Into the Woods

Last week I was the Master Electrician (ME) for Into the Woods.

It was a totally different experience from Irma Vep. This time, I actually knew how to do the things that needed to get done!! At 8AM on Monday, I got the truss from its storage space and built our large truss structure (the metal thing for hanging lights) in 2 hours. I feel like that's a pretty big accomplishment because we had a lot of truss. After my classes, I was in charge of getting cable to all of the lights. This task gave me a mini identity crisis because people were asking me how they could help, a question I usually ask others. It felt odd yet good to be the knowledgeable one.

Once all the lights were hung and cabled, we hoisted the truss and ate dinner. The rest of the week was spent focusing lights, getting color on them, and fixing things that needed fixing. Basically, I spent multiple hours each day at the top of a very tall ladder manipulating heavy and expensive instruments. It was fun!

The performances went well, though I don't really like Into the Woods as a show. Our production was set in a prison camp, so I made my acting debut as a guard in one of the guard towers during a performance. I just had to look intimidating and die at the end.

On Sunday, we had a really tough strike. We had four hours to take everything apart and be out of the space, and our set was HUGE! (and beautiful). The company that recycles set pieces did not come, and we had to make an emergency change of plans to get everything stored, so we ended up finishing strike two hours late in the hallway outside our room. I'm particularly proud of how fast I was able to get the truss disassembled; I got the pieces separated in 18-30 minutes.

Overall, it was a fun show to be part of! This process made me really appreciate the teamwork aspects of theater because the cast was so helpful and there was amazing collaboration between the set and lighting teams to get everything done; these teams are dependent on one another to get the space cleared because we cannot put the truss on the ground until the stage is gone.

Today is awesome because Neil Gaiman wrote a fantastic episode of Doctor Who that I finally watched, I had a They Might Be Giants singalong on Sunday night that made me very happy, this is my 70th blog post, and it's the last week of classes!