During the last week we hosted an event for the changing of the Mayor. Basically a special city council meeting. So our job was to recreate the city council meeting chamber on our stage complete with audio, video and lighting in order to webcast the meeting out to the city TV station.

This is a gig which we have done on quite a few occasions (and at different venues).

Since the theater is in the middle of changing all the mid level management and operations personnel, for various reasons which I will not opine upon here, there was absolutely no plan for the day from above. And that meant that I was left to plan and work out the complete wiring of the event (as far as all video was concerned).

Luckily I have done this gig enough to have a good idea of how to get the thing done in my head. I consulted the city’s video guy (who works at the council chambers) in order to make sure my plan would work for his purposes (which it mostly did with just some minor adjustments).

So I proceed to lay out the cabling and network cables needed to make it all work.

Below are photos and information about the build of the event.

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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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With a swinging rhythm section (Bass and Drums), and full complement of a horn section, and two fun frontmen. (Plus a great guitar player and keyboardist) And if that’s not enough there’s the added bonus of beat box to liven things up! If you want to see a great energetic and highly entertaining band, Phat Cat Swinger is one for you. They are off to do some shows in Las Vegas next, where I’m sure they will be greeted with enthusiasm.

After their set, and a quick four minute change over of the stage Jay Leno came out without announcement and made the crowd laugh until they cried. He has been here a few times, and I wrote about him in my book, Stagehand: A Backstage Pass to my Life Stories.

Jay is always friendly and happy. When he arrived he came to our crew break room to say hello to everyone. Afterwards I presented him with a copy of my book. When I stopped by his dressing room he was skimming through the pages. He commented on the chapter about Art Garfunkel. Apparently Art is well known as the guy I wrote about in the first part of the chapter about him. I’m glad to have yet another chance to work with Jay. He is one of the most down to earth entertainers who I know.

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But today I want to talk about the heart of what makes a theater: its crew—and specifically, some of the new young people.

If you’ve read my book, you may remember a chapter about a new kid I called Ducky. That was eight years ago—and wow, has he become an important part of our organization since then. Right now, he is technically my supervisor. Crazy.

As amazing as his rise has been—from a new person with almost no knowledge of the business to where he is today—it isn’t unique, just highly unusual.

We now have a new batch of “kids” (they’re really in their twenties, but they’re kids to me). Some are outstanding.

Let’s talk about two of them.

First, there’s Jason.

Jason is a bright young guy who wants to work as an audio engineer, and as you can see, he’s already moving toward that goal. As it turns out, he’s also one of the more gifted new hires—although he doesn’t know it, even if you were to tell him.

I’ve also taught him how to run our video rig, which he learned faster than anyone else I’ve trained. He’ll need to work on his confidence, but he absolutely has the potential to thrive in this line of work.

Right now, my top pick to skyrocket to success is a young woman named Sarah. She is, without question, the brightest, most organized, and most driven new technician I’ve seen since Ducky showed up on our doorstep.

I keep thinking she’s been here longer, but she says it’s only been about nine months.

She excels at nearly every task we give her—and then some. Ducky had even started teaching her the art of mixing monitors until our Executive Director put the kibosh on that effort. Which brings me to the “troubles” section of this post.

One of the reasons we need to teach a “new kid” how to run the monitor board— one of the most technical and responsible jobs in a venue, is because we no longer have anyone doing that job in-house. We are currently relying on contractors.

Our monitor engineer/audio assistant, Kerry, stepped down from mixing. He simply didn’t need the stress anymore. The place burned him out. After mixing hundreds—literally hundreds, possibly thousands—of shows, along with many other duties, he’d had enough. I empathize completely, as I stepped away from mixing myself years ago. Not gonna mix again.

We were all hoping Ducky would step into that role, since he had been mixing frequently as the second monitor engineer and had become extremely good at it.

Good luck keeping track of this story!

Last year my ex-roomie Jack retired. He was our front of house engineer. (Main sound guy for the civilians out there.)  He was replaced by everyone’s first choice: Jon, an incredibly talented and knowledgeable engineer.

Then my longtime friend, business partner, and other ex-roommate Tom—our Operations Manager and Technical Director—also retired. After almost a year, he was finally replaced by Steve, one of our smartest and best technicians, who had been working in the city’s IT department. (Steve had also been a monitor engineer here before leaving to IT.) He was fired without cause after only a few months.

Then Paula—our Stage Crew Supervisor and my favorite boss ever (and everyone else’s too)—was promoted to the front office. A big step up in pay and prestige. While this was a huge loss for the backstage crew, we were genuinely happy for her. (The smart move would have been to keep her backstage and pay her executive wages.)

After a loooooong time, Paula was replaced by Brenda, a valued tech, especially on the lighting crew. Brenda lasted only a few months before being let go in the middle of a workday.

Meanwhile, Rogan—our Master Carpenter/Rigger and union president—finally retired after years of talking about it. His assistant, Alma, had already left more than a year earlier and was never replaced. Her position remains open.

Ducky, realizing the audio assistant job was unlikely to open anytime soon (based on the painfully long delays in filling other positions), applied for assistant to the Operations Coordinator. Both Ducky and a wonderful, talented young technician named Tori were hired. Everyone was happy—both are incredible people and excellent techs.

Then our Operations Coordinator, James, decided he’d had enough of the bad management above him and quit. His job was integral to our operation, especially since he had already been covering the duties of the Stage Crew Supervisor, including scheduling the crew.

Which meant Ducky and Tori were suddenly doing all the work of the Operations Coordinator, the Stage Crew Supervisor, and their assistants.

So now they’re my supervisors.

Circling back to Sarah: our Executive Director has now decided that since Ducky holds a coordinator position, he can’t touch the soundboard (because union blah blah blah). Which means he can’t teach Sarah—or Jason—how to run monitors.

P.S. Ducky is also on the union board. Bet you didn’t see that coming.

Simple, right?

The Titanic has hit the iceberg, and our Executive Director is trying to turn the ship around for another pass.

What’s holding this place together now is a handful of longtime crew members and the courage and dedication of a few young technicians who have stepped up to enormous challenges under chaotic and deeply flawed management.

So kudos to the “kids.”

My hope is to work another couple of years, helping these young crew members carry this place forward for decades to come and live the dream—just as my friends and I did for so many years.

Fingers crossed.

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I always enjoy working with Lance Burton. It was his sixth time visiting the Cerritos Canter for the Performing Arts. Last time he came I asked him if he had signed our balls .(Ping Pong Balls that is!) He couldn’t remember, so we went in the office to check. He did, many years ago– two balls in fact. But he really wanted to see the collection anyways. He said he had heard about it but had never seen it. So I took him to look at the collection. The technical staff only has performers WE like sign the ping pong balls. All performers sign a tile for the lobby.

Lance was fascinated by the many famous people we have collected over the years, he took a lot of photos of the whole collection and especially people he knew or liked. We swapped stories about some of the performers. He especially was moved when he saw Louie Anderson had signed a ball, as they were good friends. I told him the story about when Louie came to visit. 

Louie was such a nice guy. Everybody loved him. He took the time to meet everyone, including the ushers, who he did a little comedy routine for before the doors opened. After the show he asked me if I would be interested in making some video content for a comedy/magic show that he was planning to do with a friend. I gave him my number and was looking forward to working with him. But he unfortunately passed away soon after and the tour didn’t happen.

That’s when Lance told me that he was the magician who was going to go on tour with Louie! What a small world.

Lance Burton, his crew and the friends who he tours with are all some of the most down to earth people who have ever come to work on our stage. All super friendly. He certainly does not have to tour to make money after playing in Vegas for thirty years, but him and his friends just love what they do, so they keep going out on the road.

I gave Lance a copy of my book, Stagehand: A Backstage Pass to my Life Stories, and was hoping to get a photo with him and the book while he was in his magician costume, but he gets in and out of costume only seconds before going on stage and out of it as soon as he leaves the stage! So the timing was bad and I didn’t want him to have to pose in his street clothes– oh well. Either way I am glad he will read my book! At the end of the night as we finished packing the trailer, the crew all took photos with me– but on their phones, I didn’t get any!

On to Robert Cray. I don’t have a lot to say about him. He, his band and his crew are all wonderful and hassle free to work with. The day was easy and fun. Their music is awesome! If you don’t know who he is, just know that he is one of the most accomplished blues guitarist in the world. And his band is great. Go Google his name and take a listen to some of his music, I guarantee that you will not be disappointed. I’ll leave you with some photos from throughout the day.

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A DiGiCo Double Play for the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts

See the link above for the whole article. The venue where I work, The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, has substantially upgraded our audio system. Starting with the audio desks. Two new Digico Quantum 338’s.

We have also acquired a line array, from D&B audiotechnik, and a full stage monitor system, each including amplifiers and all supporting gear.There’s a lot to list and it’s almost showtime so I don’t have the time to do so right now. Maybe later.

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Another thing which is included with this system is a new switcher which we can switch through an iPad from the stage managers panel (SMD) or anywhere in the theater. This alone is a huge improvement, as now nobody has to run up to the amp room on the second floor to switch the video from the advertising during preshow and intermission to the camera for the show presentation. There’s still more to do but things are vastly improved.

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Easy Peasy. Load out isn’t until tomorrow night as we have a second show tomorrow night, so it’s a walk away tonight!

Also, it’s a sell out show!

Excellent.

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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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