Background
I watched multiple videos and read a few online tutorials in order to get myself acquainted with Q-Lab.
Sunday 12th February - Get In
Duties for the day
I picked up a sofa ('Lady Windemere') and garden furniture ('Platonov') with the ASM. Once back at the venue I was told that I would be primarily working for the lighting guy, Liam. My daily responsibilities included footing the ladder, gathering lanterns, learning the basics to the lighting desk - Zero 88 Frog, storing the set and learning the cues.
I was informed that the first show for Platonov would take place the next morning and the first show for Lady Windemere would take place the following afternoon with the technician having to leave half way through. It was here that I learned my primary duty throughout the following two weeks would be operating the sound and lighting cues for all of the four shows. For the latter half of the afternoon I was to work with the ASM to gather names and contact numbers of each cast member while the director and technician plotted the lights. I was taught the basics to editing lights, creating channels, linking lanterns and setting scenes. At the day I was able to go into individual scenes to edit the lighting in addition to being able to create entirely new scenes. In the evening I assisted the on staff caretaker to lock up the building and was given a list of the things to do. I was given out of order scripts for Romeo and Juliet, and The Three Sisters.
I was informed that the first show for Platonov would take place the next morning and the first show for Lady Windemere would take place the following afternoon with the technician having to leave half way through. It was here that I learned my primary duty throughout the following two weeks would be operating the sound and lighting cues for all of the four shows. For the latter half of the afternoon I was to work with the ASM to gather names and contact numbers of each cast member while the director and technician plotted the lights. I was taught the basics to editing lights, creating channels, linking lanterns and setting scenes. At the day I was able to go into individual scenes to edit the lighting in addition to being able to create entirely new scenes. In the evening I assisted the on staff caretaker to lock up the building and was given a list of the things to do. I was given out of order scripts for Romeo and Juliet, and The Three Sisters.
Monday 13th February - Shows
In the morning I preset the stage for 'Platonov' with the ASM. As this was the first time the stage had been set we had to first fill thirty plant pots with soil before adding two fake flowers to each one. These were to be positioned along the front of the audience. The technician and director spent the morning plotting the lights for the show later that day. Due to the shortage of time I was unable to be taught any of the correct cues. The first tech was a complete shamble. There was a lot of miscommunication between myself and the technician, which led to increased tension and poor sound/lighting co-ordination. Fortunately, it was an early running and there were few spectators in the auditorium. As I had no script and there was no time to go through the cues beforehand, I had to rely on the technician to give me verbal cues, which often changed. There was also a delay in Q-Lab, which led to multiple silly errors and annoyance.
For the afternoon the show the set had to be completely changed. Once again, the ASM and I preset Lady Windemere by removing all of the previous set and bringing in a shez long, table, fireplace and drinks cabinet among others. Lady Windemere ran slightly more smoothly as although I didn't have a script, the only cues were the start and end of each scene. Rather than running sound through Q-Lab the director brought in his own CD and requested we run music through that. For the first act I merely turned the volume up and down before I was handed control of the lighting desk for the second half. Thankfully it wasn't too complicated and I managed to get to grips with it fairly easily.
Tuesday 14th February
First Show -Romeo & Juliet
I still hadn't been given any of the cues for Romeo & Juliet other than sheet of paper the lighting technician had given me more he left. This once again led to another poor performance in which I had no idea what I was doing. It was also the first time I had ever cued both the sound and lighting for a production from the beginning. I missed cues and went early on others. I think that this was the worst show of the entire two weeks. It was at this point that I was starting to believe I had made a terrible mistake in signing up for the project as I did not think I was up to the challenge.
Tech - Three Sisters
We began the day by finding out that all of the audio files for Three Sisters had been corrupted. It was then down to me to source the sound effects for the show later that day. Luckily there were only 8 - 10 or so effects and I was able to obtain most of them from Youtube before using a video converter to make them all an MP3 and inserting the new files into Q-Lab. However, I didn't have time to insert all of the cues within my lunch break so a few were missing. From this task I gained a more in depth knowledge of Q-Lab and feel more confident in the editing of programs to make them fit the task at hand. One aspect I found particularly difficult was the placing in of faders. I followed online tutorials but could not get them to work in the way I wanted to. I got around this problem by adjusting the master control during each fade. This led to a few mistakes where the music came in slightly late after I forgot to turn the volume back up before hitting play. On top of that, the script I was given was un-labelled, was from two different versions and had pages missing. I also lacked any cue list. This ultimately led to a fair few cues being missed. I finished the day down trodden and truly lacking any spirit.
Wednesday 15th February
Lady Windemere
One of the actors was unable to perform so his role was taken on by one of the directors. The director missed cues and said completely the wrong line. At one point stating confidently that Lady Windemere was still in the house when in fact she was supposed to have called a carriage and gone. I thought that the actors performed to the best of the ability and hardly let this phase them. It may have been at this point that the other co-director left the project and one of the actors took up the mantle. Having already successfully performed this play before I was fairly confident in my abilities and the play went smoothly. I was just starting to feel better about myself when we ran through Platonov for the first time with me being completely on my own.
Platonov
Although still far from perfect, I luckily had the director in with me during this run so that he was able to point out any cue I had not yet been given. We ran through the list with few issues. However, there was once again a slight communication error and I accidentally sent forth a few cues slightly early.
Thursday 16th February
Three Sisters' key actors and co-director dropped out of the project, which meant that we could no longer run it. There was now only of the original directors remaining to direct the last three plays.
Romeo & Juliet x 2
During the newly obtained time in the morning the director ran me 'cue to cue' for Romeo & Juliet for the first time. At this point I had managed to get the script in order and had already added a few of my cues so the task was fairly simple. By the end of the running I had managed to get a complete list of my cues in the script. Unfortunately I had to leave to catch my bus back up to university before the final show so I do not have the final script available. A segment will be written about it below as Romeo & Juliet was the most technical show. This was the first of the press nights so tensions were running high. We managed to run through the afternoon show with few technical difficulties on part and ironed out the others.
The press night went considerably well and I believe that it the review given on the night is the one I have linked to below.
Friday 17th February
Lady Windemere
The new director wanted a change of music for the second act of Lady Windemere, which was a party sequence. She also wanted the music to grow louder whenever the room to the party was opened. As there were no suitable tracks on the original track I had been given we were not able to do this for the current show. Other than that minor set back, there were no issues with this show. One of the actors was able to give me her script for the performance so I was now in possession of two complete scripts.
Platonov
Saturday 18th February -
Romeo and Juliet
Sunday 19th February
Lady Windemere
Platonov
Romeo and Juliet
Monday 20th February
Romeo and Juliet
Tuesday 21st February
Platonov Lady Windemere
Wednesday 22nd February
Lady Windemere
Thursday 23rd February
Platonov
Friday 24th February
Romeo and Juliet
Lady Windemere
Saturday 25th February - Platonov
Sunday 26th February - Platonov, Romeo and Juliet
General Duties
Clean and prepare the alcohol bottles for Platonov and Lady Windemere before each show.
Pre-set each production. Set layout included for Platonov. Romeo & Juliet had no set so the previous set just had to be cleared. Set for Lady Windemere already previously mentioned
Operate the FoH when the ASM and Director arrived late.
Go through and lock up the building at the end of the night.
Arrive early for each day to turn on all the lights, dimmers, and test sound.
Go to shops to source last minute props and refreshments.
Maintaining the shez long.
Review for Romeo & Juliet
https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/166976/romeo-and-juliet-theatro-technis-review/
Evaluation
I would say that although I could have done far better, I performed the task quite well considering I had no idea I would be cueing all four shows until the day before and had no previous experience in the subject.
What went well?
By the final week of the production I had a fairly comprehensive list of all of my cues and a description of where they appeared in each show. Although I would have liked the chance to learn the cues before the night of the first show, it did give me great first hand experience in learning on the spot and improvisation.
What did not go well?
I would say that a lack of communication was a definite flaw of the project as a whole. A lot of the time I was not told to changes to cues until after they were used in shows, namely Lady Windemere with the changes to set and the actors starting positions. This led to either lengthy periods of darkness or the actors rushing into place as the lights went up.
What do I want to take forward?
Strengths
I was almost always the first to arrive and one of the last to leave. I arrived each day committed to the task at hand and with a fully stocked tool kit that included but was not limited to pens, prompt copy, chewing gum, water, paper clips, gaffer tape. post it notes, safety pins and a miniature sewing kit.
Weakness
I would say that my overall weakness is that I would get incredibly stressed throughout the performances, which although did affect my performance slightly, it also meant that I lost all enjoyment for the project and my concentration may have lagged slightly towards the end of the project.
In the morning I preset the stage for 'Platonov' with the ASM. As this was the first time the stage had been set we had to first fill thirty plant pots with soil before adding two fake flowers to each one. These were to be positioned along the front of the audience. The technician and director spent the morning plotting the lights for the show later that day. Due to the shortage of time I was unable to be taught any of the correct cues. The first tech was a complete shamble. There was a lot of miscommunication between myself and the technician, which led to increased tension and poor sound/lighting co-ordination. Fortunately, it was an early running and there were few spectators in the auditorium. As I had no script and there was no time to go through the cues beforehand, I had to rely on the technician to give me verbal cues, which often changed. There was also a delay in Q-Lab, which led to multiple silly errors and annoyance.
For the afternoon the show the set had to be completely changed. Once again, the ASM and I preset Lady Windemere by removing all of the previous set and bringing in a shez long, table, fireplace and drinks cabinet among others. Lady Windemere ran slightly more smoothly as although I didn't have a script, the only cues were the start and end of each scene. Rather than running sound through Q-Lab the director brought in his own CD and requested we run music through that. For the first act I merely turned the volume up and down before I was handed control of the lighting desk for the second half. Thankfully it wasn't too complicated and I managed to get to grips with it fairly easily.
Tuesday 14th February
First Show -Romeo & Juliet
I still hadn't been given any of the cues for Romeo & Juliet other than sheet of paper the lighting technician had given me more he left. This once again led to another poor performance in which I had no idea what I was doing. It was also the first time I had ever cued both the sound and lighting for a production from the beginning. I missed cues and went early on others. I think that this was the worst show of the entire two weeks. It was at this point that I was starting to believe I had made a terrible mistake in signing up for the project as I did not think I was up to the challenge.
Tech - Three Sisters
We began the day by finding out that all of the audio files for Three Sisters had been corrupted. It was then down to me to source the sound effects for the show later that day. Luckily there were only 8 - 10 or so effects and I was able to obtain most of them from Youtube before using a video converter to make them all an MP3 and inserting the new files into Q-Lab. However, I didn't have time to insert all of the cues within my lunch break so a few were missing. From this task I gained a more in depth knowledge of Q-Lab and feel more confident in the editing of programs to make them fit the task at hand. One aspect I found particularly difficult was the placing in of faders. I followed online tutorials but could not get them to work in the way I wanted to. I got around this problem by adjusting the master control during each fade. This led to a few mistakes where the music came in slightly late after I forgot to turn the volume back up before hitting play. On top of that, the script I was given was un-labelled, was from two different versions and had pages missing. I also lacked any cue list. This ultimately led to a fair few cues being missed. I finished the day down trodden and truly lacking any spirit.
Wednesday 15th February
Lady Windemere
One of the actors was unable to perform so his role was taken on by one of the directors. The director missed cues and said completely the wrong line. At one point stating confidently that Lady Windemere was still in the house when in fact she was supposed to have called a carriage and gone. I thought that the actors performed to the best of the ability and hardly let this phase them. It may have been at this point that the other co-director left the project and one of the actors took up the mantle. Having already successfully performed this play before I was fairly confident in my abilities and the play went smoothly. I was just starting to feel better about myself when we ran through Platonov for the first time with me being completely on my own.
Platonov
Although still far from perfect, I luckily had the director in with me during this run so that he was able to point out any cue I had not yet been given. We ran through the list with few issues. However, there was once again a slight communication error and I accidentally sent forth a few cues slightly early.
Thursday 16th February
Three Sisters' key actors and co-director dropped out of the project, which meant that we could no longer run it. There was now only of the original directors remaining to direct the last three plays.
Romeo & Juliet x 2
During the newly obtained time in the morning the director ran me 'cue to cue' for Romeo & Juliet for the first time. At this point I had managed to get the script in order and had already added a few of my cues so the task was fairly simple. By the end of the running I had managed to get a complete list of my cues in the script. Unfortunately I had to leave to catch my bus back up to university before the final show so I do not have the final script available. A segment will be written about it below as Romeo & Juliet was the most technical show. This was the first of the press nights so tensions were running high. We managed to run through the afternoon show with few technical difficulties on part and ironed out the others.
The press night went considerably well and I believe that it the review given on the night is the one I have linked to below.
Friday 17th February
Lady Windemere
The new director wanted a change of music for the second act of Lady Windemere, which was a party sequence. She also wanted the music to grow louder whenever the room to the party was opened. As there were no suitable tracks on the original track I had been given we were not able to do this for the current show. Other than that minor set back, there were no issues with this show. One of the actors was able to give me her script for the performance so I was now in possession of two complete scripts.
Platonov
Saturday 18th February -
Romeo and Juliet
Sunday 19th February
Lady Windemere
Platonov
Romeo and Juliet
Monday 20th February
Romeo and Juliet
Tuesday 21st February
Platonov Lady Windemere
Wednesday 22nd February
Lady Windemere
Thursday 23rd February
Platonov
Friday 24th February
Romeo and Juliet
Lady Windemere
Saturday 25th February - Platonov
Sunday 26th February - Platonov, Romeo and Juliet
General Duties
Clean and prepare the alcohol bottles for Platonov and Lady Windemere before each show.
Pre-set each production. Set layout included for Platonov. Romeo & Juliet had no set so the previous set just had to be cleared. Set for Lady Windemere already previously mentioned
Operate the FoH when the ASM and Director arrived late.
Go through and lock up the building at the end of the night.
Arrive early for each day to turn on all the lights, dimmers, and test sound.
Go to shops to source last minute props and refreshments.
Maintaining the shez long.
Review for Romeo & Juliet
https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/166976/romeo-and-juliet-theatro-technis-review/
Evaluation
I would say that although I could have done far better, I performed the task quite well considering I had no idea I would be cueing all four shows until the day before and had no previous experience in the subject.
What went well?
By the final week of the production I had a fairly comprehensive list of all of my cues and a description of where they appeared in each show. Although I would have liked the chance to learn the cues before the night of the first show, it did give me great first hand experience in learning on the spot and improvisation.
What did not go well?
I would say that a lack of communication was a definite flaw of the project as a whole. A lot of the time I was not told to changes to cues until after they were used in shows, namely Lady Windemere with the changes to set and the actors starting positions. This led to either lengthy periods of darkness or the actors rushing into place as the lights went up.
What do I want to take forward?
Strengths
I was almost always the first to arrive and one of the last to leave. I arrived each day committed to the task at hand and with a fully stocked tool kit that included but was not limited to pens, prompt copy, chewing gum, water, paper clips, gaffer tape. post it notes, safety pins and a miniature sewing kit.
Weakness
I would say that my overall weakness is that I would get incredibly stressed throughout the performances, which although did affect my performance slightly, it also meant that I lost all enjoyment for the project and my concentration may have lagged slightly towards the end of the project.
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