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That'll be this wee beastie... Had one in the family home - they were almost bulletproof and lasted for years! I remember that you could plug the hose into the outlet under the base and blow air thru - ideal for trying to unblock the pipe when your mum had sucked up one of those little plastic soldiers... 🙂

I've used the Alistage sectional spirals a couple of times now - basically they'll hire you the triangular deck sections that clamp around a central upright scaff tube and the relevant legs to build the steps as high as you need them. Then the handrail sections slot in over each step as needed. Here's a copy of the spec sheet I received for them.

I gather the show was hit last week by crew shortages due to covid isolations... So much so that the flying elements were drastically limited and at one point cut to there only being one piece flown - the & Juliet sign that's in at the top of the show going out. Don't know if the situation's improved this week yet.

Seems it wasn't the first time... From a 2018 facespace post... What a surprise.....

I am chortling rather at the moment... 😄 😄 😄

But was that you giving me a double 'bird'...?? 😮 😮 😮

Not really Neither will do the original effect any justice, so as long as I can ensure a safe use of the ladders, which I will do (or abandon the attempt) then that's the plan.

And (of course) that was my first place to look. 😄 😄 😄

RA is already under consideration - looking at all of the obvious risks and placement/containment should mitigate most of those. Hadn't thought of the possible RF issue, but will certainly put that to the test when I have one to try.

Looking ahead to my next big show in June, Young Frankenstein, I'm investigating options for effects for the lab... The obvious biggie would be a Jacob's Ladder (or 2...)which will likely be set safely atop the upper level of the planned staging. Now, construction of these from scratch does look to be well within my capabilities, but to save time and effort, if anyone has one or two that have already been put together, I thought I'd ask here. Even better, if they have perspex covers for them. So - anybody??

Do try and get down to it. Really enjoyed the show.

Just out of watching & Juliet at the Shaftsbury Theatre in that there London... Knew little about it other than what my eldest told us (she's working FOH there) but had a great time there. Ok, it's full of pop music songs slotted into a cleverly constructed alt ending to Romeo and Juliet, 'penned' by Anne Hathaway, but a Juke box show it's not. Tech was spot on, too. Kudos if anyone here is involved.

Often surprises me (but not THAT much, tbh) when yet another BT type raises a hand in here owning up to working for the company I have (for 43 years, now) and working theatre or gigs in some way shape or form at the same time. Back when I started, as several here will likely attest to, some of the standard patching equipment used in many theatres was of the old 'Post Office' type jack fields, and I'm sure many amateur venues had bits & bobs that had been 'rescued' from one exchange or another over the years. 🙂 In fact, looking back through the archive pics, this one does indeed show the tell-tale cream racking that I've known throughout my working life on the right there... I'm not one of the chaps in that pic, as it was a couple of years or so before I started there, but the set up was definitely there when I moved over in about 1981/82... Strand SP60 LX desk in front and I believe an old Tascam (I think) 24-ch analogue mixer sat up top.

Another vote for the school thing first, if your school does things like that (not many do, sadly, these days) But as Robin says, even then you're likely to be limited on what they'll let you do at your age. Am-dram groups are in a similar position, too. At my venue we had to stop taking on tech volunteers that were under 16 as the rules that apply to child performers was also waved at us for non performing kids (and quite rightly, too). So the simple answer MAY be to wait just a couple of years before you can get proper hands-on stuff, but please DO start to read the variety of books on the subject to give yourself an idea of what's what in the basics of lighting a stage. Francis Reid, McCandless, and others I think are all detailed somewhere in this forum - likely in the beginners please section, so have a search.

Old topic resurrected for that pic, but worthy one... Back in my teens (late 70s) I was nowhere near anything professional, but do recall that following a design courtesy of a good friend of mine (who was a couple of years older than I and a bit of an electronics whizz) I built my own solid state amp for a home-built twin deck + cassette DJ console, and I did a handful of local discos before the theatre bug took hold proper. I think it was a mahoosive 200W per stereo channel, which then was WAY louder than we thought I'd ever need. He also gave me a design for a 4-ch, 2 x 5A sockets per channel single master dimmer desk - he built one too, and we did a fair few school productions with those mini-beasts side by side (one of the am-dram directors was a teacher so we tended to go in and kit their hall out with loads of the society's lanterns). When I moved up to the venue I've now been at for almost 40 years, a 250 seater volunteer run theatre, we used to have rock gigs in with a guy who ran a music shop up t' road (name of Bram) who brought in sound rigs then of 10 to 12kW PA. He never got to turn it 'up to 11' but even on half power it made the wall between the auditorium and the control room vibrate like an Australian wobble board! You could literally see it moving with each bass thump! (And that was when we ran LX cues on a Strand SP60 - 60 channels on 3 master faders with A/B selectors - we got it off to a fine art sliding both the masters and selected channels in beat to the music at times, and man you knew you'd done a night's work on that when it was done 🙂 NOT one of the R & R ops - Patrick here was far too sedate for THAT sort of gig, but that's the very desk - in a way it was a shame to let it go, but technology advanced, so we did. 🙂

I refer the honourable gentleman to... (OK - rather TIC, I know 😄 😄 😄 )

Hmmm... (tm) Is the company itself a professional one? Or has a small village am-dram outfit hired this 'just-out-of-uni' person (and you...) in an attempt to improve their lot? It really sounds like a small-scale production that's gotten maybe too big for its boots, and trying to be something it shouldn't be by importing someone who - on paper - perhaps should be better than they are. From your description it sounds like a bit of a car-crash overall, and whilst I've definitely worked with amateur groups who've been finishing stuff off close to the wire on opening night, maybe not as bad as you've described by a long chalk. I'd echo Paul's comment about alarm bells should have been ringing way before you got into the venue - not least because of the VERY short load-in time. ANY panto that starts the get-in on the day of the first show would have to be a pretty darned basic show, and I've not come across any big musical show, even in am-dram world, that doesn't have at least 3 or 4 days to build and rehearse and set everything up.

Does anyone here have any 'tame' contacts who can advise on repairs/diagnoses for Look Solutions Unique hazers? One of my guys is looking at a Unique that is working one minute, then not when he next powers up. He's gone though all the usual checks, cleaning pipes where feasible, etc. It usually comes back to life after he's dismantled the pump and 'poked' the one-way valve with a pin. Whether that's a pump issue or a valve is up for discussion. He's tried to get in touch with Look Sols, but so far no response.

I have access to a couple of the EVE 50 profiles, and they are a) quite compact in size but b) not a bad output at all. Nice and crisp edges and a very even white spot. The bigger brother, the EVE 100, are, as you'd expect, quite a bit brighter in (U think) the same physical body.

I'm not versed in the how-tos of such things, but could you not set up something from a Raspberry Pi or some such? With the video file held on a USB stick if it's particularly large, maybe?

As it happens, I was given access to a perusal copy of the script last night. It's on the short list for one of the groups I work with, but the only one I don't know anything about so needed to get an idea. But thanks. 🙂

Bumped, as I'm still looking unsuccessfully for the info...

Looking for a scene by scene breakdown for the musical YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN but so far Google-fu has eluded me. Anyone have that to hand perchance?

That's what usually sets off my bells, too - when a quote for £6k or so for 4 headsets and base station was the best deal on offer when I last looked a couple of years back, it does make you think carefully.

I've been pointed at the Nymrod wireless cans system as a possible investment and on the face of it, 9 sets of cans for sub £2000 looks like a pretty good deal. 9 Person Kit + Max4G Double • Nymrod Comms One of the Q & A answers says it's compatible with wired setups, but haven't yet found that in the spec (still looking). Interested to know if anyone here has had direct experience of the system, and whether the build quality is up to scratch for the demands of an amateur environment...