Tech Work at Fremont Abbey Arts Center, part 4

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday March 4, 2010 – Tech Work at Fremont Abbey Arts Center, part 4

Our final night of tech rehearsal. Most of us head to Italy next week, and when we return we will be in full rehearsal mode as we prepare for opening night on April 15.

Those able arrived at 6:30. Chris and Travis were transporting the PA. I stopped at the storage space on my way to pick up all of the lighting gear. Joel took care of his own gear, and was carrying a small powered monitor that CF had borrowed as an experiment. We gathered for a moment, and then divided into teams. Everyone helped to haul the risers down from storage. Then Chris and Bob took care of setting them up. Travis and Ryan did the set-up of the PA, grabbing extra hands as necessary. Likewise, Ian took charge of setting up the lights, drafting the necessary help. I had the vision tonight for the placement of the speakers, and took charge of that, and then made myself available as necessary.

We were set up in about 30 minutes. Good news. The full team was present, except for Howard who is out of town and Igor who had work obligations tonight. By 7:30 we were fully soundchecked and ready to get down to business. Bill was in the house, and took on the role of being our ears. He and Charles, the new House Manager, moved some staging that was set up for another show, which was going to change the sound characteristics of the room. Meleah reacquainted herself with the lights, and for the entire evening we were treated to the changing and responsive visual ambience of light with music.

We primarily played music, with some circulating and improvising. During the break, Joel set up a lovely Ab Major improv, which we joined in on when we returned, segueing into Twilight. A lot of promise here. Bill worked out the technical side of balancing things. We are not particularly adept yet at improvising in this way, but that is something we know how to work on, and I think it will be a significant step in the show.

Bill had the idea that the sound would work better with the speakers on the floor rather than on stands, and so we gave it a try. The immediate smile on Greg’s face was a pretty good indication that we were on to something, and Bill confirmed that this was a vast improvement. In addition, it unclutters the visual presentation considerably. Good in every way.

At 9:45 we called it a night, satisfied that we had a plan. Breakdown and restoration of the space was under 30 minutes. Also good news. I followed Chris and Travis over to Travis’ place to unload the PA gear. I will return the lights to storage tomorrow. Then to Ballard to join the rest of the team for libations, a late supper and a bit of socializing.