Being a Technical Director was not the job that I had trained for but three years later when I would also become the Lighting Designer things got closer to what I had hoped to be doing back in school.
Even then I did not know that I would still be at Brockport about to begin my 30th year.
It has always been the unknown challenges of each new production that has excited me and has kept me coming back for more.
To that point in time no design faculty had ever been given tenure at Brockport and even though that first year in Brockport was good I kept an eye out for other jobs.
I was not sure what I was looking for but it is just the nature of Theatre that while we are working on one show we are always planning for the next one and that is the way I saw my job.
As I posted in a previous blog entry, I would keep looking for another job for the next fifteen years before I felt comfortable enough to call Brockport my home.
Next up was my first summer at Brockport and two productions; Showboat and Bus Stop.
My first few summers at Brockport the department produced two shows, then cut back to one and now we have no summer show.
The production staff was all regular department personnel and student workers.
Over the years there would be more outsiders involved in the production, but back then it was just like another regular department show.
Showboat was what is often called a Town and Gown show where most of the cast were students, faculty and college staff members with a few local actors mixed in.
None of the actors were paid back then and my student shop staff made very little.
I remember one of my first fights with the Chairman/Producer was about paying the student workers.
I think they made about $1000 working on two plays over 10 weeks with few days off.
He thought that they should only get $100 each, and I told him was crazy, full of shit and that we would not have any workers if he tried to cut their pay.
The set for Showboat was a large river boat made up of three large two-story rolling sections that were moved in various positions to be both the inside and outside of the boat.
A few other smaller set pieces were also used for some of the scenes.
I was very impressed on how hard the crew worked to build and run the show.
One night during the show one of the actors, who was also an assistant stage manager, was tripped by a platform coming by, fell and dislocated his shoulder.
Evidently this had happened to Ralph before, and although in pain told me to follow him into the scene shop.
Holding on to the very heavy table saw with his good arm Ralph had me pull on his other arm and “Pop” it back in place.
He then ran back into the Theatre and went back on stage.
The Show Must Go On.
We did party from time to time and even worked on the 4th of July.
Working in Show Biz seems like it is all fun to those on the outside but it is often lots of long hard hours.
We did take time off those first two summers for the town fireworks, not to see them but to run them!
The then lighting designer, Mike, was trained in pyrotechnics and fireworks and ran the show.
I think back now and cringe a bit to think that all of the fireworks were stored in several boxes in what is now my office and Mike would label and organize all of the shells.
In the afternoon of the day of the show we would go over to the field and dig holes for the pipes that would be used as the mortars that would launch the shells.
We would also set up the single-use cardboard tubes for the shells that were used as part of the Grand Finale.
It was July and of course it was very hot but we still had to wear long sleeves and hats to stop the falling burning embers from the firework shells.
It is hard to describe the experience without saying it was a BLAST!
During the show I was assigned two mortars to load with the firework shells that were stored 50 feet away in a covered box.
I would run back and forth between the mortars and boxes, stopping to clean out the mortar between shots, careful not to look in or have your head over the end on the pipe.
One of the years we did have a shell that went up and came back in the same field near us, the firemen quickly put it out and we had no other problems.
During the show I was so busy I did not get to watch and enjoy much of it as I was so focused on the job at end.
At the end of the half hour show I was drenched with sweat, exhausted but very pumped up and went out with the crew for some celebratory beers.
The second year was just as much fun but I remember to wear ear plugs.
I still had one more show to design and build before the end of my first full year at Brockport.
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