Junior8

One of my Chinese suppliers tells me their theatres have reopened this week where she lives. She also tells me that foreign sales, to people like me have just collapsed and their big sales of ship freight have ceased. The sea journey takes too long for people to risk waiting.

 

In the retail trade they were already realising just how far China was away before all this happened, and that was quite separate from the quality issues. The grey market knock-offs via ebay were getting direct to the punter quicker than their stock to the wholesalers.

Seemingly you have to set the DMX testing addresses on the pcb using three switches. This is something that a beginner may not wish to do.

Given a plan they could theorise over several first show dates for low cost events -comedy night etc, with 2 - 4 performers and 30% audience at half price first night, and keep picking a new start date according to local attitudes and regulations.

 

Given no plan the choice is to simply give up, get rid of staff and liabilities and liquidate the rest to no buyers.

Yes well It costs £164,000 a year just to stay dark. At any one time £60,000 of this is 'covered' by advance bookings and another £50,000 from lettings and hirings. The balance by the fact that the cafe is open all day and takes big bucks.

 

At the moment there is no cash flow from any of these.

 

A couple of nights of the kind you suggest might bring in £1000 in theory but in practice as we have no audience for this type of show anyway there wouldn't be much point.

 

The director has already 'planned' two possible re-openings only to be overtaken by events and understandably is reluctant to do much more than pencil in a few dates for December on the basis of recent burblings and bumblings from the Leader of the Conservative Party and some of his pals.

 

By which time the place will be I estimate near the tipping point.

Get a trained specialist electrician in. You are not qualified to begin to deal with this. It is a fixed installation.

 

Edit - Sorry GG I didn't note your post.

 

This is why I have always argued strongly against hard wired dimmer installations in school and community settings. It is almost impossible for the amateur to fault find let alone repair and anyway you will struggle to get yourself out of trouble if let down on show day. With a basic 15amp tail patch system you could in extremis bring in a few mini packs plug them into the 13 amp sockets and busk. I used to have shouting matches with salespeople about this.

Loads more challenges to face, but at least we've sort of solved some of them... For now.

 

I think for my old venue the problem facing the Trustees is how to get out of this in a position to survive as an entity. I have no confidence in any promises of help from the Leader of the Conservative Party and his pals. For the first time we had built up reserves largely through gradually raising ticket prices to the maximum level while still being able to put on stuff that might have less appeal. These reserves just about match the staffing costs for twelve months. We have not taken a penny since March but have refunded a lot of money. If the place can't open in September and begin to take some, any, money if I was a Trustee I would have to really think about declaring everyone redundant - which in truth they would be - and mothballing. I'd do this knowing that their entitlements would just about clear out the bank accounts and that they simply wouldn't find work anywhere else in the arts, maybe ever again. The longer this goes on I can't see any other course for Trustees fulfilling their duties under the law. Like you at 1m it might just break even at 2m it's time to lock up and put the keys through the letterbox. Oh yes and if they want to work to audiences at minimum capacity artists will have to take a huge pay cut - in some cases down to something approximating tp what they are worth!

Kerry is quite right that to open at all capacity will have to be reduced indoors. Fine but in the venue I helped out at this would be 60 seats. Even with this a socially distanced queue waiting to get in would be probably 100 metres long and would stretch out the main doors and along the footpath into the car park. The bar area could not accommodate half this number if they were all individuals socially distancing. The venue couldn't open though because the toilets are down a narrow corridor where it is impossible to implement a one way system. A large estate has just scheduled some outdoor concerts for around four weeks time. Seeing this did make me wonder as usual if the maths have been thought out overall. The operator of these events has put up a Covid procedure which asks all cars to park 2 metres away from the next. This means the space between the cars will be wider than the average vehicle. In the case of my car the space required including the recommended turning space between the rows would be 15sq m for the car and 27sq m for the turning space between the rows. Two cars facing each other will therefore occupy 84 sq m. taking off the spare 27 sq m for the shared space going up the field by my calculations that's about 70 cars an acre or 10 acres for 500 as most fields aren't tidily square. Their normal car parking area within easy walking distance of the concert ground is six acres. The hard area they have is 1.5. They are also asking people to stay in their vehicle until all those in the next one have decamped. I suppose it'll work but as usual they have only thought of the entry procedures too...The chaos invariably comes at the end - in the dark. Sunset is 20.00 on August 20th.

I see from the Theatrecrafts site that this was another of Philip Snowden's enterprises but I either never came across it or if I did I don't remember it and I was in the market for this sort of gear in 1977 when the one catalogue I can find on that site comes from.

It would never occur to me to do anything of the kind. My first technical experience in 1970 was in my school which had just moved to a new building with a hall equipped with lightwood varnished rostra as a flexible stage. As the walls were also off white it was a nightmare from day one. On black the problem would have been less naturally but from that day on it was always flat matt for me unless there was a good reason to go the other way. Incidentally that advice was seldom taken...

That means it's not going to be the automatic qualification process used for previous schemes and that applications are going to be much more along the lines of existing arts council applications with local impact and cultural quality being much more important than need or financial viability.

 

 

 

I fear you're right Tom. Sadly.

 

 

 

 

 

Both have closed, both were for sale, neither raised any interest..... AFIK.

I just wondered whether they were overstaffed as 86 seems a lot, or whether "redundancy" covered cassies and freelancers as well.

 

The Nuffield Theatre Trust was broke anyway. Without £1.8m public/charitable funding it wouldn't stand a chance at the best of times. Like too many of these places it didn't have a commercial bone in its body. It had 52 admin staff in the last full year accounts. These accounts by the way are the usual mixture of lists of aspirations mixed with critical acclaim for productions from the one group who never pay to see anything - the critics! And a balance sheet to chill the blood. It had enough in the reserves to close down tidily - which is what it should have done.

 

I suspect one effect of all this will be that the prudent companies will realise just how bloated their non- production linked payrolls had become and do something about it. About time too.

Yes I would agree with Kerry on the last point, now is perhaps not the best time to jump, but on the other hand I suspect now is the first time in years people have had time to sit back and reflect on what they have been doing all this time and why and where they are going.

 

And worryingly that applies even more to punters in this industry who I think will have been really looking at the money they are saving this year. Casual dining and hot food has been keeping the High Street and event catering business going. Unless landlords take a huge hit it is finished. (If I had shares in Costa I think I'd have sold them by now. By the same token I suspect the fashion for lavish weddings and funeral wakes is probably moving peacefully to a close.) Another thing - the venue I am associated with has been successful and is making hopeful noises about reopening - but with its core audience and volunteer cadre being largely firmly in the so called vulnerable age groups..?

 

My own view for what it is worth is that some of us who have been making a living from events and festivals have been riding what had become an unsustainable bubble, if we were in the trade show sector we were in an industry dying before the eyes to which this will simply have administered the humane killer. Also if I was a lecturer on any fees funded course in this sector I think I'd be dusting off the Whelk Stall, I don't see many funded by the now broke bank of mum and dad queuing up to pay £9000 a year tuition fees for a bit.

 

So in short the current situation doesn't mean that you can't think about making a change - I'll bet you'll join thousands made to think by the situation. But it makes holding on tight to nurse until you see a better nurse you can rely on coming along the sensible thing.

 

Make a plan for two years hence would be my advice.

I will only say this. Both my father and I for different reasons made complete career changes at 45 and never looked back. In my case it was teaching as after 21 years I was bored stiff and I sensed this was communicating itself to the students. (The decision was helped by the fact that I'd had too many old stagers going through the motions when I was at secondary school. It wasn't very motivating.) I think the saying 'a change is as good as a rest' has a lot to commend it. You have to have a plan - I'd saved up for several years to finance a masters and gone through months of mental SWOT analysis (and to be honest knew there would be supply teaching if it all went wrong) but based on our experiences I think both dad and I would say go for it if you feel you need to and have made the right preparations.

It is difficult at first especially if you have no practical musical experience but it does come with practice. I was in a church choir from seven and after a few years of that and cello playing with a bit of madrigal singing thrown in it was pretty well second nature - you get almost recognise where you are by the shape of things on the staves. But you do lose it. I can't do it very well any more having not had to read a sheet of music for over 25 years. There are tales of famous sideman with the likes of Count Basie who played the whole show without charts and were most put out when he decided to bring in a new arrangement or revive something from the distant past. (Martin Taylor in his book admits he was a poor reader and was frequently discovered to be busking rather than reading when with Victor Sylvester's band.) Always start with the piano score if available. I.m not up with this sort of stuff but no doubt it is possible to get software to produce a score from a recording if it is and it was possible with say a simple piano piece you could chose say a simple piano track produce a few minutes of it only and use that for a start off maybe even watching the notes appear on the screen as it's scoring it.

Thankfully I've never heard of this before; so I'd say this piece of "advice" probably isn't something for OP to lose sleep over :)

Although the advice might translate to making sure LX is properly rigged while still at ground level - G-clamps are properly tightened, safeties on, gels properly fitted, barn doors safely fitted and open, shutters open on profiles (so you don't waste time trying to fix a lantern that is actually working!) and loose cabling correctly taped. If possible, each bar should be flashed before it is flown out as it probably won't come down again until getout and fault finding 6m high is a lot harder.

 

If you can't flash out at ground level, which you can't do at my local theatre, then you do it immediately after the bar is raised and connected to dimmers, hot power and DMX (while you can still bring it down again).

 

 

 

To be clear I meant the ones on the clamps not on the tilting fork or the lantern. It was amazing how often you rigged a bar with some of them and found one or two hanging slightly loose at the other end. As of course it makes no difference to the angle of dangle you might never notice it but I found it had happened quite often when I went back along and checked before finishing it off. It may not happen with modern ally pipes but it definitely used to with other metals. There was still a lot of ferrous about when I was a youngster.

They often used too for me anyway!

The GG packs worked fine with the old Zero88 Level desks but the used ones I have seen online are priced higher than I expected. But there is a 12 way two preset for £50 at the moment.

I'd second all GridGirl's - especially re props.

 

I'd add

 

Nothing, equipment or cue, in any production can be considered OK until it has been tested and proved in rehearsal. If it doesn't work 10 times out of ten forget it.

 

Wing bolts have a nasty habit of coming loose on the first lanterns as you work along rigging a bar.

 

A tidy job is always a better job

 

Don't keep it in your head - write it down!

 

Excellent lighting can still be done with 24 lanterns and a two preset manual board.

 

Buy the best tools you can afford keep them in a locked tool box and when you leave the premises take them with you.

Always but always double check your calls

Learn how to read a score - even if it's only a piano one

Passed on to all my contacts who are relevant. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

For a small venue with only conventionals they''d still do me now I think. I did like that very positive lock and key you could take home!

I would steer well away. The going rate for a typical disco has not changed in the last 20+ years. There are still plenty of people, with thousands invested in kit and vehicle, prepared to go out on a Saturday night for £150. They might call it a business but in reality it's a hobby.

To put some context on pricing...many many years ago (25+) I used to run a disco. I have a friend who still does. He has a huge investment in good kit. And yet he struggles to get half of what I was getting when I packed it in.

 

Interesting - I had no idea what the current prices were. I've just calculated to get now what I was charging in 1971/2 I'd need to take over £350 a time. (I would not pay 10% of that for any of the last few wedding type discos I've had inflicted on me.) Everything said about the risks to equipment applied then and still apply now. Truth is though it was never really a business but it was, for a time, a better paying hobby enterprise than some - until you grew out of it.

Having found my oldest Furse catalogue which comes from between 1966 and 1970 there is no flood of this kind listed at that time. The junior floods resembled Strand and there was an Horizon Flood which had a curved reflector housing and a 1KW unit which was square with a chimney in the top. There is nothing like the picture in the OP. That's not to say they aren't Furse but if they are they must be earlier. Don't forget they may be Major but there are other firms forgotten about these days like RR Beard, now Photon Beard, Holophane still in lighting and VenrecO. Blackburn, Starling & Co are also mentioned in some books

Leaving aside the particulars of this case you simply have to accept that people, especially aerialists, do know what they are doing in what seem high risk situations. In terms of perceived risk though take the Wall of Death for example. If you did a RA for that the most risky stage I'd guess would be on the road taking it from one venue to another, the next pulling it down, the next building it up and the last by a country mile actually riding it for the skilled performer. (The same people do the lot by the way) At the performance stage all the variables are pretty well known and controlled for. Gerry de Roy was still working at 82! In fact the only accident with a wall I can remember in years is an owner tripping over or falling off the lorry I can't recall which when building up. You might accept such self-regulation as unacceptable but the plain fact is that given the number of circus/speciality performances to incidents it works. Largely because the performers are fitted with a desire to simply go on living and the circus owners a commitment to running a safe show. Again I recommend Cyril Mills' (no relation) book for an insight into this area.

Can I recommend Cyril Mills book on Bertram Mills Circus Chapter 8 as an elementary introduction?

I don't think you'd be able to see the stage before it became a problem. I regularly ran over 30m/40m back in the day with no worries.

The only negative on the Powerdrives is a somewhat inadequate wing nut to tighten the base, which if over tightened tears and spins. A couple of ours therefore have a G-clamp attached to the base, which suffices.

 

Agreed, though I never thought of that simple solution.