Burruss is the devil.
Today I worked 15 and a half hours in Burruss Auditorium. I ran spotlights (little room, two big-ass HOT mercury lights that you cant turn off, cant open the doors, because that's against protocol, etc.) for the biannual stepshow put on by the black fraternities and sororities. It was hell.
First off, while Haymarket is a technician's dream, Burruss is a technician's nightmare. It is not a good place at all. It wasn't designed with the thought of anyone actually being able to work the technical aspects of a show, or the thoughts of any audience member to get a great experience out of it. Nothing is in a good location, and you spend a good deal of your time fifty feet above the floor on rickety catwalks, which is even worse if you are even slightly acrophobic. There is no fly system, so anything you need at any point has to be in full view the entire show.
Second, the show was the show from hell. People were changing their shows at the last minute, when it involved completely rewiring the entire system, or redoing the pre-programmed lighting, or the like. There was an act that broke almost every law possible, other than indecent exposure. Refusing to leave the stage, drunk in public, smoking in a nonsmoking public venue, drinking underage, possession of open alcohol in a public venue, possession of an open flame without proper authority, etc. Generally, we ignore almost any of those for shows if it is someone big-name, because we're paying them big bucks to perform, and if they want to smoke, we're going to let them smoke. Campus security had to be called, and I can guarantee that the particular frat will lose its charter. Sucks to be them. I have no tears for them, they decided to blatantly disobey everything that we at the production study hold as standards of behavior while on our watch.
We had sorority tell us one set of cues on Thursday, a completely redone set on Friday, two during rehearsal, and prior to the show, and a girl sat next to the girl doing lights (in the middle of the auditorium, I told you its not designed for ever being used) and was telling her new sound queues as the show was going on. She also tried a few times to change the light schemes, which cant happen, considering that the entire show is run from a computer, and there are very few commands you can do other than go forward a scheme, or back one once the performance has started.
When she was told (through the lightboard girl) by the sound guy (also the crew chief) to back off, because she was making it impossible to run the show, she went to George (crew chief) and said she was going to file a complaint with our boss about Barbara (light girl) being very snobby, and not accommodating her. George straight out told her that we only have to accommodate her until an hour before the show, after that, they have to accommodate us more than the other way around. There is a little bit of give and take, but we have to run the show. And she wasn’t letting us do that. She then said that she was going to file a complaint about her. George said go ahead. Bossman would only laugh at her, because he is very much about being able to run the show.
Our shift was supposed to end at 10:00 PM followed by us striking the auditorium, which would probably take an additional hour. We finally started to strike at 11:30. We rushed through it, and managed to get out by 12. It was just bad. I'm now in so much pain from all the running, and for 15 hours, had you tallied all of our words, 'fuck' would have appeared MUCH more than even 'a' or 'the' ('what the fuck' or 'he's a stupid fuck' doesn’t count, because its part of the other word, especially at the speed we were saying these to each other through the headsets)
I guess the moral of the story is to never work in Burruss
On a happier note Thanh, Nate and Alex have given all of their friends roles in Final Fantasy X, and I'm Tidus, because he's a hottie, and has a great personality. They always know when I need a good ego booster. Tidus, in case you didn't know, is the main character in FFX, although he's a dream of a ghost (the main city in the land is inhabited by legendary ghosts of the past) In a narcissistic point of view, I am being dreamed about (in a GOOD way, seeing as I save the entire world) but also, I'm not a real person. Oh well.
Also, Nate and Alex decided that I was the gay guy in Bridget Jone's Diary. Alex is the reporter friend who definitely overuses the word 'fuck' and Nate is Bridget Jones. My friends are so great. Too bad I've only seen half of the movie. I'll see it one of these days.
Ok, so I'm done now, and have to work tomorrow afternoon, so I'm gonna just fuck off myself, instead of telling you to do the same.
Today I worked 15 and a half hours in Burruss Auditorium. I ran spotlights (little room, two big-ass HOT mercury lights that you cant turn off, cant open the doors, because that's against protocol, etc.) for the biannual stepshow put on by the black fraternities and sororities. It was hell.
First off, while Haymarket is a technician's dream, Burruss is a technician's nightmare. It is not a good place at all. It wasn't designed with the thought of anyone actually being able to work the technical aspects of a show, or the thoughts of any audience member to get a great experience out of it. Nothing is in a good location, and you spend a good deal of your time fifty feet above the floor on rickety catwalks, which is even worse if you are even slightly acrophobic. There is no fly system, so anything you need at any point has to be in full view the entire show.
Second, the show was the show from hell. People were changing their shows at the last minute, when it involved completely rewiring the entire system, or redoing the pre-programmed lighting, or the like. There was an act that broke almost every law possible, other than indecent exposure. Refusing to leave the stage, drunk in public, smoking in a nonsmoking public venue, drinking underage, possession of open alcohol in a public venue, possession of an open flame without proper authority, etc. Generally, we ignore almost any of those for shows if it is someone big-name, because we're paying them big bucks to perform, and if they want to smoke, we're going to let them smoke. Campus security had to be called, and I can guarantee that the particular frat will lose its charter. Sucks to be them. I have no tears for them, they decided to blatantly disobey everything that we at the production study hold as standards of behavior while on our watch.
We had sorority tell us one set of cues on Thursday, a completely redone set on Friday, two during rehearsal, and prior to the show, and a girl sat next to the girl doing lights (in the middle of the auditorium, I told you its not designed for ever being used) and was telling her new sound queues as the show was going on. She also tried a few times to change the light schemes, which cant happen, considering that the entire show is run from a computer, and there are very few commands you can do other than go forward a scheme, or back one once the performance has started.
When she was told (through the lightboard girl) by the sound guy (also the crew chief) to back off, because she was making it impossible to run the show, she went to George (crew chief) and said she was going to file a complaint with our boss about Barbara (light girl) being very snobby, and not accommodating her. George straight out told her that we only have to accommodate her until an hour before the show, after that, they have to accommodate us more than the other way around. There is a little bit of give and take, but we have to run the show. And she wasn’t letting us do that. She then said that she was going to file a complaint about her. George said go ahead. Bossman would only laugh at her, because he is very much about being able to run the show.
Our shift was supposed to end at 10:00 PM followed by us striking the auditorium, which would probably take an additional hour. We finally started to strike at 11:30. We rushed through it, and managed to get out by 12. It was just bad. I'm now in so much pain from all the running, and for 15 hours, had you tallied all of our words, 'fuck' would have appeared MUCH more than even 'a' or 'the' ('what the fuck' or 'he's a stupid fuck' doesn’t count, because its part of the other word, especially at the speed we were saying these to each other through the headsets)
I guess the moral of the story is to never work in Burruss
On a happier note Thanh, Nate and Alex have given all of their friends roles in Final Fantasy X, and I'm Tidus, because he's a hottie, and has a great personality. They always know when I need a good ego booster. Tidus, in case you didn't know, is the main character in FFX, although he's a dream of a ghost (the main city in the land is inhabited by legendary ghosts of the past) In a narcissistic point of view, I am being dreamed about (in a GOOD way, seeing as I save the entire world) but also, I'm not a real person. Oh well.
Also, Nate and Alex decided that I was the gay guy in Bridget Jone's Diary. Alex is the reporter friend who definitely overuses the word 'fuck' and Nate is Bridget Jones. My friends are so great. Too bad I've only seen half of the movie. I'll see it one of these days.
Ok, so I'm done now, and have to work tomorrow afternoon, so I'm gonna just fuck off myself, instead of telling you to do the same.
posted by VTFitz at
3:35 AM
