First Day - Official

So, today was my 'official' first day.

I arrived in the afternoon and observed trainings. Trainings are when the artists rehearse their acts onstage during the day--these events are just called trainings rather than rehearsals because of their acrobatic origin (and this was a GREAT opportunity to play the name game... not only are there over 70 people in the cast, but there are multitudes of technicians and other creative personnel. I'm not saying I got very far today, but it's a start). Today we worked 'Planche' which is the 10 minute section in the show that involved the teeter board, the fast track and the trampolines. After Planche was time for the high bar and then time to clean the poles. This act in the show is called 'Chinese Poles' and at the beginning of each week the upstage set of 15 gets cleaned with denatured alcohol, whereas the downstage set gets cleaned before every performance. At 5:10, the stage gets handed over to technicians for pre-show... this is when I went upstairs to the office.

I don't have any official projects yet, so I occupied myself before the show by updating some out-dated paperwork that was in the office. It's been explained to me that as I go through the logs, paper and standards of operation, I should check to see if they're still accurate as well as understandable. These documents are so if the SM team were to 'be hit by a bus,' 'crash on a plane' or 'get stranded in Du Bias' that another person could come in and run the show if needed. Interesting how all us SM's have different scenarios in which we couldn't make it to a show... almost all of them involving death or extreme unfathomable distance.

During this coming week I will be learning the 'Rover SM' track during performances. Today I shadowed the Rover track and began to learn what this is about... whatever else this job may be, this track is cool. It begins in the house with a clown, checks on girls that fly in from the ceiling, catches a snail that's being thrown into a giant pit, opens secret doors for entrances, cues entrances and exits and assists with the movement of on-stage scenery during the show... just to name a few of the tasks to accomplish. The track travels everywhere backstage, from the very bottom of the theater to all the way in the catwalks, and yes--even onstage. I thought this was pretty cool, as I had never noticed a technician onstage before (and I've now seen this show a few times). But yes--there are technicians onstage--Cirque just has you looking in another direction.

So for the next week it's my responsibility to learn this track as best I can (as well as complete my assigned projects and learn other Management responsibilities. By the end of the week I should be able to do this track on my own with one of the SM team shadowing me to make sure I get everything right. FABULOUS.