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Published: October 21st 2011
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So, another show... this one in Taicang, about an hour's bus ride from our hotel in the middle of Shanghai. All of these cities we're going to are basically part of the greater Shanghai area, but they are cities unto themselves, usually undergoing massive construction and development. I've been debating on how best to try to describe just how big Shanghai is, and more, just how fast it's growing. I read somewhere that it has something along the lines of 3000 skyscrapers, which is a pretty big number, but the more startling statistic is that over 2000 more are under construction. The interesting thing about here, as opposed to say, New York City, is that when you look out over the city, it seems like almost all of those skyscrapers are apartment buildings and residences, rather than office buildings. An enormous number of people live here... and it's all under construction, growing faster than you can imagine.
The theater itself is a representation of that. It just opened in September, and it's really nice, though not at all suitable for us. The stage is massive, and almost completely lifts and traps that have huge gaps - a half inch or
more, between them. This makes them incredibly dangerous for the women in heels, and a huge trip hazard for everyone. For that reason, Victoria and I decided that we were basically moving the show out on the apron of the stage - the largest area with the fewest gaps. We taped the ones that remained, and moved everything far, far downstage. It was yet another huge pain the butt for me... it meant that sidelight was incredibly difficult, and impossible at the downstage line, but that was at least somewhat balanced by the fact that there were some okay orchestra positions in the house, so at least I could light them, even if it wasn't in the way it was designed.
The other catch of that theater is that there was no ladder or genie lift. Great! No focusing! Fortunately I am pretty good at the technique of bounce focus (basically, trying to aim the light while it's down, so that it will hit the right spot when it lifts 23' in the air, raising it up, looking at what you got right and what you got wrong, dropping the pipe, tweaking, raising the pipe, looking, etc) due to
the fact that a lot of the theaters in the high schools in Austin also don't have ladders. Between the rough bounce focus, and the fact that they had the moving lights that I'd already programmed the show for, we pretty much finished the first day in good shape, and it seemed like it was going to be the smoothest show yet.
The second day took care of that concern. The Express console worked - I had most things working, including the moving lights by 10:30am on the day of the show. Unfortunately, the problems that remained taxed the crews ability to problem solve. It took them all day to sort out why half the side lights weren't working, run new cables so that everything could lay on the floor instead of being a major trip hazard in two of the dancers four walkways (a product of moving out onto the apron), and get the cyc lights working. Britton had equal amounts of problems with his audio setup as well, so even though we were in pretty good shape, relatively speaking, by the time of the show (the dancers actually got to run a bunch of the pieces), it
was still pretty rough and a bit too seat of the pants. Even so, it was probably the best show we've managed yet, from the audience perspective.
There was one bit of drama though. Part way through the day, the owners of the theater saw what the taps were doing to the floor and freaked out. It's a new theater after all, and I have to admit the black paint was pretty much perfect before we walked in. There was a ton of pacing around with all the management worrying and talking fast, but really... their only choice was to either cancel the show or don't. It's a tap show, after all. Apparently all of the other theaters are now concerned about their stages as well, and we've been told that the dancers can only wear their shoes for sound check and the performances, but just like so many other things, we're going to ignore that. We have to... if they want a show, then the dancers have to wear their shoes to rehearse. That's how it works. In the end, the only damage is scuffed paint, and that's going to happen to even the new theaters eventually. We just might be speeding the process along a bit.
After the show, we took the bus back to Shanghai and now it's another long break for me and the tech crew. Our next full show isn't until October 23, though the dancers have to make appearances at a booking expo and a couple of community classes. Datri, Masumi and I are looking at another excursion to get out of town and my goal is to be in a good state of mind before we enter into that last 9 days... It's going to be a mad rush of 5 or 6 shows in 4 or 5 venues in that time, and then we leave. If I don't go nuts, then I'm going to be happy for the massive distraction, I think...
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