Under Secretary of Something-Something

I have pointed out briefly in an earlier post that I had other shows and performances that I worked on during my time at Brockport.

During the school year the department usually produced four full productions.

In the summer there was a large musical and a second straight play which was stopped after my third year.

During the school year the student theatre club, Harlequins, would produce a play each semester plus there were about four music events each year and eight to twelve senior projects.

In addition to all of these scheduled events there would always be a few added special productions, speakers, dance concerts, lectures and even a memorial service or two.

Now I did not design or build the sets for all of these but I did have to supervise what was going on and depending on which group was producing the event my direct involvement varied greatly.

I try not to show favoritism, but it is hard not to.

I have always willing to help those students who need it or ask for it, but I do not like those who demand it or just assume I will do their work for them.

There have been time when students have pissed me off and I did not want to help them, but I did.

I have bitched before and will again about students not picking up after their senior projects.

After four years of college they do their last show and run out the door.

Just this summer my student assistant was bitching about the very same thing as he put away things from the last several shows that students just left in the theatre.

It is nice to know that some things never change, but I have worked hard to stop that and have had some better luck in the past.

During my first year I designed the lighting for a senior project; a nice play about a prostitute, her John and a raincoat.

True art.

Most times I do not directly work or design senior projects but I help point them in the right direction.

I have seen them using a very rough sketch that I did as a working drawing, but with a little help most of the time they work it out for themselves.

It will vary over the years how much I get involved, some years it’s more than others.

Just a year or so ago I took a student’s very rough sketch and did a quick AutoCAD drawing of it so the students could build their set.

I always like to offer several solutions rather than telling what to do, but if asked I will cut to the chase and tell them just what to do.

Most of the time I am just concerned that things are going on safely and that they are not getting the way of my building the Mainstage show.

Every once and a while the students will really surprise me and come up with something special.

About twenty years ago one of the students wrote a play and got Harlequins to support it as a special project.

I am often looking for more things to do but I allowed it to be added to schedule.

It turned out to be one of those very special productions were the students worked together, enjoyed working with each other, worked very hard and did what they said they would.

The set, lights and costumes were all well done and the script was very well written.

It was one of the few productions that I have seen in out Black Box Theatre that was designed to work in the space and at the same time created its own look and pulled you in.

The play was odd but enjoyable to watch.

As with many of these plays I do not always remember all if the details and who worked on them but I think it was called Something Blue and if any of my former students who worked on play and read my Blog let me hear from you.

This may not have been the best play in the world, but the student did what they promised and the extra play did not cause me extra work or grief.

We do get some very good student plays every year or so and the faculty will talk about them in the years to come.

Every student thinks their play is the best, but to be truthful most are just ehh, not good, not bad, just ehh.

Thankful the truly bad student shows are rare and they are always remembered for year to come.

BUT, just because someone does a bad senior project does not mean that they will fail in the “Real” world.

One student did some weird oddball thing with a crazy costume but he has been touring and working professionally for ten years.

So when I write in my Blog that I worked on four plays during the school year and two more in the summer please note that I most likely worked on twelve or more different productions.

My least favorite thing is when an outside group forces themselves on us.

One year a local congressman arranged for some Under Secretary of Something-Something to speak at the college.

With little notice we had to stop everything, clean the Theatre and set up for this speech

The college staff wanted to do a live video broadcast over the internet years before the infrastructure would support it.

That fell apart after have every computer tech on campus spent hours working on it.

A TV crew from CSPAN was here with their big truck with a satellite dish on it parked right in front of the building.

The crew asked me where the media tie-in box was and I laughed at them.

I might have dropped a mic cable from the lighting booth down to them but I do not remember.

It went off well and the one or two classes of student forced to be there had a great time.

There was less than 50 people in the audience.

For several summers we hosted local dance school recitals with dancers from 3 to 18.

Stage mothers and screaming kids, just what I live for and why I work in Theatre.

I was able to stop that Nightmare after a few summers of Hell on Earth.

Could it have been that bad really?

Have you seen Toddlers & Tiaras?

As I remember any other special productions of note I will add them to my Blog.

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