USITT News: Alyse Porsella is an Automation Technician with Cirque du Soleil at Sea on board the MSC Bellissima. But before she called the sea her newest home, her time with Elite Training and life on the road brought an arsenal of skills to her already robust repertoire. Alyse sat down with us to discuss tour life, the friends who’ve acted as mentors, and her one true love — automation.
4 comments:
Seeing articles about young professionals making their way into the entertainment industry always excites me, because it’s still processing with me that it could be me in that article in just a couple of years. I was not really exposed to an automation system before this year, but I have always been fascinated by the system and the precision that comes with it, especially for shows from companies like Cirque du Soleil. People always gripe about technology stealing jobs, but knowing how to operate, program, and maintain the technology will always be needed skills in any industry (until the automation learns to think for itself. Then I think we’ll have larger problems.) It’s always been my goal to tour for a few years out of college in whatever field I go into, to get the opportunity to travel and work at many venues and in different circumstances every night. There’s always the simultaneous thrill and pit in your stomach of loading into a brand new space, and not knowing exactly what you’re walking into.
It’s very exciting to see more young professionals talking about their experience in the workplace. I think also getting the perspective of an automation operator is cool because we don’t often have those experience during our stay in university. I think hearing about the terminology through the experience is helpful for us as students to contextualize the terminology that we here in our classes. Hearing about her work with Cirque helped me understand more about the way that cirque operates within their internal structure, both automation and otherwise. The experience that automation ops go through is much more holistic than the experience our ops have here because on the road and with professional companies ops get a more rounded experience because they are more experienced in the troubleshooting process. I wish our processes were a bit longer for the experience to have to problem solve issues that only really appear after a long run.
Cirque will always terrify me, but this job sounds intense! We had two calling stage managers come talk to us last year, and while they were here they showed us a calling video of one of their shows. It's absolutely terrifying to think that if you call something even a little wrong, a performer's arm could get broken, their ribs could get severely bruised, or their career might even end. I can't even imagine the life of an automation operator, as you have to be so well-versed in the most inner-workings of each move, each piece, and all of the contingencies should something malfunction. We used an automated deck in An American in Paris this past summer, and even just trying to plan for how we would do scene shifts should the turn table decide to not, well, turn, was nerve-wracking enough. I can't imagine the training and persistence that these ops must have, but also the payout and satisfaction that comes with the job sounds like it makes it worth it for these folx.
This is one of those jobs that falls into the I-could-never-get-used-to-the-pressure category. I am sure with proper training, you learn how to identify risks and you get a feel for how to ensure everyone’s safety, but I think that any time we moved forward with a scenic shift or an effect my heart would jump a little bit. The control you have over someone’s safety and security in this role is so significant, and it truly demands a skilled and responsible position as the operator. As Ally mentioned, the videos we saw during a seminar of the stage managers calling a few numbers from their respective Cirque shows was a really interesting experience. Understanding the amount of contingencies and signals they have to ensure safety is an intense education in and of itself, so being the one to actually be trusted to execute those calls must be a really exciting role to play.
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