Changeover

So like I said in my last post, I am sick. Just in time for the busiest part of my life here at the Playhouse: Change-over, where we tear down one show and throw up the next in the space of about 10 days. I got out of the first part of it (the easy part) probably so I could rest up for the not-so-easy parts, which started today. However, out of the 12 hours I worked today, the best part of it was the 5 hours of manual labor at the end. See, we did a children's show today where a group of people moved their show in and did two showings of it (can I say 'show' one more time?) before loading out at the end of the day (show). So they needed lights for all that time, but once they were gone, we got crankin'! We stripped EVERY light and EVERY length of cable from the theatre, organized them, packed up the 60 lenses that did not belong to us, put on new lenses, organized those, struck the truss, moved one chain motor up to the grid, (etc etc) in the space of 5 hours, with about 8 of us to begin with, down to 6 at the end. And in spite of being sick, it was the best night I've had since Scramble! went up! It's a little insane, but I look forward to changeover week. In that tiny condensed time we pull down and then re-hang between 150-300 instruments, patch them into the board, focus them into the right spots on-stage, then write a couple hundred cues before and during technical rehearsals. After that we have 4 days of previews and opening night. I realize that most everyone who's reading this is familiar with change-over, but it's still insane to me! This time I get to program this beast. Holy schnikes. I better brush up...