Who in their right mind.....

I haven't posted in a while again. I guess I just forgot to. I dunno.

Yesterday was possibly the worst day of my career. I am working on a local show which will remain nameless. Don't get me wrong, these people are doing a good thing. It's just that they have no idea how to do it. This show is a showcase for underprivileged, mentally challenged, or physically challenged people. It has the potential for being really cool. I don't know if it will quite make it to endurable status though.

I showed up yesterday to load in and the set had not been completed. The lighting had just been started and the script I had been given told me nothing. The director of this production is an individual who thinks he is always right and nothing should take any time to accomplish. He is impatient and wants everything his way right now. When I ask for information all I get is "you should have figured that out from the script." This "script" that he keeps referring to is merely a list of songs with the description of the set and a list of characters performing each song. I haven't met any of these people let alone recognize their faces. (By the way, there are 76 of them) So I have to manage 28 channels of body mics, 16 channels of band, 5 channels of handheld wireless, and 9 hanging/area mics. Ok, I can do that... If I know what's going on.

So I asked for a list of the characters who will be miced, what songs they are in and what number mic they will be wearing. What I got was, another copy of the same script. A list of cast names(not character names) with the corresponding mic number, and a list of songs without the descriptions.

This helped me all of none. I finally went to the stage manager and asked her for what I needed. Her response was "The director said that you already had that." So I showed her what I had been given and she said "That is definitely useless." She gave me the information that I needed today and I programmed the console. Things ran much smoother but it is still a minor cluster. I have to make 14 of those wireless body mics sound good on 7 different people who all sing differently, have different costuming and therefore mic positions, and who all have different positions on stage.

Oh, did I mention that the stage is about 32' wide and 24' deep and the room only seats about 350 people. Why don't they just tell everyone to speak up? Oh yeah, there is a hideously loud and horrible band playing the music for all of the songs.

That is my rant for the month. I promise, all of the posts hereafter in the month of March will be more positive than this one. Besides, when you are at the worst of it things can only get better.

Later, E