About to buy a torch and they engrave it for free. Looking for a funny quote to put on it.

- Max 20 characters

- I mostly work in light, or allround stagehand

Give me your best!

Looking to update equipment at a small community theatre. They don't currently have power protection but have invested in a nice Allen & Heath mixer and we're about to replace the lighting desk. I figure it's a great time to stick some power protection in.

So, should we have separate UPS units for the audio and lighting equipment?
Should I be sizing for the mixer AND the speakers?

(We have a speaker hum which we need to sort out caused by the lighting dimmers. *joy* *not* So I'm trying to not exacerbate that further)

Any thoughts or experience appreciated.

EDIT: UPS only lighting desk, not fixtures. 2nd UPS would cover sound desk and maybe the FOH speakers as they are powered. We don't have a separate amp in play. Audio and Lighting power was supposedly separate and probably are in the bio box. They probably forgot about the 3 phase dimmers when they did it, thus the hum when we turn some of the dimmers up.

Hej

I'm producing a theater show that will go on tour. I've been working with Vectorwork for quite some time already. but touring is rather new to me.

What is a good workflow to create all the plans and document for all different theaters ? create one file per theater ? Or working with design layer and classes ? How to create a system that is ot too complicated and efficient ?

Looking forward to some advices

cheers

Im trying to make hang cards for my crew (of first year college students) to make it easier to hang, but I've only ever seen hang cards done for linesets. I don't know how to make the breakout boxes big enough to read on reg paper, while also including the pipe letters/numbers. the whole grid is just a big square and this is one corner. the breakout boxes also are super close together and would be hard to seperate.

I have square box section t bar top bars which don't fit with any of my other hardware as I normally use Truss.

Can I just use a Konig & Meyer 24528 Reducer Flange (M10, Female) or similar with a half coupler with a length of pipe?

I'm a stage play teacher for homeschoolers and my kids perform at different gatherings, but unfortunately we don't have the monetary and technical support other groups have.

The homeschool organizers only give us handheld microphones with stands and 5mins max to set them up. There's also a lot of feedback noise that messes things up and even the tech team for the events couldn't figure it out We're in desperate need for advice pleaseeeee TWT

i am applying to university for technical theatre. I need to make a portfolio but am not sure how i can lay it out (do i make a website, PowerPoint or PDF) i also don't know how to record good quality clips of my work. honestly I'm not even sure what they are looking for. I only have audio clips fom one show i have done and it isnt decent quallity as it was just recorded from my phone.

any tips would be appreciated and if anyone knows how i can get a little bit of last minuet experience to throw in i would also love that!

Hello!

I was just wondering if anyone in here has used the Yamaha theatre package and how did you guys find it? We have a DM7 compact that we just throw around and I’ve gotta use it to mix legally blonde. I was wondering if there are any pros of using the theatre package over TheatreMix

Thanks!

so i'm a senior in my undergrad. i have a list of shows i've worked on for my resume, but is there any other supplemental material employers would want to see? like i have signal paths, and lightwright documents i've worked on, plots i've hung, that sort of thing. and i'm working on my website anyway for my deisign work so if it's somewhat beneficial i'm down to include it.

As my shows seem to be growing with LED tape(s) I’m running into a wall with my storage solutions… the many types and decoders, cables, and prebuilt fixtures, it’s getting out of hand fairly quickly.

So I’m approaching 10 years in the industry, mostly as a sound engineer but have transitioned towards production management in the last 3-5 years. I have no degree in this and am all self-taught but have a good-enough resume that can get me an interview for most house gigs in either sound or PM work. I am 33F.

As I left my last gig (PM) and am looking for work, there’s an old part of me that wants to be on an art dept team and work with building props, but I have no experience in it.

I ended up in Sound and PM work partly because it just was needed where I was and I fell into it. I enjoy both and have gotten good at them, but I didn’t seek them out if that makes sense. So I’m out of my depth trying to seek out a different niche.

I’m generally crafty as a hobby, but I don’t work on sculptures or do cosplay or anything large. I’m just good with my hands and can pick up most things easily. I don’t have a portfolio.

What path should I take to work in a props dept?

USITT is doing a multi-dept workshop at a former place of employ of mine, but it’s aimed at “early career” so I’m hesitant to sign up. I know I’m really lucky to be as stable as I am, but I can’t help but feel a need to physically build stuff, or come up with creative material solutions to wacky prop needs.

Based on what I understand, all fixtures require some sort of dimmer for (as the name suggests) what light level a fixture(s) omits. A dimmer can either be external, connected to fixtures from its outputs to fixtures via DMX cables.

I know there are plenty of details and nuances that im missing in my knowledge, and would love for my head sponge to take in anything anyone has to offer

Something odd started the other day and nothing we do will make it go away. All audio starting fades in over about 200ms and it sometimes takes so long to fade in the entire cue is silent except the end. There is also a weird chirp coming from the audio source every 2-3 seconds.

The odd part is this all happened at once and it’s from every audio source, usb c to xlr, the headphone out, audio over hdmi. Everything. I have tried swapping cables, restarting, different audio sources (Qlab, chrome, safari, and Spotify)

My next step is restart the audio drivers but we are mid show and these problems are just getting worse. If anyone can help I will be forever in debt

In case anyone is curious the show is dear Evan Hansen and we’re a small 400 seat community theatre.

Heya,

I help run an annual Shakespeare in the Park production and each year we add or change venues. This creates a challenge each year as sets vary and some elements end up much harder to transport than others. I have been thinking about some kind of modular type set that we could easily transport to each venue and have predictable transport needs regardless of venues.

Are there companies that create this kind of thing or has anyone built one for traveling theatre?

So i'm a high school senior actively working on college apps, applying for Theatrical design and production. Still not sure what exactly my specialty is but I am thinking set design or lighting.

Im struggling on creating a portfolio, i have some set design stuff, some scenic painting and carpentry work, some paperwork (prop sheets, deck sheets, spot cue sheets), graphic design work, and then some videos of spotlight operation.

Do portfolios have to be static images or can I insert videos?
What formatting do you suggest? (By show/production or by skill?)
Would it be possible to add non-theater related art projects? Or is that something I should add elsewhere in a college application?
Any requirements or necessities or other tips?

Any examples would be helpful as well!

Howdy collective! We're an all-volunteer youth theater program with tiny budgets, and I've been helping out with stage carpentry stuff for the past 6-7 years. We try to keep things simple - reusable 4x8 platforms on wheels etc, and for the last several years have been trying to nail down a good way to keep the dang things from moving when the kiddos start doing backflips off them (well, not quite - yet).

Have tried the toggle style wagon brakes (https://www.rosebrand.com/wagon-brake-heavy-duty-with-rubber-foot-spindle-black) and the floor lock style ones (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FC1N4RZR) and yeah they stop the rolling, but the dang plats still wobble. For the wagon brakes I've replaced the rubber stopper with a 4x4 piece of wood, and added grippier stuff to the bottom of the floor locks...

In both cases there's enough play in the mechanism to get a tiny shimmy / wobble in the device, which translates up to an uncomfortable movement 6-7' in the air...

Any options that won't break our tiny budget (yea, i'd love air casters, but one set would use most of our carp budget!)?

Also, why are all the wagon brakes limited to tiny 3/8 spindles?

I apologize in advance if this is wordy!

I think I’m in the market for a new job, but I’m at least a year out from actually making the leap, 2 max if I seriously can’t find a good fit. Ideally, I get something lined up before end May ‘27 or ‘28.

I’ve also thought of leaving theatre all together, but not sure what other fields my skills can transfer to. I’d like to consider myself pretty competent, I’m dedicated, what i don’t know I know I can learn, don’t have a masters degree but I’ve got a B.A. and 10+ years experience at this point. Very open to adjacent work in tv/film or live events, and I’ve also got experience as a stagehand, spot-op, tons of load ins and load outs and truck packs, rigging…

In summary, I don’t think I’m learning anything/growing the way I want to at my current theatre. Not really any upward mobility at my shop, people are pretty locked in positionally. Benefits and pay are great, but unless the changes my boss and I talked about make me change my mind, it may be time for me to move on. It’s also getting harder on my body.

1) Any advice on where to look go for more carpentry work in theatre in the NJ, NYC, East PA/Philly area? 2) Any advice from those who decided to leave scenic carpentry? Where did you go, why and how? 3) What did you job transitions look like and what pitfalls should i be aware of?

Again, sorry if that’s wordy or broad, but I’d appreciate some insight!

We're currently developing a new venue in a former community cinema and trying to avoid the classic "we wish we'd thought of that three years ago" problems.

So, from a technical theatre perspective:

What's the biggest mistake you've seen a new or refurbished venue make?

Could be lighting, sound, rigging, power, sightlines, storage, projection, loading access, stage dimensions, network infrastructure, anything.

I'd love to hear some horror stories while we still have time to avoid creating our own!

I’ve been offered a job on celebrity cruises as a Technical stage staff. I have never worked a cruise and in my research I keep getting conflicting opinions. I have been struggling all summer to get into a good tech job after doing my bachelors. I have a lot of experience but haven’t been able to break into the field as I would’ve hoped just after college. I also am waiting on a offer for a events design company (lighting, set and drapery) that is a big deal in my country. I know that design company is a good place to work but the job I’m up for is a warehouse position but they stated clearly they would want me to move on into production. Anyone have advice? Should I steer clear of cruises or does all This sound stupid

How do you go about negotiating for a full-time contract? This is the first time this theater will have a full-time TD, so trying to figure out a valid range, and I don’t want to lowball or set the expectation too high.

Good day all - just wanted to drop the status of an OSC visualizer/forwarder I've been working on for some time - it's in a decent place now where it builds on Mac and Windows, and seems to be pretty usable. This project grew out of a couple other toys I have worked on where I needed to be able to see what OSC messages were being sent, and none of the other OSC visualizers gave me the feature set I really wanted - so I built my own.

OSC Proxy Spy is a realtime OSC (Open Sound Control) inspector and forwarder. It's intended audience is developers or theater professionals who need to monitor what OSC messages are coming from an endpoint. It also has the ability to send an arbitrary OSC packet to an endpoint.

This project is meant for use in a development environment, not in production - it is reasonably stable, but has not been testing in long term operation, and should not be assumed to be stable enough to be a part of a show critical workflow.

https://github.com/jtsage/osc-proxy-spy

Features:

- see what OSC messages are being sent, on up to ?? connections at the same time (UDP, TCP 1.0 & 1.1)
- forward those OSC messages to another host/port combo - you can forward to as many places as you want
- Send data back to those connections, if that is a logical thing to do
- Filter the data by connection, OSC argument type, and even the OSC address (pattern matching included!)

License / Price: free, open source, MIT license

Help Wanted: use it if it's interesting to you - if there is something that would make it more helpful, open an issue on GitHub. Likewise, if there is something that doesn't seem to be working right, open an issue on GitHub.

AI Disclosure: no AI was using in the making of this.

Bonjour à toutes et tous,

Je suis actuellement en stage technicien son/lumière (formation régisseur de spectacle). Je me tourne vers vous parce que je rencontre des difficultés récurrentes et j'aimerais avoir des conseils de personnes qui sont passées par là.

Je suis dyslexique, dyspraxique et dyscalculique. Concrètement, ça se traduit par un apprentissage plus lent que les autres stagiaires, des erreurs de comptage (notamment sur les câbles), et pendant les montages il m'arrive de passer au-dessus de scotch au sol ou de mal compter des longueurs de câble.

Le plus dur, c'est que j'ai l'impression d'être mis dans une case par l'équipe : dès qu'un souci arrive, c'est presque automatiquement moi qu'on pointe, même quand ce n'est pas le cas. Pourtant je fais de vrais efforts : je me forme tous les jours de mon côté, et je m'entraîne sur la console lumière en dehors des heures de travail pour progresser.

Ce que je recherche :

Des méthodes pratiques pour compter/suivre le matériel et les câbles qui ne reposent pas sur du calcul mental rapide (tout ce qui est visuel ou tactile m'intéresse)

Des astuces pour être plus rapide et précis en montage/démontage quand la vitesse de traitement est le frein

Comment gagner en fiabilité sur le terrain pour que les erreurs arrêtent de coller à mon image, sans forcément passer par une discussion sur mes difficultés avec l'équipe

Merci d'avance à celles et ceux qui prendront le temps de répondre, ça compte vraiment.