west uptowner

Spending evenings in the dark, working the slide projectors for pppeeeaaaccceee, Darren O'Donell's 3-hander about "life after the revolution". The shows been called several things: a Benneton ad on three tabs of ecstacy, a vaseline sandwich, a poetic hug, etc. I like the piece, but my experience of it is limited because I don't see much of it.

Anyway, my role was putting the physical bits of the thing together, and now that we're up I sit through the show with only a computer for light. I don't have too much to do so I get a bit of work done in that hour and a bit that I'm stuck there. It's not hard to find work: I have a set and light design going up at Artword Theatre in a month, a huge tree to build for a fundraiser at the AGO, a show I'm production manageing that goes up Nov.18, and another set and light design to prepare for December / January. Adobe Illustrator is becoming my program of choice for composing plans. One of these days I'll pick up CAD, but for now life's too short to figure it out.

It's an odd feeling, working there in the dark. The show pulls me away periodically, but doesn't demand much thought. So it's easy to be very focused on whatever I'm working on. The fact that I can't make a peep -- I mean, only a thin piece of fabric and twenty-five of space separates me from the twenty-to-hundred-and-thirty people sitting in the audience -- also sharpens the attention wonderfully. I started this run dreading my time backstage, but now I really look forward to it. The room I do most of my work in is incredibly cluttered. I can't seem to keep it orderly, and as a consequence, it's easy to get distracted in there. This sensory deprevation backstage is a refreshing change.

# posted by trev @ 10:31 a.m.