The End is Near

Well the end is in sight. We are finishing our second day in Utica, NY. We are the first tour and for the most part the first big show in the theatre since the did a $20 million, renovation. The stage is brand new, but the house still is original.

It feels good to be back in New England. Well at least the other day when we were in Concord. Although the theatre was very small and it was very hard for us to get into the building. The Out for the show usually shouldn't take more then three hours, but it took us five.

I made sure to stay awake as we drive through Manchester on our way the NY. We drive past the Millyard and that was about all of the town we got to see.

We head to Keene, NH tomorrow, then Lowell, MA. We finish with three days in Providence, RI.

And believe it or not this might be the last post of this blog for a while, as the shiptech blog will be coming back. See my other blog for more details.

Some of the Worst

Well as I sit here in the middle of the house, board as hell, I figured I should update everyone. As some of you have heard, we have been to some very bad theaters lately. After Corpus Christi, we headed to Waco. This place was so small, and it rained almost all day. The dimmer world barely fit on the stage, and sound had to be outside. Once we had all of the drops in the air, and the floor installed, it was time to get the costume gondolas on stage, thats when we realized that we couldn't bring in half of our drops. So they had to get cut, also we didn't want to damage the scenery with the rain, and it might not have even fit in the door anyway, so we cut almost all of our scenery. I was certainly a day to remember.

Lets see after Texas we headed back to LA for a few stops, then head north. We had a travel stop in Kansas, City for a day then headed up to IA. We have a few more stops before we get a week off, well almost a week.

Fix your stuff

Well tonight we are at the Salena Auditorium in Corpus Cristy, Texas. This place would be great if it weren't for the fact they need to replace their dimmers really badly. They are using very old analog, and they haven't done any maintenance on the in years. It took half of my crew over 2 hours to get 18 lights and dimmers working. They had every problem you could think of, I heard they even had a few connector/lamp base fires. Come on people, I know gear gets old, but do some work on it, or get it replaced, if you are having fires with your lights, that should be enough to make the powers that be get you new gear. I couldn't believe the answer I got told when I asked for all of the house lights on. They are on, half the dimmers don't work anymore. Two major sections above the orchestra, and the entire balcony were in the dark. Now we have played a few houses that are converted movie theaters, and they just don't have the lights, but this place, just needs someone that knows how to get the stuff fixed, or get some money raised and or the theatre is going to become very dangerous.

One Nighters are Hell

Well sorry everyone, I didn't realize how long it has been since I posted. I have very little time on the road to sit down and write on this thing. Some theatres have great internet some do not. The same goes for the hotels we stay in. I have some time now so let me see if I can ketch you up a bit.

When I last posted we had left for Buffalo, NY. Buffalo was an interesting theatre. This was our Props girls hometown, so she had a car and took us to some of her favorite places to eat. People in Buffalo really like chicken fingers, as well as wings.

Next was Athens, OH, then on to Elyria, OH. Yes means we backtracked.

Then we went to Cape Giradeau, MO

Danville, KY

Huntington, WV

Fayetteville, NC

Then we traveled over to Opelika, AL. Yes I actually had a few Bubba's on my crew, Real names.

We backtracked again to Georgia, passing through Macon to get to Statesboro, GA.

Then back to Macon. This place was interesting. The theatre was a historical landmark, and still had a 3rd balcony that had wooden benches, from the time of segregation. They don't sell the seats anymore, but it was very interesting to see.

Then we were finally off to Florida. In order we went to Panama City, Clearwater, Daytona Beach, Ft. Pierce, Coral Springs, Napes, Lakeland, and Niceville.

Then we have some messed up routing again. We traveled through Shrevoport, LA for the day (we come back to play the theatre next week. Then we traveled to Fort Smith, AR.

Bartlesville, OK, then St. joseph, MO another crappy theatre.

On to Hayes, KS, then a day spent in Dallas, TX.

Then we backtracked a bit, and went to Baton Rouge, LA, had some great locals, and some great Cajan food. Then it was back to Texas. Tyler was next, and today we are playing in Galveston.

Ogdensberg

Well what can I say about Odgensberg, NY. Not much, the town motto is "we have no class." The locals had no clue what they were doing. We had to play at a high school. Well actually it was a middle/senor high tech school. The grid hight was no wear near what we need, so we couldn't hang any of our lights, and we dead hung one backdrop. Load out was very long, and very cold. We figured it was about -7F.

Yesterday loaded into Buffalo, NY. No load dock, but at least the locals, some students and some IA knew what they were doing.

I think the mantra for this theater is, does this place have enough stairs!!!! and some of them are Spiral to boot.

Canada

Well Brampton Ontario, was a very nice theatre. We played at the Rose. The theatre is about about a year and a half old, so most of the local crew had never even worked at the place before.

To the Bus

Well today is the last day of shows in Hartford, CT. Tonight we will load out the show, get on the bus and head to Brampton, ON.

Tuesday and Wednesday, Brampton, ON (Rose Theater)
Thursday Ogdensberg, NY (George hall Auditorium) Yah a high school!!!
Friday and Saturday Buffalo, NY (Center for the Arts)
Sunday Athens, OH (Memorial Auditorium) Ohio University
Monday Elyria, OH (Stocker Arts Center)

A start to a new Life

Well since I was awoken this morning by housekeeping, and then a nice text message from a friend. I thought i would start a new blog.

Life is a little different now on the road. I am the new head electrician on the national tour of The Producers.

I left the ship on Saturday, no real problems with that. Got the rental car, and went back to the ship to pick up the luggage and friend that I was taking to the airport with me.

It sure cost a lot to leave the ship, having so much luggage and my tools, wow! It cost more for them to fly then me.

I only had one day at home in CA, so it was shopping to be done, and cook at least one good meal at home.

My first two flights on Monday were uneventfully, Oakland to Portland, then to Cincinnati. The flight from Cincinnati to Hartford was late because a wire had come loose from a headlight, and they had to re-solder it on. I know I could have soldered it faster.

I finally got to the hotel around 11pm. Woke up the stage manager to let her know I made it.

So load in was yesterday. We all meet in the lobby at around 7:30am then headed to the theater. Hartford is one of the strictest locals, in the country from what we were told. You can't touch anything, you can't even plug in your own lights, so it made for a very interesting and boring day. It also lead to a lot of problems.

The show went great, and tonight I will get my first chance at running the show, wish me luck.