Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Things I Learned During the REEFER Tech

"Reefer Madness, the Musical" has a preview tomorrow night, and opens on Friday night. I've been working on tech stuff since last Wednesday or so. And we've been running tech rehearsals since Saturday. Here are a few things I've learned during this time (in no particular order). I'm sure the list will grow as I get more sleep and have more time to reflect on the past several days.
  1. Climbing a ladder during a strobe test is a bad idea. (In my defense, I was already at the top of the ladder before the test started. However, I should not have climbed down once that strobe kicked in).
  2. When running a fog machine in an enclosed theater, ensure that the theater's air conditioning is turned on and the fan is running.
  3. Even when you think the smoke detectors are disabled, and you've checked it, they're not. So you'd better have the fire department on speed dial.
  4. Modern fire alarms are very loud and very annoying.
  5. If there is going to be a lamp problem (i.e., stage light not working), it's going to happen to the unit that is jammed between two other ones. Oh, and those other units? They're hot. Hot enough to burn.
  6. And if that lamp problem occurs the night before preview, the problem is going to be the in the base itself and not the lamp. Replacement lamps we have; not so much on spare Altman bases.

No comments: