What do you do when things don't go right?
One of the joys of doing live theater is that you get one chance to get it right, over and over again. Over in Hollywood, they get one chance (generally speaking) to get a final product right (ahem, Mr. Lucas, it was better if you'd have left it alone). So, when I was in school or was working a roadhouse, it was considerably different for me, since the length of a production was quite shorter than what I work now. If something were to go wrong, we would figure out what was wrong and there was little in the way of a contingent plan. Now, working in corporate theater, there is a plan for most anything that could disrupt the flow of the show. Often times, we can have a malfunction and keep the show going without the audience suspecting that there was a problem unless they had seen the show previously.
This gets me to thinking, what would I have done different in the past? Most likely a failure would stop the show and a lot of mahem would ensue while everyone figured out what could be done to get the show back up and running. Granted, the shows I have worked on in the past have had at most, half of the perormers and a quarter of the technicians making sure that the show ran smoothly. Needless to say, this current production is a bit more complex and as such can have many more problems occur. Even still, what kind of planning should take place?
First of all, being in a public assembly situation, there are many basic laws that require a certain amount of preparation to ensure the safety of the audience. Obviously, situations like a power outage will have some preparation through emergency generators for safety lights (possibly also battery powered flood lights). But will you have enough lighting for your performers? The stage is usually a dark place that will have many things blocking standard facility lighting such as soft goods and set pieces.
OK, so let's say that you have your normal emergency preparedness covered. Now let's save the show. Do you have the preparation to skip a scene if something catastrophic prevents you from continuing in the normal way? I now realize that I depended much too heavily on my cue sheets and did not keep adequate labeling on my console (not just with board tape, but the digital notes that most consoles allow, telling you what each cue is). How quickly can you find that information. If you have automated moves, can you split your scene so that only part of it works, keeping the flow of the show instead of pausing the entire show and keeping your audience in the dark?
Many technicians will mock on the performers, especially in the skills department. When you work with talented performers, you will find that it could be you who is mocked upon, especially in the skills department. I for one have definitely been lured into a sense of false security when I was particular in doing preventative maintenance and kept special attention to my cues. Why, because since I planned on everything running right, doing everything I could to prevent failure, that I neglected to prepare for Murphy. Sure, maybe I did my lampcheck and everything was OK before the show, but little did I know that I happened to replace the light in my special with the one lamp that barely passed inspection. Did I plan on what light that I could use to cover the scene for when that light blew, even if it wasn't the original idea? Probably not, and now that poor performer is doing his best standing in the dark trying to emote. The good actor will be able to cover this problem, but if I had been prepared, he would have to work less.
So, yeah, maybe I'm being a little preachy today. However, hopefully you will have a little nagging voice in the back of your head during your next performance asking you, "what would you do now if this happened?". That way, you can be prepared, not paranoid.
This gets me to thinking, what would I have done different in the past? Most likely a failure would stop the show and a lot of mahem would ensue while everyone figured out what could be done to get the show back up and running. Granted, the shows I have worked on in the past have had at most, half of the perormers and a quarter of the technicians making sure that the show ran smoothly. Needless to say, this current production is a bit more complex and as such can have many more problems occur. Even still, what kind of planning should take place?
First of all, being in a public assembly situation, there are many basic laws that require a certain amount of preparation to ensure the safety of the audience. Obviously, situations like a power outage will have some preparation through emergency generators for safety lights (possibly also battery powered flood lights). But will you have enough lighting for your performers? The stage is usually a dark place that will have many things blocking standard facility lighting such as soft goods and set pieces.
OK, so let's say that you have your normal emergency preparedness covered. Now let's save the show. Do you have the preparation to skip a scene if something catastrophic prevents you from continuing in the normal way? I now realize that I depended much too heavily on my cue sheets and did not keep adequate labeling on my console (not just with board tape, but the digital notes that most consoles allow, telling you what each cue is). How quickly can you find that information. If you have automated moves, can you split your scene so that only part of it works, keeping the flow of the show instead of pausing the entire show and keeping your audience in the dark?
Many technicians will mock on the performers, especially in the skills department. When you work with talented performers, you will find that it could be you who is mocked upon, especially in the skills department. I for one have definitely been lured into a sense of false security when I was particular in doing preventative maintenance and kept special attention to my cues. Why, because since I planned on everything running right, doing everything I could to prevent failure, that I neglected to prepare for Murphy. Sure, maybe I did my lampcheck and everything was OK before the show, but little did I know that I happened to replace the light in my special with the one lamp that barely passed inspection. Did I plan on what light that I could use to cover the scene for when that light blew, even if it wasn't the original idea? Probably not, and now that poor performer is doing his best standing in the dark trying to emote. The good actor will be able to cover this problem, but if I had been prepared, he would have to work less.
So, yeah, maybe I'm being a little preachy today. However, hopefully you will have a little nagging voice in the back of your head during your next performance asking you, "what would you do now if this happened?". That way, you can be prepared, not paranoid.
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