I’d like to say speak to the manager!!!

Pride Edition!

I graduated from grad school in 2006, with an MFA in lighting from the University of San Diego, California.  

I spent 6 weeks, that summer in Maine.  

During that time 4 of my friends, decided to do a drag king show in their garage.  They expected 20 people to show.  That night the yard was packed closer to 50/60 people. 

It was a party and the show was a blast.  It was performed on stock 4×8 platforms and we rented four PAR 64’s to light them.  I ran sound on a corner of the stage and the music would skip if the danced too aggressively. 

This was the beginning of something big.  

They continued to do shows. Getting bigger, better, and more popular as they did so.  

Fast forward 8 years, and they rent a 300 hundred seat theater and produce a full scale production.  They hired designers, stage managers, and a crew.  The show was a huge success sold out for the run and they considered it a failure because they were 400 dollars short when it was all said and done. 

I assured them I had many friends who would love to run a theater company that failed like that.  

In 2015, they produced another show in the same space.  We’re equally successful.  

I had been a part of all but one show.  

I acted as designer of course.  But I also directed and  choreographed.  We were best the theater in the wee hours of the morning as I taught them the choreography to thriller.  

That was their last show. 

To be a self producing company is a full time job.  And all of them had full time careers, partners, life that was not focused on theater.  

They’ve joked and contemplated doing another show ever since.  At the end of last summer they decided it was time. They started writing. They started planning. They started rehearsing. 

They approached me before the approached the theater space about a rental.  They made it clear that they’d forget the whole thing if I said no. I of course said yes. 

Meanwhile, the last show I designed was for them 9 years ago.  Except for appreciating the work of good designers at the shows we see, I haven’t thought much about it. 

I got to the theater early evening, and we focused lights and I roughed in cues for half the show. 

I called everyone up the stage to commemorate the recording of my first cue in 9 years.  

I also have to point out, that this is the first show, in my whole life, where I didn’t have a Diet Coke on the floor next to me. Today it was a polar sparkling water. 

Tomorrow night, I’ll finish cueing the show.  

We’ll rehearse Thursday, with a first and final dress on Thursday night. 

We open Friday. 

We close Saturday. 

The show has been sold out for weeks.  

It has fun to be back in the theater.  It was fun focusing.  It was fun writing cues.  It was fun realizing that programming an ETC board is ingrained in my head like knowing my name.  

I’ll check back in this week about how it’s going.  

Meanwhile my friends documented my work today.