The best part of my job? Seeing people having a great time. I'm the technical director for the Mount Baker Theatre, and one of the best things about working in theater is that if you're having a bad day, you can look out at that audience from backstage and see people with big smiles on their faces, really enjoying themselves, and think to yourself, "Yes, it is worth it!"
My work as technical director is always different, because every show is different. If I use a typical Broadway show as an example, it goes something like this:
Before the contract is even signed, I look at the technical requirements of the show for advance planning. A document we call a "tech rider" gives a synopsis of the show from the stage side of theater. Things like: how many people will be needed in various departments (carpentry, electrics, wardrobe, hair, audio), how many trucks will the show have, any extra equipment we might need.
Four- to six-weeks before the show I call the show's road production manager and we start working on a schedule - from the time they roll up to the time the last truck rolls away, I have to schedule every piece of that out - so that everybody (usually about 50 people) knows what's going on.
Once I have arranged for all the equipment and staff, I move on to details like the line set schedule, which tells us exactly where things are overhead. There are 50 pipes and an entire steel grid to hang things from and we have to know exactly where each light and piece of scenery is going to be. It gets very crowded back there; it's 26 feet deep, and when we had "Cats," for example, we used all but 3 inches.
If I have set pieces that I'm using only in act II and nota I, we'll fly those up in the wings, and then during intermission (while everybody is hopefully talking about how good the show is), we're busy back there taking the act 2 stuff down and all the act 1 stuff up.
There are also a lot of coordination documents that need to be generated, such as electrical schedules: which lights turn on when, and where they need to be hung. What are we doing for audio? A lot of times Broadway shows are completely self-contained with audio. Then our challenge is making sure they adapt to the house.
On the day of the show, a Broadway show typically starts unloading at 8 a.m. From that point it becomes basically orchestrated chaos.
There will be around 65 people (50 in my crew plus about 15 from the road troupe), on the deck, and they are all doing stuff simultaneously in a very small space. We are unloading trucks, flying stuff, putting scenery together, putting lighting together, tipping up audio towers, and it gets crazier and crazier because the more you have on deck, the harder it is to do things, and everybody has to be very careful working around each other. Part of my job is to make sure things are getting done at a good pace, and safely.
Every road show is different, but for the most part, there is someone to tell you where to put each item. This is very important, because if you get it on the wrong part of the stage, and it has to be moved, now you have an intricate puzzle on your hands. Getting all that stuff onto our stage is a game of Tetris, one you have to be very careful in.
Once everything is unloaded and in place, our work is still not done. While the show is performed, we are planning the load-out, as everything that came onto our stage has to come back off. As soon as the show is over, we start loading and don't finish until the last truck rolls away. It's a challenging, exhilarating job, and I love it. If you haven't ever seen a show at the Mount Baker Theatre, come on down and say hi. I'll be the one orchestrating the (very organized) chaos backstage!
This is the first of a yearlong series looking behind the scenes at Bellingham's Mount Baker Theatre.
ABOUT WINDOW ON MY WORLD
Window On My World is an occasional essay in Monday's Bellingham Herald that allows Whatcom County residents to share their passion for what they do, an idea or cause they support. Send your Window On My World, which must be no more than 700 words, to Julie.shirley@bellinghamherald.com.
