Work has got me crazy! We just got through our first normal weekend with the play. 5 show weekends are a total pain in the ass in our world. In case you didn't know, all the shows here (off and on Broadway) do 8 show weeks and there's usually two options: a matinée on Wednesday leaving only one performance on Sunday OR a 5 show weekend, which is what we do where I currently work.
We have a show on Friday night. This is show 1 of the so called 5 show weekend. By this time we've been in every day since Tuesday. (Monday being our only day off a week.). On Saturday we come in an hour before "half hour", and by we I mean the technicians. Actors come in at half hour. ("Half hour" is the 30 minutes before the curtain goes up...and that's just a term for when the show starts, there's not always a curtain.). So this means we come in at 12:30 for this show. We run the first show and then have a big break between the matinée and evening performance. For most of us this means grabbing dinner and coming back for a nap because we don't live close enough to go home and relax. With this particular show we have enough time on Saturdays to go see a movie if we wanted because it only runs for an hour and a half.
We're called back at 6 (again, an hour before half hour. we do 730 shows in this particular space) and do the show all over again.
In case you're wondering why we come in so early, it's what we call "pre-show duties". Setting up the props, checking all moving set pieces, presetting for top-of-show (fist scene of the play), sweeping, mopping, etc. For me, on this show, it means checking the window walls for smudges and dust, running all the fly stuff (set pieces, signs, whatever that fly in from the ceiling, aka grid), maintaining the automation and running it a few times to make sure all is well, sweeping and mopping the glitter and fake gum off the stage (specific to this show of course. On another show I ran it was snow I was sweeping) and filling the air compressor with air.
All of it actually has to time out just right. If I mop too early, then the actors can't go on stage to warm up. If I forget to fill the air compressor before the house opens, this is a problem because it's very loud and obnoxious. But I have to fill it right before the house opens in order to ensure there is enough pressure in it to run the brakes for the automation. Since it's last on my list and has to be done at a specific time, it's one of those things that's easy to forget.
I have to check the automation (mechanical moving parts on the stage) right when I get in, just in case there are problems with it. If there is, it could take up the whole hour to fix the problem and I have to be done before the house opens. Of course, we don't want the audience to see a technician out there spoiling the magic before the show begins. (I miss curtains covering the stage, you just don't see it anymore).
Sunday. Wash, rinse, repeat.
So weekends take up a lot of my time. Granted, most of it I'm waiting. But for some reason my state of mind switches when I'm at work. I have my computer and sketchbook with me so I have plenty of time to fool around, get some doodling done, write, whatever. However, I always end up just kind of waiting. Not the entire time, but there's something so demotivating about not being at home or out taking a walk. I haven't put my finger on it yet but I asked the boy about it and he seems to understand, so I guess it's not just me.
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