The Things You Do When You Do The Things That You Do

[peter grimes]

We all do things, whether for fun, for school, for work, or for no particular reason at all. It might be interesting to share some of the things that we do with each other, things that we enjoy or are proud of; things that we're good at, things that we are excited about, things we're just learning to do.

So tell us what you do! Show us some things you've drawn, or made, or apps you've worked on, or dinner you made, or songs you've recorded, or haiku you've written, or anything!

 

[peter grimes]

I'm lucky to have a job that forces me to do things I've never done before sometimes, and usually I have enough time or resources to get it done reasonably well. But then sometimes we just have to wing it (actually, that happens way more often than I'd prefer :lol)

I'll start by sharing a project that I'm currently working on here at the theatre I work for.

The Challenge:
The bartender mixes a cocktail and then flings it sliding down the length of the bar, and the customer is supposed to catch it after it flies off the end of the bar.

The Problem:
The actors aren't very good at it, and iced tea (whiskey) is going all over the place

The Solution:
We put a false top on the acrylic 'glasses', with a notch large enough for them to drink out of, but small enough so that liquid doesn't splosh too much.

The Process:
First I did a couple of tests, to see how tough it was to fit a false lid into the cup, and then to refine the size of cut out for the drinking spout. First was too small, and they couldn't down the 'whiskey' in 1 gulp. Next few were too large - too splashy - so we settled on a size that still spills a little, but they can nonetheless pound their sauce.

Here's an album of pics I put together while working on a batch yesterday.

This morning I was told that they want to have a bunch that don't have any drinking notch, and are pre-filled with liquid. So that's what I've spent the last couple hours doing.

Album of some shots of the stage. The bar is directly upstage of the ladder center stage, the bartender stands behind the bar, on the left, and slings the drinks to the right off the end of the bar. Oh, you can see the tusks I was working on last week, too.

It's shocking to know how much work goes into a stage production. This is a bit that happens many times throughout the show, but it's taken several people many hours of work to arrive at this solution for the gag that the playwright wrote into the script.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Great job! That's the kind of ingenuity it takes to run a successful props department.

I used to work in the theatre, mostly on the props crew. It's crazy, what has to be done sometimes, to make a scene work. Sometimes it's careless actors, sometimes objects that can't stand up to the vigorous handling of cast and crew, sometimes it's Murphy's Law...

I worked on a production of Jesus Christ Superstar, back in 1981. One night we were just starting Act 2 - The Last Supper scene. As (bad) luck would have it, one of the stage hands dropped a goblet. Being ceramic, of course it broke. One of the other crew lived nearby, so she jumped in her truck to run home and get the backup set (why it wasn't already at the theatre is beyond me). In the meantime, somebody retrieved the broken goblet and the other two of us proceeded to do the fastest duct-tape job in history (on the inside of the goblet, natch)... and it Did. Not. Leak. The scene went as usual, the crew member came back with the backup set, and everything went normally after that.

Peter grimes, have you ever had to use live animals in the shows you've worked on? Or explosives?

 

[sophie]

Link to video.

 

[peter grimes]

Great job! That's the kind of ingenuity it takes to run a successful props department.

I used to work in the theatre, mostly on the props crew. It's crazy, what has to be done sometimes, to make a scene work. Sometimes it's careless actors, sometimes objects that can't stand up to the vigorous handling of cast and crew, sometimes it's Murphy's Law...

I worked on a production of Jesus Christ Superstar, back in 1981. One night we were just starting Act 2 - The Last Supper scene. As (bad) luck would have it, one of the stage hands dropped a goblet. Being ceramic, of course it broke. One of the other crew lived nearby, so she jumped in her truck to run home and get the backup set (why it wasn't already at the theatre is beyond me). In the meantime, somebody retrieved the broken goblet and the other two of us proceeded to do the fastest duct-tape job in history (on the inside of the goblet, natch)... and it Did. Not. Leak. The scene went as usual, the crew member came back with the backup set, and everything went normally after that.

Peter grimes, have you ever had to use live animals in the shows you've worked on? Or explosives?

Hah! I don't run the department, that's a thankless job

Anyone who has ever been involved with a stage production will have horror stories, it's one of the exciting things about live theatre. Things go wrong. Rehearsals and planning are the tools we use to minimize the unexpected so that each audience member sees an accurate representation of the vision of the playwright as interpreted by the director, actors, and creative support staff. That said, nobody in the audience knows what's supposed to happen, so if JC's goblet had started leaking wine during that powerful scene people would have naturally assumed it was intentional foreshadowing: the goblet is JC's body!!

I did that show not-quite-as-long-ago, and I came up with a certain recipe for the blood packs. I packed them every night. Rose's Grenadine, Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, and Tide (the kind that's already sort of pinkish). The fragrance of that Tide is forever etched on my brain, and I gag whenever I smell it.

As for Live Animals, well, I don't run shows any more. And in NYC it's proper procedure to have an animal handler. And all of that costs money. Our theatre tries to come up with alternate solutions to those problems. I've built a few fake animals, puppetry-style as well as mechanized.

Now that I've become a little familiar with microcontrollers I'm looking forward to the next 'live' animal project. I will definitely be able to make something that responds to certain environmental cues, assuming of course I've got enough time.

As for Explosives, I used to handle the Pyro and Firearms stuff at the theatres I worked at before I moved to NYC. Here there are licensing requirements that I'm better off not pursuing - it's not an area that interests me, and it's not relevant to my normal duties. But we do indeed produce shows that require both on a regular basis.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Hah! I don't run the department, that's a thankless job

Been there, done that, and you're 100% right. But it does give a person a bit of extra authority when you have to tell the director, 'Sorry, we can't do/use that.'

Anyone who has ever been involved with a stage production will have horror stories, it's one of the exciting things about live theatre. Things go wrong. Rehearsals and planning are the tools we use to minimize the unexpected so that each audience member sees an accurate representation of the vision of the playwright as interpreted by the director, actors, and creative support staff. That said, nobody in the audience knows what's supposed to happen, so if JC's goblet had started leaking wine during that powerful scene people would have naturally assumed it was intentional foreshadowing: the goblet is JC's body!!

Some of the actors would have been able to go with it and enhance the scene. Others simply wouldn't have had enough experience at ad-libbing. And the costume mistress would have KILLED us if the costumes got wet and stained.

I did that show not-quite-as-long-ago, and I came up with a certain recipe for the blood packs. I packed them every night. Rose's Grenadine, Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, and Tide (the kind that's already sort of pinkish). The fragrance of that Tide is forever etched on my brain, and I gag whenever I smell it.

Stage blood is what we used (dunno what's actually in it). We had to use it in several scenes - the 39 Lashes, Pilate's 'washing his hands', and the Crucifixion. I took a night off from backstage to go watch the show myself, and at intermission I had to go backstage and fill the blood capsules with that slimy stuff - because the person taking over for me had a phobia about handling it. It was the texture that mattered, not the smell. I don't actually remember what it smelled like - certainly nowhere near as bad as the real thing.

As for Live Animals, well, I don't run shows any more. And in NYC it's proper procedure to have an animal handler. And all of that costs money. Our theatre tries to come up with alternate solutions to those problems. I've built a few fake animals, puppetry-style as well as mechanized.

We had some animal issues. We didn't have a professional handler, but we did have a designated dog-walker and rabbit-feeder. When we did "The King and I" we used a basenji dog (barkless) instead of a Siamese cat. And I had to have very firm words with the director when we did "Gypsy" - I told her we could NOT have a live monkey because there was nobody who knew how to care for one properly, and it would take special permits anyway. And we also could not have a live goldfish. I wasn't going to take care of the damn thing, neither was my assistant, and we certainly couldn't expect the theatre staff to bother. So we substituted a dog for the monkey and a rabbit for the goldfish, and made minor changes in the script.

As for Explosives, I used to handle the Pyro and Firearms stuff at the theatres I worked at before I moved to NYC. Here there are licensing requirements that I'm better off not pursuing - it's not an area that interests me, and it's not relevant to my normal duties. But we do indeed produce shows that require both on a regular basis.

Yikes. When we did "Peter Pan" I ran into similar problems with the director as before, when the animal problem came up (same director). She wanted real arrows arcing across the stage - in spite of the danger of an actor or crew person accidentally getting hit, and in spite of the fact that the actress who was supposed to fire the arrows couldn't hit the broad side of the biggest building you could imagine. So no arrows - again, a script change was made.

And then she wanted one of those bomb-type things - the black ball with a fuse sticking out of it. She wanted a real one! So I called the fire department and the fireworks companies and was told we would simply not be allowed to do this, due to fire regulations and not having a trained expert on hand to handle it. In the end we made one out of styrofoam, painted it black, and inserted a red-dyed string in the top. It worked fine.

 

[Old Hippy]

As for Explosives, I used to handle the Pyro and Firearms stuff at the theatres I worked at before I moved to NYC. Here there are licensing requirements that I'm better off not pursuing - it's not an area that interests me, and it's not relevant to my normal duties. But we do indeed produce shows that require both on a regular basis.

I was working with a fringe group several years ago that required several firearms for the play, we got most of them from local TV on loan but still needed an AK47(as it was mentioned by name in the script, which we could not change)so I built one from wood and it was deemed life like enough to use, anyhow come opening night i was sitting on the fire escape,up on the roof, checking the AK, while having a smoke when 2 very fit and black suit clad gentlemen appeared and started to question me, but relaxed when I showed them the AK, we had the upstairs theatre, but the main theatre was booked for ex prime minister Gough Whitlam's book launch that night...

usually I just need to make some props or sets, but snow or swinging down tree branches for a scene always are a lot of fun to improvise on non existent budgets

 

[peter grimes]

Been there, done that, and you're 100% right. But it does give a person a bit of extra authority when you have to tell the director, 'Sorry, we can't do/use that.'.

I wish it were that easy. "No" is not a word we're allowed to even think about. And somehow, there's always money. But never until the last minute. One of the benefits of working in a city awash in filthy finance blood money

I was working with a fringe group several years ago that required several firearms for the play, we got most of them from local TV on loan but still needed an AK47(as it was mentioned by name in the script, which we could not change)so I built one from wood and it was deemed life like enough to use, anyhow come opening night i was sitting on the fire escape,up on the roof, checking the AK, while having a smoke when 2 very fit and black suit clad gentlemen appeared and started to question me, but relaxed when I showed them the AK, we had the upstairs theatre, but the main theatre was booked for ex prime minister Gough Whitlam's book launch that night...

usually I just need to make some props or sets, but snow or swinging down tree branches for a scene always are a lot of fun to improvise on non existent budgets

Fringe Festival? Edinburgh?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I wish it were that easy. "No" is not a word we're allowed to even think about. And somehow, there's always money. But never until the last minute. One of the benefits of working in a city awash in filthy finance blood money

You mean you're not allowed to say "no" even if the director demands something that is illegal (for safety or animal welfare reasons)?

 

[peter grimes]

You mean you're not allowed to say "no" even if the director demands something that is illegal (for safety or animal welfare reasons)?

Nope. That's above our paygrade, as the saying goes. In that case, which has never happened in my experience, the Production Manager would involve the General Manager, Executive Producer, and Artistic Director in resolving the problem.
By and large the directors, playwrights, and designers that are chosen for each show are professionals in their field - as such, they're not likely to try and demand something that can't be done.

 

[warpus]

I wrote this crappy song many years ago


Link to video.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I like the art, but found it difficult to sing along.

 

[peter grimes]

I wrote this crappy song many years ago


Link to video.

I wouldn't even know where to begin to do something like that!

 

[warpus]

I wouldn't even know where to begin to do something like that!

I used either Fruity Loops or Reason, I forget now. Probably FL

The video itself was made using a bunch of tools. From what I remember, I was playing my song through some sort of a visualizer while screwing around with it, recording the output, and then putting it through a bunch of filters in another program later.

I started writing computer music back in the very early 90s, when me and a bunch of friends started ANMA - absolutely no musical abilities, as a joke, using the 4 channel modedit 1.0. We released 10 albums, but then had to disband the group because we started slowly acquiring musical abilities.

Then I got heavily involved in the art/ansi scene and hosted the scene's biggest online comp for a couple years. So I was connecting with people from the demo scene, tracking scene, art scene, lit scene, etc.. My best friend was heavy into proper music theory, so I learned some things from him too. So whenever I was bored, I'd put on my headphones, and made music.. or ansis.. or I gamed. At the height of my tracking "career", I'd pump out 80 tracks a year, for the most part using scream and then later impulse tracker.

Later on I transitioned over to FL and Reason, but then.. I just stopped writing music. I don't have most of my songs either, they're all gone They weren't amazing or anything, but some of them were good enough to keep around. If I find any more, I will post them

 

[Birdjaguar]

You need lyrics!!

 

[Old Hippy]

Fringe Festival? Edinburgh?

no just general co-op fringe theatre stuff in Melbourne, but i have done stuff at the Adelaide(10 years) and Edinburgh(once) Festivals mostly volunteer stuff or in a co-op when I end up doing so much that they feel guilty and give me a share, I'm mainly the guy that builds things and can climb tall ladders for lighting and rigging, but have also stage managed and done front of house, it keeps me on a good dinner party list...

actually it is more a reason to get away from the mud and dust of the construction industry every so often, I've done several film and TV sets (paid) as well as mainstream thearte, but it just does not pay enough to do all the time, even tho it is so much fun

 

[peter grimes]

no just general co-op fringe theatre stuff in Melbourne, but i have done stuff at the Adelaide(10 years) and Edinburgh(once) Festivals mostly volunteer stuff or in a co-op when I end up doing so much that they feel guilty and give me a share, I'm mainly the guy that builds things and can climb tall ladders for lighting and rigging, but have also stage managed and done front of house, it keeps me on a good dinner party list...

actually it is more a reason to get away from the mud and dust of the construction industry every so often, I've done several film and TV sets (paid) as well as mainstream thearte, but it just does not pay enough to do all the time, even tho it is so much fun

Wow - you've worn more hats that I ever have. I started out painting sets then moved over to props. Before I moved to NYC, I saw very few people who made a full-time living out of it who didn't have a wealthy spouse.

Here, though, it's different. You can be middle class and work as a theatre professional. My wife is in the Wardrobe local and I'm in the Stagehands local. I'm actually one of the lowest paid people in the Union, but I have a really good situation. Now that we have a kid, and she's not working, I've been thinking more and more about branching out.

 

[classical_hero]

Peter, if you are ever in Perth, just stop we have a few things that need replacing.

 

[warpus]

You need lyrics!!

I started writing top 40 like dance lyrics to this, with a short rap segway, where a guy raps about how Jesus defines himself, but it was too bad, so I'm not gonna post it

 

[peter grimes]

I don't have most of my songs either, they're all gone They weren't amazing or anything, but some of them were good enough to keep around. If I find any more, I will post them

Were they on those 'floppy' disks that weren't really floppy? How'd you lose them all?

Peter, if you are ever in Perth, just stop we have a few things that need replacing.

yeah, I'm not good at anything besides the stuff I'm good at - you're likely better off with Cutlass, Grafitto, ReindeerThistle, or several other people. The extent of my home repair stuff is screw holes in drywall. Anything more than that and I'm useless