Gremlins

I got drawings from Noah today. I had Nicole convert the VectorWorks "as of focus" plot into an acad file so that I would be able to navigate it. Unfortunately, give me a vw file and you may as well have handed me two bricks and a stick and said, "go make some dinner." It just won't happen. I have no idea what to do. But if the conversion went correctly, which I think that it did, then I have found 2 gremlins so far.

1. The part of the proscenium that actually moves in and out is not in his plot, resulting in the thickness of the proscenium being 2'-2 1/16" in my groundplan and 1'-10 3/8" thick in the lighting designer's groundplan. That is 4" right there.
2. In my groundplan, the Show Portal is situated under lineset 5, mostly downstage of it, but a with some upstage of the lineset as well. In the lighting designer's gp, the show portal is entirely downstage of lineset 5 and is also shown with 1/2" less thickness.
3. The distance between the most upstage edge of the fire curtain track and the downstage edge of the Show Portal is 3'-4 1/2" in my groundplan and 3'-2 13/16" in the LD groundplan. There is another 2" so now we are up to 6" accounted in discrepancies between the TD's as-built groundplan and the Lighting Designer's as-of-focus groundplan.

The next step is to get into the space with a tape measure and see which of these drawings is correct with regards to reality, or if neither of them is correct, what does reality say. In both drawings, the Fire Curtain Track is 4" thick, which sounds slim compared to reality, but we'll see.

More updates to follow after I measure stuff tonight. woohoo!

Ouch

News from before the notes session:

• Ethan Hova cut his hand on the stair flashing. I hate that someone got hurt on the set. I feel bad and horrible and 2 centimeters tall.

From the notes session:

• the hand bounces... ewww... that is super gross
• ethan got a hard-core papercut from the flashing
• the gun is being troublesome
  

Continuing news:

• proscenium masking is on the stage management list to try to make it not suck.
  

Schedule that effects me tomorrow:

• Space is unavailable due to acting notes 2:30-5:30
• 8pm curtain tomorrow
• 11pm reception in Studio A for the opening.
  

notes out my ears

So, the notes took WAY longer than expected today. But the stairs spin. However, it is a big hassle to reset the scenery, so there will be a sign on the Fire Curtain box before the crew call that says something along the lines of "Don't run the fire curtain unless ther is an ACTUAL fire onstage because the set will move and the reset is annoying and time consuming."

As I type this, I am thinking about how to keep the stairs from pulling away from the lower platform, and it seems that a small cylinder acting as a pin would work, plumbed off of the main cylinder with Tees, but I'm not sure how to make it so that it actually holds without preventing the fire curtain actuated motion. Suggestions? Please comment.

The flashing is on and looks nice. I used the not-smelly contact cement this time. It takes longer to dry, but no one complains about fumes.

The doors have been wiped down. I guess that they are cleaner, there was some dirt/dust on the rag. The escape railing that was loose is now tight.

The proscenium masking is not any better, but I didn't get to that today, so I wouldn't expect it to be any better.

There is production management homework due tomorrow. That makes me sad =(

I still smell bad. Ick. Should go home and solve that problem. All day I have been working toward that goal. It is the prize for finishing the notes... a shower. But then the notes took forever, so I had an intermediate prize of soup for lunch.

Another realization as I type this... I didn't dress the air hose up off the floor. Got to do that or someone will eat my face. toodle-oo

Final Dress

The stairs seem to have slid forward.... pressure in the system should fix that. Argh..

1. Clean top of the doors... ladder and simple green and a rag
2. Stairs need to be pressurized to hold back... didn't anticipate that problem, as it hasn't been one before there was a cylinder
3. Flashing needs to be put on early in the day tomorrow for the lower platforms (10:30am... after Management Seminar)
4. Proscenium Masking clamp... spoke with Matt Hales... he says that the Arcadia masking only looked good because Stevie made sure that no light ever went onto the blacks, but told me what he thinks that Avery did to make it look better, so I'm going to try making them myself
5. Chandelier clunked... note taken... make sure that it is run in preset
6. Dan has told me that the railing on the escape platform is falling off... so I'm going to be looking at that in a few minutes
7. Dave Boevers came to tech notes tonight.
   
8. Don't frantically pester people with 2 guns in their hands... its just common sense people!

Tomorrow:

1. work from 10:30 on to get all the notes done... I have no classes after that
2. Tech Tables need to go away tomorrow... Becca is talking to Todd about it.
   

What we did today:

• Cleaned up the mess backstage on the Cinderblock Wall Wagon (thanks Harumi!)
• Got the cylinder installed (woohoo!)... now its time to troubleshoot
• the railings were cleaned today (yay for the run crew!)

Notes from Tuesday's Run

Tomorrow's Schedule:

• 10am-12:30pm: Katy works on rotation of stairs
• 4pm-6pm: The usual notes, Katy and Shannon... though the space is technically not available... so I guess we'll see what's up.
  
• 6pm-6:30pm: Clean-up Backstage (Cinderblock Wall "cart"), Katy & Harumi (Shannon eats dinner)
• 6:30-7:30: Actors in Notes w/ Di in Studio A; Crew Cleans and pre-sets stuff
• 7:30-7:50: Stage is available for notes
• 7:50pm: Half Hour
• 8:20pm: Go! for a full run
• 11:30ish: Notes meeting in the house
  

From Nick:

• Lower Stair flashing
• Touch-up Kit from Paints, please
• Lightbulb needs one more coat of frost (aka hair spray)
• Talk to Matt Hales about proscenium black wrinkles
  

Ongoing (Katy's notes):

• Stair Filler
• Proscenium Masking
• Backstage Cleaning is an issue... sharp things are getting missed and found by actresses' feet... this is unacceptable
  

Other:

• The Carpet Redirection System was a sucess
• Di really likes the word "catastrophic" which is unfortunate
  

Yay!

It works! The crew can do it! Its lightweight and portable! The carpet pulls relatively straight! Yay for the SCURCA (Self Contained Underwater Rolling of Carpet Apparatus)! Though it isn't self-contained (the carpet goes off in straight SL, parallel to plaster), definitely not underwater (unless they forget to wring out the mops), the carpet is more folded or deflected, not really rolled. But it IS an Apparatus! The Apparatus for the deflection and control of the red carpet is a success. Yay! Thanks to all of you out there who helped to make it a reality. Tomorrow is spinning stairs day. I figured out how to get the pin out of that pivoting end. Those funny pliers have a purpose, they aren't just some eBay special of incorrectly assembled pliers that wouldn't surprise me in our scene shop in the slightest.

my head hurts

Its been a day... quite a day. I realize that this is for crew reports, but you get to hear about the day. First, I woke up in my inflatable bed that is quite deflated right now... On my way to school, I tripped and fell. I skinned both knees. Scraped the palms of my hands. And the worst part? My backpack fell forward and hit me in the head. Just to add insult to injury... Then the Frankavator was twisty like a roller coaster in Tech Design... Shannon had been unable to procure carpet for the escape stairs, so I called Harumi to see where we were at with money (to buy carpet) to discover that she was still in Toronto due to immigration issues and a missed plane. So, I went and asked Todd for carpet, he said, "sure, take the big pieces that we don't want anyway."

The door plates, handles and knobs are all in and they look nice. Much less like ass than before. woohoo! The lower stairs support the flipper platform piece. yay! The flipper facing doesn't do anything yet, I ran out of time. boo! I am concerned that the facing piece won't fall forward like its supposed to, and that makes me sad. Does anyone know how I attach something to the pivot end of the cylinder? It has a well contained pivot-rod thingie, so I can't just unscrew it and put it through a hole in a plate or anything.

Tomorrow morning, at 10:30am, with the Tech Direction class, Wall D will be going up on blocks. Like Becca's car when the tires got stolen. But a bit less ghetto, we hope. The changing booth needs to move (UL) and some cabling might need to be re-dressed, but with an available labor pool it seems to be the best solution to the currently inelegant carpet pulling. Still need to put an extension on the carpet, but that isn't the annoying or hard part. Training the run crew to pull it will probably be the hard part. I looked at it in the space with Adrienne, I think that it is the least annoying solution to the problem.

Other notes:

• try tightening the door latches... the doors aren't working as nicely as they did last week... maybe the new door plates, etc. messed up the balance?
• Spraying the gauze curtain with hot water was done by Lenny (thanks!)
• Spraying the lightbulb with hairspray was done by Lenny (thanks!)
• The hogstrough between B2 and D was moved down to allow the gauze hanger to come in. It will stay where it is now because the curtain looked nice today. The person who flys the curtain needs to be aware of not crashing into the hogstrough with the batten... makes a banging noise... that's bad.
• The top of the cinderblock wall (the upper left brick) needs to be trimmed down.
• I was planning on working on the rotating stairs tomorrow, but perhaps that will be later in the day since we are going to move Wall D upwards and onwards.

My head still hurts... time for going home

Ripping it off from Andrea

We finished teching the show today. Yay!
We didn't get to start another run. Boo!
Adrienne brought us pie. Yay!

yay boo yay boo it's lots of fun to do
if you like it, holler yay
if you don't, you holler boo

The aluminum door plates are fabricated. Yay!
I still need to decide how to attach them to the doors. Boo!
Shannon is going to get a long Phillips drill bit tomorrow. Yay!
The fabricator didn't debur the holes. Boo!

yay boo yay boo it's lots of fun to do
if you like it, holler yay
if you don't, you holler boo

Shannon is going to carpet the stairs. Yay!
The rest of backstage may still need to be carpeted. Boo!
The chandelier flies correctly now. Yay!
The padding was getting in the way. Boo!

yay boo yay boo its lots of fun to do
if you like it, holler yay
if you don't, you holler boo

The cylinder has arrived for the stairs. Yay!
I still need to figure out how to install it. Boo!
The flippers should work as planned. Yay!
Spinning stairs seem to spin during the last scene. Boo!
The cylinder should have enough pull to hold them in place. Yay!
Still not sure when the rehearsal stairs will be struck. Boo!

yay boo yay boo its lots of fun to do
if you like it, holler yay
if you don't, you holler boo

Its Thanksgiving Break this week. Yay!
Kevin has to go traveling to Long Island this week. Boo!
Becca and Nicole have approved thesis topics now. Yay!
Now they still have to write them. Boo!
But they have something to be thankful for at the dinner table on Thursday. Yay!

yay boo yay boo its lots of fun to do
if you like it, holler yay
if you don't, you holler boo

Gettin' It Done

Mike at Fahrion Sheet Metal finally called me back with a price and an estimated time to completion. This wouldn't have been a rush order if he'd called me back the middle of last week when we started this phone tag hoohah. But $196 and I get all of my door aluminum done be the end of the day tomorrow.

10 out of 12

Tech moved well. I do appreciate the style of having everything in the rehearsal hall from sets, costumes and props so that tech isn't about adding a million things that weren't there before. As irritating as the English directors can be with their "I want everything in the rehearsal hall now!" it makes other parts of life easier, like putting actors on stage.

Annotated Notes list:

• Move the bracing between Wall B and Wall D SR to the top of Wall D for a lighting shot to get through. After speaking with I-Hua, I will neatly remove the cable from the hogstrough and she will redress it with longer cable Monday Afternoon during their lighting work notes.
• The Chandelier still goes "bump" on its way up, that needs to be addressed before Monday's tech. Not sure if its an issue of padding or operator error. I suspect the latter, but the former may help as well.
• There is a large gouge in the floor (suspiciously shaped like a blue genie outrigger that was dropped on its end) upstage left under the upper platform, in a high traffic area. Right now it is taped over. I will be speaking with Lenny about his preferred patch method... either sand and fill or cut out a rectangle and replace the rectangle. Honestly, I don't care which he goes for as long as he's happy and lets me know.
• Blackout the rope light for the smoke effect. This is one that I took on to help out electrics, I'm thinking that taping black fabric to the inside of the pit rail screens would work to keep the rope light illumination from going out the holes.
• The bottom of the doors needs to be light locked with something flexible (for the rug to pass through/under). One option discussed with Nick were to somehow adhere black fabric directly to the underside of the door. The other option is to cut a small, thin piece of wood or "lathe", have Lenny paint it to be green wood and use that to hold on the door skirt. Any other opinion havers?
• Wardrobe has requested 6-8 coat hooks in the changing booth. It seems that we don't have any in the hardware room, so I am going to buy some tomorrow, mount them to a board and screw them up in the changing booth.
• The proscenium masking is bunchy near the floor. It needs to not be that way.
• Clean up the pile on the back of the cinderblock wall unit's wagon.
• Raise chandelier trim height 18"
• Black the chandelier hardware (marker!)
• The seams on the flipper facing don't look too bad under light. So I need to hinge that in. Build a support for the flipper onto the back of the stairs and have the flipper platform and the flipper facing pin together (currently, they are screwed). It isn't permanent right now because I was concerned about how the seams would look in the mdf facing. I am going to put some black fabric on the US side of it, to span the gap, but under light it isn't particularly noticeable.
• The Flashing for the lower stair unit can go on once the mechanics of the spin/flip are arranged.
• Actuator for the spinning stairs... on order... on its way
• door plates and stuff... the sheet metal guy either doesn't want to talk to me or he is super-duper busy. Prior to Monday morning, I am going to fax my specs to other sheet metal guys in town to see who can get me a quality product fastest for a reasonable price. I know, I know, there are 3 variables in any project, time, money and quality and I am asking for all 3 to be in my favor. Really, I just want someone who will return my calls.
• clean the railings. talk to Ben carter about a product for that. maybe talk to Nick prior to that and see if its still needed given the lighting of the show.
• The SR Tabs were flown in as more masking was needed... seems that masking was drawn farther than the pipes go, and I didn't catch it. Bad TD, no biscuit.

Shopping List for Sunday:

• Coat hooks for the dressing booth
• black fabric to be light-locking masking sort of stuff... gonna try JoAnn's, don't want to wait for Rose Brand
• highly aggressive double stick tape (any brands I should look for?)
• Zippo lighter fluid (for props)
• Lighter flints (for props)
• Lighter wicks (for props)

This is actually going to be a pretty good show. You should come and see it. The men are dashing and handsome. The women are sparkly and beautiful. The pace seems to be good. But we haven't gotten to the gory death scenes yet. So maybe I should reserve judgment.

Tomorrow's plan is to get the shopping done early-ish, do any notes that don't require a supervisor, get my tech design homework for Monday done and go to bed early.

Monday's plan is to be in to school by 9am, deal with aluminum/sheet metal fabricators who don't like to call me back, do notes that do require a supervisor or the shop, go to class, eat dinner, sit tech again.

Snippets from the day:

Apricocks. It looks like a train station. That is ugly, cut it. Can we get a bigger baby? Can somebody please teach them how to sweep and mop? Paint one of the babies blue. Can't we just rent a baby?

Oh, now it works

Copied and pasted from an earlier email:

So, Blogger is having server errors out the wazoo. And Gmail has chosen to not cooperate with my mouse. So I am resorting to Mulberry for this report. Blech.

Tonight we discovered that the run crew assigned to deck/fly/props has themost useless people we have ever met. One of them (Cody) is quite goodwhen kept on his own. The other 2 are just awful. Special, really. I will stop talking about it now. Everyone on the team has witnessed them in action. Or non-action, really. Shannon gave them a good talking to before we released them. Maybe it will be better. Or someone will really yell at them.

What we did:

• The bare bulb is weighted and flies. It is approximately 400grams ofweight to fly a light bulb with ~80' of zip cord and 3 raulmark sheaves.The bare bulb, when it finally is set, might make a good Tech Brief. Or maybe there already is one and I'm retarded for not having just used that information.
• The flying things are all spiked for ins and outs and I've run them withShannon.
• A walkthrough was done with stage management (Adrienne)
• The railing edges were softened as asked for by stage management.
• A thorough (though not perfect by any means) backstage and onstage sweep and mop was done. The cracks on the stage floor were vacuumed out.
• The floor was drag-proofed and desqueaked.
• A black commando skirt was put on the 3 non-wall sides of the cinderblock wall plug.
• the changing booth was fixed/improved and the table set up for costumes.
• the silver cables on Wall B were blacked out with marker.
• the nosing was attached to the lower platform
• the lower steps spin (attached to the Unit on the upstage side)

Still on The List:

• Flipper facing/platform hinge and pins and things
• real flashing on the flipper pieces.
• black out the pit rail screens for the fog effect (buy black fabric? plywood?)
• Track down the stupid fabricators for the aluminum stuff. or find a different shop to have bid it/do it. But I kind of want this good shop. Arrgh.
• put some hot glue on the bare bulb to keep it hanging straight
• Upper toe rail facing bit t-nailed on (10am) tomorrow because I keep forgetting about it.
• Make stair joint fillers. Give to paints.

And now, I need to go to the Drill Deck because the Grand Buffet concerthas crummy turnout and I don't want Milo to cry.

It was a day

Tonight a nosing piece was made, but not attached because the stairs aren't attached yet, and that would be asking for trouble. The Upstage Studwall on the Upper Platform (aka Lower Wall B1) was braced. Electrics improved their hazer platform. The ends of the upper stairs both have facings on them. I bought a marker to black out the Wall B cables, but it turns out that the only 2 that aren't black already are the ones over the Upper Platform. So to get to them, the border will need to be flown out and the cable accessed from behind using the Genie Lift. Perhaps the Blue Genie would be able to make it. I was able to black part of one of the cables from the front, when i was lined up to do a cable that turned out to be black already, and the Magnum 44 seemed to be enough, I could see a difference from the floor.

For most of the evening, I worked on the bare bulb rigging. This was NOT the plan. First, I was going to make the wood plug with a groove in the middle to hold the zip cord in the middle of the piece of pipe that Avery made to hold the lamp socket. So I did. I was a very tight fit. In fact, it was near impossible to remove from the pipe once it had been inserted. Somehow, my cylinder became a partial cone shape, which gave it hard-core wedging properties. Then, I had to "shim" the socket to get the bulb to hang straight down (I used black gaff). It was almost done, when Noah decided to point out all the ways that it was not going to work, and how he didn't know why Nick hadn't given the note already. But he hadn't, so I had continued to the point in the process where I was almost finished with it. Now, however, I need to find a way to make the whole bulb visible, and the socket, but still weight it so that it flies. So far, I have established that it requires the weight of 2 nuts for 3/4" bolts and 6 nuts for 1/2" bolts and 1 piece of tie line. I wonder what that translates into in something long and straight and not shiny. Maybe just weld the nuts together?

I talked with Fahrion Sheet Metal today. I am supposed to be speaking with Mike in the morning about getting the plates (with holes for the screws for the handles and the door knob bolt) fabricated (hopefully with a 1/2" return back at 90 degrees) and the estrucheons cut from plate as well. They probably won't be ready for Saturday, but should be in before Thanksgiving break, I hope. We'll see.

Tomorrow I will be working on the bare bulb and getting the lower platform facing to work and the stairs attached to the Unit in time for Saturday's Tech rehearsal. Which is supposedly having a GO at 11am. We'll see. That'll be entertaining, or not.

Notes

Tonight the masking notes got done. The #1 Border no longer casts shadows on the show portal. The #1 and #2 Legs are properly located in relationship to the set and each other. The proscenium masking is clamped and much less ass-y looking. The chandelier is padded. The in trim in set and the rope tied off and taped at that point, after it was untied my an unknowing person who was asked to fly in the chandelier. The kickplate facing is attached to the lower steps. The nosing is in progress. The toe rail is attached to the flipper facing. There is no longer a visible hole behind the door latches in the door stop. A rope was struck from the grid, an artifact of the chandelier process. A Genie was bumped into the Show Portal reveal, breaking a screwed connection to the floor and causing a crack in the portal from the floor to about 5' off the floor. I called Will right away to see what his preference would be in terms of us fixing it at all. He is going to take care of the crack tomorrow. Some of the green wood painted MDF isn't quite right that we have been using for the nosing and kickplate today, Will said that he and Lenny would take care of any green wood notes after Lenny returned from Orlando. Carrmen approved the quick change booth as it currently sits. I-Hua had a run light installed for the box boom pin rail stage left. Harumi worked with Milo for about an hour or 2 today. Electrics installed a "hazer platform" between Wall A and the escape platform's railing. It was not installed as Todd, I-Hua and I had discussed in order to address my structural and safety concerns. I have spoken with both Todd and I-Hua about further work that needs to be done so that we can all sleep better at night.

Tomorrow/The List includes finishing the nosing, first with a trial piece and then with the real one (2 have already been destroyed in the nosing of this platform). I need to talk to Nick about possibly adding some sort of architectural detail to the facing of the lower platform to hide the seams that are being difficult. That was a suggestion from Ray. Tape the Wall B cables to be black. Track down the sheet metal fabricator. Figure out how the door plates are going to be mounted. Check on the hazer platform's structural progress.

I wonder why stage floors are so hard to get level. Why don't people listen? How hard is it to follow instructions? Why don't they rehearse what they say they are going to rehearse when they say they are going to rehearse it? Tape is a great clamp. Why do we always feel the need to guard holes in the floor the size of the orchestra pit? Why didn't DH let me just have a human powered, pivoting staircase instead of having it be pneumatic? Where is the leak in my inflatable bed? What would stop me from being finished with school 29 days from now?

Its dark in there

Its really hard to do scenery notes during work (read: focus) notes. I should make sure to clarify the level of stage and tension grid illumination for the next day at the evening meetings.

Today this happened:

• doors have latches now.
• as a result of the latching, the handles have been attached, albeit temporarily and with less than 100% success, so that the doors may be opened.
• The top piece of the door stop was put in, to attach the latches to. Shannon filled in to the left and right of the latches, but in between the latches still is open. Glue in green wood? Facing behind it? Static Magic? Help me out here people.
• Wall A was adjusted.
• The gap between Wall B and the Reveal was light locked
• All of the masking has been flown in and the #2 Leg needs to be moved Upstage of Wall C to create a clear path. We have a Genie for tomorrow to get that done.
• Up Center the requested quick change booth has been assembled.
• Foam was acquired from Norm to pad the Chandelier.
• The Chandelier was trimmed and spiked.
• The last continuous hinges were lost and found. yay Harumi!

Still to Do:

• Clamp Border #1 to Show Portal
• Tape Wall B cables to be black
• Fill in top doorstop between latches
• nosing at top of steps
• remove flashing from flipper facing (reattach new flashing after the flipper facing is installed)
• Attach hinge and toe rail to flipper facing
• Hinge attached to lower steps in a useful manner. =(
• Talk to Fahrion Sheet Metal about the door plates.
• Chandelier Padding (need light on the tension grid)
• Drill out door handle holes to the screw size.
• Re-countersink door handle holes.
• Bare Bulb Trimmed and Spiked
• Check Fire Curtain and Lower Rail Clearance
• Support for the flipper on the stairs

My day went well, but now its time to be done. See you in the morning.

And the notes begin

First off, the run crew is a mixed bag. Some of them are great, many are mediocre and one even whined about not being able to get her homework done before we even started doing anything.

What we did:

1. The #1 Legs are moved to Lineset 6. Should work out better this way. Currently they are gridded, pending needing them in as masking.
2. I got a size for the door knob plates (estrucheons?) from Nick. They should be plenty big enough to hide the holes from the not-level knobs and to put them in a more correct, level location.
3. The Door Stop began to be put in, but then it was break and time for lx to have the stage
4. The Upper Railing is stabilized. In the words of Noah Mitz, "you could dance on that."
5. Wall D is braced with some big hogstrough for the 35# Fresnel to be planted up on top.
6. I spoke with Nick about his preferred placement of the 4-way latches.
7. The Upper Platform's offstage, downstage corner is capped. There is a 2x4 connecting the Beam to the Studwall.
8. The flashing has been put onto the facing for the flipper.
9. Further progress has been made in the design of the stair spinner.
10. The hinges are finished being attached.
11. Sconces were magically installed today (probably by Norm)

What still needs to be done (from the old List):

1. Clamp the #1 Border to the Show Portal (needs 2 Genies)
2. Fix the Proscenium Masking (needs a Genie)
3. Clamp the #1 Legs to the Show Portal (needs a Genie)
4. Use black e-tape to make the Wall B picks disappear
5. Fix Hole in Wall B on the lower SL section
6. Eq the crap out of Wall A (pringles)
7. Padding for the Chandelier (Black Gaff Tape and some foam padding)
8. Aluminum angle welded on.
9. Toe rail t-nailed on.
10. Chandelier and Bare Bulb need to be trimmed and spiked.
11. Door stop and latches finished.
12. Call Fahrion Sheet Metal about the door plates.
13. Continue on the Lower Stairs.

Time for a lovely post-crew production meeting

Saturday

Today Wall D was carved, painted and installed. Quite impressive really. And the crew got sent home at 5. Except for paints, but they got a 2 hour break for the paint to dry and the wall to be installed and such things while everyone else was doing things. Tomorrow is a day off. Monday, Scenery has the stage until the 8:30 break to do notes, with 4 crew people. After Break, Noah is going to be focusing and scenery notes can continue offstage/backstage and without the Genies.

THE LIST:
Masking:

• Try to make the walls (esp. SL) less wiggly without getting in the way of Noah's lighting shots
• Move the #1 Legs from Lineset #4 to Lineset #6 and clamp them to the Show Portal
• Move SR #1 Leg onstage to overlap with the Show Portal
• Clamp Border #1 to the top of the Show Portal (it makes shadows)
• Fix Proscenium Masking so that it doesn't look so bad.

Walls:

• Wall B's cables need to be blacked because they are downstage of the border. Spray Paint? Gun Bluing? New Picks with black cable?
• Sconces should be complete on Monday. Talk to Nick about their placement on the walls.
• The designers still think that Wall A looks pringley. Perhaps take it past plumb?
• Brace Wall D for the placement of a Big 35# Fresnel to be hung centered on the doors
• Fix hole in Wall B on the lower SL section

Doors:

• Door Plate: Find thicker aluminum to replace the flashing.
• Install handles (after new aluminum is found/attached)
• Made plates (rosettes, but rectangular) for the US door knobs. Talk to Nick about size.
• If the plates are big enough to cover the holes, re-set the door knobs to be even.
• Finish attaching hinges
• Door Stop installed
• Latches. Talk to Nick about which piece (door or stop) he wants to have the sticking out piece of the latch attached to for the top of the door. My preference is for the inset plate to be on the door and the protrusion to be on the stop.

Railings:

• Investigate further inset of the plate (US end of the upper rail)
• Weld angle on... talk to Ben Carter about schedule
• Stabilize... talk to D &/or K about that, preferably after the angle is welded on. shims?
• Toe rail t-nailed on
• Clean them?

Platforms:

• Upper platform: 2x4 capping the off-stage end of the beam and the studwall

Chandelier:

• Padding around the structure to prevent it from banging?
• Trim and spike the In and the Out for both the chandelier and the bare bulb.

Spinning Stairs:

• Order cylinder, needle and check valves, and teflon tape.
• do we need regulators in the circuit?
• Discuss mounting with Kevin
• Figure out the facing/toerail/flashing situation
• Kickplate
• Flipper support
• Hinge
• how much do those things weigh? any guesses or should i just do the math?

Its a list alright, but not unreasonable. Still lots to do.

Done by Lunch

Or ice cream... Shannon, Matt, Sarah Rockwell and Richard Dreher built 4 walls @ 4'-0" wide x 16'-0" tall in less than half of crew... it was a sight to behold. The walls are at paints now, first to be backpainted, then to do whatever Lenny is going to do with them. Erik and Jackson's schedules have been rearranged so that they are not having to be here at 8am tomorrow. Jackson will come in to do notes on Monday and Tuesday nights during crew time. Erik has some banked time and brownie points so he will be here from 1-5 tomorrow and then be finished with his crew comittment for Malfi, except for strike on December 12th. I am going to have him build jacks and hogstrough tomorrow. Though as I type that, I realize that Mira will be needing the shop to stay dust-free. So maybe not. aarggh! any other no-shop-involved ideas for what to do with a good crew person for 4 hours tomorrow?

In other news, the AA pipe moved and now the chandelier clears just how Nick and Noah wanted it to. The bare lightbulb is weighted enough to fly. I am concerned about tying off the zip cord, but know of no other way to secure it to the pin rail.

Notes notes notes

So far the following notes have been done today:

1. The butt end of the offstage stair carriage has a piece of facing ready for it (to be painted this evening)
2. The doorstop pieces are delivered to paints to be turned into green wood.
3. The offstage piece of toerail was attached on the lower platform's DS edge.
4. Another 12" of hinge was added to each door and the remaining hinge has been cut to length. The final section is not attached because the floor paint is wet.
5. The top step facing was cut. Shannon will chisel out the space for the angle brackets to be inset tonight.
6. The fabric was taped up in the tension grid in an attempt to mask the chandelier.

Other things:

• Paul Lumber order was delivered today.
• We will not be building Wall D this weekend. Probably Monday and Tuesday nights.
• Wall D will be 16'-0" wide so that it can be built as 4 identical sections.
• 4-Way Ball Tension Catches are on order from McMaster-Carr and will arrive on Monday.

Daytime Notes List

Here is the notes list for Friday, November 12, 2004:

1. Bring Masking to Trim height, spike and re-grid, then bring in for Focus.
2. Prep Facing for focus. (no flashing needed)
3. At 6pm, the stairs and facing are to be placed for focus.
4. Door Stop cut and to paints (so that San can make it look like wood)
5. Deuglification of the ends of the upper stairs
6. Railing Stabilization discussion with Dave and/or Kevin
7. Structural Discussion with Kevin
8. Pneumatic Cylinder
9. Flipper Facing as interfacing with the toe rail, flashing and flipper
10. Compare the lower stairs as built to the design to figure out the facing/overhang issue in relation to the size and shape of the stair. Try to find pre-painted facing to put on anything built so that Lenny doesn't kill me. Make sure that the grain goes in the right direction.

Roll it until it stops

making that crackling noise. Then it will be done.

What we planned to do:

1. Talk with Kevin about any further structural stabilization that is necessary.
2. Rig the Chandelier and the Bare Bulb to completion
3. Find out the schedule/status of the added Wall D
4. Order/Acquire lots of #6 Screws
5. Make the Door Work
6. Stabilize the railing
7. Figure out the interaction of the Facing, ToeRail & Flashing with the Stair Spinning machine :(
8. Confirm the existence of spring clamps for the masking... or order more.
9. Order or find a pneumatic cylinder for the stair spin. (discuss the million and one mounting choice options with Kevin or David)
10. Trim the masking to height, spike and re-grid.
11. Raised Door Plate and Hardware
12. Flipper and Facing at least in place enough for Focus.
13. Stairs are not to be attached until after the floor is painted, Lenny has requested.

Here's What happened (numbers should match):

1. I slept in. Will talk to Kevin tomorrow (Friday)
2. Chandelier and Bare Bulb are rigged, however, the Chandelier doesn't clear the AA pipe (my measurements told me that it would, but apparently I was wrong), but it flies. I need to get real handline from Kevin's office. The AA will be moved by I-Hua and Hallie's crews at the top of the call tomorrow. I am responsible for bringing 3 C-Wrenches so that it can be a quick, small army project. Electrics has 4 wrenches. The Bare Bulb still needs some weight on it, which Avery and I-Hua have figured out, and Avery will be finishing making that tomorrow.
3. Wall D is planned to be built by a team of 4 A-Team-ers (Shannon, Matt G, Erik G and Jackson) on Saturday, beginning at 8am. I will be drawing the wall tonight and ordering materials from Paul Lumber in the morning. Lenny will be starting to do the scenic finish (carving, gooping, PVAing, painting and sealing) at noon, as walls are complete.
4. Actually, that wouldn't have worked.
5. Shannon made the doors work. Now there are notes to be done on the doors.
6. Railing is still not stabilized. I should talk to someone about how to make that work. I think that I had car dreams about this in June or something.
7. If I had a nickle for everytime I said, "I don't know." I'd be a rich, clueless girl. Instead, I just don't know. I have some ideas, but nothing real hot yet.
8. It looks like the clamps are still on the proscenium masking and just need to be re-dressed. Craig clamped up part of Wall B-Leg 4 today. It doesn't look great, but its easier to fix it once its been done partially.
9. Also on the discussion list.
10. It is now on the daytime notes list for tomorrow.
11. Like many things, now that its been done, it can be fixed. On the list for tomorrow's daytime notes.
12. Flipper is up on a temporary, x-braced leg for focus (yay for Harumi, ATD-in-my-pocket!)
13. Check! Still waiting for painting to be done tomorrow.

Here are some details:

• The flashing on the raised door panels looks like ass. Something needs to be done about it. New flashing will be the first thing to look at.
• The upstage door knobs attaching to the doors has been solved by Shannon and now they won't fall off and they turn like door knobs (an added bonus!)
• The aluminum angle was re-Tek Screwed into the steel, so it is ready to be re-welded to the railing. arrghh.
• The doors need a doorstop all the way around and tension ball catches at the top to hold the doors closed.
• Avery rocks my world, problem solves well and says what needs to be said. Give him a cookie please.

There is always something

to spend the contingency money on.

Today, Di Trevis added a wall to our set. Wall D. It is 16'-0" tall and 15'-0" wide, living 6'-0" Upstage of Wall B. I don't know where or when it will get painted (that's a lot of square footage!) or who will build it, but I'm sure that she'll get her wall. For those who care, it comes in at an estimated $400 and 40 hours, plus install time.

What we planned to do tonight:

• Install Upper Railing
• Hang Chandelier and Bare Bulb
• Hang Doors, attach raised plate and handles
• Work on the Lower Stairs some more

What we did do tonight:

• The Upper Railing is in, but the angle seems to have been welded on in the wrong location, so during break Harumi and I used the cutting wheel on the grinder to get it off and Ben Carter will reattach the angle for us. Overall, it needs a bit more stability, so its still Caution Taped off.
• The Doors are hung, but they definitely aren't finished. I am going to try to get some #6 Wood Screws tomorrow, since that's the size that McMaster says to use. And somehow Wall B needs to be less wrong, or pringle-y or something. Shannon is contemplating it. So, the raised panels didn't get put on yet. Nor the door handles. Though I guess that both could be without the doors actually working.
• Somehow I forgot that attaching a pinrail to the floor behind the box booms would be a pain in the butt because of the concrete floor factor. Conveniently, DR was in the building for ITP and had some concrete anchors and the appropriate tooling to install them, so Avery put that stuff in.
• The Rigging was installed in the Tension Grid, but the Chandelier is not hung yet. That will be at the top of crew tomorrow night. Avery also wants to try to fix a problem he found with one of his pieces of hardware, so that will happen tomorrow afternoon.
• I painted the rigging hardware shiny black today.
• The Valve and the Mounting block for the Fire Curtain rig were found today and assembled. Woohoo! Now I just need to track down a schematic of how the valve is plumbed, since it only has a part number and not a little drawing on it.
• The backs of the walls were de-prickled and hopefully are actor-proofed. I will walk through again in the next day or two.
• Craig DeLorenzo was late enough coming back from break today that Becca went to look for him. Lucky for Craig, he returned to crew before Becca found him.

Tomorrow's List:

• Talk with Kevin about any further structural stabilization that is necessary.
• Rig the Chandelier and the Bare Bulb to completion
• Find out the schedule/status of the added Wall D
• Order/Acquire lots of #6 Screws
• Make the Door Work
• Stabilize the railing
• Figure out the interaction of the Facing, ToeRail & Flashing with the Stair Spinning machine :(
• Confirm the existence of spring clamps for the masking... or order more.
• Order or find a pneumatic cylinder for the stair spin. (discuss the million and one mounting choice options with Kevin or David)
• Trim the masking to height, spike and re-grid.
• Raised Door Plate and Hardware
• Flipper and Facing at least in place enough for Focus.
• Stairs are not to be attached until after the floor is painted, Lenny has requested.

Upcoming Schedule:

• As the stage carpenter, Shannon will be moving things for Focus
• Saturday afternoon, Harumi is with Milo for sound
• Wall D's schedule is still TBD

Did you use soap?

The very first entry in the dictionary for the word "wash" mentions the use of soap. Why the sophomores told me that they couldn't get the brushes clean when they hadn't used soap yet is beyond me. They got to try again. Once more with feeling... and soap.


What we planned to do today:

• Sanding and attaching the For-Ton bricks onto the reveal of the Cinderblock Wall (which Di has promised Nick that she will find a way to make seen in the show)
• Installing the Upper Platform Facing
• Installing the Lower Platform Facing (not including the flipper stair facing)
• Attaching the flashing to the lower platform facing
• Installing the Lower Railing
• Installing the Upper Railing
• De-Pringle Wall A
• Work on finishing the Toe Rails

What we did today:

• Cinderblock wall is all done to the point that sets can be. It has been returned to the casting class to do with as they wish.
• Lower platform's facing, flashing and railing is attached
• Upper Platform's facing is attached (and it fits!)
• The leg under the stairs that was previously 2x4 and a gusset is now de-ghetto-ified. There is a weird Frankenstein/SYH thing masquerading as a leg now. It is all braced and bolted and lovely. Yay Avery! I <3>
• The rigging stuff is all finished, but not painted as of yet. I took some pictures to document my first SYH @ CMU.
• Toe Rails are still in progress, they have moved forward.
• Pit of Death (PoD) facing is in. Shannon even mortised it over top of my funny angle iron hardware bits. yay Shannon!
• Cable Reel went to I-hua. She made it work with the chandelier because she rocks.
• the J-Roller worked for putting the flashing onto the facing. thanks for the suggestion, Kevin and/or Ben Carter (I can't remember)
• Wall C was braced to Wall B. It still needs some work though.
• The Crew's Call Schedule was changed from a night off on Thursday to a night off on Friday, which makes way more sense considering that FOCUS is on Friday night, so the set has to be functionally finished by then.
• Sandbags were chained back to prevent them from swinging into somebody's head.

What didn't happen tonight/Changes from intentions:

• The Upper Railing didn't get put in.
• Only one lineset was breasted upstage (and as far as I know, the Tabs can still fly in and out)
• The Bucket reel, it turns out, is only useful for coiling up cable, not for reeling in cable that is plugged in. Mike Mahlum, I-Hua and I discussed it and the bare bulb will be pulled the old-fashioned way, by the zip cord, but the zip cord will be weighted on the socket end so that it is heavy enough to actually fly in and out.

Tomorrow's Plan:

• 4:30pm Production Meeting in the Old Student Lounge
• Post-Production Meeting I-Hua is handing off the bare bulb, ready to fly, to Katy, for install
• 6:00pm Avery is coming in.
• 8:30pm Shannon is leaving for an Outreach Meeting
• Jackson & Erik (with Shannon) are installing the doors
• Adam, Craig & Harumi are installing the big railing
• Avery & Katy are installing the chandelier and the bare bulb.
• Actor-proof the walls with a grinder and/or end nips and tape (there are staples and stuff sticking out and its spiky)
• Adam will be continuing to work on tying the walls together to decrease bracing in stage traffic patterns
• 1 screw bracing will be improved to bolts
• Stabilization of the Cantilever Beam

Day Crew List (aka Katy):

• Sharpen Chisel and Finish making the inset into Wall B for the Upper Railing
• Order some different stuff from McMaster
• Figure out the Riser/facing on the spinning stairs (one step at a time)
• Paint the rigging shiny black

Things to be happy about:

• Avery knows about how Nick made the fire curtain valve switch, and confirmed that I had found the 2 most important parts because the third was just a bracket that can be recreated. (and then saved in a more prominent location for future use)

Well, the set isn't going backwards

More people does not equal more work accomplished. Our crew for tomorrow is stable and set, thank god, because I have no interest in any more random adds through the night or making up ITP hours. Especially when those ITP-missers haven't been in the shop yet and don't know a tool room from a table saw. As of yet, I haven't found a good use for them except vacuuming. And electrics doesn't seem to want them either.

The set was built, thankfully, in such a way that it fit together as a unit in the space. The picks from the Portal Header and Wall B to their long-ago-decided-upon linesets are vertical (unlike Pentecost when the set was mistakenly installed 8" upstage of where it should have been). And yet, the whole set is 8" farther upstage than Noah and Nick's groundplans said it should be, so all of the electrics are essentially one lineset downstage of where they want to be, in relation to the scenery, as-built and installed. The scenery all fit together on-stage at install probably because we put it in using an as-built groundplan to find the points. Here is what we did today:

• Fixed reveal on the show portal
• Fixed the seam on Wall B2-B3. Eventually, that seam needs to be light locked from behind.
• Installed the door reveal on Wall B2. Eventually, that seam needs to be light locked from behind.
• Ben Carter will be welding the door handles for us.
• Toerails have begun to be added
• Nailing blocks for the Lower Platform facing have been installed. One of these is a randomly still-around 2x8 that has been added to also give support to the added second railing.
• I got a Genie key from DR. =)
• Escape railings are super-sturdy and finished
• Wall B is stabilized with additional hogstrough
• a full-length gusset was added on the US side of the big Mofo platform.
• The lower platform is level and even and just where it wants to be
• The Wall B nubbin has been filled in to Lenny's satisfaction

Things for tomorrow:

• Electrics will be breasting the electrics upstage 6-8" using the pin rail. The tabs will be flown in and the breasting done over them. Afterwards, the tabs will probably be west coasted up and off the floor until Di decides that she wants them there. Jackson and Lizzie will be switched so that lx has the strength of Jackson for pulling rope.
• Facings, flashing and railings will be installed.
• Toe rails will be installed
• The backs of the reveal bricks for the Cinderblock Wall will be sanded because For-Ton isn't flat. And wood is. Argh. (Adam Koch)
• In the afternoon Avery will be finishing the rigging for the bare lightbulb.
• 12 noon Advisor Mentoring Meeting: Katy, David, Kevin. Probably walk through the space.

Other things on the List:

• Doors are promised from paints (dry) by the top of crew on Wednesday.
• Shannon will be leaving for a meeting at break on Wednesday night.
• McMaster things were ordered today.
• Wall A still needs to be braced to un-Pringle(r) it.
• LOWER STAIRS!! (Katy working on this Tuesday during the day)
• Wall C bracing moved
• Sandbags secured back so that they don't hit people in the head.
• Do we need to buy spring clamps for the masking? Or are there actually some still around? I know that Matt bought a bunch for Arcadia.
• Avery is available Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
• Shannon is planning to be off (with Team Scenery's sophomore crew) on Thursday night to work on Candide. Harumi and I are planning to be working on notes or somesuch Thursday night to get ready for Focus on Friday. If nothing else, I will be playing with the lower stairs.

Feel free to add to the list if I have forgotten something.

Thoughts

Now that I've written the entry about the facts, its time for a bit of reflection. This morning, Kevin was in and we got Wall A, Wall B1&B2, the Big Mofo and the Lifegaurd Platform installed and the lower platforms on their gates. He left after lunch, approving the walking of people on the cantilever, going over the plan with me and promising to check in via telephone. There were definite problems this afternoon with the stair install, but it was nice at the same time to get them stable enough to be able to walk on them and sleep tonight without actually running to an advisor. Of course, it will probably all get redone tomorrow morning when Kevin looks at it, but so life goes as a student.

On another note, I am quite glad that I do not have the ENTIRE install crew as my very own personal small army anymore. Its really hard to keep 10-12 freshmen and sophomores busy, even re-divided into Team Unit and Team Walls. Especially when I barely know their names. We only have 4 tomorrow, and they are all starters on Team Scenery, which is good. If each TD Team person takes 1 or 2 crew people and a portion of the list, we will all have a manageable task for tomorrow night, and the availability of the small army as needed.

Depending on the traffic patterns of the coffin, gurney and the associated actors, the lifeguard platform bracing may need to be revisited to allow for an actor pass-through.

Where did the depth of this set go? It looks really shallow and tall from the audience. Maybe the show portal should have been downstage of the proscenium? not my set to design and there is nothing to be done about it now except learn, but sitting in the house after loading in enough pieces to be able to look at it makes you wonder.

I wonder what the budget was for the Pentecost set. That one seemed to be a lot bigger and have more stuff (like the breakaway boards, refugee van, scaffolding, door in the door, more stage space) than this, and I have been under the impression that the budgets have gotten bigger, even relative to materials costs. But maybe not. And maybe Cory Cope was really good at getting stuff cheap.

I need to get home and churn something out for tech design, and get some sleep so that I can be back in the morning to order schtuff from McMaster. Yay! for spring open hinges. Just like Hardwareman says, McMaster-Carr can get it for you.

Installed with love by a Small, Tall Army of Smurfs

Yesterday, I did actually write a crew report. But then blogger ate it. I should remember to ctrl+a, ctrl+c the entry before I hit "Publish". But I didn't. As of the end of today, the following has been accomplished:

• soft goods hung in the correct location
• Show Portal and Walls are all up and in the right place on stage (presumably, since it all fit) except the show portal reveal on SL, which still needs to be adjusted
• The floor plugs on the apron have been fixed
• The Pinrail is currently being stored behind the SL box boom (if everyone knows, I will be less likely to forget where it is on Wednesday)
• The fire curtain and the flipper were tested in relation to each other today, and all is good and comfy. woohoo! =)
• The cantilever platform, aka Big Mofo, was installed, counterweighted and Kevin tested. All is good.
• The Upper Stairs are in position and secured for right now. (safe to walk on if needed)
• the Lower Platforms are up and in positon. They still have some notes to be done on them.
• the Escape stairs and the lifeguard platform are installed
• Initial walk-through with Stage Management (aka Adrienne)

Tomorrow's Projects (to be followed by the rest of the list)

• Fix Show Portal reveal
• Supports on the upper stairs need some work, but they will hold for now. Probably some custom hardware or SYH*.
• Facings add
• Toerails, aka Kick Thingies, add
• Railings, install
• Make more hogstrough, paint black, put on walls
• Full length gusset between B1 and Platform
• Check labelling of the fly rail
• Door Reveals
• Walls B2-B3 connection fixed (barter with I-Hua for Genie)
• Lower Platforms fixed
• Order cable reels, Spring-Open Hinges and 3' continuous hinge from McMaster in the a.m.
• walk-through with the advisors

The rest of THE LIST:

• Check border and gauze hanger so that it won't get stuck
• Ben Carter Welding the door handles
• Flashing on the facing (I got 8" wide flashing at Home Depot on Saturday! woohoo!)
• Get doors back from paints, pre-rig and install
• Clamp masking on proscenium
• Clamp B1 and Leg 4 together
• Finish escape railing
• Step filler (lower stairs to upper stairs)
• Pneumatics/stair spinning
• Take off pre-rigged hardware not being used
• adjust SR-SL position of the Gauze Hanger 6" to SR
• Find out if the Cinderblock Wall is actually being used in the show.

*SYH = Stupid Yale Hardware, noun. "The shop at the Rep has cornered the market on making one time hardware to solve a problem rather than adjusting the solution to include off the shelf parts." from David's blog

Build during Build,

Install during Install, do Notes during Tech... its actually working out that way. We did a little bit of install during build (show portal header, escapes, chandelier test-fit, is pre-rig cheating?) and there will still be some bits to build in the space (fire curtain interaction, figuring out the flashing... both of which have been tabled until after the big mofo is up and stable and happy)

What we did today:

• Finished the wall pre-rig. All the sleeve presses have passed the Go-NoGo gauge.
• The cinderblock wall is up on its wagon. The reveal pieces need to be sanded down prior to attachment. I will write another entry (but not tonight) about things that have been learned from the casting process.
• The flashing for the raised door panels is cut, labeled and wrapped in paper with the mdf
• the other Flashing trim is cut, rolled and wrapped in paper.
• the shop is super-duper clean
• the hardware pieces for mounting the stairs are made (some from big ass angle)
• the railings are de-jigged and cleaned enough until they are installed. And the 1x1x.125 box tube in that arrangement is quite sturdy.
• the fly rail is labeled for the Duchess of Malfi
• we had a successful pizza party on the second floor mezz of the main lobby
• Michelle Wong managed to injure herself on masking tape. She is fine. no accident report needs to be filed.
• Shannon has ordered me to go home, have a beer and get some sleep.

Tomorrow:

• 8:30: TD Team preps
• 9:00: crew called, eats/drinks coffee, plan for the day gone over
• 9:15: starting with the RP screen, check and move and install everything that flies.
• 11:00: 10 minute break
• 11:10: back to work. Install Portal if Time allows.
• 12:00: LUNCH
• 1:00: Team Scenery returns from lunch, I-Hua takes them for Electrics until 5:00
• afternoon: TD Team goes to the store and buys 2x4 for jacks. The box truck is signed out.
• evening: homework, prep for Sunday, sleep, drink beer

I keep thinking that I must have forgotten something....

Is 20' really a path?

General Things:

Avery and I have answer for why we used the little sheaves. Its because the big ones are inextricably jammed into Kevin's sheave machine thing in the PTM classroom. We managed to get 3 out for the period lightbulb rig, but it was quite an ordeal.

I am going to get 2 cable reels for the flying chandeliers/light bulb. Todd does not have any and it seems like the best plan. However, I am having trouble finding something that is not $500 and super-hard-core. Avery suggested going to an electrical supply house and talking with them.

What we planned to do:

• Pre-Rig Wall B
• Finish Cleaning railings
• De-Jig Railings
• Work on Chandelier Rigging
• Fix drunk routed groove
• Finish Kick Thingies (the steel part)

What got done:

• Walls B and C are fully fit-up, partially cabled

What is planned for tomorrow

• Cable finished for Walls B and C (Jon, Erik, Shannon)
• Katy meets with Kevin to go over load-in plan in greater depth
• Avery will fix the Cinderblock Wall to match what Nick made in casting class
• Aluminum Flashing will get cut for the downstage platform facing
• Aluminum Flashing will get cut and attached to the raised door panels
• Avery will finish the chandelier rigs
• Teams for tomorrow: Jon & Erik, Sarah & Paul, Michelle & Richard
• From 6:30-7:00 tomorrow there will be pizza for the crew to celebrate being done with build. Tonight went well. Crew in general, for 5 weeks, has gone well. The budget is doing well. We told the crew at the end of the call. They will meet at or before 6:30 in the shop, as usual, and then be taken to another location, to prevent interference with other crews due to smells and jealousy.

Long-Term LIST:

• Find Door Handle Pieces so that Ben Carter can weld them.
• Weights of wall sections that are flying
• Inventory of wood for jacks.
• CAD groundplan (its just about done)
• Cable reels
• empty shop vacs

Good Stuff

"Avery will take care of it." Is a great thing to hear. So is, "Can I just do it?" I have been discussing his choices as the rig has developed today and right now there are 6 sheaves in the air with appropriate adjustability built in. The fleet angle is ok. The vertical clearance is maxed out. The whole thing is sturdy. No 1 1/2" Schedule 40 Pipe was harmed in the making of this spot rig. The cable paging is still under discussion with I-Hua in electrics.

Here is THE LIST for the rest of build, currently in no particular order:

• Clean Railing soot
• Break apart railing jigs, rack up the less-than-pristine plywood for other shows.
• Get Pin Rail for the linesets
• Empty shop vacs
• Pre-rig Walls B and C
• Figure out weights of flown sections of walls for load-in brick throwing
• Load-in Plan (Kevin wants to advise early in the plan making)
• Finish bits of steel mounting hardware
• Finish the rig of the chandelier... and get a second spot line in for the period lightbulb.... paint that stuff shiny black once we know that the welding is done.
• Flashing prep for the doors and lower platform facing
• budget projection for hours as well. blech, un-fun =(
• Fill incorrect routing-when-drunk groove. re-paint.
• Ask Ben to weld up the door handles.
• Cut and drill holes in kick thingie steel insides
• Find rope for lifting the big mofo platform.
• Order pieces for the stair spin.
• replace rigging hardware in the archive room
• probably many things that I have forgotten, leave a comment

I can't help but post this picture. **edit: I can't figure out how to actually post the picture, so its only a link.***

http://idisk.mac.com/glwebb-public/new_map.jpg

NPR in the morning only, please

Becca and Shannon apologize for Florida and Ohio, respectively. Its not their fault that their states forgot that it was election day. Why are we kicking out the NPR jams? The west coast isn't even done voting yet. I was not disenfranchised. (that is a cool word) Shannon was.

Here's what was planned to do:

• Make sure that everyone on the crew voted or was at least given the opportunity
• Kick thingies
• Mounting hardware
• Fix the lower platforms
• Finish jigging the rails
• Weld the Main Railing

Here's what we did:

• Re-made the picks on the Show Portal Header.
• Fixed some FUBAR/SNAFU stuff on the lower platform. Made the wedgie and reskinned the middle Lower Platform. Thanks Kevin. I am the luckiest girl ever today.
• Made hogstrough
• Talked through the chandelier rigging with Avery. He is going to do that tomorrow. Avery rocks. David was right, just have Avery do it.
• Michelle and Paul made the kick thingies.
• Richard cleaned the MIG Weld Spool-gun weld beads. The soot came off pretty easily. Yay!
• Avery made mounting hardware.
• Finished up jigging the pieces for the railing

Kevin, I trust that you and David are updated on things. David, I trust that you clued Kevin in on things. Play nicely together children.

The longest word in the English Language and a subdefinition

Green Wood and Ham?

Things that were on the list today:

• Pick-up at Allegheny Plywood (4 sheets of 3/8 MDF)
• Pick-up at Metals Supermarket (1 stick of 1.5x1.5x.125 Aluminum Angle)
• Cut Groove in the Doors
• Deliver Doors, Facing and lower steps to paints
• Finish Lower Steps
• Jig Second Rail
• Pre-Rig a wall
• Escape Stair Railings
• Virtual Load-in in AutoCAD of the as-builts (this was Kevin's idea)

What happeneded today:

Avery did errands this afternoon and worked on the lower stairs. In the evening he cut the groove in the doors, straightened out the raised panels and pretty much finished up the lower steps.

Wall A is mostly pre-rigged. It still needs to be cabled. I still need to buy more rigging gear

Half of the second railing is jigged up. Avery will finish that at the start of the afternoon tomorrow.

Sarah Rockwell and Ben Carter made the tube caps for the railing ends

The escape stair/platform railings are as complete as they can be prior to install. "It takes 40 hours to carve the Buddha."

Tomorrow's Plan:

• ELECTION DAY!!
• Ben Carter will be welding up the railings
• Avery will finish jigging the second railing
• Mounting Hardware
• Kickrail thingies
• Look at the set with Kevin at 10:30am (post-structures)
• Flashing prepped
• Finish other units

I want to go to F&F with Nicole. So I am. Goodnight. Don't forget to vote for Kerry tomorrow!

Dear Hardwareman

Everyone has read Kevin's Dear Hardwareman columns in the ghetto hallway. Today, in an attempt at relaxation, I wrote my own. See below:

Dear Hardwareman,

I have recently been assigned to be a mainstage TD in a Conservatory theater program. Do you have any sage advice?

Anonymous

Dear Anon,

Hardwareman was last seen heading into an all-day faculty meeting with only a stack of square paper. In his absence, we put this together:

1. Run everything by your advisor, that’s why you have one.
2. If you want a tool that you can’t find in the tool room, ask the shop supervisor, he will want to buy it.
3. You can’t buy your crew beer on the show budget. But you can buy them bagels and coffee.
4. When Kevin said that steel was lighter, he was right.
5. The ME is a quiet lighting designer, you will probably step on her toes. You should watch for her feet, but in the end, it is her job to say “ow, get off” when you do.
6. The overhire carpenter isn’t necessarily any more skilled than a sophomore with a work ethic.
7. Put in your requests for specific crew as soon as the list is available.
8. Every crew has some smart actors, find them, they’re your ace in the hole.
9. Do NOT overthink on the shop floor. Build what you drew. At least then you can track back the problems.
10. Your designer will always question your estimate. Only give them a summary sheet.
11. Publish your lineset schedule early.
12. Paints will always be behind. Don’t be the cause of it.
13. Talk to your PM. If you don’t, they will think you are hiding something. And then you have to have nightly meetings. No one wants that. Not even the Production Manager, they have to stay at school later.
14. Your designer’s advisor just might become your favorite person.
15. Have your own workspace away from others on the same show.
16. Be the good cop.
17. When David suggests something, it is not a suggestion.
18. Your labor numbers will get doubled. Deal with it. Then you’ll have time for pre-rig, dry-fit and getting stuff back from paints.
19. Build during build, install during install, do notes during tech, catch up on homework during the run of the show.
20. Remember, its just a school play.

its almost theater

What we did:

• The escape stairs are up.
• The escape railings are drawn and in-process.
• The door groove was omitted. We need to fix this on monday, before it gets painted. No big deal... shannon caught it from the design drawings, I'll have Avery do it before crew.
• The second railing pieces were cut.
• All of the aluminum was cleaned per Ben Carter's direction.
• The Cut Black Drop is cut. And very neatly folded like a drop, in a box and stored in PTM, far, far away from the forces of evil that might damage it.
• The Gauze Hanger is fully pre-rigged (tie lines attached in the grommets) and stored in StuTech, under my desk, in a bag
• The lower stairs are assembled as stairs. We need more 3/8 MDF

Monday's plan:

• 9am: order more materials with Kevin's card.
• 1pm: Tech Design
• 1:30 pm: Avery starts work on finishing the lower stairs
• 5:30 pm: Avery goes on Dinner Break
• 6:30 pm: Crew and Avery start work
• Avery works on jigging up the second railing
• Shannon +2 pre-rig Wall C
• Michelle +1 works on Facing
• Sarah +1 works on Kick blocks
• Escape railing is in a holding pattern

The Weekend Plan:

• Sleep in tomorrow.
• Finish all drawing and tech design for the show.
• Have a "materials to order" list ready for Monday morning.
• Go to the Evaline party Saturday night.
• Eat lunch at Uncle Sam's on Sunday
• Do laundry
• Do some homework for Kevin's classes.

Yay! for being done with this before midnight.

Love, Katy

I've had better days

Tonight:

• Harumi updated the Quantity Take Off, thus giving us a dollars budget projection
• Nick and I discussed the aluminum angle on the railing and the reason why it might not be acceptable to just paint it to match. He has also put another idea on the table. I will be looking at it further.
• Avery got the railing jigged up. It is on the 2 work tables. Ben Carter is re-scheduled to weld it on Tuesday afternoon. By then, perhaps, the second, added, railing will be jigged as well.
• Dave Ogle worked for us tonight. He helped Avery. Celeste told me after crew that he was working for me tonight. But she also told me that he'll be here tomorrow. So now I know. I love you Celestamassino! =)
• the Show Portal was delivered from paints, pre-rigged and the header is flown on Lineset #5 (8 bricks of weight), now paints can do the gooping of the horizontal reveal whenever they would like, space availability pending.
• Avery and Dave Ogle started on the lower stair unit after break
• The doors have been skinned. still no hardware.
• Izzy gave me a flower from Big Love

Tomorrow:

• Avery coming in at 7:30.
• Ogle at 6:30
• don't forget that Sarah Rockwell will be in for crew. Need an answer about the cut black drop by then. or a new task for her.
• Meeting at 10:30am with David Boevers to go over "the list" to get build done during build, and that will be over before the 11:30am faculty meeting, at which point any issues brought up outside of me being a slacker drafting/bad tech designer, aka interdepartmental, can be dealt with by the advisors/staff/faculty in the same room.

I was pretty sure that I needed a night off

I was right.

I will not cry. Its not worth it.

Avery and Matt Hales just spent most of crew time jigging up the railing mirrored of how it is supposed to be. Thankfully this was caught by Nick Vaughan looking at it and saying, "that's not right... somehow... something is off." Looking at it, it would have been right if the theater was rotated 180 degrees. But its not. We won't be able to have this get welded tomorrow afternoon because the jig won't be finished. There goes the easy plan.

The "ooo-ooo" plan that Kevin and I came up with for both the kick rail and railing connection to the platform does not meet with designer approval. I should learn to ask Nick about every decision. But he is hard to find and never likes it. Or he doesn't care. I'm not so good at reading which things are going to make him freak out and which things he just wants me to deal with. This one I was wrong about. I could rant, but I'm not going to. Somebody in this designer-TD relationship needs to stay outwardly mellow. It sure isn't going to be him. So I guess that it has to be me. That is probably ok. I need the practice. Yelling at the designer doesn't get me anywhere.

Nick asked specifically for THREE (3) sheets (his number, his request, not mine) of masonite to be replaced on the stage and routed with grooves for texture. In my head and on the calendar, that was a 2 person, 1/2 crew night (2 hours) job. We looked at the floor tonight, and he wants to replace 4 sheets, but they aren't just plain old 4'x8' sections because the apron is weirdly laid out. And the groove needs to fade out, so that it isn't there at the edge of the sheet, where it would be obvious that it doesn't continue in the other sheets. Oh, and there are funny rubbery disc/plug/hole things in the floor, in a nice little grid pattern, covered with black gaff tape. They aren't so pretty and they make lumps. They appear to be there for attaching the seats when the pit is at auditorium level. I need to talk to DR about that.

I still have 2 big elements that aren't figured out in their entirety... the chandelier and the spinning stairs. And I don't think that I can look at another CAD drawing of f#$*ing stairs tonight. Or really, another computer screen. My head hurts and my railing is right back where it started. And the lower stairs aren't started either.

planning

Avery is coming in tonight. I talked with Ben Carter, and he is happy with Avery doing the jig for the railing. I am going to have him put it together on a temporary table of plywood and sawhorses in the Chosky. After it is put together tonight, Ben will weld it tomorrow afternoon. Because he rocks. Then it will be ready for paints to seal or something.

When/if Avery finishes that, I am going to have him start on the lower stairs. I'd like it if these were built well. Of course. And Avery is a smart man. I bet that he can handle angles.

What am I doing tonight? I will be continuing to ponder some of the trick rig stuff. And drawing the escape stair legging so that crew can build it on Thursday night. They did such a spiffy job of building the life guard platform, I can't imagine that the stairs won't go equally as well. And I need to draw the railings for that too. Maybe I wasn't insane with buying more wood.

Time for a production meeting in 15 minutes.

Isn't there usually a spellcheck option on this thing??

Designer Adds Tonight: (not surprises, just official today)

• an additional aluminum railing has been added. It will cost less than $200, to come from the contingency.
• Aluminum Flashing as banding has been added to the downstage face of the lower platforms. I anticipate this will cost less than $100, but will add some labor, perhaps in the load-in phase to prevent damage to the flashing. This money is also to come from the contingency.

What we did tonight:

• Erik and Torska: Fixed the messed up studwalls. Legged up and crossbraced the escape platform.
• Michelle and Richard worked on the doors. They have 1 side of the facing attached to each door. Thursday that will get finished. The wood is bowed in the middle. Shannon plans on hand planing them down to make it the right size. Richard will be a good clamp. (Thanks to the Backstage Handbook for helping us confirm that it is bowed and not warped, cupped or bent)
• Paul made the pieces for the built door handle. Shannon helped him make the jig. Its pretty hot. Now we just need Ben to weld it up.
• We gained a person from props/paints today. He pulled most of the rigging hardware for us and put it in a bucket. I think that we might be keeping him on Thursday.

Tomorrow:

• Morning: Go over lower stair drawings. Current Budget Projection
• 5pm Production Meeting
• 6pm Avery will be jigging up the railing in the Chosky and working on the lower stairs with Ogle (or maybe Hales?? I hear that Steph pulled her girlfriend weight and he isn't working, but we'll see)

Thursday:

• Finish Doors
• Pre-Rig Walls
• Leg up Escape Stairs. If I draw it, this will go faster than a sketch and "you can figure it out" to the smart crew.

Production Meeting Items:

• Fog with a plumbing system and fancy stand in the Apron Pit? Where did this come from? Why didn't I hear about this until the 4th week of build?!?!
• Load-In Schedule
• Paints Return Schedule
• Tech Schedule (aka what to do with that week Di wants to stay in the rehearsal hall)
• "Shaking the Tree" by Becca

That's All. Love, Katy

forgot something

we also need 3 sheets of 1/4" maso... and I am actually going to get a hold of George at the A.G. Mauro Company to order the door hardware... and a wet erase marker from the art store (does anyone know what that is or is Ben Carter sending me to find a sky hook holding a metric C-wrench?)... and we owe Michelle the 2nd year grad a yellow prismacolor

Its a good thing we have fit-up

I think that some of my sophomores have lost their gruntle. Any ideas on how to get it back?

Tonight we worked on:
Sarah Rockwell: finished the Gauze Hanger. It is ready for install. Nick says that it doesn't need to be touched until its seen in the space. And then only maybe. It is already FR. She also started on the cut black drop with Paul.
Michelle Wong: worked on the door. I need to buy some more wood to get us to keep moving forward.
Harumi Ikeda: Happy 21st Birthday! She made the door plates from the 1/2" MDF.
Paul: Finished the Aluminum cut list. Yay!! Then he helped Sarah with the cut black drop.
Richard Dreher: helped Paul with the Aluminum, drilled the pilot holes for the screws, wrapped up the pieces.
Erik Grathwohl and Jon Torska: Added some inner horizontals to the Escape Platform studwalls. Finished the Scenic Stairs. Did a fit-up for the lower platforms. Torska hinged the flipper unit. Cut the downstage UNIT facing

Conclusions: 4 of the studwalls are too tall on the lower platform unit. This is unfortunate. But its better to catch it on Day 1 of Week 4 than at Call 5 of Load-in. I think that it was a drafting error. Do not draft in haste. The Kreg Jig works much better when you aren't trying to fasten to end-grain in pine. My head hurts. There is a really big circle that can be made around Purnell to check on things that are happening and keep moving physically.

Things brought up today to deal with:

• The current projection gives me about $500 extra, while still maintaining my $625 contingency from the original allocation. I am comfortable giving this up to props so long as I keep my original contingency for when Di and Nick add scenic things. And for stuff that I forgot to need at load-in.
• Noah brought me a sketch today of his fog machine placement and plumbing and things. Is this my thing to build? It looks like electrics to me, since it came from him and Nick never mentioned it. We will discuss tomorrow at the load-in meeting. I have forwarned Adrienne about the use of fog. She was as-yet unaware. Though at this school, every show should be assumed to have fog or haze or something like that in it.
• Nick would like the cut black drop to be cut at 1'-0" increments because it is easier to cut it more than to put it back together. I would like to turn the black drop into a blanket. 16 oz. commando is very soft, even when FR.
• The black drop from Rose Brand is wider and a bit longer than expected. We will be cutting it to 14'-0" as planned.
• I need to order another hinge for my stair pivot. or figure something else out. Probably figure something else out, as I can probably do it with existing materials without another McMaster order that way.
• Beth and Lenny are concerned that there will be lots of fixing to do on the wall seams in terms of leveling the surfaces.

Things to buy:

1. more 2x4. you can never have too much. and we are out. again.
2. 3/4 ply. its gone. again. but that's expected since I only got enough to jig up half the railing at a time.
3. 1x6. you can never have too much. we appear to be low and I haven't cross-braced the world yet.
4. Buy the upstage door knobs.

Where did all the stuff go??

Tomorrow's plan:

• jig up railing in Chosky if Todd says that its oh-kee-doh-kee.
• fix studwalls
• re-try the fit-up.
• leg up the escapes.
• keep working on the doors
• Cut the aluminum for the door handles and jig up.
• Harumi will be doing paperwork
• Shannon has Fab-Tech
• Katy has a headache (hopefully gone by tomorrow)

Load-in meeting in the OSL tomorrow at 11am with Todd, I-Hua, Becca, Katy, Kevin and DH.

Advising meeting at 12noon with Kevin, DB and Katy in David's office.

Love, Katy

P.S. Happy Birthday David Boevers!!

Top of Week 4: still to be done

To Do, By Unit

(we'll see if I can get the formatting to work)

**edited to Strikethrough completed items**
Walls

• Pre-Rig Walls (cable picks, bolt holes, alignment, dry-fit)
• Make Hogstrough

estimated cost: $200 (less if we have stuff on hand)

estimated time: 30.5 hours: 4 people 2 nights (rig), 1 person 1 night (hogstrough)

THE UNIT (Scenic Stairs, Escape Stairs, Platforms, Facing, Fire Curtain Thingie, Railing)

• Build Lower Stairs
• Finish Upper Stairs
• Assemble Escape Stairs and Platform
• Finish Flipper Platform
• Cut Aluminum for Railing
• Figure out where we are going to be welding the railing (email has been sent to Todd asking permission to use the Chosky Stage, everyone I talked to said to ask Todd)
• Jig up the railing
• Check the Jig
• Weld the Railing (Ben Carter)
• Rail to Paints
• Facing pieces
• Finalize the plan for the Fire Curtain Thingie

Estimated Cost: $500?? and 80+ hours. Thats a lot of stuff to do.

Doors

• Build doors (either solve the kreg jig mystery or find some other way to do it)
• Route groove
• find appropriate router bit (see above)
• Build Raised Panels
• Attach Flashing to raised panels
• Panels onto doors
• hang doors in walls
• build Built Hardware (handles and such)
• attach door hardware

Estimated Cost: $300??, 40 crew hours??

Gauze Hanger

• Finish grommetting (I got a new grommet die. Not industrial strength, but it matches the grommets)
• Attach Tie Line
• Stitch Ball Chain into the hem
• Find out if it is FR or not

Estimated Cost: $0 additional, 3.5 hours (1 crew, 1 night)

Cinderblock Wall

• Casting (by casting class)
• Attach casting to wall
• Send to paints
• Reassemble

Estimated Cost: ~$100, 3.5 hours handling

Panel Hanger and Cut Black Drop

• Cut Black drop from Rose Brand into Strips
• Panel Hanger: On Hold per designer's request until further notice

Estimated Cost: $0 additional, 10.5 hours (1 crew, 1 night for black drop; 2 crew, 1 night for panel hanger)

Chandeliers/Rigging

• Re-Survey
• Find and Tag Pipes
• Request Pin Rail/Find Pin Rail in warehouse
• Figure out how to rig the chandelier so that it doesn't spin
• Design.Draw.Build Rigging hardware
• Poke Norm to build the chandelier so that I can rig it and electrics can light it

Estimated Cost: $150 materials, 40 hours total

Other

• When are the sconces being built? When will they be ready to go in the walls?
• Check and Move Masking onstage (obviously a lower priority than building the actual set)
• When do the walls come back to me for pre-rig?

Things to buy:

• Flashing (how big for door panels)
• 3/4 ply for railing weld table
• Upstage doorknobs
• Pneumatics
• more 3/8 medite?? check inventory
• Weatherstripping for doors
• Steel Plate

Things to draw:

• Built Door Hardware (find sketches from Nick first... uhoh)
• Standard Rigging
• Lower Steps
• Facing
• Pneumatic System
• Chandelier Rigging

not-so-much

was done yesterday. I forgot to write the crew report because the CREW never showed up. As well, he is not available next week and probably not in week 5 of build either. I told him to call me or Celeste if he was available for work and we'd see if we need him. Thusly, I have been re-evaluating where we are on the show, what needs to be built, drawn, figured out, re-surveyed, sent to paints, purchased, etc..

What was planned to be done on Friday:

• Aluminum Railing cut list
• Dry-fit the lower platforms in the space
• Set up the Upper Escape Platform on its studwalls
• Notes on the Rehearsal Stairs

What was done on Friday:

• some notes on the rehearsal stairs

A bit of a difference, the cause is noted above.

Another day...

we built things today. Pretty darn uneventful. Proven fact of the day: It is possible to listen to too much Madonna and/or Avril Lavigne. But if you alternate, it takes longer to get sick of it.

What we did:

• Continued on with the Scenic Stairs. Jon Torska and Eric Grathwohl are rocking along on that with Shannon following along with the joint compound.
• Studwalls for the Escape platform are built
• Small Escape Stairs are legged up. They are a little spongy, but that is more an issue of how they were built. However, I can't complain about free, stock stairs of the correct dimensions.
• Started cutting out the Scenic Railing pieces.
• Tried to grommet the gauze hanger. Our grommet die sucks @$$.

I am hungry and its half price at Fuel & Fuddle. I'll talk later. =)

Super-Speedy Crew

Pokey-Slow Drafter.

I had a small list for tonight, and quite the effective crew. What we planned to do:

• MDF onto the lower platforms with 3/8" overhang to cap the facing
• Assemble the cinderblock wall onto the wagon.
• clad the stair treads with MDF
• cut the MDF for the door
• j.c. all nail holes in the MDF

What we did:

• Platforms have MDF
• The stair treads were somehow not all 3'-0" wide. So they were made to match before being clad.
• Stair Treads are clad.
• Lower escape stairs are legged up.
• The "funny triscuit" has been converted into a rigid wagon that rolls quite well. The Cinderblock wall flat is currently incorrect, with one of the flats having the lauan on the wrong side. This will be corrected tomorrow by the overhire who built it. Thankfully, the already-backpainted lauan will be covered by the cinderblock wall casting
• All the nail holes are joint compounded on the lower platforms and stair treads.
• we went home early

Updates for the future:

• we may be adding another 8'-0" section of aluminum railing along the downstage edge of the bottom platform
• The cinderblock wall needs to be looked at as far as how it goes to paints after it is fixed. Will it be as a wagon, ready to roll to the theatre after it is painted, or will it be painted flat and then attached? To be looked at tomorrow.
• 11 am Tuesday Load-in meeting with Kevin, Katy, Todd, I-hua, Becca
• Helluva lot of drafting to be done tonight. Feel free to call me in the a.m. to make sure that I get up for my 9am class.

holy crap is that heavy

TheatrTch42: remember in structure when kevin told us steel is lighter
TheatrTch42: he was right

I need to talk to Holcomb about getting something to lift the freaking heavy platform up in the air from PBT. According to knowledgeable sources (who tried), it takes 3 people to lift a corner 6" to get a skate underneath. This will be an install problem. The stairs won't be much better. We should talk to someone with a couple of forklifts of chain motors or something. Steel is lighter, wood is easier.

What we planned to do tonight:

• build more stuff. yup.
• use the MDF that Shannon picked up today

What we did:

• San and Matt Burns went to paints. Lenny was happy, I was happy, its all good.
• The big mofo of a trapezoidal platform is built. Its heavy. The plywood wasn't square.
• The platform for the trick rig is built with the flipper bit. It still needs the hardware.
• The Kreg Jig arrived today from Amazon Tool Crib. Michelle and Shannon read the directions very carefully, but the joints are strangely not very strong. This is not in line with my previous Kreg Jig experiences. And if Eric Sparks thinks that something is good to do or use, it definitely is.
• Cinderblock wall is built and pre-rigged.
• Welding Jig blocks are made.

What we are doing tomorrow:

• Katy is going to get 2 matching casters tomorrow for the doors.
• Figuring out the door frames and the kreg jig issues
• MDF onto the lower platforms
• Start the stairs.
• keep moving stuff around for paints.
• Drawings to Kevin Hines

Today was much better than yesterday. I have lots of homework to be doing. Like my HisODram paper. and my machine design. and my tech design. Oh, wait, those are pretty much all the classes that I take. I should do my homework. obviously, old habits die hard.

approval

Is the Nick Seal of Approval for a TD shop floor decision similar to "this assignment is Deano Approved" on a Boevers assignment? I hope so. And I'm glad that Nick McDermott doesn't do much in the evenings so that I can call him when I just made a decision decisively and then second guess myself.

Its a good thing that you guys gave him his diploma, though I'm sad that Boevers wouldn't temporarily revoke it to give me a buddy at school.

Real crew report later.

its been a long day

I'll talk to you in the morning Kevin. I am breathing normally. No one died. We sent San and Matt Burns to paints. They did a good job. Lenny would like to keep them. We'll see. They will be there tomorrow night as well. Sarah Rockwell rocks my world. She is making good progress on the gauze hanger. I need to buy some ball chain to put in the bottom of it. McMaster order tomorrow? maybe. Lots of time in Kevin's office? quite likely.

love, katy

taste the flameproofing

we started the soft goods changeover/load-in today. Thanks Matt Hales and Arcadia strike crew. Who's brilliant idea was it to store the stock masking and hampers at the warehouse and not tell any of the TDs? I am quite lucky that Mr. Hales told me today, I had just assumed that they were stashed somewhere not in the basement hall. Otherwise, I woulda been fudged at load-in. grrr.

expect a more detailed load-in request and a budget projection by the start of business monday.

I am putting in a Paul's order tomorrow at the start of business for them/us/whenever the first ptm faculty or shop staff arrives and lets me use their tartan trust.

love, katy

Saturday Call

What we planned to do:

• Install the rehearsal stairs into Studio A, minus the platform that is coming tomorrow (sunday) from the warehouse
• Start the platforms

What we did:

• Rehearsal stairs are installed. They do not have the platform on the top level or railings attached. I need to check the schedule of the room to get them installed. Perhaps in that chunk of time on Monday afternoon from 4-6 when there tend not to be classes?
• Started the lower platforms. We build the frames and plywood lids for the 2 plain, static ones and the studwalls. Strangely, the plywood is not a rectangle. I continue to be baffled as to how "engineered wood products" can be made in a factory and have such low levels of quality control.

What to do instead

Being on the shop floor stresses me out. Here are some other things that I could be doing instead, that generally don't make me want to scream:

• balance the books
• do install drawings
• install paperwork
• daily to do sheets
• revise your calendar
• meet w/lenny
• check in in rehearsal
• walk through what you have with Nick
• check in w/props
• meet with the ME to be sure you have a cohesive install plan
• do a current projection
• organize your receipts
• make labels
• prototype the swing mechanism
• survey the theatre around the swing mechanism
• verify the lineset contents
• get some petty cash so you can run buy some 2x4s if you have to

Center

Tonight was long. It was Friday. Norm was supervising. A show was on the Chosky stage.

What we planned to do:

• Finish the big rehearsal stairs
• Lower stairs hinged to the wagon unit
• platforms converted to a wagon unit
• Caster plates finished
• Show portal (last two sections)
• Rip 1x12 into 4 pieces
• Rehearsal Railings sanded

What we did:

• First, we moved all of the TV PROJECT flats and related pieces into the Wells. I was under the impression that we could move them if we wished to do so. But in fact, according to Mr. Norman Beck, we were expected to do so at the top of the call.
• Um, yeah on the big rehearsal stairs. we worked real hard. they were partially wrong. Shouldn't be a big problem to finish in the a.m. because they are fixed (thanks Shannon)
• The platforms were converted to a wagon unit
• The stairs were hinged onto the wagon unit
• The 1x12 was ripped down
• The show portal's main pieces are finished
• The show portal reveal is near completion.
• The rehearsal stairs pieces are all sanded and actor-proofed

Saturday plan:

• Finish big rehearsal stairs
• Get all the pieces to Studio A
• Assemble unit and have stage management check it out
• Start platforms/finish platforms? (MDF isn't coming in until Monday)

Other things:

Harumi has lots of paperwork to do. She and I discussed the list. Sunday is the strike/changeover with Arcadia. Sunday Dan Saner will be bringing back a 4x8 wood stock platform from the warehouse post-Arcadia props strike and it will be installed before the Monday night rehearsal.

Good Night.