So I was actually supposed to work a long weekend but the snow canceled all of it. I'm torn between whether this is a good thing or a bad thing because on one hand I really hate having to go into work, but on the other hand I haven;t had any work with Bill in a while and that obviously means no paycheck for a while. It would have been nice to fix that.
I got called in by Bill friday so I could help some new tech he has lay marley. It takes no time so he had me spend the rest of my two hours rearranging the entire set from a play that just ended in the shop to make room for a whole bunch of backdrops coming in for the show that was supposed to be this weekend. Apparently for some reason Essex wants to see the show that just ended in January so all the sticks and reeds and generally room taking up crap has to sit in the shop until they are ready to be shipped over to Essex.
I have already asked myself and Bill why the things weren't shipped sooner but I rescinded the question after I realized that these two giant pillars from the Annapolis Opera set have been sitting in the shop for a WHOLE YEAR. They were supposed to be revamped into something that was easy to take a part and put back together by Bill. It looks like he just cut them in half and then reattached them into something that could be pulled apart. In the short of it he didn't do anything with them and they are basically still just hogging room in the shop.
The shop is also cluttered up by trash cans and giant bags full of shredded tires (fake dirt) Apparently the one is so heavy only a forklift can move it. Which brings one to ask the question WHY you would leave somethign so unmovable in an area that is going to immediatley require it to be MOVED.
I'd get more oturaged or angry at this stuff but I don't really see the point because in a few short weeks I'll have plenty of work there and plenty of new things to make me angry.
Let's not waste all that good build up here.
_Liz
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Useless Tech Crew
That's what I feel like I am anyway. For one of my classes I am required to tech crew a show. So clearly I have no choice in the matter and I already missed the first show so the second one it simply must be.
And for good or bad I just happen to do absolutely nothing for the entirety of the show.
Well... almost nothing.
As the tech rehearsals started I had one thing to do. I flipped a switch at the beginning of the show turning on a coocoo clock. Then I turned it off. I then slept backstage for the next 5 hours, woke up helped put away props and such and then left.
After three days of sleeping the director and the stage manager found more for me to do and by opening week I actually had no time to sleep back stage. Then the day before preview night they took all of my actions away again so I'm back to doing absolutely nothing back stage. I still have to BE around though.
Which brings us to today. I showed up at the theatre today at Noon and I have to be here until 8. I've done three things and it's already 5:30. so Two and a half more hours of doing absolutely nothing.
Not all shows are like this. A lot of the time there is lots for tech crew to do. But this specific show has no make up very little costume work and to be honest almost nothing for the crew to do. So we just sit around.
le sigh?
And for good or bad I just happen to do absolutely nothing for the entirety of the show.
Well... almost nothing.
As the tech rehearsals started I had one thing to do. I flipped a switch at the beginning of the show turning on a coocoo clock. Then I turned it off. I then slept backstage for the next 5 hours, woke up helped put away props and such and then left.
After three days of sleeping the director and the stage manager found more for me to do and by opening week I actually had no time to sleep back stage. Then the day before preview night they took all of my actions away again so I'm back to doing absolutely nothing back stage. I still have to BE around though.
Which brings us to today. I showed up at the theatre today at Noon and I have to be here until 8. I've done three things and it's already 5:30. so Two and a half more hours of doing absolutely nothing.
Not all shows are like this. A lot of the time there is lots for tech crew to do. But this specific show has no make up very little costume work and to be honest almost nothing for the crew to do. So we just sit around.
le sigh?
Friday, December 4, 2009
Catching Up
I most humbly apologize to anyone who follows this blog for dropping off the map like I did. I had a few days work with Bill and then my father died and I kind of dropped off the map anywhere.
I realized how lax my updating had become and hereafter vow to do a better job. So Let's get right back into Bill Bashing.
Personally my favorite sport of them all when I'm stuck at work.
The last time I was unfortunate enough to be paid $9.00 and hour for his company he had asked Nate to drill a hole through a pipe, which wasn't working as nate realized as it was a tempered steel pipe which most people know is notoriously difficult and nearly impossible to just casually drill a hole through. So after Nate expressed issues with this the Almighty Bill himself came back to the shop to do it.
He asked me to hold the pipe still so it didn't spin. Note: here he did not ask my opinion thusly I never gave it. I DID however watch him melt two drill bits trying to drill a hole through this pipe. Bill then came to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with the pipe. He proceeded to pick up another tempered steel pipe and melt another drill bit on that pipe. he then picked up a third pipe which was NOT tempered drilled his hole and left.
Bill came back three minutes later and asked me to drill a second hole through the first half of the pipe because the bolt was actually going in at an angle and he required a second hole to make this work. I did it and he left again.
I'm pretty sure he gave me choice of work at this point and I chose rather than weave ugly yarn into a chicken wire tree to drill holes into two large three feet circles for some sort of weird Jail that Bill was constructing for the show.
Now if I had not myself seen Nate constructing the bottom of the platform for this Jail I never would have set foot on the thing. It stands about 13 feet off the stage and the actor is required to climb a very weird Jilty ladder made of metal to get to it. It doesn't look safe and probably isn't all that safe. But Nate built the support structure for it so I trusted standing on it.
Bill asked me to stand on the base for it and hold up one of the giant circles I had helped drill holes through above my head ( it needed to be 7 feet up I am only 6 feet tall) so he could attach some sort of clamp from it to a pipe hanging off the proscenium arch. It went miserably.
We barely got the entire ugly contraption up and working but because he screwed in his little holder somewhere other than centered the weight of the circle was causing it to tilt forward and the steel bars he was using for the jail were falling out with nothing else to keep them in place.
Bill set up a one sided ladder for me to climb down on to because we were done for the day.
I commented that it didn't look very stable and he told me that it was because only the left side of the ladder was actually on the ground, the other half was hanging off the stage but if I just keep all my weight on the left side of the ladder I will be fine.
Bill is an idiot with ladders.
I thought before that it doesn't take a genius to set up a ladder you put one end on the ground and the other against the stationary wall and bam, it's done. Bill never learned how to do this I guess. I declined climbing down his unstable ladder worked my way slowly down the 100% vertical jilty metal ladder and left for the day.
He has e-mail me a few times since then to do some hours. I think my favorite instance is him e-mailing me a nasty e-mail telling me that I can't just not show up for work without ever telling me that I had hours and also without calling me to inform me I was scheduled.
But that's just Bill.
I realized how lax my updating had become and hereafter vow to do a better job. So Let's get right back into Bill Bashing.
Personally my favorite sport of them all when I'm stuck at work.
The last time I was unfortunate enough to be paid $9.00 and hour for his company he had asked Nate to drill a hole through a pipe, which wasn't working as nate realized as it was a tempered steel pipe which most people know is notoriously difficult and nearly impossible to just casually drill a hole through. So after Nate expressed issues with this the Almighty Bill himself came back to the shop to do it.
He asked me to hold the pipe still so it didn't spin. Note: here he did not ask my opinion thusly I never gave it. I DID however watch him melt two drill bits trying to drill a hole through this pipe. Bill then came to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with the pipe. He proceeded to pick up another tempered steel pipe and melt another drill bit on that pipe. he then picked up a third pipe which was NOT tempered drilled his hole and left.
Bill came back three minutes later and asked me to drill a second hole through the first half of the pipe because the bolt was actually going in at an angle and he required a second hole to make this work. I did it and he left again.
I'm pretty sure he gave me choice of work at this point and I chose rather than weave ugly yarn into a chicken wire tree to drill holes into two large three feet circles for some sort of weird Jail that Bill was constructing for the show.
Now if I had not myself seen Nate constructing the bottom of the platform for this Jail I never would have set foot on the thing. It stands about 13 feet off the stage and the actor is required to climb a very weird Jilty ladder made of metal to get to it. It doesn't look safe and probably isn't all that safe. But Nate built the support structure for it so I trusted standing on it.
Bill asked me to stand on the base for it and hold up one of the giant circles I had helped drill holes through above my head ( it needed to be 7 feet up I am only 6 feet tall) so he could attach some sort of clamp from it to a pipe hanging off the proscenium arch. It went miserably.
We barely got the entire ugly contraption up and working but because he screwed in his little holder somewhere other than centered the weight of the circle was causing it to tilt forward and the steel bars he was using for the jail were falling out with nothing else to keep them in place.
Bill set up a one sided ladder for me to climb down on to because we were done for the day.
I commented that it didn't look very stable and he told me that it was because only the left side of the ladder was actually on the ground, the other half was hanging off the stage but if I just keep all my weight on the left side of the ladder I will be fine.
Bill is an idiot with ladders.
I thought before that it doesn't take a genius to set up a ladder you put one end on the ground and the other against the stationary wall and bam, it's done. Bill never learned how to do this I guess. I declined climbing down his unstable ladder worked my way slowly down the 100% vertical jilty metal ladder and left for the day.
He has e-mail me a few times since then to do some hours. I think my favorite instance is him e-mailing me a nasty e-mail telling me that I can't just not show up for work without ever telling me that I had hours and also without calling me to inform me I was scheduled.
But that's just Bill.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)