Backstage

Missing Parts...

So I have just recovered from an obnoxious week... Sleep is a wonderfull thing, and when you just don't get any, you appreciate it even more...
The thing that made this show miserable for me, was that I was missing a number of people... This time it wasn't just missing some of my crew, it was my partner that is down with an injury, and my client had to bail out at the last second due to a family loss... So that left me with two crews to run, as well as having to deal with my client's client (aka the big money people). The scenery that I had control over, and the lighting aspects were a snap, because I was able to plan that stuff out... The "artsy" decoration type stuff was a different story... All we had to go on was a computer rendering from a graphic artist who knows nothing about reality... He's good with pixels, but gravity tends to make things he draws a tad difficult...
Fortunatly, since my immeadiate client was gone, I could get away with a little more... That's not to say we didn't do a great job, but there are things that no normal person will notice, that someone in the field will... Things like a couple wrinkles in a drape, or the podium not being in the exact center of the stage, or a cable that is hanging down a couple inches from a lighting position... Since we were messing around with the "artsy" stuff for a while, I just let some of that detail crap go... There are times when we make more work for ourselves doing details that the world won't notice... Usually pride will make me do them, but after you've been up almost 24 hours, you manage to be able to get over your pride in the intrest of getting out the door for a couple hours sleep...
With my partner out, there I run in to the issue of trying to direct a sizeable crew, which is not problem usually... The stress comes when we're loading or unloading trucks mostly... I find it difficult to be both out on the trucks, and inside telling people where to put things, or what to send out next... I really must learn to delegate more, but then, I'm a control freak... Such is life...
And now, I've got two more strikes, and one load in to deal with before July... I'm taking July off since there really isn't any business then... I imagine I'll get bored and deal with some shop projects, but no outside clients!! I can't wait!