Back to School Night!

On September 16th, the BHS Booth Crew got it's first real job of the school year. With several students having walked through BHS' doors for the new school year just three short weeks ago, it was now the parents' turn. The feature event of the night was a presentation by Angela Maiers, a quest speaker who specializes in 21st century education and technological application in school systems. Mrs. Maiers' presentation covered an array of topics including the power that the internet gives it's users, the redefinition of what being a good writer means, and most importantly to BHS in this new transition year; how technology will change education both in and out of the classroom.

Working on the technical crew were Chris Coe, Pat Hanafin, Chris LaRocque, and Joseph Nosack. As far as technical details go, they ran Mrs. Maiers' 13-inch MacBook Pro into a VGA input bay located in the Performing Arts Center's orchestra pit. The VGA input fed into our projector up in the booth, which was used-as one would hope-to display the Keynote slideshow Mrs. Maiers had prepared.

As far as microphones went, they used 3 of our Audio-Technica wireless handheld microphones for those in the audience who wanted to ask questions, and an Audio Technica lavalier microphone for Mrs. Maiers.

Mobile Blogging?

It would appear that BHS Stage Crew has taken a leap forward; I'm updating this blog from my phone's email. More to come!

First Meeting Today!

Today the BHS Stage Crew had it's first meeting of the 2010-2011 school year. It was a quick introductory meeting, ran by Tori Carrabino and Chris LaRocque. The purpose of the meeting was to get contact information from the crew members, as well as outline the requirements and expectations for each and every crew member.

We also introduced two new ideas for this year's crew; regular stage crew meetings, and regular booth crew training.

Every week the Booth Crew will meet on Mondays to learn the skills necessary to run a full show. Up until this year, Booth Crew had largely been dependent on the skills and knowledge of purely one sound technician, and one lightboard operator. With these new meetings we hope to 1) Train the next generation of Booth Crew as certain members leave, and 2) Gain more people who are able to operate the systems, so that we will have someone available in any and all situations.

Stage Crew will meet every other Wednesday to learn EVERYTHING about the theater, with the exception of lights and sound. The purpose of these meetings is to make Stage Crew more efficient and educated so that setting up for a show, running a show, and maintaining the Fogelberg are done in a quick and professional manner.

Spring Sing

On June 9th, 2010 Burlington High School's Music Department put on their annual Spring Sing performance. Spring Sing is essentially a musical talent show, where chorus and non-chorus members alike audition to earn a 3-minute slot to perform a song for an audience of hundreds.

This show, as most put on by the music department, is crew intensive, requiring a great level of commitment and skill from both running and booth crew.

The format of Spring Sing essentially has one act go right after the other, each using a different number of microphones, a different arrangement of microphones, and a different lighting plot. The running crew's job becomes all about making sure that the right mic gets put on stage at the right time in the right place. Each performer signed up for a five minute tech time where they worked with Stage Crew to determine what they needed for microphones and lights, as well as the pit band they were provided with.

In order to ensure that the Sound Technicians up in the booth turned on the right mics for each act, the running crew had to keep track of which mics were going on for each performer. This daunting task fell on the shoulders of Tori Carrabino, our soon to be Stage Manager. Tori did a wonderful job ensuring that both running and booth crew knew what was going happening onstage, making for a smooth and professional performance. Tori was delegated the job by Kevin Parker, our outgoing Stage Manager, who organized our people on the ground and determined who would be moving microphones to their locations. The members of our running crew included Daryn Starkey and Nick Abruzzese. All four of our people on the ground also helped clear the stage of set pieces from our upcoming production of Little Shop of Horrors, as well as making sure that each of our Audio-Technica wireless microphones had fresh batteries.

Once the mics were on the stage, the responsibility fell to the sound technicians on booth crew. Leading up until tech times for Spring Sing, Chris LaRocque, our current sound technician, set up the monitors for both the band and singers, as well as making sure that the band's instruments were mic'd and sent through the sound system. Jess Olin, a sophomore, and Devin LaRocque, a soon to be freshman ran the soundboard for Spring Sing. Jessica served as an assistant sound technician during the high school's fall production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. This was Devin's first time running sound at the high school, but we hope to see him next year in the booth. Thanks to the great communication between the booth and stage sound was run effectively and each act was heard clearly. Great job to two relatively new sound techs!

However sound is not the only important aspect of a great show. Our light technician, Jon DiRusso, showed how professional he truly is. Jonathan created lighting designs with only one soundcheck to prepare, not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination. Not only did Jon design and run the lights but he also brought a new lighting effect to the BHS stage: Moving Visualizations. Jon got visualization software on his computer and ran it through our projector in the booth, creating swirling colorful images behind the performers that moved in time to the music and brought the performances to a brand new level.

Overall, Spring Sing was a roaring success. Both crew and performer alike felt wonderful about the show's professional execution and we're all excited to bring the show even further next year!

A Post from Outgoing Stage Manager Kevin Parker

If there is a single legacy I want to leave at BHS as I graduate, it is Stage Crew. Stage Crew has come such a long way since I joined it freshman year. From a ragtag bunch of untrained students moving set pieces around for the musical, to a highly trained group of near-professionals who work for all sorts of events in the high school, Stage Crew has really jumped leaps and bounds, especially this past year. It is truly astounding how the students in Stage Crew are so enthusiastic and excited about the work we do. I have put a lot of effort into making Stage Crew a club that will continue to grow and perform even more functions at BHS, while remaining a professional, enthusiastic group of students. But now I'm graduating. I can't be the one to make Stage Crew last through the years. That is on the shoulders of next year's stage manager, and the stage manager after that, and the stage manager after that, and so on. However, I have confidence that next year's Stage Manager Victoria Carrabino will inspire the Stage Crew to work hard and dedicate themselves, and will train a new Stage Manager who will do just as well. I want to thank Tori for all her hard work this yearas my Assistant Stage Manager making Stage Crew what it is today , and thank her in advance for continuing my legacy at BHS next year. I also want to thank Chris LaRocque for his work in the club, and Mr. Middleton for his support of the group and for proposing Stage Crew become an official school club.

I am pleased to announce next year's Stage Crew Core Crew:

Stage Manager: Victoria Carrabino
Booth Chief: Christopher LaRocque
Assistant Stage Manager: Samuel Coté

Lighting Specialist: Jonathan DiRusso
Sound Specialist: Christopher LaRocque

The postions of Rigging Specialist and Construction Specialist are currently vacant.

Thank you to all Stage Crew members. You are what will keep this club alive.

Kevin Parker

Looking to become an Official Club

Stage Crew, with the help of Mr. Middleton, Coordinator of Music for Burlington Public Schools, is proposing to become an official school club at Burlington High School. The Stage Crew Leadership Team has created a Constitution to define the goals of Stage Crew as a club and provide the Administration with a better understanding of what Stage Crew does. Hopefully, official club status will help Stage Crew to continue to grow and become a stronger group that still continues pursuing professionalism in stagecraft and technical theatre.

MassBay Music Festival

On Friday April 30th, the first ever MassBay Music Festival was hosted by Burlington High School. MassBay Music Festivals is a company associated with the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps that runs an educational festival for bands and choirs from the Massachusetts region. At such festivals as this one, bands and choirs compete against each other and are instructed by judges about ways to improve their performance. Unique to MassBay, each participant of the festival also attends a "Master Class," which is an educational time taught by a professional musician. Click on this link to learn more about MassBay festivals.

To assist in planning an event such as this, members of Stage Crew met with Ms. Kimberly Bolduc, the program's coordinator, the day before the festival. Kevin Parker as Stage Manager and Tori Carrabino as his Assistant Stage Manager talked logistics, space requirements, and performance set-ups with Ms. Bolduc, while Chris LaRocque met with the program's sound technician.

On Friday, it was showtime. Kevin had prepared the stage and practice rooms, with a group of Stage Crew members, early in the morning on Friday. As students arrived from Saugus High School and Rockport High School to participate in the festival, Kevin, Tori, and the Stage Crew members who were on the Project Team for the day coordinated with the High School's music directors and Ms. Bolduc to ensure a smooth opening to the day. Throughout the festival, the Stage Crew once again proved its professionalism and willingness to work, moving chairs, risers, music stands, and all sorts of percussion equipment around the Music Wing. Working with MassBay Event Staff, the Stage Crew maintained a positive and educational environment for the students attending the festival.

Ms. Bolduc and other Event Staff commended the entire crew's work and their level of professionalism. The crew was thanked in the Awards Ceremony at the end of the festival.

This event was a great educational experience for all crew involved; it was a novel type of event for all of them to crew. Generally, the stage crew only works for theatre and dramatic productions. The festival showed them another venue where logistical support and technical personnel are absolutely essential to the effectiveness of an event.

Thanks to Team Leaders Nick Abruzzese and Nick Stewart for stepping up to leadership positions to help the day run smoothly.

Stage Manager Description

Follow this link to find the job description of a .stage manager that BHS Stage Crew uses as its basis for understanding stage managerial duties for departmental drama productions at Burlington High School.

United States Institute for Theatre Technology

An association of technical theatre professionals actually exists! Here's a link to their website. Enjoy exploring:
USITT

The Structure of Stage Crew

Stage Crew has never before this year been an organized, recognized extracurricular activity like it is now. In order to keep Stage Crew alive and thriving in years to come and to ensure that Stage Crew can more ably accomplish its goals, the structure of the group is being re-organized.

Stage Crew is generally associated with the Spring Musical at BHS, but Stage Crew is now an official group that performs many duties outside of just the Spring Musical. The option to join Stage Crew (the group) or just the running crew for the musical is open to any student at BHS. Obviously joining the group is a larger commitment than just joining for the few weeks of the musical in the spring.

To make sure Stage Crew is able to perform its duties, a group of select students will be picked each year called the "Core Crew." The Core Crew consists of a Lighting Specialist, a Construction Specialist, a Sound Specialist, a Rigging Specialist, the Booth Chief, two Assistant Stage Managers (ASMs), and the Stage Manager. The Stage Manager is like the president of a club, with the Booth Chief and ASMs as his vice presidents. The specialists are like other officers.

The Stage Manager, Booth Chief and ASMs are also their own separate group within the Core Crew, called the Leadership Team. Their job is to lead the entire Stage Crew (not just the Core Crew) in its endeavors and to perform administrative duties for the group.

The Core Crew and Leadership Team are not elected; vacancies are filled with new members, chosen by the current/outgoing members of the Leadership Team at the end of each school year.

The Junior Assistant Stage Manager will be a junior or sophomore to be trained for a year and become Stage Manager the following year. The Senior ASM will be an experienced senior crewer to fully assist the Stage Manager.

Below are the currently filled positions of the Core Crew for next year, 2010-2011. Vacant positions will soon be chosen by the outgoing Leadership Team.

Stage Manager - Victoria Carrabino
Senior Assistant Stage Manager - Joseph Nosack
Junior Assistant Stage Manager - *
Booth Chief - Christopher LaRocque
Lighting Specialist - Jonathan DiRusso
Sound Specialist - Christopher LaRocque, Christopher Coe
Rigging Specialist - *
Construction Specialist - *

New Rep On Tour

On Thursday April 8th, the travelling theatre group from the New Repertory Theatre, based at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, performed a modern adaptation of Macbeth at the Fogelberg Auditorium. The New Rep On Tour provides educational experiences for high schools in the region by performing plays like Macbeth and Animal Farm, which was performed at BHS earlier this school year. The performances allow students to visualize on-stage the plays that they read in their curriculum.

Stage Manager Kevin Parker, Booth Chief Chris LaRocque, and Assistant Stage Manager Tori Carrabino met with the stage manager from the New Rep On Tour group after school on April 7th to show her the theatre space and technical specifications("tech specs"). New Rep's stage manager proclaimed about the Fogelberg Auditorium: "You guys are spoiling us with such a nice space! And with people who actually know how to use its equipment! Usually we just have to perform in a gymnasium or a cafeteria." It was a concrete reminder to the stage crew about how lucky we are to have such a professional theatre to work in and reinforced how important it is for us to keep the theatre in top notch condition. Stagehand Nick Stewart helped Kevin and Tori prepare the stage, wings, and dressing rooms for the New Rep On Tour.

Because New Rep On Tour participates in many different spaces at all sorts of schools, its plays do not have lighting designs, nor do they count on the use of theatrical lighting to reinforce meaning. However, with the Fogelberg Auditoriums 3 electrics and catwalk, it was very easy to set up lighting for the performance. In addition, the stage manager from New Rep suggested that Chris and Kevin use cyc lights to come up with a lighting design that fit the play. Chris set up a wash (general white lights) for the entire play from the catwalk, and used blue from the second electric to highlight the playing space. Kevin and Chris then discussed and explored the use of cyc lights (red green and blue) and the various combination of colors to set the mood and tone of each scene. It was a great experience for Chris and Kevin to actually design lights somewhat on-the-fly for a professional theatre group.

After their performance, the cast of Macbeth held a Q&A "talkback" session where students could ask questions about important themes and theatrical techniques used in the play. During this talkback the cast gave a shout-out to Chris and Kevin for their work with lights and to all the tech crew for helping set up the space for their load-in.

And the first question asked by a student in the Q&A session:
"Was there any signifigance to the change in color of the lights?"

Yes. Yes there was.

Stagecraft Facts: Double Purchase Fly System

What is a double purchase fly system? Simply, its a way to move set pieces and curtains vertically on a stage.

A more complex description goes like this: The fly system operates on a system of weights and pulleys. In the Fogelberg Auditorium, there are 16 battens (or long metal pipes) to which curtains, backdrops, cycs, even set pieces can be affixed. Each batten is attached to a pulley with a balancing weight on the arbor. A double-purchase fly system has two pulleys for each batten. This means that the length of the rope is halved, so the "fly box" where the ropes are operated to fly the pipes is actually a number of feet above the "deck" (or stage floor). This also means that there is a 2:1 weight ratio for the arbor. That is, for every 100 pounds on the batten, 200 pounds is necessary on the arbor for the pipe to be balanced and not come crashing down or flying up recklessly into the flyspace. A balanced pipe can be controlled to fly in or out for scene changes in a performance, or to set curtains, legs, and valances to their proper heights or settings.

Still confused? Follow this link to a wikipedia article about fly systems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_system

Welcome to the Blog

Welcome all! This blog provides information about Burlington High School's Fogelberg Auditorium, events that are occuring at the auditorium, and, most importantly, gives information about the student-run stage crew that maintains the auditorium and helps run events at the auditorium. Key people in the current stage crew are:

Kevin Parker - Stage Manager
Victoria Carrabino - Assistant Stage Manager
Chris LaRocque - Booth Chief and Sound Technician
Jon DiRusso - Lighting Technician
Nick Abruzzese - Rigging Expert

Watch the blog for news about upcoming events and messages to the crew. Any student interested in joining stage crew, visit the stage crew office in the back of the auditorium near the tech booth, or contact any of the people listed above. Or just leave a comment here on the blog!