Behind the scenes is a heavy box.

[Tired sigh..] hoo-boy I am tired. I ask, leadingly, hoping someone will show a sign of at least pretending to listen by asking “why are you tired?” American conversation habits are not my favorite sometimes. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

I was working on the traveling Broadway show ‘Annie’ yesterday from 7:45am till about 12:30 am the next morning, albeit with a fairly hefty break in a the middle during which I truly meant to go to class but made the mistake of sitting in my comfy chair for a moment, and falling asleep instead. Sorry Miles. Note to self: continue looking for Action script 3 tutorials for Miles and myself.

Anyway. Theatre is a fascinating place for interactivity to begin with, as in every aspect it is near direct human interaction and there is a limited, sometimes very limited, timeframe to accomplish your goals that fit in (hopefully) with everyone else’s goals to create this show for the audience. As a ‘local’ crew member my goals usually consist of ‘move heavy expensive fragile thing from point A to point B, when told to.’

I should back up and explain. The local crew is hired by the venue where the show is preformed, the roadies are the crew who travel with the show and know how to set up the technical aspects of the show. For Anne, there are 4 semi-trucks full of technical aspects, (back-drops, lights, sound stuff, lots of scenery and props). 7 or so roadies direct the 60 odd locals in doing this. Very few people know each other’s names, even among the local crew. Everyone’s fairly tired or sometimes (the roadies are) exhausted. Yet still a lot of equipment is moved and set up in a small, loud, chaotic space. It’s incredible watching so many people who don’t know each other working together and watching out for one another. And the pay is pretty good.

What makes it work? While specifics are new to everyone, the general order of events is known to all except the newbie locals. Roadies know they’ll have to explain simply and concisely, several times, how to do a given task, and the locals know they’ll be getting instructions that don’t make sense and are coming too fast. Everyone strives for a level of professionalism that allows personal reactions and concepts like ‘that was an insulting tone’ to be set aside. Mostly. Some Roadies are just too grumpy, but that’s a different story, or collection of stories.

So anyway, that’s why I’m tired today. Annie’s dog was very friendly and pet-able.