Grease

Early last Monday morning I was sitting in my first period math class. Its a grade 11 class so I dont really know anyone in it, when all of a sudden Scott Farley approached me. “Would you be interested in doing lights for the Grease production?”. I dont know whether it was the T3’s from getting my wisdom teeth pulled, or the fact that it was a Monday morning, or maybe some unseen factor that I still cant comprehend;

But I said yes.

He informed me that I would have to be willing to give up most of the next week of my life to this thing. I agreed, thinking he was exaggerating. So later that day during design, Marc informed me that he was approached to be the sound technician for the event, and that we had quite a practice schedule. I never got a schedule so he showed me his, and that was when I realized what exactly I had gotten myself into.

Thurs. May 1 1 3:30 - 8
Sun. May 4 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Mon. May 5 6 - 10
Tues. May 6 6 - 10
Wed. May 7 Performances the entire day
Thurs. May 8 6 - 10 Performance
Fri. May 9 6 - 10 Performance
Sat. May 10 6 - 10 Performance
Sun. May 11 1 - 5 Performance

Now those dont sound so terrible, but I was one of the tech guys so I was required to come early to help set up the sound equipment with Marc Schubert, which was a massive undertaking. And we were never ever on time. Most of the nights I was there 5 - 12, and needless to say I was very sleep deprived most of the week.

So Wednesday rolled around and it was time for the first performance, there was alot of anticipation in the cast and crew. I mean, it was only a bunch of little elementary school kids and everybody knows they aren’t actual people yet, so it was like a practice with little people. But regardless it was considered a performance and that made the actors pretty nervous, seeing as it was their first time doing the play infront of a crowd. It started off a little shaky, mostly because everyone was reading their lines ridiculously fast and you weren't able to understand them, and the mics were a little sketchy. But Marc quickly got those to work, so it was just the actors. It went off pretty well, a definite improvement over the practices.

So we got Wednesday over with, it was more of a tech practice if anything. Then Thursday came, opening night. I was sitting up on my balcony with my spartan laser waiting for the crowds to come in. All of a sudden it got really loud and people just began pouring into the gym. It was pretty intimidating. Im not gona lie. This was the worst performance of them all. The singing was all off, the lines were fragmented and not fluid at all, and there was no drummer! It was just overall disappointing, but I wrote it off as nervousness. But of course the lighting was spot-on.

Friday came and I was ready for another train wreck. Fortunately for everyone involved it went off surprisingly well. There was a few issues with mics being turned off during scenes, but that was a pretty minor issue. Other then that it was pretty good. Especially the lights.

I slept in like a motherfucker on Saturday, getting up at about 2. I was kind of late showing up for the performance, and whilst warming up my spotlight catastrophe struck! The spotlight wouldn't change sizes. All I heard was a small jingling noise, like a coin falling on the ground or something, come from inside of the light. The light was fucked. It was at the max size it could go, and it being so soon to the start of the show there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I decided I should just go with it, and work the focus as hard as possibly to change the size as much as it would let me. This show was soooooo much better then the Thursday one, the singing was almost spot on and the lines were much much much better. I was pretty impressed at the amount they improved. And just like that it was over for the first cast. As usual the lighting was stellar, even with the broken spotlight.

I woke up in my bed, which was strange because I thought I was spending the night at Danielle’s house. I laid there for awhile trying to figure out what exactly happened the night before. All I knew is I had a ridiculous hangover, and it was noon, so I got up, got ready, took some Advil, and was on my way to the last performance. This was by far the best performance of them all, the cast seemed very comfortable with the audience and their lines, sometimes improvising which I was impressed by because it actually seemed to fit the context of the play. The singing was awesome, except the last song which was never good, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before. We even got a special guest appearance by Mr.North, who took on the role of Johnny Casino, complete with curly-haired wig. And then, it was over. I invited everyone to come to Kels to have a celebratory dinner, but it was mothers day and everyone was busy. So it ended up just being my and my awesome lighting double Ellen, who was working the stage lights.

All in all I would say it was an amazing bunch of performances, and the work they put in defiantly showed, except for the Thursday show.

Share what you thought of it in the comments.