GREASE - The Map

Here is a fun link - one of our stage managers made this google map with all of our current tour stops marked off with a green pushpin. Once we leave a city he will switch it to red. Just another fun way to keep track of where we are...

Google Maps

~Beth

Privacy

I bet most people are wondering why the blog has gone private.  Beth and I came to the conclusion, that due to the "hysteria" that is going to be surrounding the first few months of the tour, it was in the best interest of the cast, crew and others that we make the blog private.  From time to time, we are posting pictures of the places we go with cast and crew, and it would be better to have that information not be public, as you never know who may show up.  So for the time being, we are going to keep the blog private.  Please email us any email addresses that need to be added to the reading list.  We want as many of our friends and family to be able to keep track, but right now, we need to look out for our fellow company members.  

Tech 2

Hello hello!

2nd day of technical rehearsals is over, and things are moving along.  It's great to see the lighting, sound, props,scenery and acting coming together.  Just a few scenes in and there have been some great images.  Its going to be fun to see it all finally come together in a few days once wardrobe, hair and makeup is added.

I want to take a moment to thank everyone for their comments.  It's great to get feedback and questions you have about the tour, the lifestyle, the business, and so on.  Please understand that there are some questions we wont be able to answer out of respect for company members (cast and crew).  Cath, you will just have to wait and see if the cone is the same as broadway ;)  This blog was started to keep friends and family up to date on our travels across the country, so please understand that this blog is going to be more about us, and less about the show. 

Time to relax with some House, and hit the sheets early this evening.

over and out,

brian

Day 7 & 8 (kinda)

Welcome to tech.  Checking in from the spot booth.  This afternoon is our first technical rehearsal.  The cast is in the building, and we are going to begin stepping thru the show.  Monday was a lot of touch up work, checking focus, refocusing, alterations, etc.  Props has began their set up, and we are rocking and a rolling along.  Things are beginning to get tight backstage, but it's actually a fairly easy deck to maneuver around, thus far.  Having been out front a bit in the past day or so, i can say i am loving the look of the show.  There are some very exiting looking numbers.

I'm settled in upstairs now, so it's going to be crunch time, while i continously listen to the show, and learn and tweak my call.  The lovely a.l.d. is going to have a blast listening to me blab on, while i get a feel for this.  Quite a few busy moments it appears.  Its going to be interesting to learn.  

Time to go listen to some more show and do some learning.  I'll check in tomm.

over and out

Load in Day 4-6

Sorry for the delay in updates.  Been mixing sleeping with visiting friends the past few evenings, so i have been slow to type out what has gone down.

Thursday brought nothing.  It was a day of getting settled with the scenic pieces that had been loaded in.  Some required some attention and some added electrical elements.  At coffee, the pieces i needed for my next major project arrived.  So I harnessed up, and with the help of a few local electricians on the ground, i installed the hardware needed to hang a VL2500 spot from the speaker towers.  Then we ran the needed cable to it, and other lights hung with in the speaker towers.  This was repeated for both SR and SL.  We ended the day Thursday with a few more elements to complete on the speaker towers before we could our units up.  

Friday morning, i finished up the Speaker towers, while Jason ran a few illuminators and Dim12's thru their paces, and figured out some problems we hadn't found before.  Dan began sorting thru the patch and creating groups to allow us to move along quickly while checking out the rig.  Some of the big, big scenic pieces arrived, the car, and another automated piece.  It was a game of staying out of the way of the carpenters while they assessed their situation.  Friday afternoon, the associate designer and an assistant arrived, and we began the FOH focus.  We got through both box booms, before the end of the work day.

This morning, we rolled in, with the goal of getting a fair amount of the show focused.  The morning was consumed by the Balcony Rail, which is full of templates, and zooms.  Not a lot of fun to focus, but nonetheless, 5 hours were spent over the rail focusing them.  In the afternoon, Jason focused overheads while Dan went over some console stuff with the ML Programmer.  

Tomorrow is a day off, which will be very nice.  I can't wait to sleep in.  As well as being a day off tomm, it is also Drowsy Chaperones closing day of shows, so i just wanted to take a moment and give a little congrats to them.  It was a pleasure touring with you all for 15 months, and it was a shame i wasn't able to finish out the last 2 weeks before a new project.  I had an amazing time with them, and look forward to working with them all again.

Over and out

B

Load in Day 3

Today brought another Clark Transfer truck, this time full of scenic goodies, and some emergency electrics supplies.  The carpenters laid the deck for the bulk of the morning, and put up with us calling in scenic pieces to add lighting elements to them.  The entire front of house hang is done and circuited and tested.  Jason spent the day powering up the rig on stage and making sure all the movers were booting up just fine.  It was really a day of filling in odds and ends while waiting for bigger projects to develop.  Sound seems to be at a comfortable place, and carpenters just have a few pieces left to bring in.  Props is the next big department to join the fun on Sunday, followed by Wardrobe on Monday.  Its slowly going to get very tight backstage.  Its going to be nice to hit some of the larger houses on the route (Houston, Philly, 5th ave, jk)

So for now, i'm going to grab some dinner with high school friends.  Tomm is another day of getting the rig up to speed.  Hopefully the parts will come in that i need for my next large project, and that will be finished and out of our hair asap.  

Maybe i will be able to snap a few more pictures of the rig tomm.  I'll try to get a birds eye view from the jump at some point.  

Over and out,

B

Day 2

Another day of load in down.  This morning we dumped a truck of soft goods and some flown scenery pieces, and that was followed by a full sound truck, plus some electrics on their.  We had some catch up work to do on the Truss, because some cables needed to be ran differently.  Between the front of house hang, working on the truss, setting up dimmer-land and refining a few things, we had a full day.  

Came back to the hotel this evening, and grabbed an early dinner with the other electricians, and then moved to a bigger room.  It's going to be a long month here, and a bigger room, for a little increase in rate is welllll worth it.

Tomm is a day off, so i think i'll head back home for the day.  Thats about it for today.  

Over and Out

B