OOC # 39
Well, all things considered, it was an interesting day...
I was under the impression that the phone call was going to be about how we're going to rig the kabuki drape that the director wants to use. The last time we used it was ten years ago, and the pipe that we hung it from (which was specially hung JUST for that) has now become a lighting position, so the director can't hang it there unless he wants to argue with the lighting designer about where all those lights are going to go...but he had something else come up, so it ended up being a rehash of where we all stand on our to-do lists and what needs to be highest priority...
While this was going on, I was trying to fit the metal-cutting saw blade I bought yesterday onto a saw. I was going to use it on my chop saw...but the blade is only 7" and the saw is built for a 10" blade, so it couldn't swing low enough to cut all the way through anything. So then I thought I'd try it on my cordless Dewalt circular saw...and discovered THAT was a 6" blade, so the new blade wouldn't fit inside the safety guard...
And I have a circular saw with a 7" blade on it, but I could not, for the life of me, get the blade loose (I mean, it's been sitting for years, so there's been plenty of time for the bolt to start rusting in place...) I finally ended up using an angle grinder with a cut-off wheel, which was what I'd originally set aside and then thought it might go faster with one of the other saws...
But I got all the strut sections cut, and still managed to make it to the bowling party before things got too involved (they start off with a catered pizza dinner, and I got there as the last of the people at the bowling party where going through the serving line the first time, so I slipped right in.) In the past they've always assigned people to a foursome as a team to have them bowl...this was hypothetically to encourage people to get to know people from other departments, have them spend some time with people they otherwise don't work with--and that actually does work, there are a handful of guys from the games and foods departments that I had seen around a lot but had never gotten to know, until either bowling or playing golf with them. I say hypothetically, however, because it seems like the maintenance guys always end up on teams with each other, the office people always end up on teams with each other, and senior management is always their own team...
Today, however, they gave up any pretense and just said, "Here's a game card, it gets you two games plus shoe rental. You can pick whoever you want to bowl with, but we encourage you to mix it up a little bit and get to know people you aren't always working with..." Well, being the only one from my department there, that wasn't a difficult suggestion to follow...I ended up bowling with three security people and the lady in charge of the animals department. And, ironically, I had one of the worst games of my life, followed by one of the best. The first game, I didn't get a single strike or spare, and managed a measly 63. The second game, I only had two open frames...eight pins down in both of them...and everything else was a strike or a spare. Considering this is the first time I've even opened my bag since the company bowling party last year, I was expecting more of the first game and less of the second...but I have no complaints!
Took the next couple of hours to run errands and get stuff ready for dress rehearsal tonight...made it to the school, got stuff cleaned up and straightened out...there's still an airbrush that's got some kind of feed issue that I need to get cleaned up, but otherwise, everything was working smoothly. Our zombie looked much better tonight (which made me laugh a little bit because people last night were talking about how good he looked, and the night before that, when someone else did his makeup on their own, he still looked 'good enough'...it's kind of traditional, when doing this show (Zombie Prom), to do the zombie as kind of cartoonish, "This is very obviously just green makeup that we slathered on in a hurry" type stuff, and I think the girl (one of the students in the show) kind of had that look in mind with what she was doing. While I've done the show before, I never looked at what anybody had done with past productions of it, so I've come into it both times with a pretty distinct look that's more akin to Walking Dead (without prosthetics) than Scooby Doo. So everyone's been really excited to see this very different take from what they'd been expecting. And for me, it's a nice change of pace to tackle a more elaborate makeup like this with a skilled and eager helper. She did his makeup Monday night. I came in last night, set up some stuff, and ended up doing most of his makeup, and then after rehearsal last night, we talked about what changes should be made and who was doing what, so tonight, while I was doing one thing, she was doing another, and we got a LOT more detailed and still finished up in good time to get him out to the stage well before he needed to be there.
And then texted my boss at the movie theater and said, 'Hey, I'm going to be done with the show early enough to go ahead and close for Abby tonight, so you don't need to,' which immediately won blessings upon my head...*laugh*
So, it was a full day. And a good day, in a lot of ways. Tomorrow, we hang subwoofers, and I'll be running the lift for that for at least a few hours...and then it's back to the theater again (but I need to swing by the hardware store and grab a couple of magnetic door latches and maybe some neodymium magnets to go with them. And I should probably take my screw gun...I know the school has some, but if I take mine, I know it works and I'm not concerned about whether or not they have a decent bit driver...)
For all that these last couple of weeks before the park launches into full-on rehearsal mode get ridiculously crowded and busy, I still so much enjoy working with these kids. One of the kids in this show was in the junior-high production of Fiddler on the Roof I worked on last year...she was laughing about how I had to turn her into a little old woman (she was Yenta) and people would give her grief because she never got all the makeup washed out of her hair before she went back to school the next day, so teachers and kids were teasing her about going gray...
And the fact that she's in this show...as a sophomore...with a significant role...really is kinda heartwarming for me, because last year, she was stressing out about auditioning to get into the Productions class at the high school, and her mom was even worse...and I kept saying, "Look...trust me, you're gonna be fine and you are MORE than ready to audition for that class." One of the reasons I do this (because none of the schools can afford to pay me anything close to market rate for a makeup artist, much less a designer who also acts as backstage crew and even occasionally does props and wardrobe work) is because working with these kids reminds me of how I felt when I finally found my way into theater and stopped feeling like I just didn't quite fit in where I was at. I love theater, and a lot of these kids do, as well, and I hope that my efforts and example boost that love for it even higher. I take a lot of pleasure in seeing that some of the kids that I've worked with through the years are still, a decade or more after they graduated, still doing theater work. It's not for everyone, and I don't begrudge anyone who decides that it's not lucrative enough or is too demanding or time-intensive...but I want to make sure that nobody I work with decides they don't want to do theater because they didn't enjoy it.