That's a Wrap!

Yesterday afternoon was the final production of My Children! My Africa! After the last performance, the tech crews gathered together one last time to strike the show. Striking a show means taking everything down, such as the set, lights, etc. and putting it back in its original format.
We started striking around 5:00 P.M and were miraculously done around 9:00 P.M. I thought it was going to take forever to strike, but several student volunteers from the tech classes came to help. With the right attitude and right people- strike was a lot of fun and moved quickly!

Here a few pictures that Madison O'Brien took for me (I of course forgot my camera!):

Professor Casey and I with the light plot directing people!


Hard at work putting up the original light plot in the Rudder Forum.


I survived my first strike and now I am going to have to turn in my production notebook. After that- my play experience will be officially over! Stay tuned...

(Thanks for the pictures Madi! )

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

I know it has been quite a while since I lasted posted. Since I last posted, the play has completed its production time and we have striked (taken down) the show. However, I will do my best to finish updating these last few weeks and complete my lighting experience!

Here are some pictures of the play. The photos are taken by Professor Autumn Casey.


Actors from left to right: Breyon Roberson as Thami, Valerie McBride as Isabel,
and Alan Lam as Mr. M


Actors: Valerie McBride and Breyon Roberson


Actors: Valerie McBride and Alan Lam


Actor: Alan Lam


Actors: Breyon Roberson and Valerie McBride


Actors: Breyon Roberson, Alan Lam, and Valerie McBride



Actor: Valerie McBride


Actors: Valerie McBride and Breyon Roberson


Actor: Breyon Roberson


Actors: Valerie McBride and Breyon Roberson



Actor: Alan Lam


Actor: Alan Lam


Actor: Alan Lam


Actors: Alan Lam and Breyon Roberson


Actors: Breyon Roberson and Valerie McBride


Actor: Valerie McBride


Hope you enjoyed!!

Break A Leg!!

Tonight was opening night of My Children! My Africa! After three long months of work, tonight finally came! We had preview last night, which allowed the actors to get used to performing in front of a live audience. I was able to photograph the performance, which was not easy. It is really hard to photograph lights- but hopefully I got a few good shots.

Tonight the show started at 8:00 P.M. The acting was awesome and there were only a few glitches in the show concerning set changes and light/sound cues. To me, somebody who has worked with the show everyday, I picked up on the mistakes, but to a regular audience- no one knew. The show will run for 2 weekends with a total of 8 shows. Hopefully each night will get better and better!

Here a few pictures of our stage manager and assistant scenic designer:

The Stage Manager: Madison O'Brien on opening night:


The Assistant Scenic Designer: Sarah Varga on opening night:


Photos from the show will be posted soon! If you get a chance, go see My Children! My Africa!

Dress Rehearsal

I forgot to blog last night, but we had our first dress rehearsal last night, and our second one tonight. During these rehearsals, we the check lights, sound, make-up, and costumes. We already had to cut the body projections from the show because we could never get a projector to properly work, and it was too distracting. This afternoon, we were able to fix most of the lighting issues that we found last night (such as having lights in the audience's eyes in the first few rows), but tonight we found some more. It is such a tedious process trying to everything perfect. I got to put my awesome camp-counselor skills to use tonight and gave a french-braiding tutorial to the hair/make-up crew, which they picked up on very quickly! I won't be able to make it to tech hours tomorrow (because I have a big test tomorrow!!!) but tomorrow night is our preview night. This is where we have a live audience and I will get to take pictures of the show for my portfolio.

Wish me luck on my test and I will post soon!! Opening night is so close!

8 out of 10...it's a union thing!

Today we had an all day play rehearsal to check light and sound cues with the actors. Today was the first run-through that the tech crew and the actors have had together. Of course, the morning got off to a smooth start with me oversleeping! I ended up making it to the rehearsal on-time, but I was still frazzled! The main issue that the "lighting" crew has right now is the projections. For some reason, the movies don't like to play in powerpoint all of the time, and it is frustrating, because one time they will work- and other times they won't. I was on projection duty for the morning, and once we got the movies working, I was in charge of cueing the projections in their appropriate spots. It was an interesting experience- you constantly have to be paying attention to the stage manager who is calling the cues through a headset. During the morning, we ran the show cue-to-cue, so all of the designers and actors could see how the lights, sound, and acting all went together. After lunch, we ran through the play non-stop. We still have some kinks to work out- but the show is in great shape for next week! I am definitely excited about opening night!

The Projectors are Hung!

Today we were able to fix the problems with the projectors. However- it did not come at an easy price! To sum up the day- we had to manually adjust each projector box to match the angle and location of the other. It got a little scary when I almost fell off the 20' ladder trying to screw the projector platform to the pipe... but I didn't fall! I am going to chalk it up to a learning experience: hold onto the ladder tighter!! But finally- we got both projectors working, the same size, and all the cables run! It was definitely a productive day. Tomorrow: we will set up the booms...

Cue the Lights!

The past few days have been busy! Yesterday, we went through the entire show and cued the lights. A "cue" is a directive for action: for example, a change in the lighting. When writing the cues, the lighting technician types the cues into the light board. The cues determine how long it takes for the lights to appear or fade between each light change. My job for the most part was to sit with Professor Casey in the theater (in the dark!) and assist her in calling the lights. We had two people in the light booth who were typing the cues into the light board. We cued the entire show in about an hour and a half. While cueing, you can "play" what you have entered and watch the lights as they would appear in the show. While we were able to cue the entire show yesterday, we have an all day tech practice on Saturday with the actors, which means that some of the lights might still change once we see how they look against the actors. At the end of rehearsal, I got to go work with the light board and add some cues to our plot. It was exciting and a little overwhelming! Here are some pictures of the light board:









Today, we tried to set up two projectors and run the projector cables to the sound and light booths. However, we ran into a roadblock. We discovered that the projectors could not be placed on the ground like originally anticipated. Instead, we are having to install projector "boxes" onto the lighting pipes on the ceiling and run the cables from the ceiling back to the booths. Instead of having a productive day- we ended up experimenting with our new projection plan. Hopefully it will work- although we still have some kinks to work out. Needless to say, it was a frustrating day! But once this is worked out- the projections will look really awesome! Hopefully tomorrow is a better day!

Information from:
-Designing With Light: an Introduction to Stage Lighting, J. Michael Gillette