Strike

Preparing For Strike
Strike
Wrap Up

Preparing For Strike

Strike is properly the domain of the ME; in many circumstances there's really no need to be there if you have an experienced ME. Usually, however, you'll need to do some of the preperatory work yourself.

The first thing to ensure is that you have all the crew you need. It's really up to the producer to provide the people for this, but it's up to you and the ME to decide how you will use them. You probably won't need quite as many people as you did during load-in, but obviously the more people you have the better. Spend some time working with the ME to allocate what jobs the crew will do, making sure that you have the required tools (mostly just C-wrenches).

Aside from the basic group of people who will be taking down lights, wrapping up cabling, etc, you will also need to gather and sort gels, accessories and the like. You also might assign someone in particular to look after the rental and make sure all the components are collected. They should have the rental inventory to work with, of course.

Strike

Your role during the strike will be to make sure that things go smoothly, and that all the equipment is handled carefully, inventoried, and sorted appropriately. Your ME will be doing much the same, but having more than one person with a real clue can be very helpful.

It's important that you don't get sidetracked; there will probably be lots of actors walking around thinking that they should just be having fun, now that their show is over. The appropriate time for partying is after the strike, and in most cases, actors should never leave until the strike is fully completed. At the same time, safety will be very important as there will be lots of confusion and people wandering around.

You should, however, take some time to congratulate your fellow designers, actors, and the director. If you're that kind of person, go ahead and give them little cards or something as a token of your appreciation. Remember, you couldn't have done it without them!

Finally, either you or the ME will have to make sure that the rental is finally inventoried, packed up, and returned. Once that's done, you're finished!

Wrap Up

Well, that's it. You've lit a play. I hope that the experience was worth it. The more shows you do, the better you'll understand how light works and find new ways to express yourself. I personally find light design to be very rewarding, and am always searching for new and exciting productions to work on. There are, of course, many more interesting techniques and technologies than I can discuss in this space. There are hundreds of different kinds of instruments, including fancy moving luminaires that can have upwards of 20 modifiable parameters (including direction, color, several gobos, focus, etc, all modifiable live)! Keep exploring design and challenging your own limitations. Hopefully you, like me, will enjoy your work in the theater.

If you have any comments, questions, or would like to discuss your designs with me, please don't hesitate to e-mail me at corlette@theater.harvard.edu. Thanks!

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