Since I was working with the other groups as well, I heard that Aya had to face a technical problem with the poster, but in the end (after a lot of frustration on her side) it was solved, and handed over to Ms. Tickle. I on the other hand took over the responsibility of creating the logo that will be used as means of promotion. I had to meet Mr. Johns, get the original Annie script, scan the logo, and clean it up. It was hard work, and time consuming, but in the end I finished the logo and saved it in a place where everyone else could access it. Later on once again we were faced with problems – this time from the IT department. They wanted us to move our files from where they were currently saved, and for this we use Nathanael’s account, since it was quite user-friendly (haha).
Another problem was the website. I heard that Caleb and Hector were in charge of it, but that it still had not been posted on the school intranet. So one day I stayed after school and finished up the site, and asked Mr. Kitch to post it up, which gradually happened. So basically all the back up work was done. Susheel took care of the tickets, and Anupama and Nathanael finally did their press release work. It was all tough…but that was only at that moment. Things became rougher later on.
The lessons came when we had to spend our time doing props. It was fun at first, but not so fun when we had SO much to do, in so little time. This was one aspect of my time management lessons. I worked on the laundry basket, NBC sign, microphones, lockets, and a few other things, and they all needed a creative mind and a lot of time and patience. These are things you don’t usually expect to learn during a theatre arts class, but I actually did.
The NBC sign took 3 days to complete. First I had to research on 1930s style billboards, and later had to find a way to put the logo on the board. After a lot of thinking, and help with printing from Ms. Paulenne, I was able to successfully complete this job too.
The props were just a subtle introduction to teamwork and responsibility, because it was only later that I realised how much the production depended on us. We held the responsibility of the set changes, the props being in the right places at the right time, the curtain timings, etc. It was all so stressful. Firstly, because the set was huge and complicating, and secondly because all the stuff was so heavy.
To get the timings right, we had to be focused, and we needed to know exactly what was happening and when.
The first day we practiced at the Bishop’s College Auditorium, I sat in the audience and wrote down a list of what should be brought on at the end of what scene, and drew up a sketchy plan as to who should bring what on stage. The next day I came to the auditorium with the details more clearly written out on a large Bristol board. We followed the instructions as closely as we could, but later on found out that it should be re-written again. The rest of the crew did this, while I was helping out with the lighting crew upstairs.
This was my other task for the play – to be the translator, or rather the link between the lighting crew of OSC and the lighting crew of the auditorium. I learned more about the lighting pods, and how to use the switchboards, since I needed to understand it to explain to Chris and Daniel, who encountered a few problems during the process. It was all great since I learned the basics of lighting, and at the same time made friends with the maintenance staff, which was quite helpful throughout the rest of the show.
Being a member of the crew really did put a lot of responsibility in to our hands. I was officially in charge of the curtain, and just HAD to get my cues right, as to when the curtain should go up, and when it should go down. If I messed up a bit, I was guaranteed a blasting from the heads who were on the other side of the curtain. No matter how hard we worked, it seemed that we always were looked upon negatively. However, together as a group, we discussed the whole issue and I guess we motivated each other. Jens’ frequently used phrase “at least it’s Ms. Tickle who’s grading us, and not them” kept echoing in our heads, forcing us to not take what the director and producer of the production told us, personally. It became less offensive that way, and we drove towards success.
I can confidently say this, because for sure, on the last night of the performance, we had mastered everything about Annie Junior. We knew exactly when to do what, where everything should go, minimized our time between set changes, plus (an additional point) memorised the lyrics to most of the songs! It was really a hectic, frustrating experience. But in the end, it really, really was worth it. I learned so much about everything. Lighting, props, responsibility, the importance of translating accurately, those being just a few of what I learned. Then, I’ve never seen Gel so mad, Aya so frustrated, or Susheel work this hard – I learned new things about my peers too. It was all a memorable experience, and it took a lot of willpower to switch to the “mansion” scene, or the “NYC” scene – the two most unfavorable scenes but yet popular in that funny kind of way.
Yes at the end of the day, I had swollen feet and sore arms plus aching muscles. But beneath all the pain, was a package of new experiences, bundled up throughout a single production. It really was a memorable experience, which I may not have explained here thoroughly enough – but then again, sometimes there are things that words just cannot explain. (I’m not being corny…it really did teach me A LOT!)
