Week Two - What a Week

This week was, in all honesty, one of the most hectic and busy weeks of my Proctor career. The week started off easy enough, with the task of cleaning the backstage looming, I decided to have a change of pace and clean the scene shop. That decision, along with the task of cleaning the under seating storage still ahead, started the ball rolling on a slew of other smaller and just as intense “mini projects” that turned out not to be so mini. I spent the remainder of the week moving from one project to the next, all the while knowing that this coming week would be even busier and more hectic. Fortunately a lot was accomplished this week, the monitor was installed in the booth, the under seating storage area was organized and cleaned out of debris, the scene shop and accompanying tool bench and paint area were cleaned and organized, and the website was improved and worked on.

I, despite what it may sound like, really enjoyed this weeks worth of work. I know just how much of an assistance I am providing to both Micheal and Terry, and that combined with the ability to fully unleash my obsessively compulsive tendencies has turned what would otherwise be a month of gruelling work, into an exiting and thoroughly busy week of help that was so desperately needed.

I have learned in-numerous lessons throughout the week; ranging from the simplicity of, wear a hardhat in under seating storage; to the complexity of,  how to setup the sound of a horse race indoors. It is astounding what I have learned this week; however, it is unfortunate that currently I don't have time to reminisce about the past week, because the next week has already begun and the theater is already alive with the hustle an bustle of the final week of senior project for me and the final week of practice before the show for everyone involved in the musicale.

Day 10 - Music and Monitor

So today for senior project I worked backstage, again. This time my work consisted of setting up two whiteboards so that we could potentially use them to write up to-do lists durring production. I also worked on generally cleaning the backstage area, as for it constantly becomes cluttered from drama tech. Today maintenance also worked in the booth, and finished installing the monitor, now I just need to setup the cables and a cable track to the computer and it will all be working to perfection. This afternoon I also had my second meeting with Seth and Sam at Pizza Chef to go over the progress of our senior projects. And  now I am at Colby Sawyer college preparing for the Proctor ensamble show tonight.

Day 9 - Keys and Things

5 1/2 Hours

Clean Work Bench

So most of today was spent looking for a key that I managed to misplace, once finding said key the rest of the day was spent doing other various cleaning projects. I helped Terry bring over some of the rented costumes for the play in the morning, then worked on organizing the area directly outside of Terry and Michael's office.

After

Before

Later in the afternoon I worked in the under seating storage organizing all of the paintings and various other flat objects into a stack in the front corner, thereby allowing for there to be room for the theater seats when they take them out for the orchestra.

 I also worked this evening on looking for a shelf to purchase for the booth to hold all the various sound equipment, as well as organized the mic and speaker cables into bundles. Than later this evening I volunteered my services to the World History class, and specifically Emi Morrison, for her dance production about social acceptance.

Day 8 - Mice, Isn't That Nice

5 Hours

Today, with allot of Terry's help, I managed to clean out an astonishing amount of junk from under seating storage. Together we bagged over six large trash bags, along with two rolling chairs, a large basket, and various cloths to be disposed of. Along the way we also found some mouse houses and half eaten fake pears and candles. After spending most of the day working in the dust filled air under the seating, I spent some of the late morning time working again in the scene shop to clean up some of the piles of assorted junk that has managed to infiltrate into the ranks of the tools, paints, and useful wood. Then after cycling practice and dinner, I returned to the theater to organize and test some dead bulbs and work in the booth on sound effects for the play.

Day 7 - Paint, Set, Sound, and Storage

5 1/2 hours

Today, I yet again forgot to take any pictures for your viewing pleasure; however to make up for it I will write a shortish Blog entry, so you don't get bombarded with text. I started the day by working on preparing the sound system for the show, I moved the two large monitors to the grind, creating a false surround sound, then moved one of the small monitors to the orchestra area and the other to under the stairs on stage for sound effects to play through. Once completing that I worked on a set piece of the show, it's a moving doorway, I added bracing and walls to the doorway, then made it so the platform can fully wheel around. Once I became fulfilled in my endeavor to work on the set, I started to work on cleaning the paint area of the backstage, if I had pictures you would be impressed! Completing this task I then went to work, again, on organizing the under seating storage. With Terry's help both today and tomorrow morning the under seating storage is beginning to finally become neat and organized. Now, I just have to make sure that I will have something to do for the rest of Senior Project, that shouldn't be hard!

Day 6 - Start of Something New

5 1/2 Hours

And so began the second week of Senior Project, feeling a little overwhelmed, and very busy I started the day off by picking up the new monitor that my family purchased for the booth. After opening the box and attaching the wall mount, that hopefully Maintenance will be able to attach to the wall, I decided to start cleaning the Scene Shop. I have, throughout my three years at Proctor, cleaned the Scene Shop more times that I care to remember, and this time was no different. The tools always manage to become unorganized, and the worktable always manages to be covered with a variety of screws and sawdust. After spending most of the day working backstage, preparing the Scene Shop for the last two weeks before the show, I decided I would spend an hour or so working in the underseating storage to make a valliant attempt to orgonize and clean the unorganized and dirty. Unfortunately I was so busy today that I didn't have time to take any pictures, so here are some from the weekend when I went to the Pro GRT race at Highlands.

Week One – That was Fast

My first week of senior project has gone extremely well. I started the week off with an introduction to what Terry Stocker and Michael Littman expect of me, as well as what projects they would like me to accomplish while here. Durring the week I learned a lot about the organization and contents of the Wilkins Meeting House and the Norris Family Theater. I also continued to teach myself a lot about website design as I continue to work on the theater arts website. I have truly enjoyed the valued work that I have been doing as for I know just how great of a help it is, not only to both Terry and Michael, but to the Proctor community as a whole. I am extremely happy to be completing all the little projects that no one else has time for, as well as lending my technical abilities to the theater department to help them update their portion of the website, that has been needing significant improvements since its creation. The entire week has been full of surprises, from finding lost or forgotten pieces of equipment to discovering multiple rooms full of chairs and subsequently organizing them. I believe that I have managed to cope and learn from these many surprises while also aiding to alleviate the stress that the theater department has gained over the years from the accumulation of clutter. I look forward to the next two weeks as an opportunity to continue to work towards the completion of my two goals of creating a website and cleaning the theater spaces, as well as the opportunity to work on my third goal of designing the sound for the spring musical and teaching the inner workings of the audio and other technical equipment to students who will run it next year.