We have 7 semi-idenical shows with acting. We also have a show of just our performing company. Each show runs approx 1 1/2 hours and the company show will be approx 4 hours. I have scheduled the tech rehearsal the morning before the first show. Question is how long do we need to set lights/etc? We are at a union house with union workers. Hopefully this means they will be able to do it well quickly. I have tenative scheduled 3 hours. Suggestions? Anything I need to ask the techies that will help determine how long we need? or to help speed the light settings etc?

Pas, you need to have a professional lighting designer and a technical director who can answer these questions for you and make sure that your rehearsals run as efficiently as possible.<P>------------------<BR>Jeffrey E. Salzberg, Lighting Designer<BR>"Shang-a-lang, feel the <I>sturm und drang</I> in the air!"<BR>Online portfolio: <A HREF="http://www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg" TARGET=_blank>http://www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg</A> <P><BR>

They are the "professionals" they will not let outsiders touch anything. Our ballet master is setting 3-5 lighting schemes and will take care of this section of coordination between us and the techies. We HAD a professional for sound that "they" wont let touch "their" equipment. I wish we had you in our budget, but this is recital not a professional show and we have very limited financial resources.<P>We run the rehearsal under work lights and with a boom box to keep prices down of the union workers. I am looking forward to the show running much better this year. Our sound guy last year had horrible feedback most of the first 3 shows!!<p>[This message has been edited by Pas (edited May 07, 2001).]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>They are the "professionals" they will not let outsiders touch anything.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>They are professional stagehands, not designers. They're completely within their rights to restrict others' access to the equipment, but it's not the job of the lighting designer or the technical director to operate equipment.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Our ballet master is setting 3-5 lighting schemes<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>It sounds like he's serving as the lighting designer. The odds are that he's not qualified to do so.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>and will take care of this section of coordination between us and the techies.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Well, if you dancies insists on using diminutive and/or derogatory/disrespectful terms for the technicians, it's no wonder they don't respect you.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>We HAD a professional for sound that "they" wont let touch "their" equipment.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>How much rehearsal did he have? I notice that you run your rehearsals under work lights. If you don't try things out in rehearsal and you don't have professional stage management and technical direction, you are almost guaranteeing disaster and, even though you'll blame the stagehands, it'll be at least partly your fault.<BR><p>[This message has been edited by Tom Skelton (edited May 07, 2001).]

The fact that you're a school presenting a recital rather than a company presenting a concert is irrelevant; many recitals hire professionals to handle their lighting design and technical direction. After all, supposedly, you're there to teach your students the right way to do things.<P>. . .And I'm not soliciting employment; I'm pretty much out of the recital biz.<P>------------------<BR>Jeffrey E. Salzberg, Lighting Designer<BR>"Shang-a-lang, feel the <I>sturm und drang</I> in the air!"<BR>Online portfolio: <A HREF="http://www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg" TARGET=_blank>http://www.suncoast.quik.com/salzberg</A> <P><BR><p>[This message has been edited by salzberg (edited May 07, 2001).]

As a local private sector school, doing "recitals". I can tell you 3 hours was enough to set one 10 min. piece. That would include the lighting design, the blocking of the kids, and then the run through of the piece with costumes/makeup and lighting.<BR>Remember that was only a 10 min. piece.<P>We usually had 14 or more hours of total rehearsal time for a full concert.<BR>We would move in, hand our drops, set the sets, and props. Fix the dressing rooms, and then get to the lighting as each group or dance had to be set, blocked, lit and then rehearsed.<BR>I can't see doing it in 3 hours for 1 1/2 hr show.<BR>I would be nuts!<P>Esp. with sound added into the mix.<P>We always had a backup tape running at the exact same time as the regular tape, so if anything happened to one we could switch over to the other with no real stopping of music.<BR>We did the same when we switched to using CD's.<P>Just thinking about how much work I put in as well as my crew, and the theater's crew, I get chills.....and feel thankful I have retired from all this.!<P>------------------<BR>bek<BR>CCA CREATIONS<BR>Website:<BR>http://members.tripod.com/~Casalino<P>

First I want to apogalize if techie is considered a "diminutive and/or derogatory/disrespectful term". I was not aware that it was not respectful and will not use it in the future.<P>The theatre had led me to believe that they would set the lighting and that hiring anyone outside their employees was a waste of money. Each year we try to improve the recitals and I was looking for information here to help us rise the level of our performance.<P>As a teacher in a large studio I have fallen into the planning orginization of the recitals. Perhaps it will be in our future to hire a lighting designer, but I believe the owner and manager would not allow us to expand the budget in this area. <P>I have been extensively involved in rectial planning for the past 6 years and have yet to have a "disaster" other than a 3 year peeing on stage. <P>Oh.. and as far and qualified to set lighting.. is a BFA qualified?<P>[This message has been edited by Pas (edited May 07, 2001).]<p>[This message has been edited by Pas (edited May 07, 2001).]

A BFA in what?

When I'm budgeting time in a union house for our contemporary company's work and tech, I usually start trying to provide 4X the length of the piece for tech (and that's tight)...then I start bartering down, especially if I am having to tech AND dress rehearse, or run, the piece prior to the show.<P>Example: last week I had three priemeres and one rep piece. Now, I happen to know that our dancers can move quickly through staging a piece that we have done in other theaters. I also know that I, as lighting designer, can work very quickly. And in this house, and in this situation I knew all the works were to pre-recorded, high-quality recordings. However, the three premieres had never been on a stage before. We had 2.5 hours for each premiere, and 1.5 for the rep work (each work was about .5 hr) And, I must say, that we were absolutely insane trying to get the new pieces teched and run during that time. And, in a union house, you have breaks also, so let's say you were teching for 4 hours, you would have a 10-15 minute period during which absolutely nothing can happen. <P>And when you start allowing for transition times between works, whether for gel changes or set changes, or costume changes, or even just people changes (never, ever, discount the fact that it takes time for one group to move off the stage and one to move on) your time starts whittling away.<P>In this union house, I am the lighting designer. I don't touch a thing, including the light board or any of the lights. However, because I have done the homework ahead of time, and know the works, and the plan artistically, no time is wasted trying to explain why a special is needed at centerstage for the first five minutes, etc. Same thing with the sound person. The company's sound person knows how loud the company wants things, and works with the house sound person to make it happen...the amount of sound, where it is coming from, how it is mixed, the EQ, etc. <BR>

Babs post once again perfectly explains the way it should run. The designers talk the house technicians do. Some house technicians CAN do both, but know their job is to do when they are being paid to do. I think you can never schedule enough tech time. Even if you schedule three days it's not enough. The best way to cut down your time in tech rehearsals is to know exactly what your schedule is and stick to it. Know what kind of lights you need and stick to that. Making last minute changes takes twice as much time. If you keep things as simple as possible your time will also go more smoothly.<P>This is a hard place to be put for everyone. No one wants their work to look shoddy whether they are a dance studio recital or a major Broadway show. But limited budgets can make putting out a good product even harder. Just remember that the more pre-production work you do, the less time is wasted.

I would add that having money is not the only way to have a "professionally" run show. Organization, attention to detail, and pre-planning all come together for professionalism.

Thanks Babs and LMCtech! I agree that planning helps keep the show more professional. Each year we get better and learn from our experiences and failures.<P>It might be in our future to hire a lighting designer, but we cant this year.<P>Having 7 recitals and our performing company show in one weekend is overwhelming by it's self. 900 dancers plus their families and friends 180 dances, we do well not to go nuts just in the planning stages. We only have the auditorium for 3 days for rehearsals and tech rehearsals thus must budget our time and preplan as much as possible!<P>Thanks again Babs and LMC!

Well, once again, I get to be the one who tells people what they don't want to hear. . . .<P>Yes, it's important to organize, but it's only helpful if the person doing the organization understands what it is that's being organized. Yes, a professional (even a semi-pro would be better'n nothing) technical director costs money, but so do stagehands -- and you'll probably spend more money on wasted stagehand time.<P>Not hiring competent production management/technical direction is the equivalent of saying, "I need some work done on my house, but I can't afford a plumber, so I'll do the work myself -- or have my neighbor, who took wood shop in high school, do it. Maybe next year I'll be able to afford a plumber."<P>I could go on, of course, but I suspect that the people who most need this have already stopped reading -- which is too bad, since they've doomed themselves to yet another needlessly stressful and expensive recital.<P>There's a tendency for producers who have much more experience in the studio than they do in the theatre to feel like victims; if they are, it's because they <I>let</I> themselves be victimized.<p>[This message has been edited by Tom Skelton (edited May 13, 2001).]

Tom, your point is well taken, and I agree...hadn't actually thought of it that way, like the plumber thing.<P>Pas, I'm glad you're doing so much planning! 900 people in a theater is going to be wild! I know I was going crazy with our 85 young people with our one day tech. I spent a good week+ just doing paperwork to plan for the dressing rooms, and movement of people. I can't even begin to imagine 900 (frankly can't even imagine the fire marshall allowing that, let alone the theater!) <P>How ever will you be dealing with dressing space?<P>------------------<BR><BR><I>Visit <A HREF="http://www.lightingdance.com/" TARGET=_blank><B>my website</B></A><BR>or the <A HREF="http://www.lightingdance.com/pittsburgh/" TARGET=_blank><B>Pittsburgh Dance Scene</B></A></I>

The 900 dancers are spread out over 8 shows. We have 20 numbers in each show and each recital will run around 1 1/2 hours. We have around 120 dancers in each show. <P>There is a "holding area" below the stage for the dancers to wait their turn on stage. We have 8-10 stundet/parent volunteers to "run" the dancers up to the stage area.<P>There are 8 dressing areas ONLY for those who have to change costumes (I will work on this tonight).<P>The BIG show is our performing company on Saturday night with around 40 dances. I don't do the planning for that show.