Wrapping Things Up

After doing roughly 250 performances of Show Stoppin', we are closing at the end of this week. I'll be back in Ames the day before classes start, so my summer is ending in a mad dash of packing, moving and jumping right into classes. A lot of other people are also leaving for school, so everyone's schedules for this week are a little screwy. We go back to doing three shows a day instead of four since the park closes an hour earlier-- bumping night parade up to 9:00 instead of 9:30.

I’m pretty bummed that I can’t stick around for Fright Fest. While Six Flags stops daily operation in September, Fright Fest is when the park completely converts to a Halloween theme park for weekends through the fall. I've never been here for it, but it sounds like they really go all out-- the entertainment department kind of gets to take over, decorating the entire park as well as putting up several haunted houses and all new shows just for Fright Fest, it sounds awesome. Since I can't stay to work Fright Fest, I'm hoping to at least come out for a weekend and see everything.

As the summer is wrapping up, it feels very different here than it did at Great River Shakes. I’m really pleased that I consecutively worked at two very different places, especially in this order. To some extent I miss the magic of opening night, the collaborative and community feel of a self-built company devoted to creating art in a beautiful, riverside town. I also miss working on actual plays. During our trip to the Wisconsin Theatre Auditions I grabbed lunch with one of the GRSF producers and he asked about how much it matters to a techie that they would be working on Shakespeare (as opposed to musical theatre or a typical summer stock season). I’m pretty sure that it isn’t that relevant for all technicians, but I’m definitely pleased that my first project this semester is Twelfth Night because it certainly matters to me.

That being said, I loved, loved, loved my summer here! I also don’t think my education would be complete without working this side of theatre. I really appreciate non-educational work, where mistakes are not brushed off and there are high standards for every show. I do think that product is important and work has to sell to continue operation in the future. Plus, Show Stoppin' is FUN. It's not Lear, but it's a loud, colorful and upbeat show, which is something I can appreciate.

I also loved working on an extended run—I’ve never gotten to do a show so frequently that it becomes routine. It not only prepared me for work that I will inevitably get in the future, but also provided the chance to really perfect every detail. By this point in the season a flawless show for me is expected, and manageable. Usually in a two week run you still have some kinks that never quite get worked out simply due to the time crunch. It’s incredibly satisfying knowing that you are doing your job to the best of your ability without having to give up sleeping during tech week and opening.

Then all the gushy stuff—between living in my gimpy but fabulous housing situation and the badass people in the entertainment department, I’ve made a lot of amazing friends this summer :) When I have real internet again I’ll put up photos, but it’s been all together a really wonderful experience for my second internship. Highly recommended to other ISU perf students, either for tech or performance. I guess this ends my summer blogging, which means that the next time I show up on this blog it will be as an ISU Theatre alum! Hooray!

Show Stoppin' ctd.

There hasn’t been a lot to report since the majority of what I do has gotten into a pretty basic rhythm. There aren't a whole lot of surprises and even with random mishaps (losing power during a storm, dancer injuries, etc.) things still run very smoothly. After awhile with a longer run you start to really notice details, patterns and trends in performances. Everyone is working very hard to keep the shows consistent, but the first show has a different type of energy than the show after dinner, or the last show before night parade. I don’t think it is anything noticeable to guests, but to reserve energy for a full day’s work here, there has to be a level of restraint.

Yesterday Sean Kingston had a concert at the park and I worked the events staff for extra hours. It was really, really similar to working at CY Stephens except the stage is a giant volcano that opens up. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the place uploaded, but trust me that it looks awesome. The space used to hold a stunt show, so when that ended they left up the volcano and converted it into a concert venue. This was the third concert of the summer, after Raven and Jesse McCartney.

My show closes August 16th so things are wrapping up fairly soon. I think one of the bigger reasons I’ve had such a blast are the people here. Not only do I live with a bunch of fabulous South Africans, but the people in the entertainment department are a ridiculous amount of fun. The techs in my building especially get along really well and it’s made a huge difference. The past few weekends I’ve had were also particularly fun—I got to play beach volleyball with the Beach Boys then see their concert at Ravinia (a nearby outdoor concert venue), see my first White Sox game, see Barenaked Ladies at Taste of Chicago, visit high school friends in the city and lay out on the beach (have I mentioned how much I love Lake Michigan?) all summed up with an employee ride night on Tuesday!

I’m looking forward to the fall semester, but things here have also been pretty great. More updates to come! For now, here's two youtube clips from this year's show:

Late Nights and Parade Floats

Two months left here at Six Flags and I am still having a damn good time.

My days off this week were spent entirely in Chicago with Kim and Malary. I finally got around to seeing Jersey Boys-- I loved loved loved it! I wasn't a fan of the projections, they felt distracting and tacky, but if you get the chance I highly recommend seeing it. Next week is the Taste of Chicago, which includes free concerts every night in Butler Park. I'm going to see Barenaked Ladies on Tuesday!

2pm breakfast with Kim on my day off.

We are in full swing for Night Parade setup at the moment. Days have been filled with the usual three shows, then we have to break for an hour and a half until the park closes and guests leave so we can work out in Hometown Square (the area including the parade start point and an outdoor stage for the preshow). Tonight included focusing the lights on top of buildings surrounding the area and along the trusses on the outdoor parade stage. I've never done a focus from on top of trusses but it's a really good time. We have to wear harnesses and clip off as we go along which can get irritating, but it keeps us safe so I can't really complain.

Passing gel up to Erica on the truss. You can almost see my ever-classy uniform of navy Six Flags polo/navy dickies. Hooray!

Something I've loved about this job is the variety of instruments that are used here. Outside we use everything from old crappy par cans (they've been called a headlight in a tin can more than once), to intelligent lights (mostly trackspots) inside weatherproof shells, and we even mount HUGE super trooper spotlights on top of buildings (it takes a crane. seriously.). We've also been hanging strobe ropes everywhere. Before working here I'd never heard of strobe rope, but it's essentially like a string of mini strobe lights and looks like a million little camera flashes going off. The effect is really neat, I want to get some of my own to play with (except I just looked up how much they cost. yipes.). Inside there is a huge variety (lots of MACs and cybers), but the basics are covered by source fours (which is mostly what we use in Fisher) so it's nice to have something familiar around as well. I've been nerding out about learning the different fixtures :)

View from the scaffolding just below the trusses, over Hometown Square.

The whole process of lighting a parade makes me think about how much fun general atmospheric lighting can be. Anything from department stores to haunted houses to amusement rides (i.e. "It's a Small World" or "Pirates of the Caribbean" at Disney) was done by a lighting designer. Sounds like fun.

I don't have any pictures of the parade stage yet, but this is the set for Show Stoppin', my main show.

Anyhow, we just have to finish cleaning off the rest of the parade floats by Sunday night and we'll be ready. The designer will keep programming while the performers rehearse on the stage for the next three nights. Once night parade opens we bump up to four shows per day followed immediately by parade. I'm exhausted from getting off work at 1am each night, but it feels really satisfying to have spent my day running shows and climbing trusses!

Up and Running

It's insane what has been accomplished in the last week!

We opened on Friday and have done 21 shows so far. We had a few really hectic days where there was 40 minutes between shows, so as soon as one show ended we had to rush to get the house ready for the next one. I've never done three shows in a day back to back and ohmygosh it is exhausting, both physically and mentally draining. Still, is great to be up and running with an audience and by the third show each day I'm finding adrenaline reserves I didn't know I had. One more week and we add a fourth show per day. Phew.

This is me swimming in the confetti that we sweep up between each show. Hooray!

Show Stoppin' was the second show to open (the first one being The Wiggles Show... technically I guess we're third if you count Day Parade), so there's still lots of setup to be done. We're working our show from 2:30-7pm, then stay until midnight-ish working on Country Rockin' Live in the Saloon venue and The Looney Tunes Talent Show on the Mardi Gras stage, both of which open tomorrow. From there we will be setting up for Night Parade, which is a big ol' pile of fun. The Night Parade includes a preshow on an outdoor stage that requires lights hung on the surrounding buildings and an audio system that still needs to be set up, as well as cleaning off the floats that haven't been used so far during Day Parade and touching up paint wherever it's needed.

This is the set for The Looney Tunes Talent Show on one of the small stages in the park. The picture's probably too small to really see, but the detailing on the trim across the top was all individually cut out with a jigsaw and painted to match a previous set. Took forever, but it really adds a nice finish to the whole look.

Last night was an employee ride night at the park, the first since I've been here. They opened up some of the best rides (Raging Bull, the Giant Drop, Viper and a few others to anyone who's been here) and had free food and arcade games from 10pm to midnight. There are roughly 3,000 employees total, but with not everyone there and the park averaging 10,000 people each day, that meant pretty much no lines for anything! Also, there's just something awesome about not having any actual guests in the park-- it's a very different atmosphere than coming on your day off :)

Me and Claire at home, before Ride Night.

Anyhow, my show is really feeling like a routine at this point. Each time through is still fun, but there are no nerves, there aren't really surprises (every now and then a zipper will break or the confetti drop will be moody, but that's about it) and there is confidence in the fact that each and every guest sees the same, solid show. I'm interested to see if/how the product grows or changes over the next two months.

All my best to everyone involved in History Boys, I'm really bummed that I can't make it back to see you guys! Have a great opening weekend!!

Adrenaline High

I know I only blogged a few days ago, but I feel like gushing:

I LOVE MY JOB.

We open in two days and it's been a fabulous, intense week. We just keep running the show over and over again all day long, with maybe 20-30 minutes inbetween for notes and practicing any cues we need to work on. They've finally started working with costumes, and running between quick changes backstage and fly cues up in the loft is exhausting but a whole crap ton of fun. The really tough cues are working themselves out (i.e., two trusses need to fly in at the same time at a seven count, but they travel different distances so we have to keep our count consistent while going at uneven paces and lock off at the exact same time or it looks really funky), and it feels so satisfying when we nail it. I can't say enough good things about our supervisors-- they expect perfection and are really great about talking out issues and letting us do what it takes to get it right. I've never had a bar held this high and at the same time feel like I can absolutely reach it.

Also, this job has been great in really forcing me to do creative problem solving. Since it's a new show, the problems we come across don't have an easy fix and supervisors trust us to make everything work so I find myself being extremely proactive and inventive with jimmy-rigging all sorts of things. Again, there is a huge amount of satisfaction in making difficult things work with little or no hand holding.

And for anyone who ran crew during Gypsy, there is a confetti drop in this show that I get to sweep up aftwarwards. Karma? I think so :)

We have one day left to get the venue 100% ready for an audience and I cannot wait!

Crunch Time

Show Stoppin' opens on Friday so we've started doing run thrus all day every day to get ready. The "stage manager" for the Grand Music Hall (where I work) isn't a stage manager in the normal sense-- she is in charge of the technicians and performers, but does not calls cues during the show. Instead each position is given cue sheets that we run off of on our own and get notes at the end of the night for any mistakes.

This is a shot of the stage from last year's show. The set is the same but we have been wiring a new sign that will be up during the preshow.

I really appreciate the supervisors I'm working with in this job-- they have very high standards for us and expect flawless shows each time, but aren't overly harsh about mistakes unless they have to give a note repeatedly. It's intimidating knowing that once we open mistakes are unacceptable, but it really pushes us to do the best job we possibly can.

The show itself is also more fun than I originally expected (there's a really cute duet version of "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz and a motown bit with the remake of "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" by Stevie Wonder and "Mercy" by Duffy). It runs around 30 minutes and is free to park guests. We will be doing four shows each day, seven days a week (each position has a swing to cover our two days off). In another week we will begin night parade rehearsals and I will end each day with that, making my days full, busy and fun!

We finished wiring this part of the new Show Stoppin' sign tonight. We'll add the letter facing and hang it tomorrow morning.

I feel like I'm learning a lot about working on a show that runs like a machine-- cleanly executed for the entire run. I remember my stage manager last summer, Christi, explaining to me how there is something very exciting about a reliable, efficient show that promises the best possible performance for every audience member whether it is the tenth or the hundreth show and it's really true. While I don't think it is always realistic, there's something reassuring and satisfying about a solid, consistent product for an extended run (I should point out that I'm referring to the tech side of things.... if we're talking about acting I certainly think that there is room for discoveries and growth once a show opens).

On a side note, today was an employee appreciation day so we had free food and karaoke at the Picnic Grove. It's a damn good time when the entertainment department has karaoke during their lunch break since the performers' job is essentially large-scale karaoke :)

Anyhow, I'm still having a really great time outside of work as well. We grill out about once a week at the housing complex and I've been going into Chicago to see various friends on my days off. Next week I'm going down to Ravinnia, a spot just north of the city that hosts huge outdoor concerts, nothing sounds better right now than a lawn chairs, good music and friends on a beautiful summer night.

More to come once the show opens!

More Six Flags Fun

Things are pretty great here-- I still have not run over any parade watchers with the trolley, so I am happy.

The process for the show I'm working on, Show Stoppin', is a little different than what I'm used to. Setup for all the shows began in January with the full time staff, then kicked into high gear when the seasonal technicians arrived. Rehearsals began about a week ago as we continued with setup and instead of having tech the week before it opens, we are gradually adding technical elements in as we go. The lighting designer has been programming all week and running cues as the performers work through songs, yesterday they switched from using the original songs to the music-only track and added microphones. Costumes and fly cues will come next week. Since the full tech staff is here regardless, this way of teching a show makes a lot of sense to me. The performers and director have also been really great about working aorund the ladders onstage and machinery noise that's inevitable for us to get everything ready.

This is Buckley, the old hospital building I'm living in for the summer. We made jokes that it looks like it used to be a mental hospital-- turns out, we were right. What I thought were very large closets used to be solitary confinement rooms. Anyhow, it's not very plush but it's got character and I like it.

Once Show Stoppin' opens, my schedule will be awesome. I'll get to work at 3pm and do preshow tasks, followed by running the show four times (it runs about 35minutes) and ending each day with parade! Night Parade is a lot more fun than Day Parade, and it will be really nice to work 3-11pm instead of 9am-5pm.

This is me and Erica (another technician) riding the Batman rollercoaster.

Anyhow, I have the next two days off to kick back and relax a bit. I'm taking it easy tomorrow, getting groceries, running errands, etc., then on Wednesday I'm seeing a matinee of Twelfth Night at Chicago Shakes followed by Jersey Boys in the evening with my roommate, Alli!

All in all, I'm pretty stoked with how this summer is working out.

Visitng downtown Chicago on my day off