First Day of Tech

Yesterday we started tech for Back from the Front at the Theatre at Riverside Church. As I mentioned in my earlier post I'm really excited about the set, and it was so cool to walk into the theatre and find it sitting there, just as it looks in the model and on our former rehearsal room floor, except full-sized and able to be walked through in 3D. The production manager gave me a brief tour, which was like coming home to an old familiar place, with the exception of having to get used to where the escape stairs were and the navigation backstage to get from place to place on the set. I took a wrong turn a few times the first few hours.

After walking through the set I went in search of my prop table, which I quickly found in the very spacious upstage area. It was more like a prop buffet about 12 ft. long -- already set up and loosely categorized by our prop mistress. That rocked! I set up a little office for myself by adding an adjoining table, and went to work with a roll of white spike tape and a Sharpie, marking the table for the location of the props. I amused myself with props for about an hour-and-a-half as the actors arrived and did a costume parade on the set. Then the worklights were taken out and I realized the escape stairs and platforms were pretty darn dark, so I went to work glow taping all the edges and steps.

The rest of the day was spent on a spacing rehearsal, with the lighting designer building cues around us, and with sound cues. We reached the end of the day and the crew called it quits literally three seconds before one of my biggest cues in the show. I was rather disappointed about that.

It's been a nice treat that our day off fell today so we can all rest up for the week, but I'm looking forward to continuing tomorrow morning.