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!

BitchMank TV

Hey everyone. I have a lot of stuff coming down the pipe in the next week or two. Event's to be mentioned and pictures to be posted, but for tonight, I am going to give my friend Mitch Bank a plug. Mitch is a fourth year commerce student at Dalhousie. Focusing on marketing Mitch has already been hard at work doing internships as well as some of his own stuff. His YouTube channel, BitchMank TV, has had twenty one THOUSAND views with over a thousand subscribers. On BitchMank TV you can expect to find more then just videos of his enthusiastic webcam commentary, but a variety of videos including those he directed, shot or produced (or all of the above).
Some of his most recent pieces are;

The Student Poverty Song. Produced by the Dalhousie Student Union, Directed by Dillon Garland, Cinematography by Mitch Bank

And my personal favorite, A music video for Automatic Toy's song, Deep Sleep. Produced by BitchMank TV, Directed and Shot by Mitch Bank.

Mitch is a great guy and I hope you enjoy his videos as much as I do. 

Cheers

Thank god for reading week....

Hey guys

  It's been a while since I posted last, but we survived the Opera Workshop. Now we are going full tilt into Dal Theatre's production of The Country Wife. I have the privilege of working with an amazing director named James Dodding . I had the wonderful experience of meeting him my first year at Dalhousie and, I am absolutely delighted to be working with him. Also in recent news, I have been named the lighting crew chief and the lighting board operator for The Country Wife. I am pretty happy, I came to Dalhousie Theatre's Sceneography program wanting to specialize in lighting, so to end this year doing exactly what I entered the program for, it's definitely a good send off.

  In other news, I have been keeping pretty busy the last couple of weeks. I have been getting a lot of work from Tour Tech East Ltd. working on the Canada Games. It's been pretty simple rigs all around, and it's nice to see the guys from the shop, but it has been eating up my break, so far I am booked for the rest of the weekend. But I can't complain, it puts money in my pocket and I love doing the work, what more could anyone ask?

Cheers
Cody

PS.
  Because I don't have any pictures here are a couple of commercials I worked on back in 2010.

These were recruiting adds commissioned by the Department of National Defense. I was hired by RPM Productions to serve as a Special FX daily for these two commercials in particular. I got to spend some time on CFB Gagetown, with a lot of fake snow, some big fans, some bigger guns, and some even bigger vehicles, not to mention the live ammunition and the helicopter! It was a great time and despite some mystery meat for lunch on day 1, I think a good time was had by most if not all.

Operas open tonight!

Hey guys

  I have been pretty busy the last couple weeks. Since my last post I worked the Tour Tech East Ltd. Annual After Xmas Party, did school work, teched the Dal Music Opera Workshop, and I have some work coming up with IATSE 680 as well as Neptune Theatre.

  The Tour Tech party was awesome this year. The wonderful people at Tour Tech East Ltd. host this (invitation only) event to raise funds for the Aids Coalition of Nova Scotia. The staff do a great job of setting up their warehouse space, and in the three years I have participated, it always gets better and better. Tour Tech brings a variety of entertainers to the stage. This year Sweet (Ballroom Blitz) headlined on the main stage, with various performers opening, including many local performers (Atlantic Cirque and Three Sheet just to name a couple). This year I not only did I aid in setup, I participated in a running crew capacity as production assistant.

  Got some update photos of my Cabriole Leg. After tracing my design onto a solid block of wood, I then cut out the pattern with a band saw, and this is what I ended up with.

Still a lot of sanding and shaping to do, but it's getting there.

  And now to plug the show I am working on!
  The Dalhousie Music Department's Opera Work Shop has been a great introduction to opera (at least for me). Directed and designed by Brent Krysa, Conducted by Adam Burnette, with a Lighting Design by Jeremy Powell it honestly looks great, I am apart of the running crew and assisted  in the construction of the set pieces, and the focusing, hanging of the lighting fixtures. And finally, after a lot of prep, cutting it close to deadlines, and looming weather, we have a show. Tonight Dalhousie Music Department presents Comedy on the Bridge and Dido and Aeneas. Show opens tonight, in The Sir James Dunn Theatre at 7:30 and runs at that time tonight, Friday and Saturday. There will be a Sunday Matinée at 2:30, which will be our last performance. For more information check out the Dalhousie Music Department's Website. Now just because you checked out my Blog I have some pictures of the Operas.

Thanks for having a look, hope to see you at the show!

Been busy

  Things are definitely picking up, I have already worked worked my first call for Neptune Theatre this new year. I spent Sunday night striking the Lighting for their production of The Wizard Of Oz, and hanging the lights for Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit.
  The people at Neptune are great, there are always new faces and I always enjoy working calls there. My Neptune experience has varied since I started working casual calls for them in September of 2008. I have done various installs, strikes, LX hangs, focuses, stage hand duties, and even replaced an Apprentice Assistant Stage Manager on Neptune's production of High School Musical.

  School is grooving along, and with the prospects of the Tour Tech East Ltd. All Access Trade Show and annual fundraiser coming up this week it's sure to be an exciting one.I am volunteering at Tour Tech to help with setting up some of the trade show this weekend. Then the show runs the 20th (10:00 am to 6:00 pm) and 21st (10:00 am to 3:30 pm) of January. Admission is free so come check out the latest in rock and roll technology.

  School has been going well, so far we have designed cabriole legs and started building our own stools.

My cabriole Leg design, soon to be traced on a piece of wood.

Back to Class

First day back in the Dalhousie Theatre shop was a stunning success. I was informed of my responsibilities  for my roles in the Dalhousie Music Department's Productions of Purcell's DIDO AND AENEAS, and Martinu's COMEDY ON THE BRIDGE. A third of the bridge for Comedy On The Bridge showed up today. Apparently at one time it was a polish womens porch, but not my story to tell. We also have quite the start on  the other necessary bits for the set of the operas.


If you are interested in seeing these Operas performed, they are open to the public on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of February at 7:30 pm. On February 6th there will be a 2:30 pm matinée which will be your last chance to catch these productions. Tickets are $17.50 ($12.00 for students and seniors), and are available at the Dalhousie Arts Centre Box Office (located at 6101 University Avenue), by phone at 1-902-494-3820, or online at http://artscentre.dal.ca/. Hope to see you there!