My Hammer

My first Theatre course at UB was Stagecraft, a class I have now taught over fifty times.

After my first class I remember going to a F. T. Grant’s department store and buying tools required for class: a hammer, pliers, tape measure, a couple of screw drivers and a “C” wrench.

Most of the tools are gone but I still have the hammer I bought for a few dollars back in the fall of 1974.

It was a generic store brand 16 oz, metal shaft, rip hammer.

I had it all the way through college, grad school, working Off-Broadway, doing summer stock and it was with me when I started teaching and I have it still.

There is nothing magic about it, works like any other hammer, but to me it is special.

If I am working with a bunch of other tools and pick up another hammer, I can always tell if it is not mine right away.

I have used many other hammers, some very expensive, all very nice, but I always prefer my old reliable friend.

When I began teaching and students would have trouble driving nails I would have them use my hammer and often time they would have success and drive nails home.

With air nailers and dry wall screws, the hammer does not get as much use as it once did, but it is nice to know it is still there ready for action.

I lost the other tools from freshmen year one by one over time.

The small 12 foot Stanely tape measure was with me a long time, I replaced the blade once or twice but it finally gave out.

Sometimes tape measures do not even make it through one work day and I had that one for over 15 years, but it is the hammer that is 35 years old, and like me, still has some nails to drive.

Theatres I Got To Play, I mean Work, In

Before I get into detailed stories about what I did in college I thought I give an overview of the some of the spaces I worked in.
The first Theatre that I saw when I went to SUNY Buffalo, UB, was the brand Katharine Cornell Theatre in the, then new, Ellicott Complex on the North Campus.
The Theatre is a square shape “multi-use” space that can hold up to 340 people.
The Theatre was not used by the Theatre Department at that time, and this was years before the current Center for the Arts was built.
It was supposed to be flexible, new and “Unique”.

It was odd, hard to use and flooded the first or seconded year I was there.
The design had a few flaws; a big one was that when you sat in the middle section you could see into the woman’s dressing room, right to the shower in back when the door was open.
It had a 10 scene preset lighting board in a control booth that was glass from ceiling to floor and the whole audience could see you at work.
The lighting control consol was very big and “State-of-the-Art” at that time, and made you feel think you were running a transporter on Star Trek.

When I first walked in everything was new, lighting instruments were all lined up neatly up in the catwalks.
When I came back a day later I noticed that some of the small Fresnels, “Inkies” were missing and probably lighting up some dorm room.
Instead of the standard pipes used to hang then lights the Theatre had a “C” shaped channel that appeared to be hung sideways and made it hard to work there.

I worked on a few shows in the Theatre, mostly music concerts, and it was here that I met the late Robert Moog, the inventor of the Moog Synthesizer.

When I final got to the main campus I got to see the Theatre used by the Department.
It was disappointing.
The Theatre was a converted space, a small proscenium stage at one end and the rest was just a big open space with lighting catwalks above.
Not a very impressive space to see and I did not know yet that over the next four years I would get to work on some widely varied and interesting productions in the space.

It would be a few weeks before I got to see the most interesting space which was the Courtyard Theatre that was off campus and near Buffalo State College.
The theatre was in a converted church, and the space was used in several different configurations during my time there.
It was in this space that the more interesting, controversial and just plain fun plays took place.
We had to share car rides, take the bus or even hitch hike to get there.
There was a dance studio in the lower level along with the dressing rooms and the scene shop was in the lower basement.

The main level had a stage at one end, an open area where pews used to be and a small balcony or old choir loft, but we never really used it in a “Normal” way.
Seats and sets could be in any location in the building.
In one production, Ronnie Bwana, Jungle Guide, there were two sets in different areas on the Theatre.

Ronnie Bwana, Jungle Guide  Act I

The second floor had a small apartment for a live in Theatre manager and what had been at one time a small stage for when it was a church.
We did use the small theatre for one special production for which I served as the House Manager.
The space was normally the kitchen/living room area of the apartment and had no more then 40 seats, if that.
Because I had volunteered to work on that show I ended up working with the company that summer in NYC.
Details on this and other stories to follow.

Back to School

As I have been working these first few weeks of a new school year, I have thought back to when I first went to college.

Although I have not had time to blog lately I have been thinking about my time at SUNY Buffalo, UB,

and trying to sort out just what I want to write about.

Many of my fellow classmates from my time college have gone on to have successful careers in Theatre, Designing on Broadway, working in Regional Theatre, Operas, Rock ‘n Roll, TV and Movies, winning Tony and Emmy awards and more.

As a college teacher today, 35 years later, I wonder if my current students worry and/or dream about the same things that I did back in college.

Do they really know what they are in for if they really pursue a career in Theatre.

Do they have the drive and commitment it takes to have a career in Theatre, or are they just hanging out trying to have some fun while in college?

When I have one of those special hard working and driven students who come through school every once and a while, I think back to when I was one of those young eager student just starting out and wonder if they will make it and what lies ahead for them.

I used to ask myself if any of my students will go on to have careers in Theatre, but I have been teaching long enough now to see that some of my former students are working and teaching in theatres all over the country, plus few overseas too.

I have never minded working hard or staying late to get a production done, and I  like working with those students who really want to learn and enjoy showing them what to do.

When I hear back from them a few years later, and they tell me what they are working on, it makes me feel good and makes all the extra time worth it.

But back in the fall of 1974 I was one of those fresh kids wanting to make his mark, wanting a chance to show off what I knew (or thought I knew).

Just a few months before in High School I was the President of the Theatre Club, Head of the Stage Crew, but now I was just one of the several new kids.

I worked on everything I could, both for class credit and just for the experience.

By the end of my freshmen year I moved up for just a general technical assistant to a crew chief and even master electrician for one of the plays.

The student Lighting Designer for the play that I was the master electrician for as the has gone on to have a very successful career in NYC working in both Theatre and TV, winning three Emmys.

I just ran into him for the first time since 1975 at the USITT conference in Cincinnati back in March.

I do not think he really remembered me, but we had a nice talk about the people we worked with back in Buffalo and what they are doing now.

UB had several Theatres and each was unique, I will talk about them in my next post.

9/11

Thought I would take today to remember the brother of a friend from college who I only met once.

Please stop to remember him and all our heroes we lost eight years ago . . . .

Geoffrey E. Guja

Age: 47

Hometown: Lindenhurst, N.Y., USA

Occupation: Firefighter, New York Fire Department

Location: Ground, World Trade Center

Gregg Hilmar’s "Light Plot Deconstructed"

I have been a lighting designer for over 30 years and drafting longer then that.

I started using AutoCAD about 15 years ago and have been using Vectorworks for about a year after playing with it on and off since it was still called MiniCad.

I have been teaching Technical Theatre and Stage Lighting at the College at Brockport since 1982.

I have been asked to review Gregg Hilmar’s Light Plot Deconstructed published by Nemetschek, North America the makers of Vectorworks.

After reading the introduction to this book I wanted to like it right away as Hilmar seems to have taken parts of my first lecture to my Stage Lighting class.

The book is written in a warm and friendly tone and it is also straight forward and to the point.

The book is not a how-to or step-by-step text, but more of a collection of helpful hints, and I like the format.

The book is generally easy to read and follow, but I did find myself lost at a few points, I had to check on some abbreviations and in a few cases I had to learn a bit more about Vectorworks before I could go on.

The reader of this book needs to know how to use Vectorworks a little more then just the “Basics” as suggested by the author.

A moderately advanced student or educator can easily use Hilmar’s book and should find it helpful, but I do not think I could recommend it for a new student just learning Vectorworks or Stage Lighting Design.

This book is not a how-to design textbook for Stage Lighting nor is it intended to be.

I do not mind the small size or spiral binding, but wish the printing quality was better as I find it hard to read some of the illustrations which are often too small and a bit fuzzy.

The book could also use an index.

The hints that are given are helpful and should be very useful to the reader while drawing their lighting plots with Vectorworks.

Even with the few reservations noted above, I will keep this book near my computer.

If interested you can buy the book at:

http://www.nemetschek.net/training/guides.php

SUNY Buffalo, Fall 1974

In the Fall of 1974 I was off to SUNY Buffalo, UB.
UB is a huge school, even back then, with 30,000 students, several campuses and lots of snow.
I had to deal with all the normal things that any freshman does, living in a dorm with unknown roommates, learning where everything is, and a variety “Mystery Meat” meals from the food service.

The first days before my first Theatre class I spent exploring the campus, looking up friends from summer orientation and thinking about what adventures may lay ahead.
In my first Theatre class I was surprised to meet others just like me.
Four or five of us, all had done lots of Theatre in High School, thought we knew a lot and now we had to start at the bottom.
The Technical Director/Lighting Designer was new that year too.
Along with the older students he had inherited some “Extra” people who sometimes worked on the plays.
I went to school with many talented people and many of my classmates from UB, and later Grad School at Michigan, would go on to have successful careers in Theatre.
I will talk about them in later posts.

Another surprise when I got to UB was the Department was a Department of Theatre and Dance.
A Dance Department meant dancers and skin tight leotards.
I always enjoyed working on the Dance concerts.
I was eighteen, need I say anymore.

My first semester I served as a general crew person working on several plays and Dance concerts, building sets and hanging lights.
In November I was scheduled to work on a Dance concert, but not planning very well, I had booked a ride home the Friday before Thanksgiving.
Students still try to take longer vacation breaks today, no surprise there.
The big problem was I did not bother to find out that there was a second weekend of performances.

The Lighting Designer for the Dance concert was one of these “Extra” people.
I never really knew who he was, why he was there and what was his relationship to the Department.
He was neither a student nor a faculty member, but some how he got to work there.
I will call him “Dave” for this story.

Anyway I got my friend “Matt” to cover for me and I thought things would be fine.
It was simple, we had already set the cues and ran the show the week before.
I really do not know what happen, but somehow all Hell broke out and somehow it was Matt’s fault.
Now I know for a fact it was not “Matt’s” fault, but somehow he got the blame.
All the blame should have gone to “Dave” who let his little kids run around the Theatre during the show, one of them fell, split a lip, blood everywhere, a trip to the hospital and more.

I am the guy who split, took off early for Thanksgiving, and somehow I came out of this smelling like roses.

Lucky me.

A Few Quick Stories

Before I move on to talk about College, I have a few more miscellaneous stories from my High School days.

Back in the Olde Days of the early 1970’s we used powered pigments in our scene paint.
The dry pigment needed to be mixed into a water and glue mix.
The glue was dry crystals of horse hooves mixed with water and heated slowly in a double boiler.
We had no stove near the stage so we used the metal shop right across the hall.
We used the gas burners meant to be used to melt lead or heat large soldering irons.
Not really knowing what we were doing one day when we tried to light the gas jet there was a flash back of flame that burnt all the hairs off the arm of the girl who was trying to light it.
It did not hurt her but scared the hell of her and the others in the shop.
Once our hearts started to beat again we all had a big laugh, although I do not think that Carol thought it was funny.

Years later we would learn about all the bad elements and heavy metals in the dry pigments that we used to mix with our hands.

One of our fun tricks to pull on new crew members was to have them wash one of the colored lighting gels.
Back in those days the gels were really made from gelatin.
We would send out to wash the very important and ”Last” sheet of gel.
They were always instructed to use slightly warm water and rub gently, and of course they would come back with a big wad of melted goo.
Sometimes they would come back in tears thinking they had ruined it, but most times they would just throw it at you and you had to move quick.

There were some perks being on the Stage Crew.
I remember being called out of class by the Principle and asked to meet him on the stage.
What trouble was I in?
What had we done and finally get caught, I had no idea.
It seems that there was going to be some event on the stage and nobody knew how to turn on the light board.
All I had to do was push in the big handle that connected the three blade switch that gave off a nice big spark.

One day I got a cut slip for missing a class and had to go to the Dean's office ,when I walked in the secretary just looked up at me and said: “Oh, you’re on the stage crew” and told me to leave.
I wish I could remember what class I had cut and I what had done, I only hope it was fun.

There are other stories that are only fragments of memory now, maybe they will come back or someone will remind me, but for now I think I will start the telling of my adventures in College.