Garth Fagan Dance, summer 1989

I have lists of titles and programs for most of the plays that I have worked on but I do not always have anything from many of the other events, concerts or talks that I have worked on and can easily forget some on them.

Many of these events are what we call “One and Done”.

A  event set up, performed and taken down all on the same day.

Before I move on the talking about what I did in the 1990’s I thought I do a quick review of the 1980’s.

The biggest thing I left out was in the summer of 1989 right after A Chorus Line when we had Garth Fagan’s dance company in for a show.

Garth Fagan was on staff in the dance department at Brockport and went on to win a Tony award for his work on the Lion King in 1997.

I had done a few little things with Garth over the years and knew him but he was here with his own design and tech staff so my staff and I just helped on the production.

Here is another case of it is a small world.

The lighting designer for many of Garth’s dances was C.T. Oakes who had graduated from the University of Michigan just before I got there.

I had met him a few times when I came there to interview and later when I came to look for a place to live.

When I came to Brockport C.T.  was working down the road at SUNY Geneseo.

After a few years he left and when to work for various lighting and theatrical supply companies and I would often run into him at some of the USITT conferences.

Now semi-retired it turns out that C.T. ended up here in Brockport and I run into him from time-to-time.

Small world.

So that summer we had to put down a dance floor and add side boom pipes and make the stage into a Dance theatre.

They performed in our theatre because it was July and the Dance theatre does not have air conditioning.

A summer or two later Garth Fagan came back with his company and set up everything again, but not to perform but just to tape a TV commercial.

It was easy, not too much pressure and everyone was a bit more relaxed.

As I review some of my programs I see a few of the many smaller events listed that I worked on and truthfully I do not remember all of them.

I remember that one of the  musicians who came in with an act hated to room they had for him in one of the reconverted dorms and left to check into a real hotel.

I saw some of those rooms and they were awful.

Today we normally send outside guests to one of the local B&B’s.

Over the years we have had every kind of music act, some good and some so-so, not too many bad ones.

Maybe a bit boring or they played too long, but never any truly bad ones.

Oh, except for the old dancer doing interpretive dance to these harsh poems being read by the poet.

That was awful, I hated it, the rehearsals were torture and I was never so glad to have a show done as I did that one.

As noted before I often helped with the student productions and Children’s Theatre shows.

Most of the other extra events I have worked on at Brockport have been Music concerts with a few lectures and puppet shows mixed in just for fun.

When the event is bad I just try to do the best I can and get it done, but when they are good I sit back and enjoy them as much as I can.

So what went on in the 1990’s?

Stayed tuned for many new and exciting posts.

***