Not to arouse fears in the hearts of all those who don’t sit behind a desk all day and have a wired phone at the ready, but this article is worthy of a read. With all the freelancers out there and folks working in venues lacking access all day to the old-fashioned version of the telephone (when’s the last time you heard someone use the word “telephone”?), this article made me take notice.

Check out the Associated Press announcement from this morning:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwzQ6Jsq3cSWa721yR84l99_pnlAD923S7T82

With all the speculation that cell phones might have an effect on the ol’ noggin, subsequently squashed by many studies, at least one guy is still worried, and heck, he’s a cancer researcher. There’s just something about the question “…do you want to play Russian roulette with your brain?” that gets me every time. Of course, still no conclusive evidence, but when smart people are concerned, I pay attention. Of course, they might have stock in phone jack wall plates

The second day of the NATEAC, the inaugural North American Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference, confirmed its success and importance. Once again there were three sessions X three times slots, followed by a concluding plenary session in the afternoon. I attended sessions on Alternative Theatre Spaces, The Greener Theatre, and Single Purpose Theatres-Vegas & Beyond. In the alternative spaces session, Chris Buckley, Stan Pressner, and Robert Long looked at recent technically challenging productions such as the Macbeth at the roof-less tobacco warehouse in Brooklyn and Die Soldaten at the Park Avenue Armory, using them as prime examples of the what’s, how’s and wherefore’s of using such spaces, from proper permits to enough power.

The Greener Theatre talked about created LEED certified buildings and ended on a pretty funny note. Architect Scott Georgeson had shown an image of a theatre with a grass roof so that people looking down on it from the bluffs above would see a park rather than an industrial roof. Later in the session, someone suggested that wool, right off the back of the sheep, would make great acoustic material and be a very organic option. So moderator David Taylor suggested putting grass on the top of all flytowers for the sheep, to keep them nearby. Taylor continued to be very funny and spot-on during the plenary session he co-chaired with Steve Ehrenberg… who had just moderated the single purpose theatre panel, using Vegas as an example, and even showing the numbers of how these $100 million venues recoup quickly.. in just two years for a sellout show.

In the plenary session, Steve and David wrapped up the two days of sessions.. Steve offered some funny lightbulb jokes.. how many architects etc…. and they provided a series of themes that had cropped up during all the various sessiosn. In the end, the first US NATEAC concluded with everybody ready to come back for the next one! Congrats again to Bill Sapsis and his staff for organizing and running a good conference. And maybe, just maybe, all of the sessions and discussions and networking will really lead to better buildings and a greener outlook for the future of the performing arts.

Sometimes you miss place things, sometimes other people miss place things, and occasionally things just disappear.  That was ultimately the case after light rig this weekend.  After checking the plot over during the focus call, I discovered we were short three 36 degree instruments.  It is not that uncommon to be short an instrument or two, because we usually find out an instrument got hung in the wrong place.  Not this time though.  Somewhere between last season and this season three instruments walked off.  It kind of pisses me off.  First, who would take only three instruments, let alone Source 4 Jrs, when there was better equipment around?  Also, they have L5-20 plugs on them, which make them pretty useless for any non-theatrical event.  So thus is the mystery of the disappearing lights, and I doubt I will ever find out where they went.  The End.

Hard hats off to Bill Sapsis for organizing the first NATEAC (North American Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference) at the Michael Schimmel Center For The Arts at Pace University in lower Manhattan. Modeled after the theatre engineering and architecture conferences organized by theatre consultant Richard Brett in London (UK) in 2002 and 2006, NATEAC has brought together a stellar group of roughly 250 people—primarily architects, theatre consultants, and acousticians—about 75 of which are panelists. The conference got off to a fabulous start on Saturday evening, July 19, with a Circle Line cruise setting sail from South Street Seaport. In addition to folks from NATEAC, there were also some ESTA board and committee members “floating around,” as ESTA held its annual summer meetings in NY, rather than Dallas, this summer to tie into NATEAC. It was a perfect evening with great weather—cooler on sea than on land—an orange moon just one day over full, the Statue of Liberty, the fabulous art installation waterfalls by Danish artist Olafur Eliassonlit up in all their glory, and as a special, but unplanned by Sapsis, touch, fireworks went off in the harbor near the end of the cruise. An evening to remember… with snippets of theatre-related conversations in the air… that project will happen, the steel is up… no grid at Alic Tully Hall?… Dubai…. large flexible theatre in the Park Avenue Armory… Dubai…

Day one of the conference on Sunday, July 20 was interesting, with two keynotes: one by Richard Brett and the second by architect Hugh Hardy who is known for his work on theatre design—from BAM to the renovations of Radio City, The New Amsterdam, The New Victory, etc.

For the next three sessions, attendees had their choice of three simultaneous topics to select from, according to personal interest. The best panel I attended was on the role of the architect in the theatre design and building process. Moderated by theatre consultant Bob Shook (who announced at the beginning of his session that they had no powerpoints to show, a statement met by a round of applause…). His panelists included consultant Joe Mobilia, acoustician Mark Holden, cost consultant Joe Perryman, architect Leigh Breslau, and owner’s rep Rick Pfannenstiel. What ensued was a lively discussion based on a series of questions posed by Shook and it was great to hear such an intelligent group of people really discuss such issues as the architect VS the “starchiect,” the role of the end user in the design process etc. On an earlier panel, speakers relied too much on reading lines from their powerpoints as if they were teleprompters, so that you really didn’t get a handle on the genius of really smart guys like Scott Fisher.

I’m off to Pace again this morning to see what day two shall bring…

The past two weeks have gone from a fairly standard pace into high gear.  Bryon Winn, our lighting designer, flew in earlier this week, so I had a lot of prep work to do for rig and focus which we finished late last night.  The theatre space is very manageable, but it does get tricky sometimes.  We have a 96 dimmer sensor rack and about a 150 lighting instruments.  Needless to say, there is a lot of two-fers and three-fers in the plot and a lot of cable to run.  Overall, I was happy with the amount of time hang and circuiting took.  I pre-planned all of the circuits to minimize cable lengths, place our mult breakouts in convenient locations and worked to save our precious twofers where possible.  Preparing the circuiting ahead of time allowed me to set the patch up quickly too.  I realize that 96 dimmers are really easy to type in and patch, but then again I’m either lazy or ambitious, take your pick.  I still find it ultra convenient to export the ASCII patch from Lightwright and load it into the off-line Expression editor to do my patch.  The problem these days is finding a computer with a floppy disk drive to transfer the show.  I could be all slick and buy a USB drive for the few times I need it, but I am a little stubborn, and would rather unpack and reconnect an old computer we have at the theatre that has a floppy drive.  It worked just fine though, and I didn’t have to punch any numbers, so I win!

Below is a list of our inventory.  For the life of me everyone here has the same conversation each year to discuss why the theatre bought Source 4 Jr. for most of the inventory.  Certainly there is the cost issue, and that the space is on the boarder-line of throw distances of Jrs. Vs. Source Fours.  The units are well maintained and in good shape, so that is a plus.  But this is our inventory:

Instrument                               Qty

25-50 S4 Zooms Jr                 42

50 S4 ERS Jr                            14

36 S4 ERS Jr                            12

26 S4 ERS Jr                            2

S4 PAR                                     32 (6 XWFL lens)

S4 PARnels                              16

50 S4 ERS                                6

36 S4 ERS                                2

26 S4 ERS                                2

50 Strand                                 12

10″ Scoop                                 6

6′ Mini-strips                           4

AF 1000                                   2