We are working on what will probably turn out to be the second largest show of the season at the theatre and it has got everyone at the end of their rope.  The show is Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, the wonderful christmas musical by the good Jewish boy.  Smart guy, capitalizing on the prevailing American culture!  Probably wouldn’t sell as many tickets to a show called “White Chanukkah…”

That being said, the show is amazingly huge, and will look great, but we are working with two of the most stubborn designers.  I like them both, but when they get their minds set on what they want, there is no room to negotiate.  So, there really isn’t enough room for all the lights and scenery in the air.  In fact, we had to move an entire electric last night to hopefully make room for one piece of scenery.

So, going in to work can be an adventure.  People are stressed out and snarky including myself.  Many are just tired, the scene shop actually worked an extra day, coming in on a Saturday.  It is amazing how much blood, sweat and tears go into the shows that we build only to be destroyed four weeks from now.  Such is the life of theatre.

I had hope that this week I would be able to spend more time with Ruth before she has to work on The Nutcracker since her show closed this past weekend.  Doesn’t look like that is really going to happen.  It certainly was not a great week for her family, though her show closed on what I thought was a pretty good note.  Hay Fever was an excellent show, and for any locals who didn’t see it, you missed out.  I went to closing night with Ruth’s sister, and we just about died laughing at points.  It was very well done.

I have another “project” that I have been working on that I mentioned once before that I still don’t think it is the right time to blather all over the internet about.  in any case, it is starting to become a lot more real and with that sitting on my plate it is just one more thing that I am concerned about.  I think that the time to really talk about this will come sooner rather than later, I just want to make sure that the right people know at the appropriate time.

The other thing that I really need to do is learn the Haftorah for this week.  I am supposed to read it at temple this coming Shabbat.  I can already stumble through it, so it should be that hard to get it down.  Lots going on and seemingly not enough time.

It has been quite the busy couple weeks.  Last week started as tech for Dracula at the theatre and then ended with my flying out to Ithaca for the first ever All Theatre Alumni Reunion.  The impetus for the event was the completion of the renovations on Dillingham Center, the home of the Department of Theatre Arts at Ithaca College.  Ithaca College (not to be confused with Ithaca University from the movie Road Trip), or IC, is my alma mater for those who don’t know.  Since graduation I have done my best to give to the college as my time there really made an impact on my life.  My family and I were part of the 430-some-odd donors who raised over $80,000 for the renovation project.  As such, I felt that it was important for me to go because of that and because it would be a fun opportunity to reconnect with friends from school and network with other alums.

The road to my getting to the reunion started well before waking up at 5AM to get to the airport last Friday.  There are not enough words to express my love for my girlfriend who also got up at 5AM to get me there.  However, before that I had to make sure that it would be OK with the powers that be in the theatre since I would be leaving town on opening night of one of the more technically challenging shows of the season which happened to be directed by our artistic director.  I got the OK to go and was able to make the appropriate travel arrangements and fit into some semblance of a budget, so I was pretty happy.  I sacrificed a ski pass to make it happen though, which I think was a decent trade off.

I flew into Syracuse, NY where I picked up a rental car and drove the rest of the way down to Ithaca.  It was kind of fun getting on the highways there and remembering driving them so many times over the four years that I spent in school.  Driving past the landmarks that I remembered and getting closer to Ithaca was very fun and very exciting.  Driving down the last hill alongside Cayuga Lake and then through town, it almost felt like I had never really left.  Realizing that the hotel that I had booked a room at was way on the opposite outskirts of town was a little disconcerting, but it wasn’t like I was going to be spending tons of time there!

The weekend kicked off with a welcome reception for all the alumni which was a little funky, but a good time.  People drifted in slowly as they arrived in town so there were waves of excitement as people recognized old friends.  It was a lot of fun to see all the people from my year and around my year and hear about what everyone is up to now.  Then there were the people who “know” me on account of my father (who is also and IC alum).  the most interesting of those people was my father’s college girlfriend Betsy.  She was quite excited to meet me, and I have nothing against this on account of her buying my friends and I drinks!

Saturday brought the real festivities.  The morning started with a tour of the newly renovated building.  It was almost a private tour as there were only three other people who showed up at 9AM and they still sent out multiple tour groups.  The new spaces look amazing, and the theatre department now has the use of the entire building, all the other departments that used to have offices there have been moved to other buildings on campus.  It looks fabulous even though they say that for a program of that size they are still a few thousand square feet short of what they really could use.

After the tours there were dedications of named spaces around facility.  I went to a few of these, but was not actually able to attend that one for named lockers, which I donated on of.  Could be worse.  I was at one of the student interaction panels where alumni got to talk to students pursuing similar fields of study.  This really was a great thing, and I wish that it had been a little more organized and structured.  I think it was probably a little overwhelming for both the alumni and the students.  For me, this was one of the big reasons that I wanted to go to this event, to get to talk to the students, so I hope that in the future this is something that gets a little more planning.

Following a barbecue lunch a group of us headed off on a Finger Lakes wine tour headed by one of the faculty.  This was a real hoot.  We tasted some good wines, a bunch of bad wines, but in the end, it probably didn’t matter as everyone was having a blast.  After two wineries we were definitely on the party bus as soon as Norm decided to put on some Lady GaGa.  Yeah, the whole bus was dancing and singing and drinking.

Upon arriving back at IC, there was a little time to change before heading to the cocktail reception and gala dinner.  I was smart enough to have put my nice clothes in my car when I left the hotel in the morning so I just found a bathroom and changed.  There was a little more schmoozing and boozing with the alums and I had a chance to meet the new President of the college who seems to be a good guy.

The dinner and festivities were nice.  Sitting with old friends was great.  Here are most of us.  The only thing that bugged me was the the photographer who was walking around would not take our picture with my camera.  I thought that it was a rather stuck-up move as he kind of scoffed at my little point-and-shoot.  I didn’t feel like lugging the nice camera around all evening.  But really, I am a professional photographer and I would never hesitate to take someone’s photo picture with their own camera, it is just a nice, polite thing to do.  Whatever.

Friends from my class and the years around it at the Reunion Gala

After dinner the Musical Theatre Majors sang for us, a song that I don’t actually remember.  I do remember thinking that it would have been much more meaningful and memorable if they had chosen something different.  The song that I would have picked would have been “What I did for Love” from A Chorus Line. I think that would have been very appropriate for the occasion, and would have made everyone cry.

After the singing, the party moved down the quad to Dillingham for the special Alumni-only performance of Chicago.  It was an excellent show.  The designs for the show were done by some notable alums including Paul Gallo (lighting) and Tony Meola (sound).  The students were excellent and the show was so much fun.  It was really cool to see Chicago at IC because it was the first show that I worked on after I graduated and moved out here to Utah.  I enjoyed the show so much, I went back to see it again the next day!

After the performance we shifted venues one last time for the “Sherry Party” redux.  Just one last occasion to schmooze with everyone before people started to go their separate ways.  AS I was staying through until monday morning, I said goodbye to a bunch of people.  Overall, it was a great time.

The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun.  I had time to talk to a couple students, the chair of the department and my old professors.  I saw the show again, and just generally enjoyed being back in Ithaca.  It was a great weekend, and hopefully the first of many such events.

There probably are not too many people who would say that they like stage moms.  All things considered, there probably aren’t too many people who really know what many stage moms are like.  Everyone knows a soccer mom, they are the subject of many stereotypes.  Stage moms are on a completely different level.  I mean, when you think that your kid is going to be the next big thing on Broadway or primetime TV it is really a whole different ballgame.  I think that stage moms are probably in the same world as skating moms (who think their kid is going to be the next Michelle Kwan.

I have been very lucky in my theatre career in that all of the shows that I have worked that had child actors the parents were not crazy.  However, unlike some people in this industry, I have a great appreciation for stage moms.  Why?  Well, as a photographer, working shows with kids equals guaranteed image sales.  One thing that parents can’t resist is photos of their kids in shows.

As I am not trying to make a living on my photography, everything I make is a bonus.  All in all, I don’t make tons of money on my photos, most people want one or two to stick on their website and that is about it.  So, when I shoot shows with kids, or kids shows, it works out pretty well.  I do my best to be fair and accommodating, and it seems that people are happy.  Hey, if one of these makes it big one day, and one of my photos is in their portfolio, that would be pretty cool.  To be able to say that I knew them when they were kids is a neat idea.

So, despite the stigma that might surround stage moms, I am very grateful for them!  Besides, we would never get new actors if there were not any stage moms, so I suppose they keep me employed!

For the past few days I have been trying to track down a phantom problem.  It is only phantom in the fact that I can’t reproduce the problem outside of the show.  That, I suppose, makes it definable is an intermittent problem.  This of course, is the most difficult of problems to diagnose and to solve.  Certainly a very frustrating problem.

What is the problem?  Well, I have a moving light that seems to intermittently decide to just quit.  For those of you who are not theatre people,  or don’t work with many moving lights, this particular fixture uses an arc discharge lamp.  That means that the light is created by maintaining an electric arc between two electrodes.  It is very similar to the arc that is used in arc welding except that it is contained inside a lamp.  Here is a photo of the lamp, just so you can see what I am talking about:

This is the HTI 700/D4/75 arc discharge lamp. This particular lamp has 99 hours of burn time on it. You can see the "arc gap" in the center of the globe, this is where the electric arc is created. The arc excites gases in the globe and emits light.

So, a few day ago this problem showed up.  We made it through tech and most of the first week of performances before the problem began.  The fixture drops the arc (douses out) and displays a lamp error message.  So my initial thought was that it was a bad lamp.  While this is rare, it is possible, and the least expensive problem to fix.  In fact, with a lamp this “young” (only 99 hours into it’s 1000hr rated life), if the lamp failed I could make a warranty claim for a new lamp.

Unfortunately the lamp seems to not be the problem.  I installed a brand new lamp and the problem persisted.  Thanks to my friends over at controlbooth.com I had lot of other suggestions of things to try.  Some are not really feasible at this point in time, but after the show closes I can try them.  Today I actually got up in a focus chair to string a new circuit for this fixture that takes it off of the dimming system to eliminate any power issues that may have occurred there.

Well, I have been unable to solve the issue, which leads me to believe that the problem lies in the fixture and not the lamp or the power feed.  This probably means a more expensive fix, but I am sure that I can have it fixed.  Though I would certainly take any advice any theatre folk may have!  Such is the nature of life in the theatre.  I just like to look back on my favorite quote about the theatre from the movie Shakespeare in Love:

“…allow me to explain about the theatre business.  The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster!
…Strangely enough, it all turns out well.”

I find that when we get deep into production, my eating habits get tossed aside.  It is possibly worse for my wallet than for me as I still try to eat decent foods, but no matter how you spin it, it isn’t the best of habits.  I like to cook and I like home-made food, but I often find myself on a schedule that doesn’t leave me enough time to go home and make something.  I also often end up needing to eat at odd times due to when I need to be at work.  Ah, the joys of working in theatre.

Look at a day like today.  Fairly typical for a production week.  I tend to have breakfast sometime mid-morning, usually consisting of cereal and a bagel.  Sometimes, when I think about it I get some bananas to toss in my SpecialK.  I don’t usually eat lunch, and then, since I have to be at the theatre at 5:30 I end up eating an early dinner or a rushed dinner.  Dinner usually comes from someplace local to the theatre.  Every now and then, when I think about it, I will throw something in the slow cooker in the morning and then run home and grab a bite.  Sometimes, when I am lucky and our schedules are not similar, Ruth makes dinner, which is great.

I know that I have at least one crewton who will read this and tell me that I should just bring more “fuudz” with me to work.  It isn’t that easy, though it should be.  I am often more diligent about not eating out when I am not in production.  I keep lunch stuffs in my little fridge in my office regularly.  It is really just dinners that I need to figure out better.  I haven’t quite worked out how to re-work my schedule so that it is more conducive to creating better food habits.  Aside from  leaving earlier in the day or making some of our calls later in the evening I don’t have any great solutions.

Beyond that, things at the theatre are going quite well.  I have done two of the three photo shoots for Hamlet and I have also done photos for the U of U Department of Theatre’s production of Alcestis.  We have started to think about our next show, Dracula and I am expecting to get the plot and paperwork tomorrow.  No rest for the weary yet, just heading from one big show to a bigger one!