Yay Dimmers!

I had heard through the grapevine that we were renting enough dimmers for this show that there wouldn't need to be any patches during the performance. At the production meeting yesterday we actually got approval to buy the dimmers, and a multicable to the catwalk that will apparently alleviate some kind of lack-of-circuits problem that's always an issue up there. That's exciting -- any decent design at this theatre has required a dimmer rental, so it's a great investment in something that always winds up being rented anyway. Even with renting more dimmers, we usually wind up with a few patches during the show, which is never fun, and I'm never 100% sure I trust that it's been done.

For those who don't know, briefly, patching is done when you have more lighting instruments than dimmers, like you have two lights that you want to do different things (say one's red and one's blue), but you only have one dimmer available to control them. If you use the red light in scene 1 and the blue light in scene 3, then during scene 2 you can unplug the red one and plug the blue one into its dimmer. At the light board it looks like it's bringing up the same light, but a different one is physically plugged in (or in many cases a switch box is used for the same effect -- sending the current out to a different light depending on which way the switch is thrown).

Favorite patching story: Two years ago we were doing Sound of Music. In the scene at the end where the von Trapp Family is performing for the Nazis, there were these ominous swastika gobos that appeared over the family's house at the end of the scene where the Nazi officer demands that they perform at the event, and as the family steps downstage and the red velvet curtain falls behind them, the gobos came into focus and created the effect of Nazi flags at the concert hall. It was quite effective. So while we're teching, the lighting designer says something to our deck electrician about making sure he's done the patch for the swastikas. Now, having had a less than perfect rate of success with patches being done properly before, I asked, somewhat hesitantly,

"So the swastikas are part of a patch?"
"Yes."
"And what's the other side of the patch? When should I be expecting to see swastikas if the patch isn't done correctly?"
"Oh, it's not used much. It's the stained-glass windows in the church."
"So you're telling me if the patch isn't done, I'm going to see swastikas in the church!?"
"Well theoretically, but the church scenes are first, so if the patch wasn't done you would see the church windows in the Nazi scene -- you would only see the swastikas in the church if they forgot to reset before the next performance, which is much less likely."
"Okay... You're right. I just wanted to be warned."

Cut to a few hours later. We finish teching Act II, and quickly reset for a run of Act I. The show starts -- the nuns are holding candles, singing a hymn behind a black scrim. It's all very dark and mysterious. Next cue, the stage brightens up and we're in the.... SWASTIKAS! The nuns can see this because there's a scrim in front of them catching the light. Several scream. I turn to the lighting designer and say, "That's why I wanted to know!" Of course she was right about how unlikely it was, it only happened because we did the rather unusual process of starting the day with Act II and going back to Act I.

That's one of the reasons I worry about patches. During some patch-heavy shows at Reagle, I started referring to the process as "patchy-patchy." I think it was because I had trouble remembering to confirm that a patch had been done at intermission of a certain show, and kept writing the reminder bigger and bigger at the top of the first page of Act II, and eventually wrote "PATCHY PATCHY!!" across the entire top margin. The head electrician saw my note, and it became a verbal term as well. By the end of last season, it was a well-understood technical term. When a patch came up, I would say, "Patchy-patchy?" and if it was complete the deck electrician would reply, "Patchy-patchy." Since that came into use we've had a lot more success -- I think because it's so much fun to say that you don't forget. I'll kind of miss it if we don't need to do any this year.