Diz. Ass. Tuhr.

Today was an awful, awful day.

As of our 7.15 breakfast, this was the schedule:

7.15: breakfast

8.15: call at the theatre. Hang lights, set up sound

11.00: actor call. Space through the show

1.00pm: lunch break

2.00: performance 1

3.15: relax

7.00: performance 2

8.15: pack

8.30: celebrate.


Here's what actually happened:

7.15: breakfast

8.15: call at the theatre.

8.30: be reminded of cultural documentation regarding the different pace of westerners and Chinese.

9.00: short out one circuit in the sound booth (still not sure why).

9.10: on advice from house electrician, plug our transformer plug into another outlet

9.10:01: create very loud sound coming from the power strip. Then everything stops working.

9.15: Realize that we are very VERY screwed.

9.30: Take laptop to shady computer consultant.

10.00 consultant tells me the computer is broken. Suggests we buy a 2.5" enclosure for my laptop's HDD and abandon the laptop itself. Shows me the scorched motherboard:

10.30: buy 2.5" hdd enclosure.

11.00: pick up Jaymi's 3-year-old laptop (our 'backup computer')

11.30: return to the theatre. Realize that since Jaymi's computer has no FW800 port, there's no way to get important data from an important drive. On the plus side, realize that the HDD from my laptop works fine in the enclosure. Begin to discuss cancelling the 2pm show. Realize that the power problem came because the 'hot' was connected to the 'ground.' Entirely not our fault. Feel a bit better, but not really.

12.00pm: still no love on the FW800 front. Management fighting with us about cancelling the show.

1.00: Have discovered that some crew members have dismantled my FW800 drive, against my explicit instructions. Have a bit of a cow. Yell.

1.10: Cancel the 2pm show.

1.15: Staff tries (unsuccessfully) to connect my FW800 drive to a Windows XP computer. The FW800 drive is formatted for an Apple, so it naturally doesn't work. I tried to tell them, but they seemed to think they could make it work. They fail.

2.00: One staff member goes out to get a USB2.0 ATA enclosure for the FW800 hdd.

2.45: staff member returns. FW800 drive works on the USB2.0 enclosure. I am relieved that no hard drives were destroyed during the nastiness earlier in the day.

3.15: stary trying to see what I can salvage from my work. Turns out, not much.

3.45: abandon the old software and start rebuilding the show in new software. Discover that software copy protection is attached to the machinery of a device, NOT the hard drive or the software.

4:35: Complete the hamstrung LIVE session the QLab show. Begin tech.

5.55: Complete tech.

6.45: Actors on stage.

7.15: go. The show feels like a disaster. The audience isn't laughing as much as we expected. They don't seem to 'get' our piece. We all feel pretty terrible about it. The sound is at 30% capacity. Only the bare bones of the design are there. All of the nuance is missing. Here's Benny & Daryn at the the preset:


8:15. curtain. The audience leaves.

8.16: strike.

8.30: visit with actors. commiserate.

9.00: leave the theatre. drop things off at the hotel. Bar.

9.30: Chat with Michelle, our Chinese student/host/guide/watchdog, who tells us that she thinks the audience liked the show. She says that Chinese culture witholds exuberant expression (applause, laughter, etc.) in most circumstances, which explains why tonight's audience was quiet. Also, she says that Chinese audiences routinely walk out of shows they don't like, and as we had no walk-outs, we should view it as a success. I don't think Michelle could BS that well in English, so I'm inclined to believe her. Still, we're all pretty bummed.

10:45: leave the bar for the hotel.

So, there you have it. Today was a real mess. I didn't take many photographs, such was the extent of the catastrophe today. Also, I have no computer any more, so blogging may post a bit of a problem.

Now, to bed!