Choreographed Tech

After quickly downing a cup of coffee on our way to Assembly Roxy this morning, Julie and I mentally prepared ourselves to take part in the Bedtime Solos pre-show load-in. Set up is just as perfectly choreographed as the actual show because even the slightest slip up could delay the start, ultimately creating a domino effect on the rest of the day's Roxy shows.

The moment we were allowed in, we rushed to the storage room located behind the back black. Each Roxy show is allotted a 1 meter x 1 meter block to store all set pieces, props and costumes. Shows are separated by a masking tape line on the floor, and our space is in the corner of the closet by a red clay wall. We quickly grabbed all of the necessary pieces to construct the center stage bed (including the white sheets and white comforter that has to be kept far away from that red wall!!) and ran out to the  stage to build the plywood bed and line it up on the lime green spike marks. Finding the spike was a challenge with 6 other shows sharing the same space!

After the stage was set, we went up to the booth with Bob to quickly run through the sound and light cues with the new technician. Every three days the venue tech changes, so it's important to make sure that when they rotate the new person is well versed on the cues. 

The sound/light boards are all the way up there.
They have an Ion board but run each show off of a different laptop!

Time update: it took us about 3 minutes to get everything from storage and set the stage, 3 minutes for the tech to mop and change the stage light gels, and another 4 to run (literally...run) through the cues. Ready or not, the house opens on the 10 minute mark and another 2 minutes later the lights go down and the show begins. It's a whirlwind, but when everyone knows what they're doing it's awesome.

Clean-up is a bit easier because the tech takes care of changing the gels for the next show, but the next show is also in the storage closet trying to get their set out on stage while we're trying to move ours in so there are a lot of people rushing around a tiny space.  Such a cool experience. Guess all those Grease dry run sprints from 5 years ago are finally paying off ;)

The show after us setting up...no time for pictures on our time!

After the show we had a workshop at Fringe Central called How to talk to Producers led by Frodo McDaniel. He was hilarious, and the presentation was very memorable. Right before the workshop there was a networking brunch for people looking for producers for their shows. Since Frodo is apparently a very sought after producer, he walked into the workshop with piles and piles of press kits, tech specs and press releases. Instead of just listing out what a good press release should include, he spent the hour and a half tearing apart each and every one of the packets people gave him during the networking event. While we thought that was kind of a jerk move...it was way more memorable and we all got some good notes about what not to do!

After the workshop some of us used our Summerhall passes to see HeLa, a solo show about  when Henrietta Lacks went to Johns Hopkins complaining of abdomen pain, and the cell sample that was used without her permission for some of the most important scientific discoveries over the past 100 years. The venue was very fitting and the lighting was very well done. Located in the back of the main Summerhall building, it was a small room with with a projection built in over the chalkboard and a cupboard that opened to various props used throughout the show. 

And then at 11:20 we went to Shit Faced Shakespeare. Not going to lie I was a bit skeptical when I saw it getting four and five star reviews from respectable sources, but I'm completely serious when I say it was such a funny show...especially after our tendency the past few days to pick all of the super heavy intense shows. Basically, there are 6 cast members performing Much Ado About Nothing....and one of them is extremely, extremely drunk. The 'chosen' person rotates each night, and there's a moderator to keep things from getting too too out of hand, but other than that anything is fair game. It was fabulous.

Tomorrow we're going to try to go to one of the Free Fringe Murder Mystery shows at 11, class at 12:30, then the Summerhall Tempest on the beach at the Firth of Forth at 2:15.  The tickets are so expensive, but when we talked to someone in the box office before HeLa tonight she said there are "plenty" of open spots for tomorrow's show so if all goes as planned we will be able to use our passes to go free...which would be sweeeeet!