All My Bags Are Packed

I'm ready to go.

Tomorrow is my last day of work, and Monday morning I get up early and head back to Iowa for another year of le schooling. I suppose, then, it is time for a final post. I'm going to look at the various elements of this summer and give my final impressions of them, in no particular order.

The people: This one's easy. By far the hardest part of leaving will be leaving the friends I've made behind. That's only cheesy because it's true. A couple have already left. The techs became my family this summer. I even got to know some of the performers, and believe it or not, they're good people too. There were plenty of days when none of us felt like cleaning up confetti, so we threw it at each other and cleaned it up anyway. Nobody enjoyed sitting in the heat, swatting mosquitos before parade, but it was always easier if you chatted with someone. All we've been talking about these last few weeks is how close it is to over, where we're going back to school or whatever, but in the end it's hard to leave. I'll miss you guys... but I'll be back to visit for Fright Fest!

The backstage job: Okay, let's face it. By my calculations, we did about 9 weeks of shows, seven days a week, with four shows a day, minus five three show days this week. That works out to about 250 shows. Assuming I worked 2/3 of them, that means I worked around 160 shows. Guess how many it took before I was comfortable with my job? Before I was competent? Before I was bored? I learned some good fly rail techniques, but after the first week of running shows, they really didn't change much. I picked up a lot of good things during setup, and throughout the run, too, especially about intelligent lights. A couple days during downtime I browsed the owner manual for our MAC 250s. I got to see the insides of a MAC and a Cyber. I learned to hate Cybers and color scrollers. And also confetti. On a broader scale, I learned some things about self-driven work. I learned about figuring things out on my own, or trusting my own ideas of how to get things done. Several times I was told to do something, but not how to do it, or I noticed something myself that had to be done, and instead of running to my supervisor to ask how, my fellow employees and I took care of it.

I still think ShowStoppin' is a pretty cool show. A live band would be more awesomer though.

The parade: The parade was fascinating in a sense of how it was regarded by those involved in it. During the middle of the run it was a constant morale killer, and understandably so. It was hot. Mosquitos were horrible. The performers had physically stressful duties. And if it rained and the parade was cancelled, we got off early. But toward the end of the season, it seemed to me that people started to hate the parade less, if not even like it. Parade would seem to be better than running ShowStoppin' again. Maybe we got used to the heat. Maybe the performers were developing stronger calves. Maybe we started using bug spray. Maybe we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Or maybe we noticed how much the little kids watching us go by absolutely loved it.

Nah.

But for some reason, in the last couple weeks, we've once again been dancing backstage to the preshow, shouting "KEY CHANGE!" in the middle of "If I Wanted to Change the World," and actually telling each other to "have a good parade." I like it.

The living situation: Not bad. Not great, but not bad. Living in one room with someone else for three months turned out to be fine for me, but that might have been partly due to the knowledge that it wasn't indefinite. I like my privacy sometimes, from anyone, really. Price-wise, it again wasn't bad, but not great. In the end I was charged just over $100 a week. Add on groceries and we're looking at about half my paycheck. The good news? It was really close to the park, and I got maid service, and I always felt safe.

The internship as a whole: Good. For an ISU Theatre student, we're talking an out-of-state internship that pays and lasts the whole summer. There's good potential for repeat, too. The experience is definitely a lot different than what we get at ISU, and a good experience overall. You get entrance to the park for free. You get to hang out in the Chicago area and ride trains downtown and see good shows. If you manage to live with a friend/family member for the summer, you'll make a fair chunk of money. Otherwise you should be able to easily break even. You'll meet people. And you'll put smiles on a lot of people's faces. And you'll be ready to take classes again.

Plus blue polos are sexy.

Have a Six Flags Day!

A Long-Expected Update

So, by popular demand, and because it's been a very long time, I update. The reason I haven't updated is that there really isn't much to update about, at least concerning my job. It hasn't changed much in the last month. Still four shows a day, still parade at night. Still problems with the traveler and the confetti that come and go.

On the other side, my parents and friends have come to visit me several times, which has been great. I've had a lot of fun this summer, but I'm ready to go back home in 15 days, see everybody and start school again.

Most fulfilling part of my job: driving in the parade and passing a little boy who yells, "Woooooooowwwww!"

More Duties

It's a good thing.

Over the past couple weeks, my duties during the show have been slowly piling up, to the point where I no longer sit for fifteen minutes after I take the sign out. Now I wait for the blackout after Live Like We're Dying and I clear the fogger and light used to get an outline effect in Closer. Then I pick up some clothes and take them to the dressing room. Then I go back to the loft. Also, later in the show, I go into the girls' dressing room (or stage left, depending which dancers are there) and help with the quick change before Circus. I pretty much just zip zippers, but it's a good start. I've never done quick changes before from the tech standpoint (had my fair share as an actor in We Won't Pay, though).

The other night a bunch of techies went to a coworker's place by a golf course. We ended up staying up by a bonfire until it started getting light again. The great thing is we don't work until 2:30 PM, so we still get somewhat respectable amounts of sleep.

Mark came and visited me and we jumped in the lake at two separate places. Cold. We also ate at Emily's Pancake House, and it was delicious. Zeb came the day before and we went to the park and rode the coasters (rolled the coasters?). It's great to have people come visit me but it just makes me miss Iowa when they leave.

We've been running the show and the parade back-to-back for a couple weeks now. At least it feels like it. So here's an update for my faithful reader(s?).

We still have sporadic problems like the traveler getting caught on the railings and cybers staying on during blackouts. Did I mention that I have access to the breakers for the cybers and I often have to turn them off in the middle of a show? It's weird, I don't understand how a light can just not function the way it's supposed to. I'm not sure why we use them, because it seems like a MAC could do almost everything a cyber can, and more dependably, apparently.

The confetti still creates challenges. We're getting good at sweeping it all up between shows - yesterday we had four minutes left before the house was to open and we'd already cleaned the stage. But Bessie, the confetti drop (named because Carrie once lamented that shaking the drop whilst empty was like milking a barren cow), likes to catch on the first electric and tear her holes open, which we can only really fix with gaff tape. The holes were originally seamed, I think with a sewing machine. It would have been really nice to have a serger instead.

And the other morning I had to restring Bessie. The main tie line strings that we were pulling on were rubbing against something up above (I suspect a poorly aligned pulley) and one of them had broken already. So we brought her down, adjusted her pulleys and restrung her, then filled her and barely got her out before the house opened for our first show. Hmm, I guess when I say "morning," I mean 2:30 in the afternoon.

It's about the Fourth of July, which means we're doing some minor decorating. Namely, I am helping to gel the lights that light up the American Eagle rollercoaster at night. Red, white and blue, believe it or not. The fun thing is that these lights (which I haven't actually seen) have giant homemade gel frames. Also, they run really hot, so we have high-heat gels and put heat shield in the frame as well. Story goes that those gels are still trash after Fourth of July season is over. Hopefully they last until next Wednesday - we're having Retro Ride Night with the American Eagle, The Iron Wolf and The Demon. And also karaoke.

As for parade, last night was a typical sort of night - Ursie popped off the tracks in Mardi Gras, and I steered her back on, no problem. By the way, when you visit the park, stay behind the white line during the parade. It's real important. Fortunately, we have a ton of employees from security and such also guarding the parade route, and they believe in the importance of keeping people back. It's not unsafe, it just, like many things, has the potential to be dangerous. That's why we're professionals.

Have a Six Flags Day!

The Rut and the Roots

We've finally settled into our schedule for the rest of summer. We run the show four times a day, with a break after two. Then we hustle to set up the parade stage, do parade preshow and parade, then we go back and sweep up confetti and go home. Except the parade still gets cancelled about one out of three times due to rain. Why is the parade cancelled because of rain? I think safety. One night we did it and it started raining during the middle of the route and ol' Ursie (the Opening Float) popped off the tracks. Twice. I think I wrote about that already.

Other than that, things are pretty smooth. Mostly. We do have some ongoing problems:

1. The traveler still likes to get caught on things. The solution? We need a bigger flyspace.

2. The dimmer box for the circus lights has started enjoying getting caught on the confetti shaker. Flyspace again.

3. Sometimes the cybers decide to go nuts during a show and I have to switch them off at the breakers. I have no idea why.

4. Other random things. Like yesterday we had a power surge right before a show and all the MACs flash overheated. We held for two minutes and they started to cool down right as we were starting.

5. And finally, the air conditioning. Decided not to work. Yesterday. And maybe today, I don't know yet. That building is designed for air conditioning, and it just gets hotter and hotter without it. Which is bad, especially for dancers that do four shows a day. Crossing my fingers on this one.

Starting ShowStoppin' and Other Stuff

A lot of things have happened! ShowStoppin' opened, for one. This means we've almost settled into the schedule we'll follow for the rest of summer... almost. All that's missing is doing the parade daily, which we'll start next week. Speaking of the parade, I think I know why we don't do it during the rain - when the tracks are wet, the floats like to pop off them. Thankfully, these floats have full steering control, so the ever-watchful guide simply steers you back onto the tracks.

Anyway, the ShowStoppin' schedule for me is as follows: arrive and start work at 2:30, do work notes such as straightening the traffic lights or trying to get the traveler to work right, and make sure the stage is clear of confetti from the previous day by the time the house opens at 3:10. The first show starts at 3:30. In the first blackout after the announcement, I fly out the ShowStoppin' sign. Then I sit through several songs until Telephone, when my cohort joins me. In the blackout before Telephone, we fly in the long truss (on two separate lines) with an LED bar and a telephone cord/mylar curtain drop on it. Over the course of the song, we tilt it one direction, then to horizontal, then the other direction, then back to horizontal. Then I give it a good yank to get it started flying out in the next blackout and I run to the traveler to try to close it before the lights come up. If I'm lucky the traveler closes nicely. If I'm not, it flips over a railing or gets caught on a support joint or something. Then during the next song I cheat in the traffic lights as far as possible without them being seen by the audience. In the blackout before Green Light I fly the downstage triangular truss set out a couple feet (this is a double purchase system, by the way - all of this is done from a loft). I also start flying the traffic lights in during the blackout. When the lights come up I slow down so the traffic lights enter slowly and stop when the music picks up. After Green Light I fly the traffic lights out. Then during Anyways we have a truss cue where I bring in the downstage truss set slowly and my cohort (who is sometimes Carrie and sometimes not) brings in the upstage truss set slowly and we go different distances and start and stop at the same time. Then I climb out of the loft during Are You Gonna Be My Girl and fly in the circus lights before Circus. If needed, I then help with a quick change. Finally I unhook the confetti shaker and make a huge confetti mess for a couple minutes. Then I fly out the circus lights, the show is over, and we wait for the house to clear. At that point we have about fifteen minutes until the house opens for the next show, and the stage is covered in confetti, which brings me to the most challenging part of my job: making sure the confetti on the stage ends up back in the confetti shaker before the house opens again. Pretty much all the techs spend all fifteen minutes on this task and we still cut it close.

We do two shows and then go on break, then two more shows and we're done. Next week it'll be parade right after our fourth show. While I'm excited for that, they will be tiring days, especially for the performers.

More news! Tonight was the first employee "ride night," where all the employees are invited to go and ride select rides and play some of the games after the park is closed. A bunch of us techs went and had a great time. I rode the Superman four times in half an hour, and three of those times were right in a row. I also rode the Batman four times and the East River Crawler once. I felt pretty happy and sick. Carrie tried hard to win a giant stuffed dog on the game where you have to bank the whiffle ball into the box. She used up all her tickets so I gave her mine, and on her sixth and final try she won! Hopefully Sally enjoys her new dog.

Going back to Iowa to see Torch Song (and some certain people) this weekend!

Opening Eve

We open tomorrow. Well, later today. I'm excited. Four shows and a parade, assuming weather holds out. Had some good runs today/yesterday, so I'm not too worried about. It's to the point where I can dance along with the music while I do my job, so I think I'm pretty much set. Gotta stay on my guard, though - there's still a lot of things that can go wrong, especially with the big truss.

In other news, I climbed to the top of the A-frame's extension today to change a light bulb, only to find out that the bulb I had was bad. I also remade the safety cables for the traffic lights. Shinin' a spotlight, yo (on safety). Big truss now has a mylar curtain along with a telephone cord drop. So now every time we sweep up confetti we have to pick out mylar strands. And we sweep up confetti a LOT.

I foresee a run in the morning. This is good. Planning to go back to Iowa for Torch Song at Stagewest next weekend!

Excuse me? Is your show running?

We've started doing rehearsal runs of ShowStoppin'. Us backstage techies are at the critical point of something going wrong during a run, okay, we'll fix it for next time, then something else going wrong. Basically we're learning the show by making all possible mistakes. Hopefully we'll turn the corner today and start doing "perfect" runs.

Challenges! There's a big ol' truss that extends the length of the stage. This truss is hung on two line sets. During "Telephone," we bring the truss in, then rotate it up and down. It's pretty cool to watch because there's an LED bar that goes all the way across the truss too. Until yesterday, it was just a truss. Then they started hanging our "telephone cord" drop on it. That created a couple issues, the first being that there's not enough fly space for a truss that's hanging low so you can bring it all the way in without seeing a batten AND a drop hanging off of said truss. The second issue is that in an attempt to fix this problem, all we knew and had practiced about flying the truss changed. However, I expect that we will work out the details of that problem today and all will be fine.

Our other challenge of the day was the traffic lights. During the second-to-last run (we did four over the course of the day) one of the lights hit something wrong on the way in and twisted ninety degrees. We collectively forgot to fix it before the next run, and the next time they were flown in, the light hit the bumper wrong and stood on it. Turns out the traffic lights are hung on stiff lines - painted conduit, I think - and one standing on a bumper while the rest come in is a bad thing. The collar twisted and broke. Fortunately, there's a safety on all the lights up there, and that's exactly why. Nothing fell and no one was hurt. The light needs some serious repair, though.

We open on Saturday! I'm not working so I think I'm going to go watch it.

REE! REE! REE! REE!

Warning: A rather ordinary post.

The power browned out when I was in the shower today. All I could think was "Psycho!" Finished Seven Samurai, finally. It was long. So many people say it's a great, maybe the greatest, foreign film. I say, umm, it's really too different from what I'm used to for me to judge. I liked it, though. I love the way the samurai run. I wonder if that's a cultural thing, or an actual samurai thing.

In other news, the WoW addon I've been working on is nearly finished. I'm still adding the most complex piece of functionality, but hopefully that'll be done soon now that my internet has decided to work again. I'm pretty happy with it, might even upload it to curse.

Edit: I just enabled AdSense. This should be interesting.

I Get PAID For This?

Welcome to Six Flags!

So in case you didn't know, "Welcome to Six Flags!" is the customary greeting employees use with guests of the park. The customary goodbye is "Have a Six Flags Day!" This will probably be the last post I open and close with those words because this is the last megapost. That's right, after this one, I start posting on what's currently happening, as opposed to what happened a month ago.

This post is about my job. As previously stated, I'm a backstage technician at Grand Music Hall. But because the new parade opened earlier this year, before ShowStoppin', we've been spending more time on parade activities than ShowStoppin' duties. The first thing I did on the job was to help hang strobe ropes (Did you know strobes come in rope form? I didn't.) in trees in Hometown Square, where the parade pre-show takes place. I learned two important things that night:

1) The first major difference between working for Six Flags and working for ISU Theatre is that no matter how similar the tasks may be, Six Flags is not a theatre. This affects all sorts of things in all sorts of ways. For instance, I have to wear a safety harness when I climb a tree. Actually, I have to wear a safety harness when I climb a ladder. That might sound annoying, but in reality it just makes me feel like an astronaut.

2) Zip ties are really useful.

Since then I've climbed all sorts of things, like buildings, trusses (especially glad for the safety harness on that one), tall ladders, and really tall ladders. I've learned to operate the lift we use to do things on the on-stage electrics. And I've ridden a lot of rollercoasters. This is a good summer for me and heights.

Going back to the on-stage electrics, here's an interesting point: they don't move. They're deadlocked in place. You can't fly them in. How does that compare to my past experiences? At Fisher, we don't even have electrics. If you want to hang an instrument above the stage, you have to run a cable to it. At the George Daily Auditorium, where I did my high school theatre and worked theatre camp, there were, I think, three flyable electrics. All in all, I think the GDA's system was the nicest. You could bring the lines in to hang your instruments, but you didn't have to bother with running cables. I guess the single advantage to running cables is that you can have the electrics be on any line you want for any given show. And I suppose the system at GMH here isn't all bad. Once the instruments are up, they stay there for a long time, and movable electrics are extra variables, especially around untrained technicians (we're not dumb, but many of us are young).

Anyway, that was a nice tangent.

Fun fact: ShowStoppin' is a couple years old. That means the set was already built. And by the time I got there, it was already set up. There's a big false proscenium, a tall platform with an upstage entrance and two staircases, and a runway with grating and lights from below. And since it's a semi-permanent set, it's all pretty solid, with lots of steel and plastic and whatnot. There's traffic lights for one song and a big ShowStoppin' light-up sign. We've got a couple spot operators in the back of the house that do some pretty complex maneuvers, and all the performers wear wireless microphones.

And then there's the lights. Another difference between ISU and Six Flags is that Six Flags is a pretty big corporation with a pretty big budget. We've got moving lights, LEDs, circus lights, traffic lights, cybers, strobes... not to mention foggers and hazers. All in all, there's some pretty cool special effects running around, both in GMH for ShowStoppin' and outside for the parade and parade pre-show. The point of Six Flags shows is not to make you think. It's to excite and entertain you, and we've got the equipment to do that. Here's a list of instruments I've worked with that I've never touched before:

Martin MAC 250 Krypton moving lights (I'm unsure about the order of descriptors there. Also, I got to see the insides of a couple of these because they got a bit wet and we needed to dry them.)

LED Shadow boards (We use them for blacklight effects.)

Atomic somethingsomethings (Strobers, if I recall... I didn't do much but address them.)

Some crazy-bright LED heads that can light up the whole parade stage as bright as day from on top of a nearby building.

A couple of Super Trouper spots that don't diminish in power if pointed at a rollercoaster on the other side of the park.

And here's a list of some phrases I've picked up:

Intelligent lights - I think this pretty much sums up instruments that use DMX instead of dimmers.

Cybers - Lighting instruments that use a rotatable mirror to create moving light effects.

EL wire - Electroluminescent wire. The key to the Glow in the Park Parade.

Shroud - A box used to house lighting equipment.

And some skills I've learned or improved on:

Making data cable

Working with EL wire

Soldering in general

Doing fly cues

Driving a parade float

Eek. This post looks plenty long for now. I might have to have another one specifically about the parade and one about my ShowStoppin' duties too. For now, I need to stop typing.

Have a Six Flags Day!

A Tale of Two Roommates

Welcome to Six Flags!

I expect this to be a shorter sort of post. I've had two roommates since I've been here. Fortunately they've both been pretty easy to get along with. The first was an intern with Park Operations. We worked almost completely opposite schedules - I usually got home and he would already be sleeping, and I'd wake up and he was already gone. Well, he figured out he knew the guy next door from last year, so he decided to do a roommate swap.

Several weeks later I've finally got a new roommate. He's Chinese with perfect English, which is cool given my bad hearing, and he's an intern in games. As I type this we're watching 2012 on the DVD player. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Have a Six Flags Day!

A Park, a Parade and a Paycheck

Welcome to Six Flags!

Want to hear more about it? You do? Great! Six Flags (in case you haven't heard of it) is a large theme/amusement park chain with I think about a dozen parks around the US of A and one in Mexico City. Our particular specimen, Six Flags Great America and Hurricane Harbor, is in Gurnee, IL, which we all lovingly refer to as "Chicago." The founding idea of Six Flags is sort of to have a big, professional, well-run theme park in a location and at a price that is more accessible than some other company's big, professional, well-run theme park. It's pretty great. I get in for free.

Six Flags has two themes, Looney Tunes and DC Comics. It's the only place where Bugs Bunny follows Batman in the parade. There's also Scooby Doo and The Wiggles. But Six Flags also balances those themes with awesome roller coasters like the Batman, the Superman and the Raging Bull. And there are plenty of rides for the young 'uns too, plus a big ol' waterpark called Hurricane Harbor (free with admission!).

Where do I come in? Six Flags Great America has several shows (free with admission!) that are run by the Entertainment department, which also takes care of the characters wandering the park. The show I am working is the largest one, called ShowStoppin' (unsure about capitalization on that), and takes place at Grand Music Hall. ShowStoppin' is a song and dance revue-type show that features modern pop, rock, R&B and country music. And I'm going to be flying stuff in and out and helping with costume changes and whatnot. Clearly I'm not sure about my exact duties yet, because ShowStoppin' hasn't opened yet.

That's because the Glow in the Park Parade opened last weekend instead! What's a Glow in the Park Parade, you ask? Well, here's ours. Somebody put it up on YouTube the day after it opened because it's that cool. I gotta run now, more on the parade later! Suffice it to say that other parks have had the Glow in the Park Parade in past years, and it's new for Great America this year, so there's been a lot of work put into it to get it going.

EDIT: Have a Six Flags Day!

A Hotel Off of Northpoint, or In Which I Discuss Arrival and Settling In

Welcome to Six Flags!

This is my blog about my "internship" this summer at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, IL. I used quotes there because I'm pretty sure Six Flags doesn't consider me an intern, but anyway. My position: backstage technician. My show: ShowStoppin' 2010. My alternate duty: driver in the Glow in the Park Parade. My float: the opening float, aka Ursie. More on that later.

By the way, I expect to do a lot of comparison between my experiences here and those at ISU, so my apologies in advance for some gross analogies.

I arrived here on May 10th, so clearly I haven't written anything for a good long while. That's okay. I remember it all like it was yesterday... (cue wavy memory world transition). First, let's cover housing. I am in this year's 6FGA employee housing, which is a Crossland Economy Studios in Waukegan. I've got a special rate, so it's not too expensive, and we get maid service, so it's not too rough. The internets aren't so great (I tried to watch a Netflix stream once and it took four hours to watch a 70 minute Batman cartoon), and the cupboard space is limited. There's a small kitchenette with two burners and a mini-fridge. Otherwise it's basically a motel room from anywhere. I've got a roommate; more on that later.

My processing wasn't until later on May 11th, so I checked out the area. The motel is in a business park in Waukegan, which is a suburb about an hour north of downtown Chicago. It has a pretty cool marina and beach on Lake Michigan as well as a thriving Hispanic district that I hope to visit for food some time. Waukegan runs straight into Gurnee, where the park is. The "village" of Gurnee also contains a mall the size of Brownville, Nebraska, and more Pancheros's than the state of Iowa.

Overall I can't complain. I don't mind my housing establishment, and the area and people are nice. There's a Super WalMart about two minutes away, and work is about twelve minutes away. What more could one need?

Have a Six Flags Day!