Preparing For Load-In

At this point in the design, you have presumably developed a vast set of paperwork, all of which may be in some state of disarray. The next major task is to prepare all this for the actual load-in of the production. In this you should be closely aided by your Master Electrician.

Putting Together The Paperwork
Readying Your Crew
Checking The Rental
Scheduling
Paper Tech

Putting Together The Paperwork

You have presumably created quite a bit of paperwork by this point, and this is the time to put it all together. You should cross-check all your work, and make sure that all your notes are neat and legible. Other people will need to interpret your design, so it should be comprehensible.

Go ahead and give a copy of all your paperwork to your Master Electrician. He or she should pore over it diligently, and make sure that you haven't inadvertently made any errors. Any comments or questions they have should be worked into revisions of the paperwork, so that there are no remaining issues to be dealt with on load-in.

Just before load-in you should produce the final set of paperwork for the big event. These should incorporate all the latest revisions, and include all the paperwork designed to let a crew that has never seen your plot before efficiently hang and circuit your show. The documents you will need for just the initial hang and circuit are: Inventory, ¼ Scale Plot, ½ Scale Cardboards, Hang Plot, Dimmer Check Worksheet.

Readying Your Crew

Since you are the only person who fully understands your design (presumably), you will be a scarce resource during load-in. Hopefully, by diligently creating all this wonderful paperwork, the hang crew won't have any questions and can go ahead and hang your show without any questions. Ri-i-i-ight. You should definitely take the time to make sure that your Master Electrician and your Assistants LDs [Eds...note about assistants, mention throughout!!!] have gone through the paperwork and understand it as well as can be expected. Although this is primarily the Master Electrician's job, you should also think about all the tasks that need to be completed, and work with the ME to delegate these among your assistants and crew.

Again, the Master Electrician should be in charge of finding the rest of the hang crew, but it is never a bad idea to make sure that this is getting done. You really really don't want to be stuck hanging your show yourself. If you have time, I also recommend working with the ME to develop ways to train your crew, who may or may not have ever touched a real theatrical lighting instrument before. You may print out and use any of the materials on this website to aid you in that quest.

Checking The Rental

Of course, at some point in the process of preparing for your show, you should have a final inventory that at least is very close to what you'll actually need. This will include a complete rental inventory, which you should make sure the rental house gets a copy of. Make sure you nail down delivery times and instructions, and that you or an assistant or the ME is there to receive it (you definitely want to make sure you actually got everything you ordered). It's always a good idea to call the day before your load-in and finally verify the delivery time; on several occasions there was some slight miscommunication and deliveries went awry, so now I always make sure to call and verify.

Scheduling

OK, so you are going to load-in soon. Probably starts at 9AM, or something. But what is actually going to happen at that point? What tasks need to get accomplished, in what order? We'll discuss the specifics in a bit, but one of the things you need to do in advance is meet with the Stage Manager, the Master Electrician, TD, Set Designer, Director, etc etc and lay out a schedule. You'll need to decide who gets the stage when, when the space can be dark for focus and cueing, when rehearsals will happen, when you need to be done by, when the stage gets painted so you can't roll ladders around on it, etc etc. There's quite a bit to be decided, and although the ME will be deciding how his crew will do the work, you need to say when you'll be available to help, to focus, and to cue. If the SM or TD hasn't suggested having a meeting to lay out the schedule for load-in and tech, you should start asking about this a few days before load-in at the latest.

Just some guidelines to get you started:

It usually takes a full day (e.g. 9AM-12PM) for your ME to get the basic lighting hung and circuited for a Mainstage. Smaller shows will take half a day or so.
On large shows, you will probably need an additional half day or so to finish up the details with your ME. You will often need to wait on set stuff to finish up.
Focusing an Ex show will take an entire evening (6-12). Mainstages longer, smaller shows less. You will need darkness and quiet, so little set stuff can go on in the meantime.
Depending on the complexity of your script, writing cues will take anywhere from 4 hours to a full day of work. You will need darkness and quiet.
Once you have the cues roughed in, you will start to tech. Make sure you reserve some time each day to touch up your cues, an hour maybe. Again, darkness and quiet.

As you can see, there can be quite a time commitment involved, and some serious conflicts with the other people working. The TD will want to spend all that time working on set stuff, and the director will want to be rehearsing in the space as soon as possible. Make sure the TD is planning to do as much of the build elsewhere as possible, and that painting is done late and allowed to dry overnight. Make sure the director understands that your job must be completed. If you can manage to work at odd hours (such as during the school day), particularly for things like cueing which only requires yourself and a board op, then do so. Try to work around others, as your job is pretty flexible, but also ensure that you are not left with no time or help to finish up. Often general work crews will be scheduled at certain times, and you might need to claim some of those times for yourself. Your ME should also step up to the bat for you, and make sure that the hang gets done appropriately. In all cases, be flexible about priorities but firm about deadlines.

Paper Tech

At some point before load-in, you should probably have a paper tech. It can actually happen after, as long is at goes before dry tech, but you'll be hard pressed for time once you are in the space. I won't go into detail here, as I've described all the various "techs" in their own document later.

TOC - Loading In