Over the last few days I've had some long-ish drive times where I had little to do but think. And, not surprisingly, my mind wandered to the realm of nostalgia and thoughts about some things involving A) my first efforts in theatre in high school and B) my last period of collegia.....What follows is a semi-random and in no way complete list of some thoughts related to those musings:
** First work call in high school...a Saturday where I was assigned to disassemble some items using a cast iron nail puller and such.
** First lighting controls in high school...the panel in the "Little Theatre" at Waukegan West High....rather large handles (roughly the size of "police truncheons") that had this twist lock function to get them to gang together for cues....and a patch bay that worked like an old style telephone operators switchboard.
** Being cast in my first role (The Wizard in The Wizard Of Oz) and getting used to the idea of "sides" of scripts....and learning all the various leads lines, since I had to be there for the full rehearsals anyway....and realizing how my memory could work.
** My being initiated into the International Thespian Society....and Masque and Gavel.....and National Forensic League....
** An evening of Edward Albee in the Little Theatre at Waukegan West....
** Dramatic Duet Acting competition(s)....
** Our adult TD at Waukegan West spending most of the seasons scenic budget buying marine grade 3/4 ply for the "Hello Dolly" platforming and how we ended up making "flats" out of 4x8 sheets of meso/paneling held upright with shelf brackets for "Merton Of The Movies" as a result.....cursed his name at the time but on reflection it did teach me about making scenery from non-standard things using non-standard methods.
** "Bus Stop" in the Little Theatre at Waukegan West.....
** Directing "To The Chicago Abyss"....and how I still want to do an evening of Bradbury's short works, at least design-wise.....
** The glue pot at College Of Lake County's scene shop....and the glue made from hooves and hides.
** Becoming familiar with that wonder of technology, the Yankee screwdriver.
** Nail/screw pattern discussions...and screwing keystones and cornerblocks into place with the tool de'jour the Yankee screwdriver.
** The edition of Gillette and Gillette with the yellow cream-ish colored cover....which I still refer to from time to time ("no school like the old school").
** "Scenography" as a discipline/concept....
** Pneumatic tools....
** Being stubborn enough to climb the entirety of a fully extended and rather rickety wooden A-frame ladder during the introductory lighting session at the Krannert, which got me up to what was basically "focusing height" in the Playhouse theatre.
** Hanging by my ankles in what might be described as a "semi-riggers lock" position and loading stage weights into an arbor at the Playhouse Theatre at the Krannert Center during a changeover....
** The weird-ish "programming card" style of presets for the lighting control system in the Playhouse Theatre at the Krannert...You would set up the cue with sliders built into a tin box/rectangle which had metal pins in the bottom and then when the cue came, slip it (the "card") into a space on the control board...and you might need to "bang it down" to get the pins to register correctly so the cue would execute.....
** The Strand Century console that was the most advanced light board in use at the Krannert at that point.....
** The whole way the BFA program at the Krannert was designed back in the early 1980's....It seemed a pain at the time, but on reflection I sort of like the concept now....
** "Just Kiddin' : Theatre 106 on Tour" and my role as Ferdfoot.....I still have the "much worse for the wear" t-shirt that was the core of our costumes with it's "smiling jazz hands" logo.....
** After the acting/directing section of Theatre 106, being asked by fellow classmates (why, I am not really certain) if I was going to be auditioning for the acting program at the end of that first year....
** Shozo Sato....Kabuki class...The Zen Substitute.....dinner at Japan House.....
** Doing lighting designs in the Armory Free Theatre...which, upon some serious reflection, still is really one of my favorite venues....at least, back in it's old configuration.
** The old theatre space at Parkland College in Champaign (a converted classroom with a strange angled ceiling)...and my first experience(s) with a "Genie lift"....and the location of my first real paid theatre job.
And a variety of other, occasionally more personal memories....some of which may find their way into some later post.
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