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Monday, February 29, 2016

Mr.Kinner's Tool Safety Study Guide

Mr. Kinner's 7th and 8th grade tech classes were probably my favorite part about middle school. We didn't have a tech crew for shows, but 2 or 3 times a week we had a place to invent, design, build, and create really cool things using pen & paper and power tools. We made Rube Goldberg machines, mousetrap cars, built bridges out of balsa wood and had a contest for whose bridge was the strongest, learned about product and marketing design, and even programmed little Lego cars to drive around and play a monophonic tune!

Mr. Kinner's class was the coolest, and here is his study guide. This was given out after he gave demos on each of the tools. Without passing the safety test, you wouldn't be allowed to use the tools in the workshop.

Tools we needed to know about were the scroll saw, drill press, disc/belt sander, pneumatic nail gun, and hot glue gun.
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General Safety
*ka-chk* "Attention workshoppers, uhh, we have a child without supervision in the workshop.
If you are a parent holding a leash and there is a child missing from the end of it,
we have your child here. They are in need of safety glasses and a sense of focus,
or we're gonna need a clean-up at the band saw very soon. Thank you." *ka-chk*
1- No running or horseplay.
2- You must have permission to go back into the classroom after we start working in the shop.
3- You must wear safety glasses or goggles when working on the machines.
4- Do not talk to someone who is working on a machine.
5- If someone talks to you while you are using a machine, ignore them.
6- Long hair, long sleeves, loose clothes, and jewelry must be pulled back or put away when you are working with a machine.
7- Tell the teacher if you think your cutting tool is dull because it will not be safe to use.
8- Do not leave a machine that is still running.
9- If you have a question, you should wait quietly in line.
10- If you have a clean-up job, you should wait there when you finish until the teacher inspects your area.
11- If you do not have a clean-up job, then you should wait by the hallway door out of the way.

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Scroll Saw
Image from wiki.artisansasylum.com
1- You should install the scroll saw blade with the teeth pointing down.
2- If you have to loosen the blade for any reason, you must have Mr. Kinner check the machine before you turn it on again.
3- Move the saw mechanism up and down a few times before turning the scroll saw on to make sure it is working properly.
4- Before turning on the saw, check to be sure that the blade is tight in the upper and lower chucks.
5- You should stand in front of the scroll saw when cutting material.
6- Keep your fingers 2" from the blade.
7- Keep your fingers to the sides of the blade, not in front of it.
8- The scroll saw blade cuts by moving up and down.
9- Use both hands to hold the wood when cutting.
10- You should turn the scroll saw on before touching the wood to the blade.
11- If the blade breaks while you are cutting, turn off the machine, step back, and tell Mr. Kinner.

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Drill Press
Image from www.molpage.org
1- Make sure the drill bit is straight and the chuck is tight.
2- Put only the smooth part of the drill bit into the chuck, leaving the spiral grooves out.
3- Make sure the chuck key is removed from the chuck before you start the drill press.
4- Make sure the drill bit will not drill into the metal table.
5- The drill bit should drill halfway into the back-up block.
6- Students should not change the drill press speed.
7- Turn the pilot wheel slowly to lower the spindle.
8- Hold your material tightly with your left hand while drilling.
9- If the drill bit gets stuck in your material while you are drilling, let go of it and turn off the machine.
10- Put the drill bit away in the drill bit holder when you are finished.

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Disc/Belt Sander
Image from www.clarkservice.co.uk
1- You should make sure the sanding disc is not loose or ripped before using the machine.
2- The sanding belt is adjusted correctly when it is centered and not rubbing on either side.
3- Students should turn off the machine and tell Mr. Kinner when the sanding belt gets too close to the sides.
4- Students should not make any adjustments to the sander.
5- Use the side of the sanding disc that is facing you.
6- You should turn on the vacuum before using the sander.
7- Do not walk away from the sander while it is moving.
8- You should turn on the sander before touching your wood to the abrasive surface.
9- Keep your piece of wood moving back and forth against the abrasive surface while sanding.
10- Do not use the edge of the abrasive surface.
11- Your wood should always be held flat on the table when you are sanding.
12- If the sandpaper rips, turn off the sander, step back, and tell the teacher.
13- Only one person may use the disc/belt sander at a time.

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Pneumatic Nail Gun
Image from Prettyhandygirl.com
1- Always wear safety glasses.
2- Disconnect the nail gun from the air supply hose before clearing a jammed fastener.
3- Never use the nail gun if it is leaking air, has missing or damaged parts, or requires repair.
4- Never use the nail gun if the safety, trigger, or springs are inoperable, missing, or damaged.
5- Do not alter or remove the safety, trigger, or springs.
6- Connect the nail gun to the air supply before loading any fasteners to prevent a fastener from being fired during the connection. The tool driving mechanism may cycle when the tool is connected to the air supply.
7- Always assume the nail gun contains fasteners. Keep the tool pointed safely away from yourself and others at all times.
8- Do not load fasteners with the trigger or safety depressed, to prevent unintentional firing of a fastener.
9- Remove your finger from the trigger when not driving fasteners. Never carry the tool with your finger on the trigger; the tool will fire a fastener if the safety is accidentally bumped.
10- Fire fasteners into the work surface only; never into materials too hard to penetrate.

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Hot Glue Gun
Image from Technologystudent.com
1- Do not touch the nozzle area or melted glue. The operating temperature of the glue gun nozzle is 380F (193C).
2- Always use safety glasses.
3- Do not pull glue sticks from the glue gun. The feed mechanism may become damaged or impaired.
4- When the glue gun is hot, do not lay it on its side; place it into the stand.
5- Wait 3-6 minutes for the glue gun to heat up before using on any material.
6- Glue set up time is 50-60 seconds.
7- Large areas are difficult to bond because the adhesive frequently will harden before you have extruded the required amount of glue. Get a friend to help double-team it.
8- Glue is fed by simply pulling the trigger.
9- The amount of glue is determined by how far the trigger is pulled.
10- A hot glue gun or hot glue can cause second degree burns.
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Dance Show Notes

Before any more of these dance recitals come up, be sure to consider the following items and bring up in production meeting with director(s)/choreographer(s):

Costume colors
This can have huge bearing on what to do with the lights. If you've got a lead dancer wearing a red sequin outfit, using a bit of red in the front light will give that extra umph! so that they can really stand out.

Projections or backdrop
Some dance companies have a banner or backdrop for their competitions or recitals, others have a gobo with their logo on it, and some want an image projected. And then there are those that don't have a plan for the background at all, but never count on that being the case. Always see what they want and work around it.

Any song mashups?
Ask if they can please send names of songs within the mixes and MP3 file if possible. At a minimum, I like to have a different look per song in a mashup.

Any songs with unusual endings:
False endings? Be sure you never get caught blacking out too early! Oy, is that embarrassing.
Chopped off endings? Don't ask about it like that. But again, see if you can get the exact MP3's they'll be using in the show, and really give them a listen before show day. If you didn't know they cut off the final chorus of a song you know by heart, and you either cued it or were running lights on the fly and were saving a special effect for a special moment at the end of the song... But then the song ends and the dancers all freeze and there's nothing else happening... Yeah it's just an awkward little moment.

Any show-stopping numbers?
If all the graduating seniors get a really special lyrical dance that needs some extra emotional interest, or a musical theatre number that involves 5 of the dance classes all together and it's so humongous and crowd-pleasing, be sure it gets the attention it deserves from your lights.

List of songs in show order AND rehearsal order
The most helpful thing I've learned is to get both these lists before rehearsal start time so that at the very least, I can sit down and number each song by cue number.

Below is an example of a Show Order and Rehearsal order with the Q numbers written in. That way when I go in to cue for the rehearsal, I don't have to bother with link/loop functions or remembering what goes where, because it will all be written in. Future self thanks present self for remembering to do this.



Sunday, February 28, 2016

Theatre Maintenence Day

After every show closing in college, we would have a Theatre Maintenance Day to restore everything to as it was. One year, I was in charge of creating the list of tasks to complete, and assigning tasks to members of the theatre honors society, Alpha Psi Omega, based on what they were good at and what they liked. I grouped the tasks into categories for simplicity's sake, to make sure that all members had something to do. Each member had to put in an hour minimum to complete their maintenance requirement, and over a 4-hour period, all jobs were usually complete. 


Actors’ maintenance
Clean/dust book and model shelves in the Green Room
Scrub out microwave and two fridges
Wash windows & mirrors in Green Room and dressing rooms
Scrub out dressing room showers & sinks
Vacuum green room
Clean & vacuum under seat cushions in Green Room
Help organize Costume shop (sort crates and fold)
Take show props out to prop storage
Clean chalk boards
Scrub water fountains

Tech maintenance
Organize light storage, organize box of used gels
Organize cable storage
Scrub drafting tables
Dust/scrub clean the electrics
Assist with any light bulb changes in green room or dressing room areas

House maintenance
Clean up trash in the house from the last show
Dust framed photos on the walls
Sweep and mop all rooms, stairwells, and lobbies
Clean/ organize concessions
Do a sweep in the orchestra pit under the mainstage

To sweep and mop fully, remember to get into all corners of the room AND move all furniture out of the way to get underneath where it normally sits.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Corner Blocks

Corner blocks are one of the first things I remember learning about on day 1 of Stagecraft class in college. It answers the question, "What am I looking at?"

What Is a Corner Block?
Simply put, it's an info box that is drawn in the corner of a technical drawing, or draft, and gives you an idea of what you're looking at.

Info that's typically included will be the name of the show, where it is being put on, who is putting the show on, what scale this is drawn in, and if there are more drawings that complete the design. Here are a couple of examples:




How it's Used
If you were given a technical drawing, like a light plot or a ground plan with no explanation, you'd be awfully confused. Who is in charge of this drawing in case there are any questions? Where is this going when it's built?

"This is what you asked me to build. It's specified here, 18 inches."
Photo found at TheSkepticalZone.com
Now, if only there was some information so that the builder could have gotten it right the first time...
That's better!
BAM! There's our answer. There's our contact person. If the designer took the time and care to make himself available to the builder by simply adding this information, the builder would have known who to go to and had the means to get in touch before buying the materials and ask, "Are you sure you meant to write 'inches' instead of 'feet'?" Noticing a draftsperson's mistakes is critical to being a good builder, because it's not just about getting the job done, it's about making sure it's exactly what the client needs.


Let's take a closer look at what's involved here.

Below is a corner block that I used as a template when I was drafting all throughout college. I'll go through what each item is.
1) Theatre Company Name
Name of the organization putting on the show - High School Thespian Players? The Community Dramatic Arts Alliance? The Grand Fancypants Broadway Production Co.?
2) "Show Title"
Full name of the show itself - Anne Frank: On the Moon, The Music Man in ASL, Cyotes: The Musical
3) Author
Person who wrote the show
4) Draft Title
Is this a ground plan? Light plot? Front elevation?
5) Venue Name
Where this show is going to happen - Great Thespians' Auditorium? The Global Theatre?
6) Designer's Name
Who designed whatever this is?
7) Draftsperson's Name
Who drew whatever this is?
8) Checked
Has this been approved by anyone?
9) Date
How recent is this draft?
10) Scale
How does this compare proportionally to the real thing? What measurement on the page will equal 1"
Note: I don't know how scale is written out for metric use. But in the US it is most typical to make the scale relate things to 1 inch
11) Plate, aka Draft
How many drawings are there that make up the complete idea of this design, and which one is this in relation to the rest? This might be a scenic design that has front elevations, side elevations, a ground plan, and a sight line drawing; together those make up 4 plates, and this one might be the 1st of those 4.
12) The box outline
All of this information gets contained in one clean box. Nice and neat and all together.

It doesn't have to take up much space. The one I used is about 4"x4". Other people have their own designs that flatten it out and make it wider so they have more room for the actual draft. Some people's corner block goes straight across the bottom of the page, and includes much more information like the designer's contact info, their website, other companies involved with the production, etc. Do whatever you want and make it yours. Just be sure that it's consistent.



Monday, February 22, 2016

Hello!


Like a freshman on their first day of light lab, I'm excited to
be here, and I also have no idea what's going on. Photo credit: Jeff Greenberg
Theatre tech has been a great passion of mine for over half of my life.  I happen to be a lighting designer and technician professionally nowadays, but I haven't been an adult for very long, so take that knowledge nugget and everything else I say with a grain of salt. The things I write about here are my own personal account, and sometimes I get things wrong. One of my favorite things, though, is feedback and corrections so I can do better next time. 

As a Theatre Production major at a liberal arts college a few years ago, I had to take classes in areas other than my own, including stagecraft, stage management, and audio. After college, I had an internship which gave frequent seminars and master classes where I took copious notes as well.

All this time, I've had notebooks and folders and binders overflowing with the wealth of information I acquired, and now I feel like it can both benefit myself to type everything up, forcing myself to reread everything I originally wrote and add to it with what I know now, all the while keeping this information in a format which duplicates the hard copies in case they ever get damaged in real life; and it can benefit you, the reader. You might be a tech student doing some research, you might be an actor wondering how all this crazy jargon can possibly make sense to anybody, or you might have wandered over here by mistake. Whatever your reason for being here in the first place, welcome to my first blog ever. I honestly wasn't expecting any guests, sorry the place is a bit messy, but please, let me get you a drink and you can settle in.

About the name: Kick the House Lights
It references a story which I use as a reminder to myself that, 1) many of the greatest problem solvers came from humble beginnings, and 2) that all of us, no matter how great we get, face challenges in conditions that are less than ideal, and we all emerge from them with either a good time had, or a good story to tell later. If we're lucky, we get both.

The story was told by Chris Ashworth, the founder of Figure 53, a very prominent company which has made several industry standard programs that are used in theatrical applications around the world. Ever heard of QLab? That's thanks to him. He didn't start out with aspirations of designing programs that would have global implementation, though. He told the story at a regional USITT convention in 2011 of how early on in his career, he was the sound designer for a play in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and he described what it was like there. He said for an entire month or so, the city was filled with theatre and people enjoying themselves. That practically every available flat surface had a different play going on, and everybody was so happy to be there. His particular play was assigned to go up in a small bar in town. There he was, operating from the inside of what can only be described as a broom closet, with room enough for himself and the stool on which his audio console sat. When it was time to start the show, he was so scrunched in there, he could barely turn around to hit the light switch on the wall, but he could essentially kick the house lights and get the show started.

His delivery of this story and his whole keynote speech was so entertaining and inspirational to listen to. I found it so identifiable, because so much of theatre tech is about making do with what you have and making the best out of a situation. The audience can't tell what hoops you jumped through just to turn the lights out, or how long the director fought your artistic judgment on how a silhouette is supposed to look for that pinnacle moment in act II. All they see is magic. And we wouldn't even have the simplest of magic tricks if we didn't once come from the simplest of beginnings.

If you're reading this and you came here on purpose, thanks for being here :)