Working From My Hammock Today

Hey Everyone

   I am back from the mysterious depths of the internet. I bet you all thought I had forgotten about this hadn't ya! In reality I hadn't, I have just been a combination of busy and procrastinating. Though the procrastinating part is nothing the to brag about the busy part has given me many exciting things to blog about, so many things I am not really sure where to start.

My office from which I am blogging today.

  I guess I should probably start off by talking a little bit about Neptune. As many of you may know I filled the position of Lead Staging Hand at Neptune Theatre this season. The job is fun and full of opportunity, and my boss Gryphen Colling (Head Stage Carpenter at Neptune Theatre and hair stylist extraordinaire) is fun to work with. But I have made the decision to not return to Neptune as the Lead Staging Hand Next Season. I really need to focus on my studies and would really like to graduate next spring, and just don`t think that is possible with me still committed to Neptune. I hope to still get some casual work there and I am confident that I will have future adventures with the wonderful tech team of Neptune Theatre.

  In other news I have also officially finished my Arena Rigging Training with IATSE local 680. I have been working really hard at it and lately it seems to be getting easier and everything is falling into place. That said we recently had one of the the hardest rigging calls that I have ever experienced. A large number of things factored in, the rigging truck, which is usually unloaded, first showed up late, markings on the ground were wiped off, set that would have usually been built after the rigging was up was built before hand (because of the late truck) and impeded us, etc. and what should have been a 5 hour day turned into an 8 hour day with no breaks. But we got it up and more importantly did it safely.

  I also had the pleasure of working with Dorian Lang on his collaborative piece Stay at Home Dead. Dorian gathered a group of talented Actors/Collaborators (Johnny Thompson, Clair St-Francois, and Andrew Chandler) as well as Stage Manager and Collaborator Liz Thomas, to make a modern adaptation of the Yorkshire Tragedy. Together they came up with Stay at Home Dead, a thrilling little piece of theatre with lighting design by my self and fight choreography by Dave Rossetti.
Stay at Home Dead went up at the Bus Stop Theatre and with a talk back after each performance we got some amazing feed back that the collaborators can use to tweak the show and and make it that much better.
All together it was an awesome experience for me, between the wonderful creative team, the professional attitude of all involved and the magical space that is the Bus Stop Theatre, the whole experience was a healthy reminder of why I got into theatre. (pictures to come)

  Speaking of The Bus Stop Theatre, I absolutely fell in love with this space after Stay at Home Dead. Its a wonderful little black box theatre located in the cultural heart of Halifax, Among the free trade/organic coffee shops, restaurants featuring exotic menus, and LGBT friendly bars and businesses, lays the Bus Stop. For it's size and humble origins it has an impressive collection on technical equipment, as well as a shop in the basement, and a licensed bar/cafe in the front. This venue has much of what my dream venue would have but the best part of the Bus Stop is it really is run on love. When Clare Waqu became the Managing Director of the bus stop many members of the Halifax theatre scene stepped up providing technical and often financial support to help create the magical space that is now the Bus stop theatre.but even today Clare and Technical Director Evan, make little to no money for all the hours of work they put into the venue and the shows that go up there. Most of the income from the rentals is put directly back into supporting the venue. Halifax really needs more venues like the Bus Stop but to be honest its the staff and volunteers that really work wonders and they deserve to be applauded. Bravo.

  I have one more thing before I wrap up this book of a blog post.

  The 2006 Liverpool International Theatre Festival was one of my first experiences with theatre . With groups from all over the world converging on Liverpool Nova Scotia (my home town) to compete and perform, my head was spinning and left me wanting more. This festival only happens every two years, and I have participated (as a technician, and even once as a performer) in everyone since 2006. happening on the long weekend of may, this years was no exception. I arrived in Liverpool on the Sunday before the festival began (the festival officially begins on Wednesday but we have the Monday and Tuesday to tech and prep) and headed straight for the Astor Theatre to drop of my bag of tools and etc. I after saying a couple hellos to familiar faces at the the theatre, I headed home to rest up for the week to come. I got up super early the next morning and headed to the theatre, and then proceeded to wait two hours for the manager of the theatre to show up and let me in. Cole MacDonald (the Technical Director of the festival) showed up just before the Theatre Manager and we had a brief discussion of our game plan. It wasn't till a bit later in the afternoon that the Production Manager was due to arrive so Cole and I set to work taking care of some of the house keeping that need to be done before the festival could get up. Susanna Haley (the Production Manager) did show up in the afternoon and we took a moment to catch up then got back to work. The two days of tech and prep were pretty slow but before we knew it Wednesday arrived and we were of to the races. The Shows were amazing featuring groups from as close as Halifax and Yarmouth, and as far away as Egypt and the Slovak Republic.
My favorite part of the festival is the genuine appreciation the groups have for us techs. Never have I ever worked anywhere else and received so many genuine thank yous and compliments. The Festival went off with out a hitch and with a whole lot of hard work, and a couple late nights, we managed to make it through, leaving everyone (including us techs) happy and looking forward to the next festival. They even managed to scrounge up an honorarium for me to show their appreciation for my dedication and hard work over the years.
I look forward to the next Liverpool International Theatre Festival.

  That is what I have been up to the last few months, consider your self now completely filled in. I do have a couple upcoming projects in the works. One of those projects is Once Upon a Theatre Collective's Evening of Short Plays. I am serving as Lighting designer and Technician for the evening and look forward to working with this group of talented people as well as the very talented Stage Manager Tessa Pekeles.

 Below is the description from the Facebook event page.

It's time for another round of our short play series! Join us for an evening filled with intrigue, romance and hilarity. We have a terrific line up of short plays written by talented local artists and a wonderful crew of actors and directors just crazy enough to agree to a whirlwind day of rehearsals leading up to an evening not to be missed. The evening will include pieces by: Andrea Dymond Andrew Chandler Catherine Banks Chris Nyarady Emily Forrest Kristin Slaney Sarah Gignac Stephanie Johnson Tickets are $10. The evening is in support of Once Upon a Theatre Collective's future projects. These evenings sell out quickly, don't miss out on some brand new theatre! Send your reservations to onceuponatheatrecollective@gmail.com We will also be opening up the floor at the end of the evening for another open mic - email us to sign up or sigh up on the night.

All I can say is it is a great line up with great people with the money going to support a great theatre group, it's going to be an amazing evening, so you should really rush to get your tickets before they are all gone!

Thanks for reading, I promise I will be back soon!
Cody Hatt

Happy Holidays Everyone

I just want to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday this season!

Here is a picture of the Christmas tree the actors of Neptune's The Jungle Book made for jungle book Xmas potluck and secret Santa.

I'm not sure I even remember how to do this anymore.

Hey everyone

I have been incredibly busy this semester so please excuse my lack of updates. So where do I start?

  Well first of all I haven't had the opportunity to mention this yet, but one of the reasons I have been so busy this semester is that I am not only going to school, but I am also the Staging Lead Hand at Neptune Theatre this season. It's been quite exciting, and time consuming. The Staging Lead hand position was created to prevent the over working of the Head Stage Carpenter. My main duties include installing and striking sets, as well as making modifications requested in the tech notes. It's actually a lot of fun and I have already learned a lot. On top of that I was also asked to be on the running crew For Neptune Theatre's production of The Jungle Book. I am currently responsible for the on stage flame effects, as well as a couple stage machinery cues and a Mylar cannon!

 The Jungle Book is a kid oriented show and makes a great gift for the holidays! for Tickets and Times Click Here!

  Being the Glutton for punishment I am, you know I have been double dipping. I been getting a large variety of work outside of Neptune and school. Tour Tech East Ltd. has given me a large amount of work this fall and I always really enjoy working for them. I enjoy working with and learning from Tour Tech's knowledgeable full time staff, and I really enjoy the variety of clients Tour Tech caters to.
  Tour Tech is also great for allowing me to showcase my skills, but they also give me opportunity to expand my skill sets. For a couple weeks in August I gave them a hand in the shop, and the great shop staff gave me a chance to move into the moving light department and I did not disappoint. After a quick tutorial on how to do some basic maintenance and how to test some moving lights, I was off. On my first day, I tested 43 fixtures! that is a lot by the way.
  Tour Tech is a great company that is locally owned an operated. they provide quality production services to clients around the continent. I am glad to say that Tour Tech East has managed to steadily grow since it's conception, and very soon they will be moving into a larger space that will help them serve their clients better. Check back soon for the latest up dates on Tour Tech's big move.

  I have also been getting a bunch of work through IATSE 680. The summer was really slow this year but the fall has really made up for it. We wrapped up the summer with the Cirque du Soleil show Quidam, then quickly fallowed by a bunch of shows including Reba McEntire, James Blunt and even Prince. This has given me a lot of chances to Rig at the Metro Centre, which I always love. The next big step for my career is to move up to the high steel of the Metro Centre. I am actually really excited for this, but until recently I didn't have all the equipment necessary. But with all this work I have managed to remedy that. Regardless, at my next rigging call in the Metro Centre, you can put money on me being on the high steel.

Picture taken backstage at James Blunt in Halifax (picture by Cody Hatt)

A lot of points to keep Prince's rig in the air (picture by Duane Dodge)

Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog. Keep coming back for more updates!

Been climbing up a storm!

Hey all

Been getting quite a bit of work this month, and the best part is its been mostly climbing and rigging work. It's pretty exciting because I love rigging and climbing steel, and I am looking forward to much more.

I also had the wonderful experience of being one of the eight front of house Follow Spot Operators for Metallica. I had done follow spot work for small theatre shows before but really nothing of that scale. It was pretty exciting, ESPECIALLY because right when Metallica was supposed to go on stage, five of the eight follow spots crashed! Up till then I was really nervous but luckily, my light was one of the three that stayed up! with this development being the first of many missed cues on the part of Video and Pyro, and technical difficulties (none of which were my fault). With the Lighting Designer screaming profanities into the clear-com headset, I felt any and all worries I had as resident rookie, lift from my shoulders and quickly realized it was going to be pretty easy to do a good job. by the last third of the show all the spots were back up, and I was rocking the follow spot. By the end of the show, I had a smile that nothing could have ruined.

Me rigging a point in the roof of "The Black Monster" The stage for  Rock The Hill 2011 featuring Metallica.
Picture by Duane Dodge

My view from the front of house, stage left follow spot tower.
Picture by Cody Hatt

 The next week Cirque du Soleil's touring show Quidam Rolled into town, and after a smooth setup and more then enough days to recover I strolled in for the out as a Rigger and feeling more confident then ever, little did I know I would be thrown a curve ball. Marcel the Head Rigger informed me I would be a Ground Rigger instead of a Climbing Rigger. this caught me completely off guard, and with zero instruction in ground rigging my confidence went from soaring, to crashing through the floor. But I put on the white hard hat, and bright yellow safety shirt and walked onto the deck at least trying to pretend I had an idea of what was going on. It worked out well, I worked my guts out, and the other ground riggers were more then patient with me and always willing to give me tips. After the call, the Head Rigger and I went over what I learned (or should have learned in some cases) and how it applied to working in the air. It was definitely a good experience and I am sure it won't be my last time ground rigging, and though ground rigging has its advantages, I much rather be in the air.

That's what has been happening with me, there doesn't seem to be much more more concert work till the fall so if some one is looking for an enthusiastic tech give me a jingle.

Thanks for reading!

I'm not dead, I've just been in Europe for a month.

Hey all!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, I have been doing a little glob trotting and my internet quality was poor at best, preventing any blogging. That said I am back now so lets get on with the exploits!

I had been anticipating this trip for wile simply because I had signed up for the trip through Dalhousie University. The class it's self is a course on Baroque Culture but the main selling point is that it is held in the beautiful Cesky Krumlov, a small town in the Czech Republic. Cesky Krumlov features rock climbing, horse back riding, fishing, rafting and an old town that is globally recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The old town of Cesky Krumlov is the towns main attraction, with tourists flocking from far and wide to enjoy the towns wonderful architecture and beautiful Sgraffito, oh Did I mention the Castle? Cesky Krumlov is home to the Second largest castle in the Czech Republic (second only to the castle complex in Prague), and in reality, that is my reason for being there. The castle of Cesky Krumlov features one on two Baroque theatres still in existence today. Our class was held in the castle offering a unique opportunity to witness first hand, whats left of Baroque culture.

Picture of the castle and Cesky Krumlov's old town from my hotel window in the Penzion Gardena:

Some Sgraffito on a building in Cesky Krumlov:

The Baroque Theatre in Cesky Krumlov:

The class it's self was spectacular, we got a private tour of the castle, special access to the Baroque Theatre, Oh and we got to live in the Czeck Republic for a month. There were events to, including the Five Petal Rose Festival "where we dressed in period clothing",  Baroque Night "reenacting the festivities that would have revolved around a night of theatre in an 18th century court theatre" and a two day conference focusing on contrasting Baroque theatre technology with modern Theatre technology.

The tour of the theatre, it was really interesting to see how people lived but for me, the most interesting part was the behind the scenes look at the Baroque Theatre. This was a privilege afforded to us by being on the course. The opportunity to see the historically accurate machinery that is still used in the few productions that are still performed in that theatre. We saw a lot of machinery, too much for a single blog post, but I would be more then happy to tell anyone in detail and in person. The two systems I liked the most were the Chariot and Pole system, and the floor lighting. Both are things I hope to work into shows some day, in some form or another.

Part of the stage machinery that drives the Chariot and Pole system:

A diagram and description of the Chariot and Pole system:

Peter Perina describing how the floor lighting system raises and lowers to dim as needed:

The Five Pedal Rose Festival was pretty standard stuff, nerdy people dressed up in historical garb swings sticks at each other. The coolest part was the dressing up bit but even that got old, mostly because the costume was particularly well made. However meat and beer were plentiful as well as jousting events and human sized chess, so it wasn't that bad.

Among the events and shenanigans of Cesky Krumlov I was also able to take in a producton of the Marriage of Figaro in Prague, a production of Faust in Vienna's Bergtheatre, Not to mention the two Baroque period Operas I saw in the Cesky Krumlov's Baroque theatre. The Marriage of Figaro was well performed, but the design wasn't well thought through, and was not only distracting, but even impaired the performance of the actors. The Baroque Operas were an interesting contrast because technically spectacular (even with the period technology) however the story lines where incredibly hard to follow (probably because it was in Czech with no subtitles). The production of Faust was stunning, well performed, and very visually stimulating. I feel the Bergtheatre was able to get away with a lot because they don't have the same safety restrictions we do in North America. These safety restriction do protect a lot of people, but are often exaggerated, and really limit what we can do as technicians and designers.

That said i am going to end this post for today (I still have another blog to launch today). I hope you all enjoyed this post and feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

Cheers
Cody

It's been a while

Hey guys

  Sorry it's been so long since my last post. things have been pretty hectic with wrapping up Dalhousie Theatre Department's production of The Country Wife, and then I was head first in to Dalhousie Theatre Society's Conspicuousness Conspicuousness, not to mention the exams and projects due before classes ended for the semester. Needless to say I have been busy.

  I wanted to say a couple of words about Conspicuousness Conspicuousness.  Conspicuousness Conspicuousness was written by Andy Gouthro, a soon to be Dalhousie graduate with a degree in Theatre Studies. This play is Andy's first attempt at writing a script and is loosely based on people Andy knows and grew up with. A work in progress, Dalhousie Theatre Society produced this production as a script reading but in reality it was much more then that, featuring costumes, a set, direction and blocking as well as a lighting design by yours truly. it was less of a reading and more of a performance with scripts. With Direction from both Andy and Emma White (also a soon to be Dalhousie graduate), the show was a pleasure to watch, and featured a Q&A at the end to help further Andy's script development. Over all,  Conspicuousness Conspicuousness was a pleasure to work on and I would do it again in an instant.

  In other news I will be heading to the Europe for a month to attend a summer course in Cesky Krumlov. A small town in the Czech Republic. Cesky Krumlov hosts a 13th century castle that is home to a Bear Moat (yes thats a moat full of bears!) as well as one of the two Baroque theaters left in existence. This is particularly exciting considering I haven't even owned a passport before, little a lone traveled to Europe. You can expect many pictures to follow.

And now for a little suspense, I'm not going into detail but, there is something big in the works, and as soon as it is solidified I'll let you know, but I will say, It would be a huge career move for me.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned.

The Country Wife

Hey everyone

 We have been hard at work on Dalhousie Theatre's last production of the season, William Wycherley's The Country Wife. Directed by James Dodding, featuring Set Design by Troy Hourie, and Lighting Design by Jeremy Powell, this restoration comedy is sure to cause many laughs. You can buy tickets here, or swing by the Dalhousie Arts Centre Box Office, located at 6101 University Avenue. The Box Offices hours are Monday to Saturday, 12noon till 6pm. This production closes Saturday night so don't miss it!