Ka, LOVE, and Beyond

Wow--time has flown for me out here. Since my computer has been out of commission my mother has come to visit me, I've gone to Red Rock Canyon, seen Lion King and shadowed Ka, LOVE and Blue Man Group. Where do I begin?! ...I guess the beginning is the most logical place.

My mother and my Aunt Dale came to Vegas week before last. They saw Mystère their first night, Ka the second, and then we went to see Lion King together. During the day we went and explored Red Rock Canyon--which was fantastic. In the park there's a 13 mile loop which we followed, stopping at scenic points to take pictures (and good-off with each other as is family protocol). There are several hikes in this canyon and I hope to go back to do at least one of them before I leave--but we'll see. I only have two weeks left with Cirque and then I head back to NC/VA! Lion King was enjoyable, and it was a nice reminder that there are other forms of entertainment other than CDS. My honest review of the show is that I feel it was lacking some spectacle that I feel Vegas shows should have--but it was a fun family-oriented performance that stayed true to the original Disney film. The Zebra and Giraffe puppets were our favorite animals and instead of Zazu singing "I've got a lovely bunch of cocanuts, deedle-de-de" he sang, "VIVA, LAS VEGAS!" while trapped in his skeleton cage during Scar's rule. I thought that this wasa funny touch, and my hard-core Disney fans will understand what part of the movie I'm attempting to reference.

After joining my mother and my Aunt for Breakfast at a local restaurant my roommates suggested (a place called 'The Cracked Egg') and dropping them off at the airport I went and shadowed Ka. This show is technically AMAZING. It has two giant decks that create their stage as well as bridges and trusses that wind through the house. The performers climb, jump and swing from these platforms and bridges for a majority of the show, and at the end of the performance Cirque wraps up the story with a celebration complete with Fireworks inside. Wow.

Ka seats 1,950 and the theater is 12 floors including 2 basement levels and two grids. The main grid is stationary, and then they have a lower grid that is raised and lowered for a particular scene. The two decks I mentioned previously are called 'Tatomie' (spelled phonetically) and the 'Cliff Deck.' Tatomie only slides forwards and backwards where as the Cliff Deck can be raised, lowered, rotate and angle itself to a 90 degree angle to the audience. the cliff deck has smart panels on it that connect to infared cameras that send information to projectors that produce images reactive to artist's movement. This same cliff deck also has 80 pegs that come out for artists to climb during a fight scene where the deck is at a 67 degree angle and spinning. This piece of the show is called Climb, and it's incredible. Non of the artists are safety-ed in while performing their acts, but there is a net that is set whenever an artist is on one of the decks, and around the stage walk (a pathway at the front of the house where performers make crosses) there are giant airbags for people to fall on. And just to clarify--these are GIANT airbags. Think the size of my living room for a small bag, and the size of my apartment or a large/average one. Oh--and I forgot--in addition to these two decks I've described there are 5 other lifts that raise and lower to create UR, DR, UL, DL and DC. Ka has a giant training room that has its own grid for rehearsal purposes and it takes a team of 6 SMs to run the show.

Anyone confused yet? It's a bit overwhelming I feel, but still very cool--that is if you understand what I tried to describe. If not, just ask me when I get back and I'll gladly tell you about it. I took notes during my visit. :)

Alright--now on to LOVE! This, I believe is Bill Webb's favorite show, so consider this another shout-out to him. I can certainly see why he likes this Cirque project. If you're a Beatles fan--this is the show to see. Through the acts the show tells the story of the Beatles coming together, the trials and tribulations of their time-period and demonstrates their impact on society... all by using the unique talent of CDS performers who do areal acts, bungee, skating, Russian Swing, and dance. Again, this show has a 6-member SM team and unlike the other Cirque shows--LOVE is in the round. To guide their performers they have labeled the theater directionally like a compass. The theater seats 2,000 people and there are 8 voms and entrances to the stage. The theater is three-levels with several traps, lifts and sloats. Which--BTW, I didn't know that sloat isn't just a word--it's an acronym. It stands for something like, "Sliding Lifts Over A Trap." Hm.

LOVE goes through several thousand streamers and pieces of confetti each week, and it's all cleaned up by hand after every performance (I definitely thought they would have some fancy trick for this, but no--it's just hard-working ushers!). During one act leaf-shaped confetti falls from the grid to symbolize the changing of seasons, and I was lucky enough to drop these leaves when I was backstage. Awesome. The team is integrating a new caller so I didn't see the call of the show, but I did obtain a copy of their script. Of course it's electronic (as I'm finding most CDS scripts are) and perhaps I'll find a use for this format later in my career. LOVE, unlike other shows, has actual lyrics to follow, so I found it easy to follow and interesting to read-through.

Whew... I don't think I warned anyone that this was going to be a long entry. Feel free to come back another time. ;) ...but onto the next topic of: BLUE MAN GROUP!

Tonight I went and shadowed Blue Man Group. When I went to visit Zumanity I met one of the BMG SMs who is an ASM at Zu. She and I talked, and she invited me to come shadow their show for an evening. Again--I had a blast. The show is comical and musical and I throughly entertained. BMG is run much more like a traditional theater show and the SM calls lights, sound and automation. This 2-hour show has over 300 cues that the SM is entirely in-charge of calling. Most of the cues are musical ('GO' on '7' of the third count of 8 during the second chorus-type stuff) but some are what my friend referred to as 'Zen' calling. She used this term to mean when an SM has to anticipate what a performer is going to do and call the cue as it's happening instead of slightly after. It's a small cast with three Blue Men, 7 band members and a run-crew of about 15ish. Every evening they have a 'Circle Meeting' where the cast and crew meet to receive notes for the show--and play pictionary. Ha ha, yes--they play one-round of pictionary every evening before the show. Winners are rewarded with candy.

AND... that's it. I've spit out a lot of information in this entry, and I hope that for the most part it all makes sense. I'm going into my second-to-last week with Mystère and I will be completing my 'final projects' within the next 3-7 days. My final challenges are to run a Cube Training, Do the SM hand-choreography during a live show, and to call a specific section of the show during a live performance. Cube training means calling cues during rehearsal and moving all the props that performers normally move during a show for this training (being a calling SM and a deck SM at the same time basically). SM hand choreography refers to the duties that the calling SM has to juggle while in the booth. The control the recording show-camera, timers for music and cue lights. I will be running these during several performances and Saturday may be my first day I do this. The calling SM will sit behind me to supervise and do the calls for the show. For my calling section I will be cueing a Turntable stop, several ball entrances and a artist's entrance. I also will be doing the check in and pre-show headset announcements while in this role. WHEW. Final Stretch--here I come!