Rise of the Machines

Back in 1995 computers were becoming more common place in the day-to-day world and the college did not want to be left out.

With that in mind the college put out a call for applications for Technology Incentive Grants for the purchase of computers to be used as part of teaching or research.

 I received a $12,000 grant to purchase a state-of-art computer, an AutoCAD program and 36” wide pen plotter plus other accessories.

The purchasing office called me to double check my order.

First they wanted to know why I did not want the new Windows 95 operating system and I told them that AutoCAD was not ready to run on it yet.

They also wanted to know if I really wanted and needed 12 megabytes of RAM when most computers were coming with only 4 megabytes at that time.

I would soon add even more RAM before my next computer upgrade.

My current computer has 4 gigabytes of RAM, a thousand times more than the average computer of 1995.

Around the same time I signed up to take several AutoCAD classes at the local adult education program that helped me learn the program and I really enjoyed it.

I was nice to be back in a classroom on the student side again and even better to go someplace away from the college once a week and be with some “normal” people.

Because I had the computer and program I had an advantage over most of the other students who did not access to the equipment outside of class.

I have looked for another class to take but I have yet to find something that interested me or I wanted to take.

It took a while, but not too long, for me to do all my working drawings and light plots on the computer and put away my drafting tools.

I really enjoyed drafting by hand but enjoy more the time that the computer freed up for me.

Even after using AutoCAD for 20 plus years I am far from an expert and only use just a small portion of the programs capabilities.

The Pen Plotter was nice to have as it printed out full size working drawings, it was fun to watch but slow by today’s standards.

It could take an hour or more to print out a full lighting plot.

Architecture firms at the time would hire special staff to work overnight to stay and print out large and complex drawings that could take hours to print.

A few years later we would replace the Pen Plotter with a wide Desk Jet printer that printed out much faster and also allowed us to print out other items, not just draftings.

Soon we would use the printer to produce reproductions of paintings and other pictures to use on sets.

Each year there is another use for computers in our Theatre productions.

Back in the 1990’s we first used computers to burn CDs for our sound effects and music used in plays and soon people forgot how to use Reel-to-Reel tape decks or more importantly how to splice the tape.

The BBC sound effects library on vinyl records was soon replaced with sounds on CDs and then through internet sites like Find Sounds.Com.

With the birth of Napster in 1999 and then I-Tunes in 2001, finding music for plays became very easy, but questions for paying royalties still linger.

Soon after the turn of the new century I received another technology grant, this time for the sound playback program SFX and a dedicated computer and sound card to run it.

Since that time we use have used a computer to run our sound effects and music for our various productions.

At first it took some time to train students to run the computerized lighting and sound boards but it has gotten much easier in recent years as most student have grown up using computers and smart phones their whole lives.

Computers now can do many things in theatre from controlling the movement of scenery, production communications, box office sales and much more.

Several of our recent productions have used computer generated images projected on the stage.

We have a 3-D printer here at the college and although we have yet to use in it a production but I am sure we soon will.

It is amazing that the $175 tablet that I recently bought is hundreds of times more power than the computers we bought back in 1995 and can do everything they did plus even more.

Who knows what computers and other technology we will have available to us in the next five, ten and twenty years ahead and where they will take us both on and offstage.

Should be interesting.

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Cinderella, 1994

The last play I worked on in 1994 was Cinderella.

I am sure it was a wonderful production but I have few clear memories of it.

I do not have a copy of the program and few photos of it but mostly my haziness of the show was caused by the death of my grandmother just before the show.

She was 102 and had lived quite an interesting life.

I wrote about her in an earlier blog post and will write more about her as I recently came into more photos and paperwork about her early life.

https://viewsfrombackstage.blogspot.com/2012/03/oh-boy-by-jerome-kern-and-p-g-woodhouse.html

So what can I tell you about our Cinderella.

First thing is that we rented, bought or stole the set from another local college who had recently done a production of the play.

Cinderella, 1994

I do not think that they were the same script, one of them might have been a musical version, but I am not sure.

It took at least three trips, 25 miles each way, to move the set to Brockport.

The large pumpkin seen in the photo above was stolen by some college boys who saw the show but we got it back and yes we still have it, now under lock and key.

Here is a photo of me carrying a big foam nose that was part of a giant face you can see on the fireplace.

Me carrying in the Nose.

I do remember that we had a carriage for Cinderella that was able to fly in from across the stage and land on the ground and roll off the other side.

As I recall, Colin, my ATD did most of the rigging to make all the magic work.

I think we used a trap door from which Cinderella’s ball gown would rise up.

That is about all I remember, I do not even know if I designed the lighting or even saw the finished show.

For all the many little things that I remember from shows from even longer ago it is surprising how little I remember about this one.

Well they did not close down the department or college so it could not have been all that bad.

On to 1995 and some new adventures.

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The Glass Menagerie, 1994

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams was  directed by guest James Steinmeyer whose daughter Joleen just happened to be the stage manager for the show.

Joleen was a talented student who would go on the design the set for a Mainstage production the following year.

The Glass Menagerie has only four characters and does not require a large or complex playing space.

A memory play, the action takes place in a small apartment in St. Louis in the 1935.

In our production two rooms were seen, the living room which was downstage center and the dining room which was mid-stage.

The rest of the apartment was indicated upstage through an arch and doorway.

The somewhat small set on the Tower Mainstage was surrounded by most of our stock of large flats and window units to represent the surrounding tenements.

Most of the window units were distressed with broken glass and boards over some of them.

To enter the set the actors walked on a raised sidewalk that started upstage left, came downstage to the lowered pit and back around to stage right ending outside the front door on a steel framed fire escape platform.

Of course we still have the fire escape in stock.

After the actors were in the set the lighting for the surrounding areas was lowered and the focus was just on the two rooms.

The set had several lighting practices but I wanted something more.

The biggest lighting moment of the show is when Laura shows The Gentleman Caller her menagerie of glass figurines lit with just a candle.

I wanted to be able to add just a little fill light to the scene but there was no good place to hide a lighting instrument.

Working with Drew the scene designer I told him what I needed and suggested making a box in the front of the pit to hide the light but thought it would be too low to the ground.

After some thought Drew designed two posts that would be added to the edge of the sidewalk in which I could hide a small light.

The posts looked that were always part of the set and light was just in the right place.

I was afraid of having the old horror movie effect that when people were walking in the dark with a lamp there would be in a spot on them and you would see the shadow of the lamp on the wall behind them.

That did not happen as I added just enough light to fill in the actors faces.

The combination of all of the elements, set, lights, costumes, acting and direction, made this a very successful production.

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