Love and Information by Caryl Churchill, performed by the Pegasus Youth Company 16-25. For this production I worked as the Production Manager, coordinating the set, lighting, sound and video components of the show in addition to sourcing and building the set.
I have been working with a number of other technical contractors at The Story Museum to deliver the variety of technical installation work in both the Whispering Woods and the Enchanted Library. This included power distribution, lighting and audio work. Also, my first ever experience of installing and using an ETC Echo Touch system. Included below are photos of both of the spaces in various states of completion.
The Brookes Got Talent show’s second iteration, run through the student union, Sabah and I worked together to deliver a talent show showcasing performing arts at Oxford Brookes University. I worked as the production manager, managing the budget, designing the lighting and sound in addition to operating it on the day of the show. This also included all of the scheduling and additional equipment hire. We worked to deliver a prosecco reception with apéritifs prior to the show in addition to working with the then newly opened Westgate shopping centre to offer raffle prizes to those who attended the event. We also worked with Ox Events, the local club promoter to offer free entry wristbands to attendees and artists of Brookes Got Talent to go to the clubnight at Atik following the event.
The cultural events at TASIS Switzerland allow for a showcase of various different types of performing art to the students. As part of my role as Technical Coordinator I work organise and manage the Tech Team to setup the performing space from scratch with a lighting rig, PA system and projections as well as coordinating with maintenance to lay out the marley flooring and build the theatre blacks at the back of the stage.
For the duration of the performance I design and run the light, sound and visual projections and information. Then coordinating the pack down and closing of the venue space for the evening.
The cultural events always provide an interesting opportunity as there is a mix of dance, instrumentation and vocals with acts of varying sizes and styles. Check out the video and photo gallery below.
The cultural events at TASIS Switzerland allow for a showcase of various different types of performing art to the students. As part of my role as Technical Coordinator I work organise and manage the Tech Team to setup the performing space from scratch with a lighting rig, PA system and projections as well as coordinating with maintenance to lay out the marley flooring and build the theatre blacks at the back of the stage.
For the duration of the performance I design and run the light, sound and visual projections and information. Then coordinating the pack down and closing of the venue space for the evening.
The cultural events always provide an interesting opportunity as there is a mix of dance, instrumentation and vocals with acts of varying sizes and styles. Check out the video and photo gallery below.
Manwatching, by an anonymous woman is "a funny and frank insight into heterosexual female desire, read out loud by a man".
The production was not hugely complicated and consisted of a preset/postset and a general wash during the performance. However, programming on an ETC console is always a useful experience as I find I learn things by using the console and increasing my familiarity with it.
The production of Ibiza to Norfolk was more involved for me as a venue technician. There were a variety of lighting fixtures to refocus along with rigging the birdies to light the set and rigging the projector for the video elements of the production. The technician, Tom, who was who tours with the production ran the show. The pack down was essentially a reverse of the process after a successful show.
Working with a technician who has worked in the West End was a great learning experience to see how they worked with the lighting fixtures to create the desired states for each scene.
Dining al Desko is a comedy produced by Tightrope Productions Oxford. During this production I worked with the technicians the production brought in to ensure smooth running with the in house lighting, sound and a/v equipment.
The first day focusing around the tech programming and get in and the second day involved a full rehearsal and the show in the evening.
Working Christmas is Arts at the Old Fire Station's Christmas production. Today, was the get in and comprised of getting in the set, rigging and focusing lights and many many fairy lights.
While not a particularly foreign day of work in the theatre, it was a great day working with Nomi Everall, Jude Thorpe and Steve Coe. Set construction involved laying a floor and using a series of tank traps to secure the set which was constructed and created by Nomi off site.
Light rigging was slightly different than usual having to work around the 1000 fairy lights up in the rig and on the set. And while focusing around the fairy lights and chandelier was interesting it was successful.
The following weeks contained a variety of previews and shows. Each production became more refined through preview week. This show has allowed me to work on improving my skills and familiarity with the ETC Ion and Soundcraft Expression series of control desks. This was also my first hands on experience with the full version of Q Lab.
Working with Wild Boor Ideas was a huge amount of fun and a learning experience as the first children's show that I have worked on.
This show required the use of QLab and a Jester 24. While not my favourite lighting board, the Pegasus has a variety of high quality fixtures and equipment which helped to create a great show. The get in, and technical rehearsal was on the Wednesday prior and focused on making sure the lighting and sound cues were on time and correctly paced to match the production.
The cultural events at TASIS Switzerland allow for a showcase of various different types of performing art to the students. As part of my role as Technical Coordinator I work organise and manage the Tech Team to setup the performing space from scratch with a lighting rig, PA system and projections as well as coordinating with maintenance to lay out the marley flooring and build the theatre blacks at the back of the stage.
For the duration of the performance I design and run the light, sound and visual projections and information. Then coordinating the pack down and closing of the venue space for the evening.
The cultural events always provide an interesting opportunity as there is a mix of dance, instrumentation and vocals with acts of varying sizes and styles. Check out the video and photo gallery below.
The cultural events at TASIS Switzerland allow for a showcase of various different types of performing art to the students. As part of my role as Technical Coordinator I work organise and manage the Tech Team to setup the performing space from scratch with a lighting rig, PA system and projections as well as coordinating with maintenance to lay out the marley flooring and build the theatre blacks at the back of the stage.
For the duration of the performance I design and run the light, sound and visual projections and information. Then coordinating the pack down and closing of the venue space for the evening.
The cultural events always provide an interesting opportunity as there is a mix of dance, instrumentation and vocals with acts of varying sizes and styles. Check out the video and photo gallery below.
The staff talent show takes place once per session and allows staff to explore their creative and performance side. It takes place in an outdoor performance amphitheatre.
Below are some photos and videos from the event.
This project started with a lack of cables and trying to save time. It was also an interesting project due to the budget constrains and trying to create something that would be applicable for long term use and easily repairable if something were to break. It started with a plan to reduce cable mess to make the performance space safer and to be able to have one set of cables to go to each side of the gym that is used as a performance space. This involved a verity of audio sends and returns along with DMX and earth separated power for lighting and sound equipment. The system also needed to have space to expand and change to meet requirements in the future.
The system also grew to be able to house a shelf of radio mic receivers and install an old Sennheiser radio mic and receiver as an announce and rehearsal mic to buy time during setup when performance mics are being setup. The current setup allows for expansion in the future along with building towards making each performance setup time shorter to allow for longer rehearsals and equipment fine tuning.
This also required justifying the expense of completely replacing some of the existing cabling. At the first use and implementation there were some teething issues such as educating the team of how to roll out the cable and put it away properly and ensuring each connector was plugging into the right port, easily solved with some colour coded tape on each connector and each port.
The rig upgrade for the theatre was a big step towards improving the lighting and flexibility in the Fleming Theatre space. This de-rig and prep for upgrade called for taking down all fixtures and temporary lighting, sound or power related infrastructure along with all theatre blacks and clearing the backstage area. Working with Jayne (Theatre Technician) is always a pleasure and working in a team to plan the order of operations and take apart the rig and other components in the theatre.
Spring Reign is a production that came to the Old Fire Station in Oxford. It explores the complexities and issues in the Syrian conflict. The day entailed helping put together the set, focusing lights and then deconstructing the set and re-setting the lights at the end of the day along. This was a day where I was the venue technician which means ensuring the incoming company has everything they need and that the technical aspects of the show are well looked after.
Oxford Folk Weekend was a great experience running sound for a variety of performers in solos, duos and bands and gave me a unique opportunity to enhance my work with live sound. Based in the Oxford Centre for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing over two days there were a number of acts, most notably John Spiers a.k.a. Squeezy who performed on Sunday morning.
This event also gave me hands on experience to manage my own venue technically and work with the Yamaha 01v96 v2 which was not a sound board I had worked with before. This also has helped me at future events when working with similar consoles like the Yamaha LS9.
At the production of Fish Eye in the Old Firestation Theatre I worked with the incoming production as the second in house tech to bring in the set and assist them in any way necessary to bring the production into the theatre. This involved setting up their additional lighting equipment as well as focusing and colouring up the in house lighting rig to meet their needs.
We also constructed their set which included a series of panels on rails which were used as projection screens. Acting as in house tech also meant I had to set out chairs in the End-On formation.
At the end of the production we assisted with the get out of the set and their lighting equipment along with working on re-rigging and resetting the in-house lighting grid to the normal setup.
For the production Meet Fred at the Old Firestation Theatre I was the only in-house tech present to assist on the day of the production. This entailed working with the Meet Fred cast and crew to help setup their set and adjust the in-house lighting rig to meet their needs. The setup also involved setting up the seating in an 'End On' formation and adjusting it in accordance with the ticket sales form the box office to make sure the theatre did not feel empty as the show had not sold out.
This also entailed working with the show file they brought with them for the ETC Ion and re-patching the dimmer and house light circuits to the Ion. This allowed for them to not re-program the entire show upon arrival. I also worked with their technician to use the in-house sound system which is an Soundcraft SI with KV2 Speakers. From a technical perspective it was also necessary to disable the fire alarm as the production used a smoke machine.
The get out entailed working with the front of house staff to remove the seating along with helping the Meet Fred production do the get out at the end of the evening. This also entailed retrieving their gels from the in-house lighting rig and re-rigging and re-focusing the in-house lighting rig.
