# Corn chips in the booth.



## subcinco

We all know better than to have food or drink in the booth, but you know how it is. 
Opening night of a big dance recital. Lots of nice sets, props and costumes. The culmination of weeks of hard work. Last number of the 2 hour long show. Everything is going well and then ...
the CD starts to skip. It keeps skipping. There is absolutely nothing that can be done. We cut the lights and pulled the curtain. Later we looked at the CD and there were big greasy thumbprints around the outside edge. And right there next to the console was an almost empty bag of Fritos.
Be careful folks.


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## r0cko815

WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!? your not supposed to have food and drink in the booth?? woops, guess we have been doin somethin wrong for a while. better go get those cans of red bull and bottles of mountain dew out, and go get all the containers of chinese food and cookies out of there then. we have had food up in our booth for a while, and nothing has gone wrong. i know liquid and electronics don't mix, but u gotta be careful. even techies deserve the right to eat  yea, be carefull when working, but don't make it a no food period policy, up in a hot booth for hours on end doing a show, and u can't eat or drink, na, just be careful


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## SuperCow

We have food in the booth all the time. We have a fridge, and the Pizza Pizza store recognizes "The Booth" in our theater a legitimate delivery adress.


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## OnWithTheShow

We have a extremely large booth so as long as the food and drink are away from the equipment I think it is ok. I also allow water in bottles with lids you can drink through that won't spill.


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## r0cko815

HaHa, u guys are lucky...fridge in booth, and also a extremely large booth. If we had a fridge in out booth and the admin found out, we would be in some serious trouble, disciplinary action, inaddition to all our privaleges being stripped. And i wish our booth was larger, its crowded to begin with, then with people in it, its a pain. With 3 people in there its hard to move arround, and normally there are more than 3 b/c the techs like to hang there, and the actors come up there so the can touch everything, very annoying. people keep being kiked out (including myself) and its a pain. Part of the reason its so crowded though is b/c we got a tv up there, 3 comps, a very nice sound board...like 24 channels, and a 48/96 lightboard, w00t. haha. then we have all our food and our sound console, and yea, theres alot of stuff in that small little room.


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## mbenonis

Yeah, our booth certainly is cramped. Strike after our last show did help a lot, though. I insisted that we drag *everything* out, and sweep, scrum, and wipe down everything.

I do believe that food/drinks should be allowed in the booth during non-show times, and drinks should be allowed during shows (I'd refuse to do a show without pink lemonade  ), but care must be taken when said items are in the booth. For instance, during the last show I ensured that there was a big area to the right of the sound board for my lemonade so that if it spilt, it wouldn't cause too much of a problem. It all comes down to being careful, and making sure you don't insert corn chips into the CD player. Even if the chips are round. 

PS - Rocko, nice to see you on cb.com!


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## bdesmond

You'll find that it's never a bad idea to keep a duplicate of a CD for a show around. If the show is centered around the CD, then make a duplicate, load it in a second CD deck if you have one, or else have it in a case & ready if not.

It's not unheard of for me to have food in the control room, there's some space where it's not going to hit anything if there's a spill, and there's a desk on teh back wall which is generally equipment-free. I'd say that with three people in our control room, it can start to get a bit intimate.


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## r0cko815

*cough*...uhhh, yea....things get intimate in our booth quite often...*cough* normally the intamatcey is with only two people in there at a time...sometimes there are others, we have jsut gotten used to it now, haha


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## Radman

I don't follow you Rocko. I think your computer needs a glass of water LOL. Sounds interesting though. BTW, what grade are you in? 

Top this guys: we have a couch in our booth at the Playhouse! HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA Boo Yeah


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## SuperCow

OK, the couch has a fair bit of clout. But, we have Aeron chairs in our booth at all the stations (lights, sound, stage manager, video mixing). Those things are seriously comfortable! Our booth is really bigh (it spans the whole width of our theatre) so we never have any oversrowding problems. We have had some interesting sights coming as we enter our booth, of a vert intimate nature (it's always dark in there, out of the way, you get the picture). Mostly, though, people just use the booth and the cats for storing their booze.


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## HMOcidalmaniac

we used to have a couch- it was one that just showed up on our loading dock one day


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## r0cko815

Radman said:


> I don't follow you Rocko. I think your computer needs a glass of water. Sounds interesting though. BTW, what grade r u in?
> 
> Top this guys: we have a couch in our booth! HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA Boo Yeah



uhh, well what im sayin is that one more than one occasion things have gotten alittle steamy up in the booth. u jsut get used to it after a while. and im in 10th grade, almost in 11th


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## Radman

Ah. Cool. Sweet. If ya ever seen family guy I have a quote from it:

Ohhh. OOOOhhh. OH! Oh...

Im in 9th almost 10th


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## Radman

Our booth at school is literally 9 square feet. Yes.


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## UnknownSoldier

crap man that sucks. i can only imagine tho. when i was assisting my friend once, we brought poptarts and coke up and prayed none of us would let it touch the console..


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## avkid

uhh, well what im sayin is that one more than one occasion things have gotten alittle steamy up in the booth. u jsut get used to it after a while.


i second that


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## zac850

about the CD:
I always import the CD tracks onto my laptop and play them off in iTunes. i do not trust CD's at all, and this is very nice when I'm running something like a lip sync and everyone is bringing me cd's I don't need to juggle them....

also, itunes does a fairly good job at taking out all of the track-bumps that happen, it may not sound beautiful, but it won't be horrible....

about the food:
at first I thought that the booth would be no-food or drink place, but that didn't work, so since i'm almost always up there when anyone is up in the booth I make sure that its away from the equipment.... I try to keep drinks only in re-sealable containers and food to something that won't go everywhere, and you need to put everything away from the equipment....


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## bdesmond

I hope your laptop doesn't ever crap out, Zac. I've had servers and workstations do things like blue screen, or fail at very inconvenient times. Murphy's law. Actually had a machine blue screen on the projector in front of several hundred kids once. If you're going to rely on a laptop to run something crucial, I'd keep a spare ready to drop in...


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## zac850

Yea, thats very true, but I have found that my laptop is more reliable then a CD player which can skip and such. For most shows I have a CD player somewhere that I can easily patch in.

I must admit that I am always a little paranoid that i'm going to have a dead laptop, but so far its still living.... and since I run off a mac i won't have blue screen errors.... other errors maybe, but not blue screen ones :wink:


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## Radman

What's the deal on mini discs?


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## avkid

what exaclty is a minidisc?


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## Radman

Yeah!


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## zac850

a mini disk is a smaller CD basically. I think the coding is differently, but its a small disk like a CD.

I have no idea where this question came from, or how it got into this thread, but, yea, thats what it is.


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## Radman

We used MD once and it was like a cart. If that is really MD then what is the smaller CD called?


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## zac850

wait, what are you talking about? a mini disk looks if anything like a floppy drive. It is square plastic, and inside that square plastic is a small disk, similar to a CD. 

There are also small CD's, which they give out for free when you get the "super-sized soda" or whatever. That is a CD, just smaller (maybe a 2 inch diameter instead of 4). The first is a mini disk, it can hold more data (hours of music) then a CD can. The second one is a CD, just smaller. Its exactly like a CD, except that since its smaller it holds less data (less music).


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## DMXtools

A minidisk basically IS a smaller floppy. Its total capacity, in terms of bytes, is considerably smaller than a CD. However, audio CDs are generally recorded with no compression. Minidisks were MP3 from the start, with a compression ratio of about 10:1. A song that might occupy 30 Mbytes on a CD (uncompressed) only takes up 3 Mbytes on a minidisk. The recording medium is magnetic, which means it can be rewritten an infinite number of times, where a CD-R can't and a CD-RW can only be rewritten a limited number of times. Because, like a floppy, the disk itself is permanently enclosed in a hard case, it's less prone to the scratches and fingerprints that can make a CD skip. However, because it is a magnetic recording, it can be erased by a strong magnetic field. Minidisks should be kept away from dimmers, distros, speakers and the power supplies of your audio gear.

John


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## Radman

That explains everything. Thanks!


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## plug_in_baby

hehehe our box contains the 'emergency box' for when things get a bit tough or boring or someone brings their girlfriend along or in some cases wives (or someone elses!), its just a small coolbox with vodka, gin, tonic, coke, JD and nacho's. it comes in very handy during boring / long performances. and ofcourse the local chinese, indian and pizza takeaway's are on speeddial (they really are!). and were pushing management for a coffee machine of our own, have to go down to the offices to get coffee its pathetic though the office girls make up for it!


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## ccfan213

your lucky, in my school half the time the vending machines are turned off and we arent allowed in the teachers breakroom to get soda or coffe or food. i have to bring everything from home and because other people from the district use the booth without my presence i cant leave food there that is theoretically not allowed. i think i will start bringing a coffe pot with me occasionally, i have a small metal one and it would really keep me awake during boring dress rehersals for chorus concerts and whatnot. there is plenty of room in our booth for safe eating on surfaces that almost never have gear, and were right next to the bathroom so i can easily run over to wash my hands after eating.


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## plug_in_baby

thats probably cause i'm not at school matt i actually work in a theatre lol which makes it compltely stupid as there is no-one checking up on us, bar the police lol. and the coffee thing is a great idea, on a cold icy winter monring it works beautifully, for a lage theatre the heating never seems to work right, too hot in summer and icy in winter. i used the emergency box yesterday actually, drinking G&T with the compan sound engineer cause there was nothing to do, it was a kids show and there were a couple of lighting cues and a few sound cues in a two hour show, they could've used a school for that instead of bothering us.


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## JP12687

We are in the process of re-building our booth. We are brining in a couch and table. huge glass window facing the stage. We already have a fridge up there..that was a genius idea i charge people $6 per show for key access to use it.


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## propmonkey

i love our booth. i have a lava lamp cd player on my side(lights) on my friend peppy(sound ) we have a couch and stuff. we have a microwave, capicino, coffee, and a fridge backstage. im bring a cooler and food and stuff and selling it to the crew. im also going to bring a vcr so we can watch tv over our mointers......whata great booth.


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## ricc0luke

Going back to the mini disc and cd thing...

Any of you guys ever use MP3 cd's?
I have used them, but never in theatre yet. They are really great because you just need a MP3 CD Player instead of an entire computer to de-code the cd. You can put hours and hours on a CD in MP3 format. Though I really prefer an I-Pod Mini! They are so nice and easy to use. I used one for a show once and always have one pluged into the sound system when I am working!


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## propmonkey

i have a 40gb ipod i use for me when there are no light cues.


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## plug_in_baby

yeah me 2 i bought one while over in the states, just a 20gb but still i've only got 10gb of music on it so i doubt i'll fill it up, lol i'm look into getting some lazy boy chairs for the booth that'd just be awesome. and a bigger fridge, our one only holds 24 cans of lager at a time, which really isnt much by our standards. also looking at a microwave that works properly and is silent so i can use it during a show or atleast some other method of heating up food during those oh so long kids shows.


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## ccfan213

my school system is stupid, and even tho im a sophomore this is my first year in the High School, Last year we had an amazing booth, it spanned almost the entire the back of the cafeteria/auditorium, and gave us plenty of room to just chill when we werent doin anything, and it had plenty of places where one (I) could obtain privacy with my gf. it wasa really nice and brand new. this year our booth is small, big enough to have space for 3 people, but no privacy and no extra room. i wish i could put a couch or something up there but it wouldnt fit. we wouldnt even b able to fit nice chairs or a fridge if the school would allow it.


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## avkid

a followspot can be used to reheat fast food and such ,as long as you watch it carefully!


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## plug_in_baby

yeah but if that food is pizza its gets inside the spot which really sucks coming in the next morning to work to clean out food from a grill on the spots. but the one thing i wont work without is good coffee, either starbucks or oddly enough mcdonalds black is quite good for a crappy fast food outlet.


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## avkid

not in the U.S.,McDonalds coffe is disgusting , i usually buy a regional brand called New Engalnd.


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## ccfan213

i bought kona coffee when i went to hawaii this summer, its strong and reallly good, i have a cup every day


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## dj_illusions

mcdonalds coffee is disgusting in australia aswell... we have a couch and all that stuff in the bio box aswell, but ours doubles as a cable storage box haha i have UV lights on my side, not really into the whole lava lamp scene.. its kinda orgyish lol

parcans are also good at cooking food, they are able to fry an egg on the back or toast bread on the front.


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## SuperCow

Starbucks all the way. Grande latté with a shot of espresso, or a tall caramel frappuchino. That's my favourite.


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## dj_illusions

we have gloria jeans here.. bit like starbucks but more australianised... there are no starbucks around here anyway hahah


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## BigGorilla

No food, no drink in the booth. Wanna drink? (step outside) Need a snack? (take five, go get chips, just don't bring it into the booth) Of course if you happen to have an extra ETC 24/48 laying around or the $2,500 it would cost to get a new one...

No cell phones either. We had our 24/48 completely blink a 300-cue dance concert because the frequency of the incoming call futzed with the board memory. 

Ah, you're thinking, but you had the show backed up to disk, right? 

Yeah...that would have been nice... Luckily, it only cost us Act Two, but still a righteous pain in the tuckus.

Big Gorilla


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## dj_illusions

never had that problem, ours just makes that noise that im sure everyone is familar with...
at my work its the same rules as urs but at school me and the other guy have set our own rules lol but we have the gear on one side and a tabble down one wall where we keep all stuff like phones and food... the only thing u had to step outside for was smoking.


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## ccfan213

i never have food or drink on tables with gear, tonight i spent hours in the booth doing a rehersal for an indian culture show, the people running it rented the school and we have to tech it... they dont know what they want and argue with eachoter about what they want us to do... really annoying, anyway to get back to the point it was really hot in the booth and i couldnt go w/ out a drink so i put a cable tie around the top of soda bottle and hung it from a hook on the wall since every free surface (stools and chairs) was taken up by some un neccesary person who could have easily been in the audience, or for that matter anywhere but the booth.


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## dj_illusions

mmm i hate shows like that, i generally move even the lx desk out into the auditorium now to prevent having unecessary people in the booth, also easier to get to the stage to fix things and whatever else, then they can all sit around you and yell there instead lol


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## dj_illusions

I have a lighting desk that I frequently hire out to pubs and the rest... i got it back last week and it had puke soaked into the foam of the roadcase.. mmm lovely lovely puke.... if i ever find that lighting technician, i swear i will.. do something pretty bad!

BTW.. IM BACK!


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## techieman33

we always had food and drink in the booth, it was no big deal, especially with our old equipment, the only way to get it replaced was for it to be killed, so it was no big deal, worst case scenario, we killed a board, and had to get a new one, darn. the light board did die, but it was old age, not a spilled coke that did it in. i was glad we got a new crappy light board, an etc 48/96 express, that board sucks, i wanted the old strand 24 channel mantrix 2s back. the etc is terrible, oh well back to the booth, we never had any problems, the food/drink was always kept on a shelf on the back wall or on the floor, with a lid of course. As long as everyone is careful it's not a problem.


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## ccfan213

someone, and i dont know who left a cup of soda on the rable with the equipment at our show on saturday, somehow it spilled right where the sound board was. luckily the board was sitting on the bottom half of a roadcase since it was rented, had it been sitting on the table without the case there woulda been soda all over the board. and that is why while we all completely ignore the no food/drink in the booth/tech area rules we should follow the no food/drink on surfases with equipment rule! 

welcome back jeremy! i would never move the board into the auditorium for a show like that, all that would mean is that the people who couldnt fit into the booth could bother me as could all the little kids who wanted to push buttons!


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## Peter

The privilidge of having food in our booth is something that is worked up to. In the very begining of the year, I allow food, then one by one, I catch people leaning over the light or sound board with an open drink or food and I nicely ask them not to bring food or drink into the booth any more. If I havent caught the person being irresponsible with food or drink, I dont mind them having it in the booth. We have a cabinate on the back wall of our booth, and noone minds if we keep food in it. The administration at my school is SUPER strict about no food in the actual aditorium, but they dont seem to mind techies being the exception if they bring it up into the booth to eat it. (and they know that we are usualy the ones who end up vacuuming the place anyway...  )


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## ccfan213

what? vaccuming? i dont think our booth has ever been vaccumed!


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## avkid

Peter said:


> (and they know that we are usualy the ones who end up vacuuming the place anyway...  )



holy [email protected]#$ finally someone else who has to clean their own theatre!
We have to polish the brass railings mop,pick up garbage and vacuum


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## ccfan213

wow i feel bad for you two. the stage crew/tech crew has to maintain the stage and we need to maintain the booth, but the house is up to the custodians.


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## Peter

LoL, no one has ever really told us to clean the place (and it's not realy the booth that we clean it's the auditorium proper) but if I tell you that we had 25% of our TEACHING staff cut last year, you can guess how much custodial staff we have now! The Janators NEVER come into the Auditorium. If we need the trash emptied even we have to bring it out and put it in the dumpster ourselves (it starts to smell funny after a while with too many wrappers in it). The place is actually getting quite grose, but but there are only so many hours in the day, and I spend more time working on shows then I can spend cleaning the auditorium. I usualy just do a big push to clean it before outside rental groups come in (and likewise make them clean it before they leave). Maybe it will get bad enough that the principle will do something about it, but in the mean time.... i dont know what to do (i think i need one of those Romba robotic vacuum cleaners... i would just have to make it figure out how to get up and down the stairs..... hmm sounds like a project for Digital Electronics class!)


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## TechWench

*ha ha ha*

my dad is a big-wig at a popular snack/potato chip company. 
so you can assume that we were ALWAYS stocked up on food.
it was a beautiful thing.
i think they were sad when i left.
the food supply stopped.

and i can for sure say that thigs DEFINITELY got hot and steamy up in the booth. 
and in the cats for that matter.
fun times...


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## SuperCow

All SM's have to provide sone form of food, or they face a mutiny. Our SM, bless her soul, brought in four dozen Krispy Kremes.

In our theater, the cloak room is a popular place for people to "go bowling."


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## ccfan213

as far as things getting hot in the booth.... last year at at another school where we could hide from the windows they did, this year im trying to figure out a way to convince my assistant principal to let me hang a curtain in front of the window.


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## otto

Haha, nice. We've got a special (carpeted!) room under the stairs just for late-night iniquity. Very enjoyable.

I started my own tradition as board op (once I got comfy with how relaxed/careless I could be around the board, and the LD got used to me) of bringing a HUGE slurpee up to the booth to share with anyone who wanted it during each show. It gets really hot up there in summer, so it kept other people pretty happy, and the sugar helped a lot, too.


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## SuperCow

I love Slurpees!

Those, and Starbuck's Frappucinos are key in the summer. Also, wine spritzers. White wine and club soda, with a twist of lemon. It makes the hot summer afternoons go by. And it looks just like Sprite!


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## avkid

i "acquired" (reposessed) a cooler that i fill with ice, root beer and gallons of water. I have my assistant run to the grocery store and get the ice before each show


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## propmonkey

we tend to keep a few packs of pop in our booth. the coffee maker, capocinuo(i cant spell) machine, refrigrator, microwave, and toaster oven is all back stage.


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## ccfan213

that certainly trumps my sneaking into the cafeteria for a vending machine


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## Radman

We just sneak concession food, since the fridge is at the bottom of the stairs to the booth. Mmmm... Alotti Biscotti Brownies!


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## zac850

I got a mini-fridge for free from the regional theater I work at (they got a newer, bigger one) that I put in the booth. Aaaahhhh, the joys of cool soda. Problem is the younger tech's don't clean up after themselves and spill and make the tabel sticky....


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## Too_Tall

We may not have a fridge in the booth, but when it comes time for the play out booth has more food in it that a cafiteria. Everyone brings in food, and if you dont bring in food then you dont eat. Very simple concept that can work for us that are in the booth because this food is very desierable, in some cases the people backstage will do ANYTHING for it....


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## CHScrew

SuperCow said:


> We have food in the booth all the time. We have a fridge, and the Pizza Pizza store recognizes "The Booth" in our theater a legitimate delivery adress.



HaHa

My best friend and an ex-tech crew member (he graduated) works at Pizza Joe's witch is about 5 min. from our school. We get Pizza every musicial on the show nights without even ordering it. They just know to bring 2 large roni. pizzas. + we get a discount.

-Ray


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## Thranduil

Our booth isnt supposed to have any food in it, and you can drink things, but that doesnt mean we listen. Our express 48/96 had a blunt stain on it, and we have mixed drinks prolly over the sound board. Granted we are all underage but no one questions the tech crew at my school because no one understands what we do. Food is eh, if your careful you can do it. Suprisingly, the booth doesnt get used for anything steamy, nor does any of the theater. Thats kinda nice i guess.


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## avkid

Thranduil said:


> Our express 48/96 had a blunt stain on it



A what?
that better not mean one of the things I think it might mean!!!!!!!!


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## bwayhawk2002

OMG!!! Having food and drinks at the tech boards!! You gotta be nuts! What were you thinking?? You can do some serious damage with that stuff!


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## Radman

avkid said:


> Thranduil said:
> 
> 
> 
> Our express 48/96 had a blunt stain on it
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A what?
> that better not mean one of the things I think it might mean!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...


Then I suppose you don't want to hear about the show our sound tech used a "one of those things" clip as a lav clip, hmm...


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## Thranduil

Hey it wasnt me, it was from a year before i started tech. I think it may have messed something up thou, because the express in question is currently fired, or at least its psu is. Thou, the crew member who made the stain, along with the others who drank in the booth are now gone, so all that if it happens happens in a side room of the theater no use uses.


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## Geniediver

at school we have a no food in the auditorium rule, we enforce it when actors are around, but in the after hrs the tech crew will usualy set up a make shift table and eat dinner, if we are there that late. as foor food/drink in the booth, we are not suposed to have food in there and that is usualy enforced. we do allowe liquids in bottles. during our musical we had a bag of starburst (shhhh) and the construction workers stole them overnight.


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## Foxinabox10

We always maintain that although there is no food or drink in the auditorium, the booth is most certainly a seperate room, even if there is no seperation between the booth and the auditorium. Haha.


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## Radman

LOL
Yeah basically the no food or drink rule in the auditorium applies to the audience only, and usually that isn't a problem. Sometimes, however, the sound area of the booth is just a disaster, and really that is just uncalled for. I think I'll mention that we need more trash bins in the booth, maybe that'll help.


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## SuperCow

Trash bins are eessential! W have somethign like three, because we eat a lot of stuff that's wrapped, and we throw everything out there. They fill up fast.


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## Inaki2

Guys, its pretty simple, this is a huge post about a topic that shouldn't be really a discussion.
For one its respect towards the gear, making sure you take care of it and not spoill stuff on it, or get corn chips in the faders, or touch it with greasy fingers. Secondly, its also a matter of respect towards your fellow technicians who must share the booth with you. If you enjoy working in a clean environment, make it so for others too.


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## Shinigami

We have rules about no food in the suditorium but they aren't enforced on the tech crew since more than half of us spend our entire day here on show nights. From when school starts at 7:25 to 10 at night or later. The actors can have food in their dressing rooms. That's their own responsibility.
Since I'm in charge of all things Lighting and Sound I don't have any rules about no food or drinks in the booth. You can even have them on the same desk you're working on. But I will hunt you to hell and back if you get it on my equipment.
Our TD always brings doughnuts on weeekends and some one normally makes a Sleven run so you can go with them or send money. This year my lighting and sound people took turns bringing in food for each other. It wasn't a big deal because there were only four of us.


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## saxman0317

haha...food.. We have an open deck for sound, so we have a no food/drink policy during shows since its not allowed in the aud, but we slip on the drinks as long as its in a capped bottle. Personnaly, i love my nalgene bottle... But either way. As to skipping cds? I always run my music through the computer and rip it into the hard drive devoted to that just for that reason, less to go wrong..(missing cds, fingerprints, scratches). But, as electronics go, i always keep the cd in my cue book and a cd player spooled up and ready to go just in case. O ya, and food is a right. you have to earn it!


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## mbandgeek

Food is okay in our booth. There is even a snack and drink machine right outside the door. what did they expect? us to go through a long show without slipping out the door for a bag of chips. i didn't think so.


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## DarSax

Food's allowed, we managed to use SGA (Student Government Association FYI) money to get a fridge (muahaha), though we have a line across the middle of the booth across which food is not allowed. Our booth is something like 16'x16', so its all cool.


Okay okay you got me, we never abide by that rule. But we like to say we do!


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## SLC Tech

Well, our booth has this gigantic, massive sticker on the wall that says "No eating or drinking in this area" we still do, we say we are staff and techies are responsible enough to be careful. The hall staff keep on pointing out to us about this but we just be carefuland explain we are allowed, unfortunately, we have to share the booth with the cleaners equiment (which is a bum) buffers everywhere, hoovers, etc but the venue is geting refurbished at the end of 2007 ( yipee  ) so we should be shunted right up to the back of the theatre upstairs instead of down stairs with any luck.


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## YHStechjordan

In our booth we dont even allow other people which is difficult because we have no door.


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## mbandgeek

ouch, No door.

Even the local middle school has a booth that has a door.


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## Chaos is Born

saxman0317 said:


> haha...food.. We have an open deck for sound, so we have a no food/drink policy during shows since its not allowed in the aud, but we slip on the drinks as long as its in a capped bottle. Personnaly, i love my nalgene bottle... But either way. As to skipping cds? I always run my music through the computer and rip it into the hard drive devoted to that just for that reason, less to go wrong..(missing cds, fingerprints, scratches). But, as electronics go, i always keep the cd in my cue book and a cd player spooled up and ready to go just in case. O ya, and food is a right. you have to earn it!



I would say that ripping to your hard drive is a great way to run sound... However i have had the one instance where it ended up being not quite the best thing...

I forget the setup we were using at the time (been a while since i used that system) but we had sound card that fell asleep on us basically when the computer went idle. The sound was playing on the computer and showed that it was playing. All volumes were up and nothing should have been wrong. However somehow when the computer went idle the sound card did too. And when the computer came back from idle the sound card didn't. Waht it required to do was just change the volume on anything software wise on the computer and the sound came back. Very odd little quirk, it showed up the first time durring a movement piece that ended up going off without any music behind it and worked anyways.


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## lightbyfire

There is a strict no food no drink policy in one of the theatres I work in, and my school is slowly adopting one. 
Since we went right into production without time to clean from construction of the new building there was so much contractor garbage left in it that people would bring their own food in and it was hard to tell who it was from. (not to mention the incredibly long hours we were working to get the theatre ready for a show we were eating a lot of meals in there by necessity) now we have cleaned it out so there should be no food or drink except water bottles.


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## YHStechjordan

mbandgeek said:


> ouch, No door.
> 
> Even the local middle school has a booth that has a door.


Well its a new theatre, but somewere it got left out of the plans. But we have plans to make one in the future.


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## 1357908642

Try a booth that doesn't have doors on either side. Both sides are completely open so people just walk through whenever they feel like it. It's really really bad.


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## tenor_singer

1357908642 said:


> Try a booth that doesn't have doors on either side. Both sides are completely open so people just walk through whenever they feel like it. It's really really bad.



Or my recent battle... a booth that has doors that lock but an administration that will not give out the keys for them. I have to hunt down custodians to unlock my tech space (which makes Saturday tech days fun because there is no custodial staff).


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## GV_hellion

tenor_singer said:


> Or my recent battle... a booth that has doors that lock but an administration that will not give out the keys for them. I have to hunt down custodians to unlock my tech space (which makes Saturday tech days fun because there is no custodial staff).




Getting locked in there is always an interesting time too... Who ever decided to put the door so its locked from the inside needs to be shot in the big toe.  haha


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## Chris15

GV_hellion said:


> Getting locked in there is always an interesting time too... Who ever decided to put the door so its locked from the inside needs to be shot in the big toe.  haha



Now I have very limited knowledge of US codes, but that would sound like a breach of fire code to me.


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## tenor_singer

Chris15 said:


> Now I have very limited knowledge of US codes, but that would sound like a breach of fire code to me.



One door locks from the inside, the other locks from the outside. There is always a way out. 

Unfortunately the way that is locked from the inside will take you directly to the floor of the auditeria and to the cat-walk for the FOH lighting, while the other way will take you into our school's study hall (which is a good 3-4 minute walk to the stage). Three minutes may not sound like much, but add that walk up multiple times in one tech saturday and you have an hour wasted simply walking to the booth.


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## RGermain

At SBHS we kinda cant help ourselves we ignore the whole thing about no food in the booth although we know better. We actually have a coffee maker at this point up there along with our fridge and whatever else manages to make its way up there.


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## SocksOnly

Our hs's tech booth is actually down in the audience...it's roped off (for some reason our lightboard isn't in the spotbooth). When we're working, we usually eat onstage because there's few places to sit and hang out in the booth (the stage usually has a few couches or whatnot). Or if there's a bit of a play with no cues, the entire tech crew just gets up and hangs out elsewhere, taking obnoxious pictures of eachother, running around the school, etc.


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## Techiegirly

We're allowed to have food and drinks in one of the theatres I work in but I still feel weird about it. I have spilled before on the desk by the light board but I was quick to clean it up before anyone found out so I wouldn't ruin the privledge.


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## meghan

at my hs also our boards are in the audience. just two tables behind the audience seats. we usually put some food by the chairs on the floor. but backstage you have to hide it b/c our director comes backstage all the time and gets hecka mad if theres food on stage.


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## punktech

it's dependent upon the person with the food, if you're an idiot/klutz no food for you!


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## PadawanGeek

we always have smoothies and bagels and stuff like that because they cafe is just across the way, so we always run over there. Then while i'm gone, the drummer comes in the tech booth and I always come back to find lights flashing all over the place, and he's just randomly playing with faders and buttons. It scares me, but he hasn't broken anything.... yet. :shock:


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## thebikingtechie

Technically there's no food allowed in our tech booth, but I frequently eat up there. The director knows I know what I'm doing, and I'm extremely careful to eat away from the board.

The other theatre I work in I'm allowed to eat on stage and in the booth, but I'm extremely careful. The regular crew/my bosses are all adults and they do what they want, but they are of course professionals so aren't stupid about it. Actors are strictly forbidden from eating anywhere near the stage let alone the booth.


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## Logos

I'm with you Charlie. No eating means no eating. The only thing I allow near my booth are sports bottles with plain water and sealing caps.


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## icewolf08

First off, I make it a point to clean my booth before and after each show, so that equates to about twice every 6-ish weeks. Having a mess in the booth just drives me nuts, and since I spend enough time there, it is important. So I vacuum the floor, windex the windows, take out the trash, etc. You just have to do it, it is part of the job, and it helps you do your job to the best of your ability.

As for food in the booth, we have plenty of table space that isn't over a console. We (the SM, sound op, and I) keep a bowl of candy. Usually all three of us have water bottles, and quite often (especially for matinees) the SM and I come in with lunch. We have a much more controlled environment though than most schools, our booth is not tramped through by many people, no one who isn't supposed to be there, so it is a lot easier for us to be careful about where food is, and keeping it away from important equipment.


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## punktech

yeah, both booths in my school are very spacious. i've actually come across very few booths that don't have some extra table space. any booth can be organized to have a good few square feet of room. we just re-arranged the main stage booth and added about 3 feet of table space and made everything more accessible. if you have no room you should consider doing an over haul, expansion room is always needed.


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## punktech

does your school do community service for the troublemakers? because i have a very good idea for you. talk to the school and see if you can get a few of the smarter f***-ups to work in the theatre for a few saturdays or what not. over see a nice handy over haul in one or more of the booths. at the very least, you get a new booth, at the most you get some kids, that otherwise would screw-up their lives, into theatre and thus a profession that will earn them more money than flipping burgers.


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## len

The last dedicated booth I worked in was in a restaurant/show lounge. The sound guy and the stagehand (who was mostly in the booth) smoked constantly. There was ash all over the place. Plus, they used to drink non-stop (bottle of vodka a night was typical). The booth looked like a scene from Animal House. But they seldom ate. Fortunately, none of the equipment i there was mine. And they couldn't figure out why faders on their brand new desk quit working after 4 weeks of 4 nights a week.


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## avkid

len said:


> The last dedicated booth I worked in was in a restaurant/show lounge. The sound guy and the stagehand (who was mostly in the booth) smoked constantly. There was ash all over the place.


You guys don't have anti smoking laws yet?


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## thorin81

NO FOOD EVER!! I cannot afford to replace equipmnet because of other people's stupidity. It is just better to prevent the situation entirely. WOrking with students that tends to be the best option for me...


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## Logos

len said:


> ... Plus, they used to drink non-stop (bottle of vodka a night was typical). The booth looked like a scene from Animal House. But they seldom ate.



"A man drinks like that and he don't eat, he is gonna die"

I have to admit I tend to be creating booths now as I tend to be putting shows into non dedicated spaces. It means that the booth has to be spotless because the audience can usually see in.


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## avkid

Logos said:


> It means that the booth has to be spotless because the audience can usually see in.


People seem to enjoy staring at all the knobs and faders after the show.
That gives me more motivation to keep it tidy.
(don't look at my workshop though, nobody sees that)


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## Charc

avkid said:


> People seem to enjoy staring at all the knobs and faders after the show.
> That gives me more motivation to keep it tidy.
> (don't look at my workshop though, nobody sees that)



Good god, don't look at my room! Why do ya think I never contributed to the "show us your desk" thread?


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## PadawanGeek

avkid said:


> People seem to enjoy staring at all the knobs and faders after the show.
> That gives me more motivation to keep it tidy.
> (don't look at my workshop though, nobody sees that)



I did one show, and afterwards, a bunch of kindergardeners came over and started watching me in amazement.


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## avkid

avkid said:


> People seem to enjoy staring at all the knobs and faders after the show.
> That gives me more motivation to keep it tidy.
> (don't look at my workshop though, nobody sees that)


Oh, alright I admit it.
My actual "bench" in the garage is crowded with furniture and moving boxes from my Grandmother's apt.


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## avkid

I fixed my mess:


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## genericcomment

How about a Texas holdem game during 3 nights of the show. Of course it was just the LD and the 2 MEs' one of them being me. Our LD was my lighting professor and it was also his idea!


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## Unmanedpilot

In our booth we eat popcorn all the time as we can get it free. Customers can, so why can't we? Anyway, I always find once I get in there popcorn is all over the ground, and of course its been smashed a bit. I'm usually the one of the three of our techs to clean it as I just cant stand it for more then 2 shows. I also often find many glasses from when the previous tech was running the show which I always end up taking out. 

With the food it does get messy but we at least have a 1x1 ft table with a cup holder for all of our stuff to keep it away from the equipment. I'm also with the guy who made one of the first posts... I doubt I'll ever do a show without my pink lemonade 


As for space I'm lucky only one person is in a booth for a show, any more then that it gets crowded. We have a small box that I estimate is 10ftx 4 ft and with 3 ft to the side for the soundboard its more like 7x4. Also we have the spotlight about a foot to the right of where I sit and that sticks in about 1 1/2 feet. Its nice for one person but thats it. I may post a picture as its nicely managed for space but its so small its crazy.


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## achstechdirector

we allow food in our booth b/c we have responsible techs
I know that accidents can happen but as some others have said to get something replaced, it first has to die.~wink~wink~

The whole hot and steamy thing happens in our costume closets(under the bleachers in the neighboring gym)

Our admin could care less about the whole mini fridge,microwave,coffemaker thing
It is scary
I am going into 11th grade and I have had my own keys since november of my 9th grade year. I have free reign of the auditorium.

Yes I go to the tech booth at lunch and other breaks during the day and after school and hang with the other crew members


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## zapthatmonster

During the 24 hour play we ditched all of the rules. Pizza in the auditoriumm.... soda in the boooooth...


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## Clifford

'No food in the booth' isn't our first rule. Especially when the show isn't a huge one.



This picture is from before a choir show. The number is people is due to training new techies. The water, soda, other soda, graham crackers, and tootsie rolls aren't usually there. Well, the water and the tootsie rolls are, but we're usually a little more careful. The only reason all that stuff is there is that we are all responsible enough to deal with it. And if you do bring food in, you have to eat it at the back of the booth (because ours is huge), and thus away from the boards. You will also notice that everything we have is in the center, where there aren't any boards (and there's another wall thing like the one to the left of the light board, to the right of the sound board).

Oh, and don't ask me why the walls were painted white.


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## photoatdv

I wana booth like that...


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## lieperjp

Clifford said:


> Oh, and don't ask me why the walls were painted white.



My question is just... "Why haven't you painted it Black yet?" Or at least a darker color...


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## Clifford

That's a good question. The best answer I can give is because a) there isn't the money to do so and b) somebody at the district office wouldn't like it.


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## tech2000

Clifford, very nice booth! I wish mine was like that. The one at my school is tiny, probably less than 8' wide and 12' long. Plus we have one chair that you can see over the light board with, the rest, when sitting you cant see anything.

Candy, pop and water are usually the only things we have, unless someone decides to bring dinner in. What's worse is we have several mice living somewhere...


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## Saunier

Our sound/lighting booth is smack dab in the middle of a NO food or drink auditorium so during shows we cant have ANYTHING in the booth. Thats why i love running a spot cause your in a room where nobody can see you


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## Clifford

tech2000 said:


> Clifford, very nice booth! I wish mine was like that. The one at my school is tiny, probably less than 8' wide and 12' long. Plus we have one chair that you can see over the light board with, the rest, when sitting you cant see anything.



We also have an elevator and an iRack. Our rules state that there's no food in the house, but it's fine in the lobby. Fortunately for us, the door to the booth is in the lobby, so getting food in is easy. And nobody really cares at our school. That certinaly makes things easier.


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## tech2000

You are lucky. The lobby to our theater is barely offset from, but basically in our school's cafeteria. What's worse is that to get to the booth, you have to completely exit the theater, go into the cafeteria, up the stairs and then you can go into the booth from there. However, there is an elevator sort of in our lobby that we can use to get to the second floor and from there, obviously into the booth.


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## Clifford

That's sounds like a bad setup. Who designed it?

The great thing about our walls is that they're sound-proof foam stuff, sort of like ceiling tiles. This is why we have things, like gobos and a nailed tootsie roll, on our walls. This is an older photo, so you can't see them.  We don't take care of any of our walls.


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## tech2000

No clue who designed it. Another school in our district has their own lobby, a walled in pretty large area with a concession stand and bathrooms.

Clifford said:


> This is why we have things, like gobos and a nailed tootsie roll, on our walls. This is an older photo, so you can't see them.  We don't take care of any of our walls.


A tootsie roll on your wall?


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## Clifford

Yes. We nailed a tootsie roll to our wall. One of the green ones that nobody likes. It's next to the "Titty Cling" sign, which you can see in the picture. Above the middle window there's a piece of paper near the ceiling. The tootsie roll (not pictured [yet]) is now to the right of that.

Oh, and the Titty Cling thing is from the Filippino Culture Night. They had a dance called the Tinnycling (or something similar), and our sound tech thought they said 'titty cling', and promptly made the sign, which he stuck to our wall.


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## tech2000

we used to have a skull and crossbones flag...


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## Clifford

Nice. We haven't had any flags (that I know of). We did have a big 'longcat is loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong' sign made out of an old strip of luaun. It was in the shop, but we gave it to its creator when she graduated.


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## tech2000

We have wooden signs from shows hung up in our workshop, and one that probably is not appropriate for putting on this site (even though there are no words on the sign). It's creator just graduated this year so we might take it down.


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## Clifford

We can't have anything too risqué. Our drama director (who is also the supervisor for tech) wouldn't like it. She likes a clean shop, so its a miracle we had the longcat sign as long as we did. But she didn't mind the broom someone stuck in the wall.


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## tech2000

Yeah our director probably hasn't seen it, but maybe she has. I think she told someone to take it down and they did, then when she walked off, it's creator put it back up again.
Got a load of stuff to take to the dump, maybe I should take that too.


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## Clifford

If it's wood, burn it. That's what we do. Over the school year we build up a 'crap pile' of wood that we take to the beach and have a bonfire with in the summer. We did one of ours last night actually. I still smell like smoke. We had a lot of wood this year, so we'll be going a few times.


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## tech2000

Yeah we also have a couple of "scrap wood bins" that are overflowing and I need to get rid of. The entire thing is about 4' wide and 6' tall. It's all stuff that is unusable.
That's what happens when you completely clean the workshop and wood storage area. Usually we would take it to a place that has a big wood pile but I guess they have a huge pile already and can't take any more.


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## Clifford

Burn it. Just, burn it.


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## tech2000

We also have a garbage can completely filled with saw dust in case there are any paint spills.


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## Clifford

Keep that. Burn the rest. It smells funny witht he paint and all, but just stand upwind.


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## tech2000

Sawdust does come in handy, especially when actors are painting.


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## ReiRei

sawdust... smells like hot chocolate. At least to me it does.

We always have food in our booth, I guess we're not supposed to but we just stash it in our little black metal box. And on the door leading to the sound booth, oh well it's covered in coke and monster cans. 

There isn't supposed to be any food or drink on the stage or in the house either but techs sometimes ditch that rule... especially during light calls or right before a show. Actors get mad when we tell them not to eat or drink in costume and there was one point where a couple of them compared it to when techs eat on the stage... I dunno... that just doesn't seem the same...


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## lieperjp

Bonfires... the best!!!

Just don't cook anything over varnished, painted, or treated wood!!! (Ok, maybe just ONE marshmallow...)


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## tech2000

lieperjp said:


> Just don't cook anything over varnished, painted, or treated wood!!! (Ok, maybe just ONE marshmallow...)



We've done that before...makes a lot of smoke and bad smells!


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## lieperjp

not to mention a bad taste and the loss of brain cells/ingesting carcinogens...


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## tech2000

it's pretty disgusting but fun it's fun to burn


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## Charc

ReiRei said:


> sawdust... smells like hot chocolate. At least to me it does.
> 
> We always have food in our booth, I guess we're not supposed to but we just stash it in our little black metal box. And on the door leading to the sound booth, oh well it's covered in coke and monster cans.
> 
> There isn't supposed to be any food or drink on the stage or in the house either but techs sometimes ditch that rule... especially during light calls or right before a show. Actors get mad when we tell them not to eat or drink in costume and there was one point where a couple of them compared it to when techs eat on the stage... I dunno... that just doesn't seem the same...



I think it's because both the stage and the costume is the tech's domain. It would be disrespectful for an actor to eat pizza while in costume, and subsequently damage it. Similarly, it would be disrespectful for a tech to use an actor's script as a plate or napkin.

However, if a tech wants to eat on the stage, something they clean and are responsible for, then so be it. Similarly, an actor can do whatever they want with their script, and I don't care. What's contained inside of it is their responsibility, perhaps they don't mind pizza grease.


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## tech2000

Yeah the actors always get annoyed because we will tell them to not eat in costume, but then we will also fine them if we see them eating with a microphone on their face, whether they are in costume or not.
Since we are a high school, we don't have much money to buy much at all.

Plus, tech (at my school), are the go to people for av in my school. Such as assemblies in the gym, or anything in the theater or even some random stuff in the cafeteria sometimes. Since we do all this we are the ones who end up cleaning/maintaining the majority of the theater.
Don't get me wrong though, the custodial crew at my school does still have to do a lot and it should never be neglected! It would be a hard job to do what they do.


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## Clifford

I share the views that have been expressed here, but many don't. I had to go give the choir teacher a list of reminders to give at intermission (same show the picture is from), one of which was 'no food in the house'. Well, I had a tootsie pop (yes, we like tootsie roll products at our theatre), and when I got to food she flipped out and started yelling at me. Normally I would have been diplomatic to maintain interdepartmental relations, but everyone dislikes her enough already to the extent that it doesn't really matter. I just put it back in my mouth, thanked her for the reminders, and went back to the booth.

Lesson learned: Do not eat food in the house if you have a really pissy choir director.


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## tech2000

Once some audience member brought in a can of pop and spilled it and just left without telling us. We found it later and it was just a sticky mess. (Hate when this happens!) Good thing we have our own mop!

Of course then after a matinee performance of a dance group that came in, someone had thrown their chewed gum on the carpet in the house and when the audience left they unknowingly smashed the gum into the carpet.


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## Clifford

I hate gum! We got a lot of this year, more than usual. But, it's okay, we didn't have to get it. We're being recarpetted this summer, which is amazingly awesome. There was some talk about reflooring the booth too, which would be awesome as well. But yeah, the best thing is, we didn't have to take out any gum this last semester!


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## ruinexplorer

Clifford said:


> Oh, and don't ask me why the walls were painted white.



Um, that was the first thing that came to mind looking at this picture.


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## Clifford

Yeah, there are a lot of strange design elements at our theatre. This is just one of them.


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## tech2000

It seems every thing is either white or a really bright color in that booth...


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## Clifford

Strangely enough however, all the sound stuff is black, except for the patch cables: board, both racks, monitor. Everything else is just, yeah, bright.


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## tech2000

In my booth everything is black, except for the walls which were blue, and the monitor for the light board which was tan. Then the glowing light board monitor pissed me off every time I looked up at the booth and saw nothing but the monitor there. Eventually I replaced it with a black one.
Now during shows you can only see a person up in the booth.


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## Clifford

For your viewing pleasure, more from our booth (sort of):



This is the storage room located at the back of our booth (to the left in the other picture). More white walls. There's a surprise. And a white ladder that goes to a utility closet.


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## tech2000

What's up with all these white walls!
We have a storage room behind our booth, but it's full of costumes.


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## Clifford

Don't forget the white doors we have.

All our costumes or in the costume room backstage.


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## tech2000

Yeah, that doesn't really make sense to me. You guys should try to repaint the walls and doors.


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## midgetgreen11

At least you guys get to use your booths. Our booth is an ESL teacher's office, with an 8 channel soundboard that is never turned off. All of the school's microphones are dead, as we only have wired handhelds and there are not trained sound techs because their is (virtually) no sound system. Our sound booth is also up 4 flights of stairs and down a 100 yard hallway from the auditorium lobby entrance. convenient; I know.

Oh yeah, the sound rack is backstage, has no cd player, and has 4 amps; two of which say "do not turn on" because they were blown during the first show that was in the space.

Everytime I go to the rack to turn the amps off because you can hear them buzzing from the stage even when not in use, the two that say "do not turn on" or switched to the "on" position


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## tech2000

So does your booth even overlook your theater? because it doesn't sound like it .
How can you use your sound board for live use if you can't hear what you are mixing? It seems to be a bit far away to be used. That is really weird also how you only have wired handheld mics, which lead me to assume that you do not mic any actors in any of the shows you guys do.

It just seems like the theater (sound at least) was really poorly planned.


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## Clifford

We never mic our actors. Partly because we only have two corded mics and a wireless that decides when it will function, and partly because all our body mics were stolen shortly after we got them (we never got to use them ).


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## tech2000

You're making me feel better now about my theater's sound!
How did your body mics get stolen? You must not have had a place to store them and lock them up.


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## Clifford

You'd think so, but you'd be wrong. We left them on the counter near the sound board. Usually the window is locked, but someone left it open. We don't know when exactly, but someone entered the theatre openned the window, saw a black road case and decided to take it. We still have the receivers somewhere.


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## tech2000

The person probably sold the mics on ebay or something. Bet now you guys double-check the windows when you lock up. When we leave at my school, I walk around and check every door and padlock in the theater to make sure everything is locked and secure.
What brand/model microphone were they?


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## Clifford

I want to say they were Shure. This all happened before I was anything near TD, so I'm not sure of all the details. Checking things are locked isn't actually our biggest priority. We have nothing worth stealing. Seriously. And anything we do have that's worth anything is either bolted to the counter or in the electrical room which the district guards like Fort Knox. Oh, and they fixed the rear door that didn't lock. :neutral:


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## tech2000

Our booth, we don't have to worry about getting broken into because if you wanted to go in through the windows, you would have to jump in from the catwalks (it's about a four foot jump away from our back catwalk and is down several feet so if you miss you will fall all the way down to the house floor. (Plus our catwalks are locked so no one is there unless authorized.
Then the door to the booth (The actual way of entry) is always locked, you put the key in, turn it, go through and once the key is removed, the door automatically locks again. So we don't have to worry about it unless we prop it open.


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## Clifford

I can't stand self-locking doors. They always lock when you need a door that doesn't lock, and they're held open when you want them closed and locked.


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## tech2000

True, whenever I go up there and then come back down, someone else has to go up there and then I have to give them the keys I have or tell them to go find keys to get in. Can be REALLY annoying.


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## Clifford

Our booth door actually swings open if not closed all the way. That can be annoying too. Why can't doors just read our minds and do what we want?


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## tech2000

You should patent that idea.
There is a door in the shop in my theater where someone took off the bar that slowly pulls the door closed after you go through it, so if you're not careful and you open the door fast, the door will open all the way and swing back in your face.


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## Clifford

We only have two automatically closing doors in the entire theatre (not counting the front doors), and they are for the dressing rooms. Our house doors are all on electromagnetics, which is frickin awesome. One switch and all the doors close together. We've scared some people with those. Especially since we can't see the doors from the booth.


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## tech2000

Nice!

The doors here are held open by magnets when pushed all the way open. I believe they are electromagnets, but we can't flip a switch and all close all at the same time. I wish we did!
It's funny though whenever the firealarms go off, where ever there is a door held open by the magnets, the doors will close automatically. It's amazing! Not to mention really funny.


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## Clifford

Oh, you guys have electromagnetic fire doors. That's cool, and safe. I don't know if ours do that, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.


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## tech2000

Yeah, at least we don't really need to use door stops around the theater. With the exception of the greenroom and the booth. Actually both doors into the booth. You enter one door from the outside hallway, then walk down a short little hallway where there is a sink and another door into the actual booth.
I guess this is to cut down noise during a show or something.


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## Clifford

We have two booth doors (well, one really), and both open from the lobby, right next to the bathrooms. One door is for the elevator though, so we never use that one. The elevator, like numerous other things we have, is broken.


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## tech2000

Your theater IS neglected. wow. Hey at least you had an elevator in your booth. That would be nice (although it sounds like you never got to use it).
You should ask the maintenance dept. if they can fix it for you guys.


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## Clifford

Apparently it's been broken for 8 years. If they didn't act in that time, I don't see why they would now. But I guess there's no harm in asking.

Incomplete list of things that don't work/are broken/missing:

-Booth elevator stuck in the up position
-Aisle lighting doens't work
-Lighting channels 60-69 don't work
-Motorized electrical battens control panel (we have to stick pencils into the fuse resets in the panel to operate them)
-We're missing the winch handle for the fire curtain apparatus
-The key for the scissor lift broke. In the ignition. Now anyone can use it.
-Lost key for the audience recall bell
-Button for audience recall bell (the only one that doesn't need a key) is broken
-30 or so capless Altman 360Q's
-4 broken/partly disassembled Altman 8" fresnels
-Many other lights that are useless because we can't get lamps for them
-A truly gross cyc; the bottom is all scraped and discolored
-The house was built with 368 seats. You can sit in 351 of them.
-We have 1 hammer, no screwdrivers, 3 1/2 handsaws
--We have 13 drills, 4 work
--We have the what is quite possibly the most useless drill press ever conceived. We don't even plug it in.
-The entire wired intercom system doesn't work
-Monitor channel A is blown
-Four of our eight trumpet speakers have been blown, with one of the basses

There are quite a few more, but I'll leave it there.


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## tech2000

That is quite a list...
We have about 10 to 15 capless ETC S4's and barely enough Fresnels to have basic downlight. Most broke this past year.
You should sell the lights you can't get lamps for (unless the only reason you can't get lamps is because of money). Then by selling you could make some extra money.
How do you guys have no screwdrivers and only 1 hammer? Thats amazing, and the fact that you have 3 and a half saws!
You should get rid of the drills that don't work. Maybe someone will buy them even though they are broken...maybe not.
Just don't blow out any other speakers I guess.

What are you using for an intercom system?
My schools wired clearcom system was having problems this past year so I told my director to buy some nice two way radios (I also wanted to be able to walk and talk on headset). Now we only have 5 to start out with, but I'm hoping to get more.


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## Clifford

You'd be amazed what we've accomplished without screwdrivers. For most of last semester we also didn't have a hammer either. We had one, but then it walked and we had to buy another one. I would also like to mention the fact that we have one crescent wrench.

We were very surprised when the district bought us a wireless ClearCom system. With everything else that they won't deal with, they got that. We aren't complaining, it works great and allows for a little more flexibility. And we lost our wired beltpacks. Except for the two that don't work, we managed to keep those.


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## tech2000

I am truly amazed at how a high school theater can get by with only one hammer and crescent wrench and no screwdrivers. During the spring we ended up buying a couple of hammers and we found one. (We're not sure where it came from!) We also have a lot of screwdrivers and use them all the time!

It is weird that they bought you a wireless clearcom, I guess they think communication is more important during a show? and it would be easier to buy wireless instead? Those are expensive too! Oh well, that's pretty cool to have.


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## Clifford

We pretty much screw everything together. We've used nails twice for sets since I've joined. We did use one nail for the tootsie roll, but that doesn't really count I guess. As for the crescent wrench, most of our lights are up all the time, and for shows we usually only have a few to hang or move.

Everyone loves the ClearCom system. It is basically the only reason we love the district. We can get five people on it, which is usually enough (SM on base station, 2 ASMs, TD, followspot lead). And on the high transmit setting, I can out to the parking lot or into the band/choir rooms (behind the theatre) and still talk to the other techies. This is really helpful during musicals when they insist on warming up in their own rooms.


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## tech2000

My school never uses nails. It's easier to take stuff apart with screws than nails. It could be a matter of opinion though. We're always moving lots of lights around so we have quite a few c-wrenches.
We just got radios to communicate. Our PAC budget from the district was really low so we couldn't afford a wireless clearcom, but we could afford commercial radios. We have 5 radios.


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## Clifford

For a show our whole ClearCom died, so the advisor for the group performing (a school counsellor) had to go to the office to get a pair of two-ways. I like headsets better though, because when you give the bimbo with the show the headset, it's on her head. When you give her a radio, she puts it down and bad things happen.


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## tech2000

Oh, well we bought headsets that plug into the radios so the person will have to clip the radio on their belt or put it in a pocket. Works fine for us. We are just happy to be able to walk around and not have to get off headset!


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## Clifford

I know what you mean. I was lucky enough to never have to use the wired system. It also helps when crap starts hitting the fan and I'm in the booth. I can run backstage much easier.


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## tech2000

I hate it when something goes wrong and I'm in the booth. Makes for a long run since I have to run down the stairs and down the hall, turn, down another hall and then backstage...annoying. However, that's what I love to do. I hate having to stay in one place and do the same thing over and over again for every show!


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## Clifford

I know what you mean. Sometimes I'm calle dupon to LD a long (and usually quite boring) speech or lecture or elemantary school talent show. It reminds me why I tried so hard to be TD.


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## tech2000

Last fall during our play "Arsenic and Old Lace" I was up in our booth helping our light tech (and our head fly guy was there too) we had nothing else to do anyways. (Head fly tech is also a volunteer firefighter and just graduated) then over headset our sm (backstage SR) says "I smell smoke and there is a group of kids outside". Our director came up for some reason too and I relay the information, then we all bolt out to see what is going on. The fly tech and I end up searching the entire area behind the theater and find some kids in the bushes and get our director. Then she told them they couldn't be here (we found cigarettes next to our workshop door) and called security on them. It was perfect timing because our principal was in watching the show and the smell of the smoke started to seep into the audience. Not to much but a little bit.
It was pretty entertaining.


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## Clifford

Yeah, as much as you want a show to go well, it's more exciting when it doesn't.

I remember when we had four shows in the same week (aptly named Hell Week). We were about to get started on the Thursday show when the then TD (she graduated this last year) remembered we still had the colored gels in the front wash from the Wednesday show. Myself and a spare hand had to run up to the cat walk and slip all the gels out. We even had to fight one of the Source4's when it's gel clip wouldn't open. We finished just in time for the wash to come up for the introduction.

Similar event: We had two different colored greens in our two followspots for a previous show. Well, wouldn't you know it, the choir director who said ok to that earlier now wanted the same color green for her show. As the house was opening. Had to get the gel and cut, run up to the catwalk, open the Comet and try to replace them. Then we realized we needed more pins to hold it in. Run down to the director's office, grab them, run back up, put them in close it. The spot ops were wondering why the assistant TD was running around the catwalk right before the show.


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## tech2000

Of course then there are times when things go wrong or wont even work and it's just embarrasing.
During the SADD assembly last month for seniors (did it the day before prom to scare seniors to not drink and drive) Our director had to go up last minute and do a speech before the seniors went outside to watch a mock drunk driving crash and then the microphone was put back on the mic stand afterwards the we forgot to check and make sure the mic was still on so the assembly starts and everyone is back in and the batteries in our wireless handheld died. Then the cues we wrote for the lights were messed up and the projector wasn't working for a minute.
It ended fine but it was a disaster for a little while.


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## Clifford

Some shows just don't go over well. See here for an example.


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## tech2000

Yeah...school events are fun aren't they!
I guess it was just one bad thing after another...but now I am feeling better about my school. Of course since our projector system installed in our theater died a year ago, we just say that if you don't give us a day's notice on what you need and it comes down to last minute, then we won't do what you want. At a band concert the director (the night of) asked to use the projector (now we use a classroom projector and it has to sit on the stage) to project behind them onto the acoustic shell, so we said no.
My director's husband said we just have to let things fail sometimes.
(Also kind of applies to your situation where they gave you no rehearsal and not telling you what was going to happen.)


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## Clifford

A projector! That's something we have that works! Well...sometimes. And it only takes 15 minutes to warm up, when it works. But we have one.

Next year I am contacting all director and advisors early. There will be rehersals. Lots of them.


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## tech2000

Good to know you have a projector. Our administration refused to have our PAC budget pay for 1/2 a projector and the general high school budget pay for the other half. Knew they had money, but they didn't want to spend it.
So many teachers are leaving/changing next year from my school, it's going to be a mess.


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## Clifford

With less teachers, will there be more budget? We're in a similar situation here in California. I don't know what your education budget looks like, but our Governator managed to mess things up pretty bad here. We're losing teachers but the budget is staying the same out our school. The thing that annoys me the most is that our ASB has about $2.5 million in the bank and won't even lift a finger to help us.


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## tech2000

The school district is cutting out $3 million in random areas and our high school hired an education assistant? but is taking a assist. principal's office (so basically hired yet another administrator making 5 assist. principals). I don't think the facility budget for our PAC will be much over what they usually give us and whatever rolls over from last school year. (We ended really low). But we applied for a money grant through the district I think so that might help. (for the projector)
That's a lot of money for asb! What we do sometimes for the PAC when that budget gets really low, we have to use some drama club's money for maint. stuff.
Hopefully next year you can convince the asb to help you.


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## Clifford

Our school's tech budget is what's left over from the drama budget, which is small to begin with. Sometimes we get nothing.


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## tech2000

Thats sucks. Isn't drama asb?


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## Clifford

No, we have it as an actual class. They're given some money by the school for costumes and the like.


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## tech2000

We have a drama class too but the school doesn't give any money for it. We raise it and put it in asb until we need it.


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## Clifford

Like the other classes at school, drama is underfunded, pretty majorly. It's time to start writing grant essays methinks.


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## tech2000

True, that would be a good way of getting money.


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## Clifford

Or we rob a bank.... Actually, we thought about a bake sale. But then everyone was too lazy to do anything about it. Not enough lights and sound I guess. I mean really, we're not that bad off. We get along. If we ever had a major need of cash, I'm sure we could get at least most of what we needed. So we need an emergency.


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## tech2000

Yeah, at our school administration banned bake sales and stuff like that during school. (It might be the district) They wanted to cut down on the amount of fat, sugar, etc. sold at school. Drama club did those for a while and we still only made $50 or $60 a time.


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## Clifford

Hey, that's enough for a lamp! When you include tax and shipping. But a lamp none-the-less! Something we could use far more of.

There was a group selling Pat & Oscar's breadstick outside our theatre. The building is right at the top of the main parking lot and there's a big circle you drive around and all that. We might be able to do that. After all, who doesn't completely love Pat & Oscar's breadsticks? I'd sell my soul for them.


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## tech2000

I guess making any money is good money! (even if it only is $50) Just a few more sales and it could pay for those little things that are needed!


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## Clifford

And big things. And the old things that need to be fixed/replaced. I'd like to see our intercom working again.


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## tech2000

True, it would be great to get the intercoms at my school to work too but oh well. Other stuff needs to be done first.


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## Clifford

We've got wireless, and being able to light a show is more important than our intercom, nice though it would be to have.


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## tech2000

I have an entire list of stuff that would be nice at my school, but we have to buy a projector, and lamps for light fixtures.


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## lieperjp

tech2000 said:


> I have an entire list of stuff that would be nice at my school, but we have to buy a projector, and lamps for light fixtures.



I too, have a list, but I don't make the final decisions, so...  Actually, though, I get to recommend things, but there's never enough $$$.


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## midgetgreen11

We don't mic our actors in plays, but we rent/hire outside sound technicians for about$2000 a show. The booth is about 15 feet above the balcony back-row.


Sorry that may have seemed random; it was in response to posts a page or two ago.


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## Clifford

lieperjp said:


> I too, have a list, but I don't make the final decisions, so...  Actually, though, I get to recommend things, but there's never enough $$$.



I posted my lists in one of these threads. Maybe tech2000 will remember which. It's pretty long, and it doens't even include structural stuff.


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## tech2000

Clifford said:


> Apparently it's been broken for 8 years. If they didn't act in that time, I don't see why they would now. But I guess there's no harm in asking.
> 
> Incomplete list of things that don't work/are broken/missing:
> 
> -Booth elevator stuck in the up position
> -Aisle lighting doens't work
> -Lighting channels 60-69 don't work
> -Motorized electrical battens control panel (we have to stick pencils into the fuse resets in the panel to operate them)
> -We're missing the winch handle for the fire curtain apparatus
> -The key for the scissor lift broke. In the ignition. Now anyone can use it.
> -Lost key for the audience recall bell
> -Button for audience recall bell (the only one that doesn't need a key) is broken
> -30 or so capless Altman 360Q's
> -4 broken/partly disassembled Altman 8" fresnels
> -Many other lights that are useless because we can't get lamps for them
> -A truly gross cyc; the bottom is all scraped and discolored
> -The house was built with 368 seats. You can sit in 351 of them.
> -We have 1 hammer, no screwdrivers, 3 1/2 handsaws
> --We have 13 drills, 4 work
> --We have the what is quite possibly the most useless drill press ever conceived. We don't even plug it in.
> -The entire wired intercom system doesn't work
> -Monitor channel A is blown
> -Four of our eight trumpet speakers have been blown, with one of the basses
> 
> There are quite a few more, but I'll leave it there.



Is this the post you were talking about?


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## Clifford

Indeed it is. And as I said then, it's only incomplete. I would be infinitely happy if I could get half the things on that list fixed.


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## lieperjp

Clifford said:


> I posted my lists in one of these threads. Maybe tech2000 will remember which. It's pretty long, and it doens't even include structural stuff.



Here's mine:

-NO architectural system to speak of, house lights go on/off with a switch.
-House lights are CFLs
-Curtains Ripped/torn/stained in multiple spots, but thankfully most can't be seen from the house. 
-Stage floor has been mauled by 15-20 years of misuse and no TLC.
-One, only one, catwalk positioned too close to the stage
-Catwalk electric mounted to floor, so lights have to be positioned upside down, makes some shutter cuts impossible. 
-Three stage electrics from 1970, not 1-to-1 for lights, not stage pins but edison plugs. 
-NO theatrical house speaker system.
-NO EQ or compressor for theatre shows. 
-Outdated dimmer racks in the wrong locations.
-Still using lights from 1970 which I would LOVE to replace.
-Not enough Backstage space to hold theatre club sets AND band equipment.
-House seats from 1970, not very comfortable, some are broken.
-Stage not at ground level (it's about 16 in off the first floor level,) to bring anything in it has to survive some very sharp corners and fit through a single door unless you want to carry it up half a flight of stairs. 
-We have an organ that covers up the extreme upstage left, but not too much.
-NO comm system to speak of, we use very cheap Motorola walkie-talkies that are sketchy at best. 
-Tech storage room is a basement hallway
-Very few extra lights - only about 5 scoops that were replaced by fresnels 10 years ago. 
-We can't get a lift onto the stage because of the buildings design, so we use a scaffolding.
-Many people aren't as safety-conscious as I'd like them to be (working on changing that.)

But I also have a list of what I am thankful for. (Maybe you should to, it helps me feel better: )
-We HAVE enough lights to adequately light a theatrical show. 
-I get to learn how to take care of lights when I clean and bench-focus them in the Fall
-We have the equipment to semi-properly PA a show.
-Though our lightboard is a Leviton, it works, it's better than a two-scene preset.
-We have enough wireless mics (though yes, we could use more.)
-We have a growing theatre club (not part of curriculum.)
-We have a cool organ in the auditorium for church-style music. 
-Though our sound system could use some EQing, it really doesn't sound too bad, surprisingly. 
-We have some good equipment for recording fine arts concerts.
-We are supported by the theatre club and our music department.


And the thing I am the most thankful for:
We have a lot of fun putting together a show, and each show is an adventure. _After all, we can complain about equipment as much as we want to, but if new and exciting equipment was the reason we were involved in theatre - most of us probably wouldn't be in theatre. It's taking what you have and making something spectacular for the audience that makes it enjoyable._


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## Clifford

I wish we had real houselights.

I guess I'm grateful for the following:
-Our theatre is actually fairly new, built ~1990
-More than enough lights to light our shows
-An overstuffed gel cabinet
-A working scissor lift
-Four general battens, three lighting specific omnis
-Newish drapes
-New ETC Express 48/96
-Perfectly operational Mackie 32-8 mixer
-Two confusingly full sound racks
-Our booth is huge and has a seperate general storage room
-Most of our 368 seats are usable
-Our stage is in pretty good condition, as is our cyc (except the bottom)
-We have enough flats so that we won't have to build any next year
-We have enough tools to do what we do
-We have more glow tape than we know what to do with (and trust, we've really tried on that one)
-A really great crew

...And these are few of my favorite things!


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## tech2000

I'm grateful for:
-Enough lights that we can get by on for shows
-4 lighting electrics
-47 lineset 50' fly system
-Working sound system (even though it has its problems)
-Wireless and wired microphones
-Shop tools
-583 seat theater
-Storage space/Workshop backstage (rest of the high schools in my district dont have much space backstage)
-Gels

Probably more stuff I didn't think of.


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## Clifford

Sounds like a big theatre. I wish we could have even a few lines on a simple fly system.


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## tech2000

It's big compared to probably a lot of high school theaters. The rest of the high schools in my area have about the same number of seats, but the fly system is much better in my school.


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## Clifford

I'll make due with our motorized electricals electricals and omnis. Even though we don't have any real fly space. However, when you consider the fact that we don't have a ture tech teacher and that this year, what with budget cuts, we almost didn't have a drama teacher, the safety factor would be a big problem methinks.


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## tech2000

You almost didn't have a drama teacher...would you have been allowed to do any tech stuff for events then? Or would you even have plays?


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## Clifford

We still would have had all the dance and choir shows and all that sort of thing. I imagine we would have still had plays as well. Our drama teacher has a contract and credentials to teach English, so even if drama was cut she would still be on campus and probably still work with us and the actors to do a srping and a fall production. As it is, we got a bit of a budget reprive, so we're looking good.


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## tech2000

That makes sense. Our drama director (as do all in our district) receives a small stipend to be the performing arts center manager. (Basically does the expense paperwork for the events and coordinates techs and other stuff for the events, etc.


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## Clifford

We have someone in the admin office who looks after all that. It's great when they tell us we have an event in two days. And it's a dance show. And needs LOTS of lights and effects. And it's a day before the choir show that was rescheduled and also needs a ton of lights, all in different positions than the dance show. I _wish_ our director looked after all that. It would make my life a lot easier.


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## tech2000

It does make it a lot easier.
It also helps for fixing/cleaning lights and other equipment because we can tell her that we need to do something and she sometimes fits it into her schedule. We've already gone in about 5 or 6 days since school got out to do maintenance.


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## Clifford

Our drama director is just that, a drama director. She wouldn't come in in the summer so we could do tech work. She's too artsy for that. This sucks, because I've been wanting to be in the theatre all summer.


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## tech2000

That sucks. We couldn't get much done at all fixing wise, if we didn't come in during the summer.


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## Clifford

We always end up with tons of class time between shows. We work on lights and the like then. Well, in theory.


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## tech2000

We have drama classes but they are for acting and we dont have any techs in them so we always have to do all work after school.


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## Clifford

Yeah, we're lucky enough to have both as classes. There's 4 periods of drama and 1 of tech. Next year I'm taking a period of drama to do more tech (and hopefully no acting).


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## tech2000

Yeah I might try to get switched into our drama class to do tech next year. Our director already told me that if I do get in, I can do just tech the entire time.


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## Clifford

That's the kind of arrangement I'm looking for with my director. It'll be especially helpful because we've a got a musical next year (we do them every other year), and that will require a lot more time in theatre from me.


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## tech2000

Really? We usually do one every year. A couple years ago we did two in one year, and last year a school in my district did three musicals. (That must've been hard!)


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## Clifford

Drama only puts on two productions a year. Two plays, or a play and a musical, which they collabarote with choir and band/orchestra to do. I really wish we did more.


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## waynehoskins

Man .. I think back to my high school days, and they were quite different to yours.

Rewind ten years.

The mainstage seats about 800. The prosc arch is 56 feet wide, and 16-ish feet tall, but there is a dead-hung teaser that trims out at 11 feet. The stage has a fhuge apron, a round arcy thing that is at the arch left and right, but at center is 15 feet DS of the arch. The deck has gymnasium-floor shellac applied every year so it's pretty. Upstage of the arch is about 20 feet to back wall. The grid is all underhung and is at 30 feet. There are 10 linesets, two of them electrics with 12 circuits each. The apron has 12 circuits total on two dead-hung pipes.

The booth is 4 feet deep from wall to wall, and there is a wooden desk just barely over a foot deep, 15 inches tops, that runs the width of the room, which is realistically 8 feet. The booth has a door either side occupying the space between the back wall of the audience chamber (it's inset into the chamber) and the front edge of the desk. Your view of the stage, as a board op, is through an 8-inch-by-8-inch windowpane in front of each of the two boards. The windows open up (double-hung), and they are conveniently positioned such that a normal person standing behind a window has his view of the stage completely obstructed by the aluminum window sashes.

The lightboard is a Teatronics Producer II, 24/48. No theatre stack, no show disk. Manual, and you could crossfade submasters. Altman 1KLs and 65Qs. MD288 rack.

Sound board is an EV BK16-something, a 16 channel board. This board used a revolutionary new concept for the faders in that they're not used in a gain circuit, but in an attenuation circuit. The downside of this is that after age and wear, many of the slide pots had an open connection at the very bottom extreme of their travel, making there be no attenuation, so you had to be sure to take the faders down almost, but not quite, all the way. The wireless were Nady VHF sets that we had accumulated over time, some of which worked better than others. One set happened to sometimes pick up the local network television station's field-studio intercom link, which was neat to listen to but not during a play. The main array is three homebuilt cabinets hung by baling wire from cuphooks in the plaster ceiling, fed with zipcord. The amp rack contains two Altec programmable EQs that are not programmed correctly.

The intercom is a two-channel Clear-Com with wall stations. The headsets are all gone, stolen and broken over time. The Call light, however, does still function quite well.

The Ante-Pro is two pipes suitable for holding five, maybe six, lights each, positioned over the house-left and house-right major aisles over Row F and G, a very flat angle. There are six circuits which appear on both positions.

The audience chamber has a curtain track running down the centerline. The revolutionary concept when the space was built was that it could be separated into two 400-seat lecture halls, which is a stupid idea, but an idea it was. The booth is the closet that was originally constructed to hold this curtain in its retracted position. The MD288 rack and Pro2 are a huge improvement over the piano board rack backstage. The EV board and Altec EQs are a huge improvement over a couple of hi-fi speakers in the air vents that have been rumored to still exist there. The two overhead electrics and dead-hung apron pipes are a huge improvement over the original permanent borderlights. The flat AP is a huge improvement over the two track-lighting tracks that were built into the plaster ceiling even farther back in the chamber. The black walls backstage are great; they were originally white, finally painted in the '80s before the MD288 rack existed; the piano board's outline can be seen to this day on the wall stage right.

That is the space I learned in, and I'm thankful for it.

In my college years I designed a bunch of shows there, and during that time I and a few others helped them improve things. New array. AKG wireless. Express 24/48. Build a crap-ton of pin cable. Cleaned lights. Built a stock of lamps. Built an inventory of gel. Struck the teaser for several shows.

I think I LDed the very first show in that space to use a Go-button memory board .. and that was in 2003.

I say all of that (and it is rather lengthy) to say this: Be thankful for what you have. Appreciate it, and take advantage of the opportunity to learn on it. But don't be spoiled by it too much either: you'll go from the high-tech high school to a less-high-tech university (my college theatre, when I started, had in the black box a Hunt 2-preset board and rack with stickers reading Warranty Expires October 1977, and we used it up until 2002. From the university you'll go to an even-less-high-tech community theatre who has whatever hand-me-downs and good deals they could find.

Learn well the basics and you'll do well on anything, and appreciate the toys you have to play with, and the space in your booth (and the catwalk to the AP) you have to play with them in.


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## tech2000

That is a very vivid description...from ten years ago!?wow! good memory

Plays are ok, musicals are more fun. At least there is less silence.


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## tech2000

So this year, we are actually enforcing the no food/drink rule ANYWHERE in the theater. Last spring our school had a really bad rodent problem.
Actually, a somewhat funny story to follow...
We were doing some cleaning/maintenance and on top of our "cage" (walk-in storage for most of the equipment we own) there was a black plastic tub up there that once had sprite or 7-up (there the same anyways) and it never got washed out. I went over to it and picked it up and saw this mouse (dead) that got stuck trying to climb out of the tub. It was about halfway up the side of it so of course when it died it "emptied it's bowel" and solidified inside the tub.
At least it didn't have maggots on it at the time like another one we found had.


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## willbb123

Ok I'll add my 2 cents. 
In highschool we had no booth. The stage shared the room with the elementary gym. Every night we had to set up a table, set up the audio mixer, light board, and speakers. Then run the respective cables. I remember actors saying that they never saw us without food, but I honestly cant remember what I ate.
For our last show we actually built a booth. I should add that It wasnt my idea, one of my crew has ADD and just kinda stared building it one day. And of I helped cause it was awesome. Of course it had a couch and a mini fridge. 

 
 

I then did an internship sorta thing at a professional theater in town. The booth was tiny. Both lights and sound were in it and for the sound guy to get in or leave the lighting guy had to get out. The show was in the summer and it got REALLY hot in there. So we always had a drink. 


Now I work at a professional theater. The booth used to be a projection booth, which is pretty large. 2 of our spotlights are in there so it gets pretty hot when they are both on and there are 3 or 4 people in there. The bad thing about the booth is that it is really hard to see the stage, which makes it really hard to light. I have moved the light board to the rim of the balcony into what was a handicap seating area. Now I can see exactly whats going on on stage. I also love being able to see what lights are on in the catwalk. 
I normally eat dinner at my desk (my new booth with the light board). We have alot of concerts and the day normally goes like this, Call 2:30pm, Load in 3pm. As soon as they set up they have sound check. When they are doing sound check I focus anything I need to front of house. then as soon as they finish I run on stage and bounce focus back light. Then I normally have 30 min to do any programming and eat dinner. 

I dont really have a problem with [-]people[/-] the crew eating in the theater. They just have to be very careful not to get it on anything. And not eat chips during the show, because even if you are trying to be quiet they will still hear you crunch in the house...

hope you guys enjoyed my pictures... took me forever to upload them...


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## Clifford

The reason I'm okay with the crew eating in the theatre is because _they_ have to clean up anything they drop or spill. An audience member isn't going to do that, and we have to clean it up. I'd allow a buffet in the house if the audience cleaned up after themselves.


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## ScottT

Clifford said:


> The reason I'm okay with the crew eating in the theatre is because _they_ have to clean up anything they drop or spill. An audience member isn't going to do that, and we have to clean it up. I'd allow a buffet in the house if the audience cleaned up after themselves.



They can hardly pick up after their little kids that barf all over the seats...


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## tech2000

ScottT said:


> They can hardly pick up after their little kids that barf all over the seats...



That's disgusting.

I would have no problem with anyone eating in our theater if they would pick up after themselves, but I guess they think we are a _MOVIE_ theater.


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## Clifford

ScottT said:


> They can hardly pick up after their little kids that barf all over the seats...



That's not something they can foresee or really control. It's like sneezing. But they leave their empty chip bags and soda cans on the ground, or spill their drinks and snacks. That isn't acceptable.


tech2000 said:


> That's disgusting.
> 
> I would have no problem with anyone eating in our theater if they would pick up after themselves, but I guess they think we are a _MOVIE_ theater.



 Sadly, it's true. We tried doing a spring movie series of old film adaptions of stage plays, with popcorn. Needless to say, it only lasted one season.


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## tech2000

Several years ago our lead sound tech brought in one of those big bags of those mini-candy bars. They were great, but unfortunately he tried a couple of times to open them during a performance.
You could hear it across the theater.


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## RichMoore

NO FOOD OR DRINKS IN THE HOUSE !!!

If people want to put stuff in their mouths, they need to do it in the lobby and they need to keep their feet off of the furniture! 

I very seldom go to movie theatres anymore, due to the simple fact that I do not like to have my feet stick to the floor and I certainly do not want to have my feet sticking to the floor in my work space.

I realize that I am a curmudgeon (look it up) but there are behaviors and manners that seem to have gone away, like rotary phones. Is it too much to ask of someone to sit quietly and not munch or sip for an hour or so? 

Every time someone takes a bite of something, crumbs fall to the floor. Every time someone takes a drink of something, there is minute spillage. Do these minuscule amounts of debris and detritus cause any real damage....probably not, but they do feed the vermin and multi-legged critters that come out of hiding when the lights go out, and I don't like working in rat and bug infested places. The people who buy the tickets for the shows don't like rats and bugs either and oddly enough, it is those people buying the tickets that generates the cash flow that gets us paid.

Food for thought.


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## RichMoore

NO FOOD OR DRINKS IN THE HOUSE !!!

If people want to put stuff in their mouths, they need to do it in the lobby and they need to keep their feet off of the furniture! 

I very seldom go to movie theatres anymore, due to the simple fact that I do not like to have my feet stick to the floor and I certainly do not want to have my feet sticking to the floor in my work space.

I realize that I am a curmudgeon (look it up) but there are behaviors and manners that seem to have gone away, like rotary phones. Is it too much to ask of someone to sit quietly and not munch or sip for an hour or so? 

Every time someone takes a bite of something, crumbs fall to the floor. Every time someone takes a drink of something, there is minute spillage. Do these minuscule amounts of debris and detritus cause any real damage....probably not, but they do feed the vermin and multi-legged critters that come out of hiding when the lights go out, and I don't like working in rat and bug infested places. The people who buy the tickets for the shows don't like rats and bugs either and oddly enough, it is those people buying the tickets that generates the cash flow that gets us paid.

Food for thought.


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## RichMoore

Sorry, but I got excited and submitted twice....or, maybe I thought that it should be repeated.


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## tech2000

RichMoore said:


> If people want to put stuff in their mouths, they need to do it in the lobby and they need to keep their feet off of the furniture!



I hate it when people (usually students) put their feet up on the furniture. It's annoying!


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## Esoteric

Yeah, I had a client a few weeks back who freaked out because I had a bottle of water around his Smartfade. I nearly laughed the water all over his desk. Please, I drank Cokes over GrandMAs and HogIIs on the road back in the day. But his house, his rules so I stepped out between cues to get a drink. Finally he got tired of me walking back and forth, so he said forget it and let me have the water.

Of course when I taught high school theater the kids were not allowed any food or drink anywhere in the theater (after I found a can of half drank coke in the catwalks over the audience). When they asked me why I could have it and they couldn't? I am older. *lol*

Mike


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## ReiRei

Esoteric said:


> Of course when I taught high school theater the kids were not allowed any food or drink anywhere in the theater (after I found a can of half drank coke in the catwalks over the audience). When they asked me why I could have it and they couldn't? I am older. *lol*
> 
> Mike



Wow, that's a great way to teach your students to be respectful. The correct way to handle that would have been to make it clear to the students that they need to pick up after themselves. Then if it continues to happen revoke the privilege, though I doubt it would work much. And if you revoked that privilege, don't go around saying, I'm older so I can do that and you can't. Be a _good_ example for your students.

At my theatre, we tell the actors they can't have food or drink on the stage, and during every show we end up letting them have it in the house and then revoking their privileges. We are the ones who end up cleaning their mess up if they don't, and we clean up our own messes too... they understand this concept and most of them respect it. But unfortunately, it only takes one idiot to ruin for everyone. It's especially hard to enforce the rule when your director is completely rude and is doing most of the garbage leaving in the house.

But I will never use or tolerate the use of the excuse that you can do something just because you're older. That is the worst excuse I have ever heard and it's insulting. Especially to high schoolers who are coming close to adult-hood and working hard jobs in a theatre only to be treated like children.


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## gafftaper

Wow!
-a thread nearly 5 years old is still active
-thread started by a member whose only posted once
-the original post was a really dumb mistake
-currently has 251 replies 
-longest thread on CB? It's got to be close 

Subcinco wherever you are we salute you!


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## willbb123

gafftaper said:


> Wow!
> -a thread nearly 5 years old is still active
> -thread started by a member whose only posted once
> -the original post was a really dumb mistake
> -currently has 251 replies
> -longest thread on CB? It's got to be close
> 
> Subcinco wherever you are we salute you!



I've noticed that about this forum. If you do a search you can probably find the answer to you question. And if someone does post a question that has already been asked he is pointed back to an older post, so threads can get really long.

Edit: Now 253 replies!


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## TheDonkey

Our board just came back from maintenence, and according to the tech, he wqas astonished all the faders still worked as to the level of chips/crumbs/other stuff in there.

Pretty much all food is not banned from the booth >.<


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## Esoteric

ReiRei said:


> Wow, that's a great way to teach your students to be respectful. The correct way to handle that would have been to make it clear to the students that they need to pick up after themselves. Then if it continues to happen revoke the privilege, though I doubt it would work much. And if you revoked that privilege, don't go around saying, I'm older so I can do that and you can't. Be a _good_ example for your students.
> 
> At my theatre, we tell the actors they can't have food or drink on the stage, and during every show we end up letting them have it in the house and then revoking their privileges. We are the ones who end up cleaning their mess up if they don't, and we clean up our own messes too... they understand this concept and most of them respect it. But unfortunately, it only takes one idiot to ruin for everyone. It's especially hard to enforce the rule when your director is completely rude and is doing most of the garbage leaving in the house.
> 
> But I will never use or tolerate the use of the excuse that you can do something just because you're older. That is the worst excuse I have ever heard and it's insulting. Especially to high schoolers who are coming close to adult-hood and working hard jobs in a theatre only to be treated like children.



Sorry man, let me rephrase (I was being a bit course in my previous response on purpose for the comical value to all those of us who grew up with our parents telling us they can do things we can't because "we are adults and you are kids") that my real message (no comedy) to them was that I do not drop chips on the floor and when I do I pick them up and throw them in the trash. I also let them know that if they kept the eating area (a small area by the loading dock doors where students could eat and I could sweep leftover food out the door easily) clean then their privileges would be expanded. It was never clean of course, so the rule stayed in place for them. I also told them that if I ever left trash sitting around I would not eat in the theater anymore. Of course, I never did. I also told them I can have drinks in the booth because I don't spill my drinks on the console, and if I did I could replace the console. They could not. Therefore no student was to have drinks in the booth, period.

Our rule was phrased for perfect understanding. Instead of no food or drink in the booth it said "Students are to have no food or drink in the booth."

I was being comical in my original post, I did not mean to offend. I believe in leading by example, in this case I set the example that if you follow the rules you get privileges and if you don't then you do not. Of course there are things that the kids were never allowed to do, like use certain tools, etc. Is it wrong that I used those tools? The only reason I did was because I was an adult (and by default more responsible on the average). Those were the districts rules, not mine.

Mike


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## gafftaper

Hey Esoteric
I've learned the hard way around here that sarcasm just does not work on the internet. No matter how funny you think it is, there's no way for the other person to read your tone of voice. I've found that Smilies can be used to clarify you are joking. But I've still offended people even with smilies. 

As for the discussion of food in the booth...
When teaching high school I had a definite no food in the booth policy. At the college my rule is: You are adults. You know what the potential damage is. You know how much it would cost YOU to fix it. If you have no legitimate reason to be eating in the booth then don't eat in the booth! If for some reason you do need to eat, you keep the food and drink on the other side of the booth away from the equipment. If you break the rules you won't be on the crew any more. 

It works in college and with my booth layout. There are lots of other place I would never use this policy.


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## theatretechguy

We have a beautifully ornate cabinet in our theater lobby. Inside is "Pirate Pete" (The school's unofficial mascot) who is a full size pirate carved from a single piece of teak. He was behind glass but it was causing maintenance issues, so they removed the glass. This past season, at a concert, a family of 4 brought in Subway sandwiches and was using the ledge on this very ornate cabinet to hold their chips and drinks. My first instinct was to yell at them, scream at them, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?", but I calmly went over and politely asked them to finish their food outside. 

People, for the most part, are clueless. 

But nothing compares to the piles of sunflower seed shells that appear during the Christmas season.


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## Esoteric

theatretechguy said:


> We have a beautifully ornate cabinet in our theater lobby. Inside is "Pirate Pete" (The school's unofficial mascot) who is a full size pirate carved from a single piece of teak. He was behind glass but it was causing maintenance issues, so they removed the glass. This past season, at a concert, a family of 4 brought in Subway sandwiches and was using the ledge on this very ornate cabinet to hold their chips and drinks. My first instinct was to yell at them, scream at them, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?", but I calmly went over and politely asked them to finish their food outside.
> 
> People, for the most part, are clueless.
> 
> But nothing compares to the piles of sunflower seed shells that appear during the Christmas season.



What?!?!?! *lol* Were these people raised in a barn?

Mike


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## Esoteric

gafftaper said:


> Hey Esoteric
> I've learned the hard way around here that sarcasm just does not work on the internet. No matter how funny you think it is, there's no way for the other person to read your tone of voice. I've found that Smilies can be used to clarify you are joking. But I've still offended people even with smilies.
> 
> As for the discussion of food in the booth...
> When teaching high school I had a definite no food in the booth policy. At the college my rule is: You are adults. You know what the potential damage is. You know how much it would cost YOU to fix it. If you have no legitimate reason to be eating in the booth then don't eat in the booth! If for some reason you do need to eat, you keep the food and drink on the other side of the booth away from the equipment. If you break the rules you won't be on the crew any more.
> 
> It works in college and with my booth layout. There are lots of other place I would never use this policy.



I should have known that with all my years on BBS boards.

Mike


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## lieperjp

gafftaper said:


> Wow!
> -a thread nearly 5 years old is still active
> -thread started by a member whose only posted once
> -the original post was a really dumb mistake
> -currently has 251 replies
> -longest thread on CB? It's got to be close
> 
> Subcinco wherever you are we salute you!



The thread Hey, I though we could share pictures of our shows, started by Jonhirsh has 656 replies, though it is less old. This thread is awesome.

I kind of set my own policy, as there really is not one set in stone. Anything can be in the booth, but not on the platform where the equipment is. Only water/non-sugary drinks can go up there, usually no one wants to get up to get a sip of water.


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## ReiRei

Esoteric said:


> Sorry man, let me rephrase (I was being a bit course in my previous response on purpose for the comical value to all those of us who grew up with our parents telling us they can do things we can't because "we are adults and you are kids") that my real message (no comedy) to them was that I do not drop chips on the floor and when I do I pick them up and throw them in the trash. I also let them know that if they kept the eating area (a small area by the loading dock doors where students could eat and I could sweep leftover food out the door easily) clean then their privileges would be expanded. It was never clean of course, so the rule stayed in place for them. I also told them that if I ever left trash sitting around I would not eat in the theater anymore. Of course, I never did. I also told them I can have drinks in the booth because I don't spill my drinks on the console, and if I did I could replace the console. They could not. Therefore no student was to have drinks in the booth, period.
> 
> Our rule was phrased for perfect understanding. Instead of no food or drink in the booth it said "Students are to have no food or drink in the booth."
> 
> I was being comical in my original post, I did not mean to offend. I believe in leading by example, in this case I set the example that if you follow the rules you get privileges and if you don't then you do not. Of course there are things that the kids were never allowed to do, like use certain tools, etc. Is it wrong that I used those tools? The only reason I did was because I was an adult (and by default more responsible on the average). Those were the districts rules, not mine.
> 
> Mike




I apologize for my defensive nature. However, I've worked with people who really do and say things like that and it's super irritating. I also work at the Ashland High School theatre so I guess it's different for us. The technicians understand that if you bring food into the booth you must clean it up; the same rule is applied to the House.-Please excuse me if my semi-colon use was incorrect-And nobody ever has any kind of liquid around our consoles. Every technician here knows the value of our equipment, especially after some of it got stolen over the summer.

I apologize again for the misunderstanding and my harshness.


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## Esoteric

ReiRei said:


> I apologize for my defensive nature. However, I've worked with people who really do and say things like that and it's super irritating. I also work at the Ashland High School theatre so I guess it's different for us. The technicians understand that if you bring food into the booth you must clean it up; the same rule is applied to the House.-Please excuse me if my semi-colon use was incorrect-And nobody ever has any kind of liquid around our consoles. Every technician here knows the value of our equipment, especially after some of it got stolen over the summer.
> 
> I apologize again for the misunderstanding and my harshness.



No worries.

Mike


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## 2mojo2

I got one of those Camelback water bottles for Christmas. It is a bit strange at first biting the mouthpiece to take a drink, but the thing WILL NOT SPILL.
I am considering giving these to Techs at Sound and Lights as cheap insurance against water damage to equipment.
2mojo2
High School Tech Director


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