My primary job on this show is as the house V1 (video engineer). But I am also doubling up as an A2, which has also kept me pretty busy working to fulfill the needs of Ian Smith the company’s Sound Designer. Mostly my A2 skills are being used just in case things go sideways! I will take care of everything in the orchestra pit, while my friend and coworker, John, the primary A2 for this show is handling things like getting lav mics on to the actors. He and Genna wired the microphones in the orchestra pit earlier. John doesn’t work as an A2 very often, and this is a big job for anyone.

As the V1 I am responsible for making sure that any video related needs of the visiting company are met. I’m working with Greg Mitchel, the company’s Projection Designer to do so. And there’s a lot! The company is doing some complex image mapping using a pair of different ultra wide lenses. Last week, in preparation for this opera I changed the lamps in our two 14K Christie Roadsters and discovered that one of the lamp driver boards went bad! So that threw a monkey wrench in things. The rental projector came late on the first day that the opera company was in the room and we had to take down our projectors again (We flew them after I changed the lamps for a show the evening before the opera showed up.) Then we rigged up the rental projector and hung both projectors back up with the company’s lenses, after testing. One of the lenses the opera rented had a bad motor. I had to disengage the focus motor, then zoom and focus to the approximate dimensions we needed. Then there were two 150 ft cables which we ran from the fourth floor balcony that went bad and had to be replaced for the supertitle projector.

Every day something new has been added to the gear in the orchestra pit, not unusual for a show that’s just being teched for the first time (being put together)- but a little annoying. We will move all the gear off the tech tables and relocate it a few hours before showtime on the day of the first performance. So there will be that to deal with. Hopefully all goes well. 

At least the show looks and sounds great! And the company’s technicians and cast have been really friendly and cooperative. Although the work has been hard and the days have been busy, I hope that they will return for another event.

I’m working seven really long days in a row, and everyday more hours get added for me to come in to work early, or leave late. That’s fine with me, I love making the overtime hours!

I also had to act as a medic one day when one of the actors, Vitor, a Brazilian ballet dancer, choreographer and actor scratched up his arm on stage. It was a pretty minor injury, and I fixed him up in no time. He’ll need a surgeon for the horns, though!

I’ve been writing this over a few days. We got the show up and running with only minutes to spare. Everything during the two show runs went great, and the show was a hit with the audience!

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People always ask how we know where all the set pieces go on the stage in the dark. Above you can see spike tape on the marley floor. Different colors and shapes tell us exactly where to place things. The tape stays on the floor, which travels with the road crew and is rolled out and taped down the the stage at each venue. 

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The prop department is responsible for many jobs on a Broadway/musical production.

The first job that the props department usually does is loading in gear from the trucks with the rest of the crews. Then we lay down marley. Marley is a vinyl-based, slip-resistant surface used as a dance floor. Almost all musical productions will use marley. It comes in giant rolls, which weigh hundreds of pounds each, and usually arrives on large steel carts capable of carrying around six rolls. The whole setup weighs several tons, and marley carts are responsible for many broken or injured stagehand feet. The vinyl surface is laid down over the stage floor and taped with marley and gaff tape. After this, the props department will sweep and French mop the surface (which they will do between and after every performance).

A French mop is basically a large, barely-wet towel slung over a big push broom. Very fancy.

A lot of stuff stored in the shop after the load-in,

The main job of the props department is to lay out or pre-set small items that the actors will use during the show. Objects like hats, pencils, pads, scarves, swords, pitchforks, fish etc.

After pre-setting props before the show, the props crew will also hand out props to their assigned actors during the performance. All of the cues (instructions about who, what, when, and where) are contained in what we call tracks—usually typed up on a piece of paper or a laminated card. The prop master (with the touring company) will also sometimes cue the crew during the show or give us a “standby” and “go” at the time when we should hand off the prop.

Many people wonder how we see everything in the dark. Everything is on a shelf and labeled in its place with tape that glows under blue light. It’s hard to miss that glowing tape.

When the shows are over the prop crew packs up the boxes and rolls up the marley, and of course we also push everything to the truck with the rest of the crew.

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Here’s an example of stagecraft trickery. How something flat looks 3D.

The amount of wigs and wardrobe on the show is also incredible. 

The cast was friendly and also quite talented. Their acting and dancing skills showed on stage but the most impressive thing about them was their singing. One of the best things about working a Broadway-type musical show is standing in the midst of the chorus while they sing the songs from the wings (at least when they’re good!).

I had the pleasure of meeting the actress Caroline Portner when she missed the cast bus to the hotel at the end of the first night. I waited with her outside until her Uber arrived. Funny thing is I didn’t know what character she played due to everyone wearing elaborate wigs and costumes in the show. I found out the next day she was one of the lead characters. Caroline is a super nice person but in the show she plays the mean girl, a sign of a really good actress.

This production brought four fully loaded semi trucks (road cases stacked 3 high), so fitting everything into our theater was pretty tight. Myself and some of our other house crew had to work with the touring crew to use the stacking motor in our shop to un-stack road cases at the load-in and re-stack everything at the load-out.

Unfortunately a lot of the company’s road cases were in bad shape, which sometimes made this difficult. (Likewise The set pieces were also in pretty bad shape). We would tell the crew, ”You ought to fix that,” to which the typical response was, “It’s just gotta last another 5 weeks!”

I don’t envy their crew for the next five weeks, but at least they all work well together and have fun. Overall, working with them was a pleasure; they were good people, and their cast was talented.

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