It was another early morning as we left the hotel at 7:42am to head over to Strathmore Music Hall. Today was their annual family open house and the theme was DISCOVER THE MAGIC OF STRATHMORE. We were the featured performers for the event along with several other activities that highlighted all that the Strathmore has to offer. It is a very cool event!
We arrived right on time and were greeted by John, the Technical Director of the venue, and Billy, the lead stage technician. As we walked up the stairs to stage level, we met the rest of the local IATSE 22 crew who were working hard. We had about 3 hours to do what would normally take us about 7 hours. And there was the added challenge of converting this concert hall into a proscenium theatre – now that would be magic!
While Ethan and Billy worked on unloading the trailer into the freight elevator, the rest of the guys were working on stage to hang curtains, raise lighting trusses, and start the “conversion process.” I have to say it was impressive to watch these guys go to work and make this happen. Cindy, Ethan, and Alan were all working on the details of putting our show together. Keith was working with both the sound tech and lighting guy on some of those details. We got my microphone checked and ready before moving on to the lighting. Here’s the way the concert hall looked before they started the transformation….
And here is the way it all started coming together….it’s quite impressive!
By the time they were finished, the stage looked just like a theatre – not a concert hall. These guys were amazing and we all enjoyed working with them throughout the day.
After the stage was set, Keith and I started working with Lyle to write the cues for this show. We didn’t hang our intelligent lighting (to save some time) and they had several fixtures already in the air. Keith opted to use their light board because it would make it much easier. Once the cues were written, Keith quickly got a house level for the music, a fast monitor check and level, and the doors opened to the first event of the day at 11am. Our first performance would start at 12:15pm, immediately following this event.
We had fun audiences for both performances – good responses and some very funny volunteers. As soon as our 1:30pm show was over, the crew kicked back into high gear to help us get down our backdrop and get the equipment back into the truck. Ethan and Alan disassembled the illusions as they came off the stage, got them in their cases, and rolled them back into the freight elevator. By the time the show was over, it was only minutes before we were all ready to load out the show.
I want to say a HUGE thank you to the entire team at Strathmore and IATSE 22 for making our day much easier than we had anticipated…and being so much fun to work with! I don’t think we were the only ones doing “magic” on this stage today!
Now, we’re on our way to Alabama…where it’s snowing today.