I’ll be fine with 4 hours of sleep.

Got a call from my principal around 10:15 tonight.

There was a fire in the auditorium and the Fire Marshall needed some information about the stage lights and how the light board worked.

He tried to get the information from me over the phone, but in the end I ended up having to head down to the school to turn things on so I could answer his questions.  I ended up being there for a while, I didn’t get home until a little after midnight.

We figured out that is probably wasn’t a short in the system, and that none of the lights were left on.  What we think happened is that a couple of the spot lights that are on light trees on the stage were a little too close to the curtains, and somebody probably accidentally pushed the curtain right onto one of the lights on their way out of the stage.  Even though there were off, they had been on and if you’ve ever worked with them you know that they get incredibly hot, and can stay that way for a while.

Fortunately, thanks to the fire-sprinkler system, the damage (to the building) was minimal and we’ll still be having school tomorrow.

The main curtain was ruined, as was one of the black side curtains.  The nice hardwood on the wall by the curtain was burned and had to be removed, and a little of the hardwood floor was singed a bit too.  The stage and auditorium floor were drenched, according the the Fire Marshall there was 3 feet of water in the orchestra pit area.

The big damage was water damage to the sets.  The school production of “The Wizard of Oz” was scheduled to start next week, but since the witches castle and the front doors to the emerald city were destroyed, we’re not sure it’s going to happen.

Anyway, at least the building didn’t burn to the ground and I’m getting real tired so it’s off to bed.  Hopefully they’ll have the smoke smell cleared out of the building by morning so I won’t have to deal with that. 

G’nite.

Nothing you could do about it.

We spent hours setting up the light cues and backing up the program, triple-checked the mikes, shored up the props and sets and patched and re-sewed any problems with the costumes.  But there’s one thing about doing a Junior High School play that no amount of planning is going to prevent.  If it’s going to happen, it will.  It’s caused by a force no one can control.

It was during the final performance tonight, in the scene where King Titan gets mad at Ariel for going up to the surface and interacting with humans.  In a deep baritone King Titan yells at Ariel “That is the last time you’re ever swimming up to the surface”.

Except, as will happen to 13 year old boys, his voice cracked when he said “surface”.

Unintended comedic moment.  Everyone laughed, but to his credit it didn’t phase him at all.  The play went on without missing a beat.

“Parting is such sweet sorrow.”  I’m beat, I’m glad it’s over.  At the same time, it was a lot of fun and it was nice to be a part of something so many people enjoyed.  We had 4 shows, not including the one for our students, and they were all sold out.

Now, I’m going to go sleep the sleep of the exhausted.  G’nite.

Ad-lib adolescent.

My school is putting on the play “Little Mermaid”.  My part involves setting up the lights, programming the cues into the light board and being there for all the plays (6 of them, not including 2 dress rehearsals) to help make sure everything goes smoothly.

Today we put the play on for our feeder elementary schools.  One entire elementary school showed up for the performance, as did groups from the other schools.

At the part where the prince and Ariel are having dinner and start to dance, we had a big snafu.  The music wouldn’t play.  The kid playing the prince decided to just start singing and dancing anyway, then stopped, looked offstage and commanded “Servants, how about a little music so I can dance with Ariel?”

He paused, just long enough, put his hands out in a questioning gesture and said “No?”

Two seconds later the music started and the play went on.  I don’t know if the elementary kids caught that this wasn’t a planned part of the play, but I was on the floor laughing.