Wait a second, did you think I was just going to blurt it out? No back story, no explanation, no nothing? Where is the fun in that?
When people would come visit me at shows, they always seemed amazed at how hard everything looked and how difficult it must be to do. It would make me think about how hard it actually is. Then my mind would go back to my time in Marine Corps Boot Camp and how hard that was.
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Having worked in a commercial ship I can attest to the fact that they try to make things as easy as possible to set up. Everything is run at exactly the right length and loomed together so all you have to do is lay a bundle of cable on the truss and everything falls exactly where it needs to be. Either that or the cable is actually already taped to the truss so there's even less work to be done. That being said, I've never actually seen a large arena load-in so I can't actually say that these methods work. But I understand that when you have to load in a show quickly every single night with a different crew, making it as easy and obvious as possible is essential. I get how you can make something harder than it needs to be for yourself as I've done this before. Sometimes it helps to take a step back and think about what you're doing at which point you realize you've make it stupidly difficult. The problem is that sometimes you don't realize that until the very end and you've been stressing and angry for no reason.
I really liked this article because it simply summarized what I've been trying to tell myself almost every day for the past few years: 'hard' is relative. If you pull your focus away from the situation (see "the forest through the trees", to use a cliché) and look at it objectively, it becomes easier for you to handle, manage, and complete whatever it is you're having trouble with. I've noticed that I unconsciously make everything more difficult for myself and for other people. There doesn't have to be a key that connects the red wire to the blue wire to the purple connector and then back to the black tube and so on. Every once in a while, you've got to remember that your mind doesn't always work in exactly the same way as someone else's mind works. And, to my chagrin, that's why there are conventions. Blue cable goes to blue truss; purple wire goes to purple connection--simple and easy to communicate. Putting it all together might be a pain in the ass, like Mark says, but it's better to have a rough load in and a smooth run through.
This article really speaks to me as I had that "Aha!" moment a few weeks ago during my lighting mini. I have to admit, I am not great at lighting. I have trouble understanding the lingo that goes along with the different type of lights, and overall, it doesn't quite make clear sense to me. I know enough to My "Aha!" moment was when I realized that everything is color coded for the actors during run crew as they know even less than I do. I literally matched colors for a bit of time until I learned more about lights to understand what I was actually doing. I am so thankful that I realized that simple thing, or I would have stressed out more than I already did.
Every time I have been shown how a tour works, I have the same reaction: "wow, that's really hard". But as the article explains, hard is relative, and knowing how things work and why changes one's perception of difficulty. It seems like a lot, but it is really a very simple process used to complete a difficult task. Behind all of the "wow" moments is a lesson, one that I constantly have to work on performing myself. Keep it simple. Don't make things harder than they have to be. I find that I often over-complicate things, and that it makes things harder for me later on. On a tour, with so much equipment and so little time, simplicity is key.
I can see why people would think loading in a tour is hard. One minute there is just a large patch of grass with power from somewhere and the next thing you know there is a large stage complete with sound and lights in front of you. This amazement can further be amplified if you have no background knowledge of how it is actually loaded in. On the other hand, I can see why it is necessary for load in to be a simple as possible. With a different crew loading in and striking every time, you can't expect them to be able to figure out the set up in a matter of minutes. I wonder the amount of confusion that happens even with color coded and numbered pieces though. Even if it is a simplified process, everything is confusing the first time you see it.
Things that you have never done before always look hard or impressive. I think about my parents, who have never done theatre in their lives, and how every show impresses them. Even bad shows. They aren't critical because they don't know. They see a skill set they haven't learned, and there is a "wow" factor to that. That relates to boot camp because a similar thing happens. I don't have that skill set, and it looks impressive and daunting to me. But if were really completely soul crushingly impossible, nobody would ever make it through. I also like what the author said about having problems because he was supposed to be. I feel like people make issues for themselves during processes at times because they think they should be having them. Half the battle is mental.
I chronically forget to look up and really see what I am doing. I remember when I was relatively little in maybe the first or second grade I had a math sheet on variables. I looked at the sheet, knew that a number would replace or be equal to "X" when I finished the problem, and immediately thought that was too easy. That it couldn't be that simple. Rather, that it couldn't be so simple that I actually understood it. What ensued was an hour and half of my increasingly-exasperated father trying to explain variable without telling me that in essence the letter was the number. I needed to have that problem, that stumbling block. I still second guess myself every time I do something that looks right the first time. But I'm getting better at looking at things in relation to each other. I recognize that the assignment I'm working on counts for less that 2% of my final grade. I work for the "A" instead of the "A+". Working on that math worksheet, I had the blue cable and blue truss lined up, I just thought the cable had to be wrapped around a truss of a complementary color before making its way to the blue truss.
Having had the opportunity this summer to work as IATSE 3 overhire on a PNC Park strike, I can definitely see where this article is coming from. This is not meant as an insult to anybody working in IATSE or as overhire, but everything really is engineered so a brainless monkey could do it. The only thing in common between every venue a tour visits is that they'll have no idea how skilled (or not) the local crew will be. Everything on the tour must, and is, stripped down to the lowest common denominator so that you can be half asleep and have no idea what is going on, and still get the job done correctly and speedily. The most comical moment from the call is when I realized that you were "special" if you had the honor of using a hammer to disassemble pieces of scenery.
What fascinates me is all the planning that goes into making sure load in and load out are such a mindless process. Certainly, it takes a lot of brains and skill to make the actual event require no skill!
I realized after reading this article that I have always taken the long way around in doing things-in turn making things more difficult for myself. I suppose that I rarely took a step back to see the big picture and that ended up making me be closed out to any other perspective. I have since learned that with pure focus and intention I can get done what I truly need to in a more time efficient manner. I have had the realization that the author speaks of in his article and I am excited to see where I can go with this from here.
I don't know how much I agree with this. Yes, people often overcomplicate things, especially in theater. We have all been on load ins where everyone was freaking out and things as simple as getting scenery through doors has seemed like the end of the world. However, I think that Mike’s simpler way of looking at things has some much work behind it that he is not touching upon. It takes a really organized person or group of people to make sure everything is colored and numbered and that its all done properly. They have to sort through all the gear find out exactly what is going to be needed where and then come up with a system that makes sense to everyone involved. Yes, load in is easy when you just think about it in colors and numbers, but that can only happen once someone has already solved the puzzle before you have even seen it.
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