(Sam Wyckoff) Proof

DAY EIGHTEEN Today was show day! I'm going to talk more about the day leading up to the show because I'll talk about the show a lot in my 1000 word reflection. Margaret and I started pretty early, doing some organization of the space then a run through. I decided to move my script from a binder to staples so it would be easier to carry. Then, we cleaned the black box and set up chairs. I moved all the lighting stuff that was still out away and did some final cord management. We realized that because UPS had lost an order of chairs in the mail, the second late one they gave us was a different type of chair. The floor also began to bubble up. Overall, the black box needs some help. We did another run through and then Margaret left to go get her cats. In that time, I got moving boxes, glasses, worked out some sound stuff, and finalized and printed programs. Grant Green and Cedar helped me fold the programs, and Nelson came by and volunteered to play piano for us during the show

This week was a long one. With the musical happening and getting just a few days away from our show, it was tough to find time to breath. There's a reason they call this time "hell week." It was weird  to spend so much time in one space. Because we get dinner in the green room this week, I only ever left for lunch in the dining hall (sometimes). Every day was a flurry of light notes, run throughs of proof, tech for proof, and rehearsal and other odd jobs for OOTI. The OOTI performance went really well, though. Even though the turnout wasn't spectacular on Saturday night I felt like we had two really solid performances of a great show. Now, Proof is tomorrow and Margaret and I have a lot of work to do together. With everything being so exhausting recently the thing we've been missing most was running the show. The tech is done, lights hung, set built, programs printed, now we just have to figure out how we say what we say (haha). I wish there was more to say abou

DAY SEVENTEEN I had hours galore today. They sort of snuck up on me through the day. I started strong because of polar swim. At 7:00 I was wide awake and went to the theater to finish my box. That took me way longer than I expected because the wood was too thin and weak for screws and I am a danger to everything around me with a hammer. Nonetheless, I finished it and its working great. The extension cord situation is not fantastic though, so far I only have two lights plugged in but all of them hung. I have to come up with a way to hide at least a little the extension cords candy striping the bars, though. They are brighter than the lights themselves. The performance is coming fast, and Margaret and I are bracing for impact. It's time to drill. I would write more but there's not much to the light hanging process, its just a lot of darkness and heights. It takes a long time, but once you get the hang of it it's not too complicated. I did have a big mishap when Margaret poi

DAY SIXTEEN Much progress today! Last night, I completed the poster and this morning looked at it with Margaret to put it in the program and edit it. Overall, I'm thrilled with it. We're super grateful for the development office for printing them out for us on nice large paper. We're both keeping one, one has been put on the door to the black box, and the other seven we will hang tomorrow. Bill was gracious enough to lend us his lights until we strike our set. As a thank you, I'm building a little box to put his dimmers in. We'll use it, and if he likes it it's all his. I'll hang those tomorrow as well and hopefully get that aspect done and dusted. The technical aspects of our show should be great, we just have to make sure we can get enough runs in before Monday. Crunch time is coming! TODAY'S HOURS: 4 TOTAL: 47.5

DAY FIFTEEN A long while spent with Mike the electrician has confirmed our fear - the black box lighting will not be fixed in time for our performance. Long story short, it was not the board or the circuits, but the box and the cords that link them... sort of. It's not that exactly, but I don't know the proper terms to describe it all and theres still some gray areas in our understanding. I went to see Bill, but he was not in his studio so I emailed him bout his lights. A conversation has started so hopefully we can work something out. Without lighting to work on, I turned myself to a new task: The poster and playbill. Both are near completion, and once this blog is published I'll keep working on them. I hope to have them done by tomorrow with an image for the post and one on the door of the black box. TODAY'S HOURS: 4.5 TOTAL: 43.5

DAY FOURTEEN Well, the lights are still not working. In the morning I worked on costumes for Hal, setting everything up for each scene and making sure I knew what to wear when. Margaret got up another wall, and the set is looking amazing. Another light board was brought in in hopes it would fix some communication issue. It did not. There were so many moments I thought we were one step away from getting it working and then nothing happened. Tomorrow I will talk with Bill and (hopefully) get his stuff set up. Margaret and I also did a full blocked run through today which was a ton of fun. I'm definitely getting excited for the show, but its a very stressful time with the musical coming up. TODAY'S HOURS: 4 TOTAL HOURS: 39

DAY THIRTEEN What a roller coaster of a day! So many emotions. Heartbreak, hope, pain -- We did it all. In the morning, I went downstairs ready to hang some lights. The genie was there, the DMX cable had arrived and the board was set up, but fate had a different plan for me today. At first when I plugged the lights in and nothing happened I thought I was making a foolish mistake; Some switch somewhere must have been turned off and I wasn't seeing it. When I had lost all hope and proposed a new plan involving tons of desk lamps (much to Margaret's dismay), I saw Terry. She explained to me that in the mechanical closet there is a small box that controls the dimmers in the black box, it had probably been unplugged or turned off in the many years out of commission. Well, we called maintenance with hopeful voices and they opened it up for us. Every breaker was working, the box was plugged in, the switches were flipped on. Nothing should have been wrong. A red error light was flash

Week 2 A lot of progress was made this week. Even though Margaret was out for part of it, I got to do a lot of lights/tech stuff and odd jobs while she was gone. After talking today, we’re not sure if its probable to think that we can get all of this memorized in this little time. 45 minutes is a long time on stage, and three weeks is not a lot of time to rehearse. In addition to sets, lights, and production managing we still have a ton to do.  The past two weeks have been more theater intensive then I could have imagined. Today, I spent ten hours inside; A mix of rehearsal, senior project, lights, and costumes. My day to day schedule is usually (about) as follows: 8:00 AM I go to the theater and work on the light notes I received from the day before or ones I took myself. At 10 (or so) I meet Margaret and we work until lunch. Meals for me are a pretty in-out operation, so I’m usually back within 25 minutes. After lunch, we will work some more and then I’ll go back to lighting.

DAY TWELVE Margaret and I got a lot done today! We started slow. A bit before she arrived, I began cleaning lights. When Margaret got to the black box she wasn't feeling great, so we started watching the proof movie while she finalized some set calculations and I kept cleaning. It was super fun to watch the scenes we've been memorizing and say the lines with the actors, but I defiantly need to keep working on my memorization. We did a run through as well, and I definitely feel myself becoming more comfortable with the character. The final scene has yet to be blocked, but it's the simplest one. It seems like some project always gets in the way of what we mean to do every day. Doing every job, bits and pieces from each seep over into a big pot of work stew. We've got a lot done, but even more ahead. TODAY'S HOURS: 3 TOTAL HOURS: 29

DAY ELEVEN Margaret has returned! Early in the day, before she arrived, I took to the dusty lights and have been sneezing since. It took me a little while to figure out exactly how to take the light apart, and when I went looking for our microfiber rags used to clean the lenses they were missing. I had to reassemble the fixture, but now that I have seen how they work I'll be able to spend a few hours one day to bang through four or five ellipsoidals. When Margaret arrived, we took some time to reestablish where we stand. Margaret began building platforms. I helped for the first bit but had to run to speak with Joan, and then to notes. The rest of my day was spent on lights for OOTI, which is definitely sneaking up on us. I planned to read through the script again tonight for memorization, but as I type these final words my eyes grow heavy, and I don't think I'll make it past page two. TODAY'S HOURS: 2.5 TOTAL: 26

DAY NINE Today was not super productive. With Margaret (totally understandably) gone again today, I kept chugging away and filled in the lighting plot. Hopefully everything will work as I set it on the plot, but there's definitely room for error/experimentation. Other than that, I cleaned the black box for the boys and girls club, mainly moving props and lights back into storage and the green room. I talked with Joan for a bit again tonight, and got to see Margaret at rehearsal tonight. Though she was just reading lines and not spending much time up and about, it was good to touch base in person and check in on the project. Hopefully, if she can keep food down, she'll be in tomorrow and we can do a run through. If she's feeling sick but comes in anyway, maybe we'll watch the movie for research. TODAY'S HOURS: 1 TOTAL: 23.5

Day Eight With Margaret out again today, I wasn't quite sure what to do with my time. We couldn't block scenes or start building, so I kept going on the lights. With the help of Terry, I pulled out the old light board and got it plugged in. Unfortunately, we don't have a spare DMX cable to connect to the dimmers near the bars, so there was not point in starting to hang lights. Terry gave me a bunch of tips for when I do, like that I should be prepared to use lots of extension cords and should use the low bars for front light. I went to the booth to look for possible gels (pieces of cellophane used to color lights) for our night time and day time lights, as well as the police car's light. I also measured each bar and its height to make a map of the lighting placement possibilities called a lighting plot. I'm attaching a picture below; The thin lines are bars where lights can be placed and the thick ones are the edges of walls. The measurements can't be seen bec

DAY SEVEN Today Margaret was very (very) sick, so I was on my own. I spent most of the day changing lighting notes for the musical, but carved out about an hour and a half for various senior project bits. In the morning, I went down to the black box and opened the storage closet. I found the board, lots of lights, and even some gels and extra frames. Looking at the lights was super interesting. I don't know how old they are, but they're solid gray (rusting) metal compared to the newer plastic/metal/glass ellipsoidal source fours we have on the main stage. Once I get the board on I'll be able to test them and make sure they work. I checked the bulbs on a bunch and they look in good condition, but they're different than the ones we use now so if any burn out we will need some sort of contingency. I would say we could take some from upstairs but every light (besides parnells, which we will take from above) is being used for Once on This Island. I also recruited Amanda Hi

WEEK 1 As is with many production processes, the work and hours has been growing as we get closer to the show date. Margaret and I have blocked almost the whole show and assembled much (but not all of) the costumes. Next week, we will take inventory of lights and set up the board, as well as start the set construction. The week went pretty much as expected. We stayed close to our original schedule but had to adjust for different circumstances. I’ve been having a lot of fun with Margaret, and love being able to hop between different aspects of the production. An interesting challenge for next week will be the boys and girls club show next week. Kyle Tremblay told me today the performance is next thursday at around 5, and they’ll be rehearsing in the space the day before. Hopefully, Margaret and I can start building and just move the platforms when they come before screwing anything into the floor. Because she has more experience, Margaret will be leading the charge on set const

DAY SIX Today Margaret and I spent the morning at a rummage sale in New London. I didn't quite know what to expect from it, but we ended out walking away with some cool pieces of clothes for our characters and ourselves. Everything was under $2.00 (Crazy!), so if we were on the fence about a pair of pants or shirt we just brought it back and paid the extra $0.50. The rest of the day was spent mostly on the main stage musical (the lighting of which is now near complete). Rehearsal started at 12:30 and we wanted to eat lunch, so once we got back from the rummage sale we called it a day. TODAY'S HOURS: 2.5 TOTAL HOURS: 17

DAY FOUR Margaret and I met earlier today to make up for lost time yesterday and we were very productive. It was a day of less exciting jobs, but very necessary ones. We moved two very heavy platforms from the scene shop to the black box and fixed our tape layout to start. After that, we dove into the costume closet to see what we could find. After going through many mislabeled bins and boxes, we found all three button up shirts we needed for my character, Hal, as well as good black jeans and t-shirts. For Cathy (less successful), we got  a sweatshirt. Tomorrow we're heading to the rummage sale, and after our search we now know exactly what to look for. We looked at different lighting options and reassessed our prewritten schedule. Now that we're in it, its good to re-plan and see what elements we are devoting too much time to and what needs more. After rehearsal, Margaret and I found a lone woman wandering the meeting house. She told us she was looking for the boys and girls

Day Three Today was not as productive as yesterday. Margaret and I got a late start, admittedly my fault, so we didn't have as much time to work. With Once on This Island coming up fast, I spent most of my time in the morning working to complete the lighting design. When we met up, Margaret had already been working for half an hour or so. She, being the one with more carpentry/set building experience is taking the lead on that end of things, so she had begun planning exactly what we need where. To me, everything she said sounded like arbitrary numbers in a different language, but hopefully I will learn. I'll be leading the lighting/sound charge, so we made a plan to make Saturday a tech day and jump into it. We could not meet after lunch because we had an interview with Ethney about our proctor experience (and our senior project overview/progress)! We met again during senior study hall with Joan to get an idea of what costumes we have available to us and see what we need to ge

Day Three: Today, Margaret and I met at 10:15 AM for a shorter day. Because we had rehearsal at 12:30, we focused more on solidifying scene one than moving forward. Once we read through it and then acted through it, we realized we had time to start scene two. First we read through it, then we loosely blocked it. Because we have yet to build the bar and get stools, it was difficult to figure out exactly how we should move on stage. For scene one, though, we did find things to use as props. They will not be what we use in the end, but it’s helpful to work with something early on. We are also still holding scripts, so all movement is a little awkward. We left at 11:45 for lunch.  TODAY'S HOURS: 1.5 TOTAL: 9