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