Open Forum

Hi All!

There's a new blog post up about my theatre experience, and I wanted to highlight a section from it that you may find useful.  When I was at KCACTF Regionals, I had a judge mention a new way of numbering lighting cues, and since then, I've done it a few times, and it has been a great tool for our productions.

Consider numbering lighting cues differently: I number my lighting cues based on pages, not 1, 2, 3... If the cue is on page 7, halfway down the page, it's cue 7.5. This numbering helps immensely during the rehearsal process, as you instantly know where you are in the script based on what cue you're in. Cue numbers are set during a paper tech, once we nail down the call line. If you've never tried this method, it is worth trying.

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Sydney Thiessen
Fine & Performing Arts Coordinator and Technical Director
Reynolds High School
Troutdale OR
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Hi, 

This concept is intriguing but I am not sure how it works with lighting cues. If you have more than 10 cues on a page, you won't line up with your lighting cue numbers in your board. I know you can do 1.1, 1.2 etc in a board, but after 1.9 most boards have to switch to the next whole number.  So if you know your show has less than 10 cues were page I Guess it works, but otherwise, your stage manager won't be able to line up the cues with the board cues.  And to me having two systems running in one script seems odd. 

But otherwise, it definitely helps find your way through the script. Just that little hiccup.

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Dan Mellitz
Technical Director
St Andrews School
Barrington, RI
Www.techiegreenroom.com
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Having more than 10 cues per page is fairly rare, and if this happens, I borrow from the page before or after. And if I have to borrow from the surrounding pages, it's even less likely that those pages will also need 10+ cues.

I can usually see this coming ahead of time when I write my lighting score, which I include page numbers for.  That way, I know if something like this would work with the show I'm working on.  If this is a fast-paced show with lighting changes every few seconds, then it wouldn't work, but those shows are not as common as shows that have 1-4 cues per page.

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Sydney Thiessen
Fine & Performing Arts Coordinator and Technical Director
Reynolds High School
Troutdale OR
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2018 07:04
From: Dan Mellitz
Subject: Numbering Lighting Cues: Trying Something Different

Hi,

This concept is intriguing but I am not sure how it works with lighting cues. If you have more than 10 cues on a page, you won't line up with your lighting cue numbers in your board. I know you can do 1.1, 1.2 etc in a board, but after 1.9 most boards have to switch to the next whole number.  So if you know your show has less than 10 cues were page I Guess it works, but otherwise, your stage manager won't be able to line up the cues with the board cues.  And to me having two systems running in one script seems odd.

But otherwise, it definitely helps find your way through the script. Just that little hiccup.

------------------------------
Dan Mellitz
Technical Director
St Andrews School
Barrington, RI
Www.techiegreenroom.com
------------------------------

We've used this system for 2 musicals (Big Fish. Once Upon a Mattress) and 2 main stage plays (The Diviners, Anne of Green Gables).  We've never had more than 10 cues on a page, even with the back and forth in the drowning scene of The Diviners.  Our technicians and stage managers love it.  In fact, when the student designer for the student production company went back to the old way, the entire student production staff was irritated.  They've now sworn that they will never go back again!

We do have to abandon it every spring because our black box board is a Leprecon that can't handle anything but whole numbers.  I'll be grumbling about it in a month or so!

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Laura Steenson
Theatre Director
Reynolds High School
Troutdale OR
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2018 07:04
From: Dan Mellitz
Subject: Numbering Lighting Cues: Trying Something Different

Hi,

This concept is intriguing but I am not sure how it works with lighting cues. If you have more than 10 cues on a page, you won't line up with your lighting cue numbers in your board. I know you can do 1.1, 1.2 etc in a board, but after 1.9 most boards have to switch to the next whole number.  So if you know your show has less than 10 cues were page I Guess it works, but otherwise, your stage manager won't be able to line up the cues with the board cues.  And to me having two systems running in one script seems odd.

But otherwise, it definitely helps find your way through the script. Just that little hiccup.

------------------------------
Dan Mellitz
Technical Director
St Andrews School
Barrington, RI
Www.techiegreenroom.com
------------------------------

Sort of a one-to-one 'patch' for cues!

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Beth Rand, EBMS
Lighting Designer
School Theatre Operations Coach

Next HIGH SCHOOL THEATRE MANAGEMENT ONLINE COURSE for Drama Teachers: Spring Session closed. Summer session starts June 4th.

NEW SERVICE: REP PLOT DESIGN - Never have to re-hang and re-focus all your lights again! (Can be accomplished remotely if you're not in the Boulder/Denver area.)

Author of "THE HIGH SCHOOL THEATRE LIGHTING REP PLOT" and several more books at http://www.presett.org/helpful-books-for-you.html.

www.PRESETT.org
Westminster, CO
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