Maybe by the time I write this all in book form I can put it
in the right order but I can assure you that for the rest of this Blog I will
jump out of order whenever it suits me and get back on my year to year path
when I can.
Maybe.
Back in my very first year at Brockport, and within weeks of starting, my chairman came to me and
told me that he was bringing in an outside show, an acting couple would do a
play about the Shakespearean actress Fannie Kemple called Shakespeare Lady.
The two actors were member of the Royal Shakespeare Company but this production was their own work.
It was not done in one of our two Theatres but on the small
stage of the New York Room which is in Cooper Hall, the old campus school.
For the show I had to extend the stage and used four to six 4x8 platforms and had them shipped over from
the Theatre Building along with some other needed equipment.
The small stage had 10 PAR can lights and several household
type rotary dimmers, which 29 years are still in use.
I focused the built-in lights plus a few more of our lights that
I had brought over from the Theatre.
I taped some gels on a few of the lights and they left them
on for years until the taped dried out and they fell off.
The lighting was simple with few changes.
It was not done as Dinner
Theatre but as Dessert Theatre.
Rich Chocolate cake,
Cheesecake smothered in cherries . . .
People liked the show but it did not make enough money.
Some years later some “New People” came in tried this kind
of show again and they had the same limited success.
These “New People” came in, had new ideas, they know better than
me and because they are not willing to learn from history, they were doomed to make
the same mistakes.
If only they would
just listen to me, believe what I say, I remember everything and I am never
wrong.
Unfortunately people are not willing to pay the same price
for a high quality Theatre or Music event in Brockport as they would in
downtown Rochester.
Someone must have done a study at some time of Arts Snobbery between Urban and Suburban
venues.
We are happy for the loyal audience members who do come to
our events and enjoy them and the money they save.
Just before the end of my third year and before the start of
Peter
Pan I had arranged to buy my sister’s 1977 Camaro.
I wrote about the car back in an August 2011 Blog entry;
My sister just had a baby and another on the way and because
it is hard to get a baby seat in and out of Camaro
I offered to take it off her hands so she could get a van or some big ugly
sedan.
Just before I went back to Long Island my old Javelin blew its transmission.
Before I had the Javelin
towed to the junk yard a piece of it was able to help me on my next job, the
story of which is coming up in the next Blog
Not having much time I flew in, bought the car, got it registered
and then drove it back up to Brockport.
The worst part of it all, the DMV on Long Island; hours of waiting to talk to people who do not
care and could not work any slower.
The car was fast, fun to drive but it was always in need of
something being fixed and as it turned out I would buy a brand new car the next
summer.
Every time I think about all the many different types of
events and theatrical productions I have worked on I always seem to forget one
or two.
As I have been writing this Blog entry I have been doing a
job I have had to do many times before, babysitting the Theatre.
Currently here at the college we are having one of the 5
sessions of freshman orientation and they are using the Theatre.
My student assistant has done much of the set up and because
of our new lighting system we can pre-program the house light switches so some
basic stage lighting looks can come up without having to have someone, me, turn
on and run the lights from the booth.
The orientation staff runs most of it by themselves and I am
here “just in case” and to lock up at the end of the night.
My job is so exhilarating and crazy at times but this is not
one of them.
A truly fun experience is coming up next.
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