy me right now... ) So, I tried to channel the best of the ones I know, and everything went off with nearly perfection...
And I made myself wonder if I should have been one instead. But, that would mean not being IA and having seniority... and I don't want that...Which I guess is why so many of the older Stage-managers are like that... Like bitter angry Nurses. The older ones... who started before Arts Admin courses became the rage in liberal colleges. They're often women who started as actresses or Box office / FOH staff, who got noticed and/or decided to just get into running shows, but having little or no training. ( I only know a handful of older male SM's - They tend to do really well and or, move into being T.D.'s. )
Really, Theatre's filled with all these vestiges of the old the sexist word, when I think about it. Me, because I'm an unabashed Unionist I notice the english manor class structure of theatre...I forget how that affects women... because I'm not one. The servants of old England weren't treated very well. But the servant women got it the worst.
But, the old SM's... They still even after 20 some odd years have to impress, and never be see to fuck up to keep working. I guess because being an older SM and screwing up a cue isn't cute, or they don't feel they can cute their way out of taking the responsibility. And, they have to keep stroking all the egos of the production staff, and then never get mentioned in speeches to the public ( While watching other young Sm' s, who mostly went to college or university to become SM's get tours or promoted or catch the eye of, the Production managers on the really big shows. ) And as they have no tenure at all, they have to cling to the place they started at for the most part. - Where as union techs have master Seniority and can bounce around. - A fact I know has saved my sanity so many times. I wonder some times if they really don't like they're jobs any more.
Over the course of the end of the month I bounced from STING to The Eagles, who returned to do the make up concert that was canceled earlier this month ( which netted me TWO Eagles paychecks - a minimum 4 for the canceled one - " getting paid to Sleep in...Yaaayyy" and then I was HE ( Crew Chief / houselights ) for the second show...
It was a huge road crew who were in really great spirits as this was a last stop, " we get to go home tomorrow " show. Our local crew was huge as well, and really new as the old cats were busy on the Opera. So, I was kind of the perfect crew-chief of the moment as I knew most of the newbies from all the BC place events ( U2, Madonna ) and The Olympic calls. And those crews at times were twice the size. So, I did a pretty good job, even a couple of the riggers noticed and said how well it went. That we were often in lighting keeping pace or even waiting on them, which usually isn't the case.
And now it's June....
The first part of june in Vancouver is always wet and cold. Oddly they always seem to start putting on outdoor shows in Stanley park right at the this time. They're the odder Alt. ones: LSD, Soundsystem, Xavier Rudd, Massive Attack. I guess the promoters get the grounds for really cheap., so they can make a bet that one or two of them will be huge like deadmaus and Samantha Ronson ended up being , during the Olympics.
Setting up shows in a rainforest means bugs, bogs, and mud are the pests, not electrical tape and gaffer tape shrapnel on your boots. And as far as I'm concerned that kind of stuff should only be encountered, while camping or mountain-biking. And as I hate camping I avoided the Malcolm Bowl shows till there was no work elsewhere.
I 've been sleeping weird hours when I haven't been working [ and I work odd hours...]
Oddly I've been tired like crazy every evening around 7pm till 11pm and then I wake up and watch old Doctor Who episodes or surf the web till morning... It's playing havoc with everything. Then again I never know when I work right now... and I should just let my body do as it pleases when it comes to sleep. I think, that I'm too used to working at the times zone for the last 6 years on ACT show runs. And now that I'm not on one, so my body goes... " there's no stress... I'm going to just shut down." ( or I'm PTSD - Post Touring /Show Disorder - As I'm having odd dreams too... Some have been maddening, " Stuck in the bowels of a show or theatre company I don't like " kind of dreams - As apposed to all the falling dreams I used to get when I actually worked shows that were very stressful/ full of unsafe issues. )
There was a whole NEW stress show the other day...
I got a last minute call to be the Head carpenter at a Grad show....At the Orpheum. It's a very senior gig. If it's not worked by the FT city guys it tends to be worked by the elder stagehands ( seriously 55 + for the most part City Casual Roster - our first roster ) It was odd jumping into a venue that I'm used to being a grip in and suddenly being the boss of guys who were first members of the local when I was maybe 5 years old. The guys I watched in 1983, strike David Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour, and they're really my inspriation to work as I do now. On top of that was the stress that I didn't know where everything was ( I knew some stuff )
But, It was just really ODD being the titular crew boss of people who usually tell me what to do. So I just decided to be the best stagemanager of the day, that I could be in the situation.
I forget how easy it is to be a good SM....
Massage the talent and then rely on the crew to do all the cues...I kind of have bad feelings about the last group of SM's I've been working with regularly in the last few years... That's why I really want to work on Lion king if it gets to me. I miss the really professional SM's that the American tours have. The local ones here are inconsistent. ( which to me just reeks of amateurism ) there's the fantastic Opera SM's ( that crew is just so solid ) everywhere else its hit and miss. Some really good young ones... either that or I'm too busy noticing how cute they are... and then there's some really bad older ones ( like Nurses with bad bedside manners - that just annoy me right now... ) So, I tried to channel the best of the ones I know, and everything went off with nearly perfection...
And I made myself wonder if I should have been one instead. But, that would mean not being IA and having seniority... and I don't want that...Which I guess is why so many of the older Stage-managers are like that... Like bitter angry Nurses. The older ones... who started before Arts Admin courses became the rage in liberal colleges. They're often women who started as actresses or Box office / FOH staff, who got noticed and/or decided to just get into running shows, but having little or no training. ( I only know a handful of older male SM's - They tend to do really well and or, move into being T.D.'s. )
Really, Theatre's filled with all these vestiges of the old the sexist word, when I think about it. Me, because I'm an unabashed Unionist I notice the english manor class structure of theatre...I forget how that affects women... because I'm not one. The servants of old England weren't treated very well. But the servant women got it the worst.
But, the old SM's... They still even after 20 some odd years have to impress, and never be see to fuck up to keep working. I guess because being an older SM and screwing up a cue isn't cute, or they don't feel they can cute their way out of taking the responsibility. And, they have to keep stroking all the egos of the production staff, and then never get mentioned in speeches to the public ( While watching other young Sm' s, who mostly went to college or university to become SM's get tours or promoted or catch the eye of, the Production managers on the really big shows. ) And as they have no tenure at all, they have to cling to the place they started at for the most part. - Where as union techs have master Seniority and can bounce around. - A fact I know has saved my sanity so many times. I wonder some times if they really don't like they're jobs any more.