Last night I performed in a benefit for my friend Sarah Atkinson who is trying to raise money for her MA in Dance Therapy (any angels out there? See this CD thread in Dance Miscellany:
Dance Therapy Studies Fundraiser)
She managed to get a deal on a theatre rental because it was dark (being Monday) which was great. What was not so great was the floor which was painted plywood with a few staples in it holding glow tape down for the musical that's currently running there, so there was no marly and the floor was hard. There was a riser upstage that couldn't be removed that had movie theatre ticket booth on it and a set of stairs in front of it. We knew ahead of time that the set would have to stay. My boyfriend watched us run through the show (he has a lot of behind the scenes experience) and was more than a little worried that someone was going to trip or fall into the stairs that were attached to the riser since every piece travelled towards the stairs. When he asked to have them removed it was a bit of a fight because they would have to be unscrewed from the riser--even though it was clear that they were an accident waiting to happen. Eventually an agreement to remove the stairs was reached.
Another downside was the tech. We had the theatre from 2:30 on. The lighting designer (who was also running the sound--the deal only included one technician) asked us to run our pieces around 4:30 so he could take some notes. We asked if he wanted our music in the booth and he said he would rather that we ran it on the ghetto blaster someone had brought with them.
The so-called lighting designer (I found out later that he's an aspiring actor) didn't start setting lighting cues until 7 pm (the show was at

. I assumed the cues would be simple fade in/fade out, but instead the first 5 pieces spent about 10 minutes each discussing different lighting options with the designer who wanted their input (a little difficult to do when you are actually on the stage instead of in the audience).
At 7:45 someone mentioned the time and he said, "Oh...I guess we better get a move on." So I came out on stage to run my piece and I marked it for about 3 minutes in silence until I was asked, "Where do you finish?" and I said, "I walk off." "Good, you're done," was the reply. Two pieces "teched" after me, finishing up at about 8:05. My boyfriend offered to mop the stage but I pointed out to him that since the house was supposed to open 5 minutes ago, mopping was probably not a good idea. So he did a quick sweep instead. The house opened at 8:15.
For the first half of the show the sound could only be heard through one of the speakers. So during intermission my boyfriend told the tech guy that one of the cables to a speaker was disconnected. Tech guy was worried about reconnecting it because he thought if both speakers were connected that would change his sound levels. Fortunately he was convinced to just lower his levels slightly and go with stero instead of mono sound.
So I had the pleasure of dancing in lights that I hadn't seen, which was pretty freaky when it came to searching for the equilibrium to balance, etc. Quite an experience in guerilla dance performance. Everyone who performed was happy to do the show for our friend, who we love dearly, but it was a little nerve wracking at times! Btw, my solo was called "Why I Hate Modern Dance."
Post Show War Wounds:
<img src="http://www.vkool.com/images/bruise1.JPG" alt="" /> <font size=1>Hip</font>
<img src="http://www.vkool.com/images/bruise2.JPG" alt="" /> <font size=1>Knees</font>
[This message has been edited by Marie (edited March 20, 2001).]
(Edited by salzberg to fix link)
<small>[ 08-09-2002, 21:39: Message edited by: salzberg ]</small>