A Day In The Life Of Me

Dan changing burned out gel

The board I'd never heard of or seen before

Partial hang for "Alice"

The awesome pipe we hung above the apron for "Alice"

Buckle your seatbelts because the excitement of my blog entry is just beginning. I know, I know, it’s difficult to contain yourselves, but try. I’m going to give you a run down of a day in the life of me, in Sweet Briar with Endstation Theatre Co.

An average day starts at 8:30 and goes until 5pm or a little after. We’ve done work on all three shows. Hung a few things for “Alice,” taken measurements and worked a little at the barn for “Hamlet,” and I’ve had the opportunity to design “Complete Wrks,” see rehearsals and write cues to prepare to head into tech.

Designing “Complete Wrks” at the Renaissance Theatre has been an interesting adventure. The space is better than I had originally anticipated, and it’s jam packed with fun little quirks. It’s the first space I’ve ever been in that has no grid or organized system of hanging. Basically if you want an instrument here, you screw in a phalange and there ya go. Which initially was a little odd, but really kinda worked out in our favor.

Because Dan is a rock star, we got the show hung and focused quick enough to give us time to do a few things on the other shows. And you all know how nice it is to switch things up a bit. The board wasn’t as difficult to learn as I thought it would be and once I figured out how to write my chase scene I was pretty darn proud of myself. Not to brag, but I pretty much made magic happen.

Tech rehearsal today went fairly smooth. There were only a few changes here and there and an extra cue or two for the insane amounts of applause that will ensue at the shows’ end. Michael, Derek and Walter have done a phenomenal job with “Complete Wrks’ and tomorrow night will pretty much be amazing, no joke.

The show opens tomorrow night, and while I’m super excited to see what I’ve created work with what the rest of the team has done, I’m just as excited to get started on “Alice” and “Hamlet.” I’m going to have the opportunity to work on things that are exciting and new and if real life were a musical, it would be at this point that I’d break out into a song and dance number, but nothing too flashy. Maybe the ‘before intermission’ number.

It doesn’t need to be said how amazing the people here are, but since I just typed it, you’ll have to read it. Even though the group knows each other really well, they do an amazing job of making sure the new kids feel just as welcomed. It’s always hard to find your niche in a new group, but Endstation is just like another family. It’s pretty stellar, just sayin’. So that’s what I’ve been up to. And best part is, we’re just getting started. (Now you can do the Finale song and dance number)

Claire Phelps

Lighting Intern