Cape Breton's Magazine

1993: Last year's gang, plus Krista Touesnard, fiddler, components have gotten bigger, the sound system. The lighting has grown. In the first two years there was myself, as sort of generally-do-everything. Adrian Gadd would be the lighting guy, and Joe Bushell was our sound man. So Adrian and I would drive the cube van, and Joe would take his own truck. And we'd head out in the early morning and get to a place by 10 o'clock or so and do the set-up. And then the cast would come individually on their own. They'd car-pool it or whatever. Be? cause they don't have to be there till 5 o'clock for a sound check. And even today we still do that. Except when we go to the West--places where it's not feasible to take your own car. Your average theatre-goer comes in at 7:30 or so and sits down, and watches two-. PIONEER READY-MIX LIMITED SERVING CAPE BRETON • READY MIX CONCRETE • CONCRETE SEPTIC TANKS • PATIO BLOCKS PRIME BROOK, SYDNEY 539-5217 two-and-a-half hour shows, an intermission. And will applaud like mad for the cast, and go out and say, "Isn't that wonderful!" They might say, "Oh, I liked the sound," or, "The sound was bad," or "The lights were good," and all that. But ba? sically the focus in all the applause goes to the cast. Which it should, because they deliver the product. But it's like anything else: the product is created out of sight, really. Out of sight and out of mind. And all you see is the product, and that's what you react to. But people don't know what goes into making some? thing. When they see the finished product, they say, "Wow, wasn't that great!" and then they go home. front right (And what does go into it?) There's the artistic side. And then there's the practical and the logistic side. They have to be separated. So, a lot of work on the artistic side is done months and months in advance, and intense rehearsals and things like that, to give the spin to it. But the mechanics and logistics of moving the show from place to place, and setting it up and tearing it down, and moving to a different city, different town, different venue, you know, happens on a continuous basis, and oftentimes back-to-back. An average day for the crew--which would be your lighting and sound man, each of them with a technical assistant, and gen? erally myself, who is a sort of front man who deals with the administration end of things, and also, load and unload trucks. So, an average day, we'd pull into a place at ten o'clock in the morning, unload a five-ton truck, put all the gear out, and start to work. The lighting guy goes in his direction, sound guy in his direction. If we're lucky, we might be able to get a Riverside Cleaners Cape Breton's Only Drive-Thru DryCleaning KINGS ROAD • SYDNEY Lowest Drycleaning Prices in Town! We want you o go away. 181 Charlotte Street5394800 MavflowerMaU 5640600 1' Maritime Mariin Travel We Know Travel Best.