Roxanne Rosas

Project Newcastle

2011-07-31T21:55:00.001-07:00

So its my second day living in the new place with Baby Scheie and the Tuttle. So far so good. Didn't sleep well since I was using an air mattress that leaks slowly. By 6:30am I was pretty much just sleeping on the hard wood floor.

I'm gonna have to get used to the dogs. Cora and Sookie are adorable, but they're still a bit edgy around new people. Took a midnite trip to the loo and woke them up. That meant they needed to start sniffing around my bedroom door which spooked me a little. So I let them in and have a look around and that seemed to help.

But the whole uncomfy sleep thing is really taking its toll on me tonight at work. Barely able to keep my eyes open thru show one. Hopefully I'll fare better this next show, finish moving in the next few days, then get on a regular sleep schedule again.

Last night me and Baby Scheie came up with a fun photo project to do, I'll post pics here and on my Flickr a account when it gets started.

Social media whore

2011-06-21T01:33:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Roxanne, and I'm a social media whore.

I blog
Why?
Because it fills the boredom. Haven't you ever been alone and just wished you had someone you could rant to? Well I do! And instead of calling up someone at 1:35 am (the current time), I turn to the web and you (the reader... if anyone still reads this poorly updated blog).

I tweet
Why?
It all started with a friend that moved away. @skinnylycan decided to up and leave me to go back to school... I know! right? Anyways, he left and created a twitter account, and I figured it would be a great way to let him know I missed him by creating an account just to follow him.

then I started following twitter accounts that were for a good cause...
then I started following celebrities...
then I started following other friends who created accounts...
then I started taunting mice chatters who were obsessed with my job...

then I just started tweeting random thoughts and following people I saw mentioned on television... i.e. @chrismacho from the wheat thins commercial.

I also do the whole Facebook thing
Why?
Cuz it's fun, I'm busy and like to know that my best friend's little girl just started pre-school. The photo is cute. I don't care if people think it's cool to NOT be on Facebook. I happen to care what everyone else is doing with their life because my life tends to be sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep, work... etc.

I used to do the MySpace thing.
Why?
I didn't delete mine because it was the cool thing to do. I deleted it because it was tiring trying to follow both MySpace and Facebook at the same time. I basically jumped ship to save time.

I foursquare.
Why?
Because I'm mayor of my coffee bean and it's saved me money at some places from time to time. If someone decided to gps stalk me, go ahead. I always carry a knife on me! :-) You've been warned.

Ok, to sum up. I'm a social media whore. Do I deserve a massive number of followers? No. Probably not. But if you're bored and just want a timeline of updates to read... follow @roxietech on twitter and don't complain when all you see are my Facebook, cnn, foursquare and other random updates filling your screen.
Thanks
Roxanne

Xoom

2011-06-09T15:08:00.000-07:00

I love the android platform. It's great. Only issue I have right now is the protected file format from songs bought from iTunes. I am currently converting a batch of the files to standard MP3 format so I can dump the music on my brand new Motorola Xoom.

Plus I dumped a bunch of old ripped movies to it so I can take it on the go.

I always thought the iPads and tablets wouldn't be for me. I figured, if I traveled more I'd get one. Turns out I was wrong.

My little droid tablet keeps me company at work while I'm waiting for my turn to do light checks, or when I'm waiting for the stage manager to get the SMPTE checks done. I love angry birds in 10" screen!

So much for efficiency...

Root

2011-04-16T23:30:00.000-07:00

Just rooted my Evo4G phone tonight using new usb drivers and unrevoked 3. I thought that would be a radical change to my phone, but it wasn't took some extra snooping to actually verify that my phone was rooted.

I downloaded Titanium Backup and started uninstalling the mandatory apps that Sprint forced on me. It's actually so wonderful having full control over the phone I own.

I don't know why phone companies think that users will be happy with forced apps installed on phones. I really don't care about NascarTV and SprintTV (the latter of which crashed constantly before I ditched it).

Horrible

2011-03-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

I'm horrible at updating this. I've said that already.

I'm also horrible at updating my 365 project. I take pictures every day, I love my camera. But why is it so horrible that I can't remember the simple task of uploading that stuff?

Ugh!
http://365project.org/roxietech/365

and I even pay for the pro flickr account. http://www.flickr.com/photos/teksalot/

Roxanne

HSTF 2011

2011-03-20T00:48:00.000-07:00

Today Zach and I hosted a workshop at the Fullerton College High School Theater Festival. It was a great day, hoped we helped some high school techs figure out where they're heading. Wish I had someone answering those questions for me when I was their age.

Ok, time to kick back and relax with what ever is left on my DVR then back to reading.

March 5th

2011-03-05T06:11:00.000-08:00

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Turned 33 today, feeling great. Enjoying my life, living on my own with a job I love.

I feel a bit saddened though by the thought that I still don't know which direction I'm heading in. Every day I think about what my life will be like 10 years down the road and I can't see it clearly.

I'm thinking about starting a class in networking. I know that definitely will play a part in my career. But if I do focus on that, will it be networking for lighting? Video? Automation? Major show installs? Will I still be at Disney?

Ok, back to my favorite episode of Firefly. Finishing my glass of wine then off to bed after a long night at maintenance work.

Immigration Law

2010-07-08T01:58:00.000-07:00

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise. Benjamin Franklin

Lately I have been having an argument with a co-worker on the immigration laws established by Arizona. It's very difficult for me, as a hispanic american, who doesn't speak spanish, and is having a hard time finding a cultural link to my mexican heritage.

My family has been in this country so long, it's like I might as well be my own nationality. White, but not white skinned. Or a "coconut" as my sister calls us, brown on the outside, white on the inside. I have so many instances where people walk up to me, and immediately start speaking spanish, assuming that I am spanish-speaking.

I wish I could just drop the argument, but my friend's only argument is "They're illegal, they broke the law entering the country, and that's that." Unfortunately, it's not that simple, and I can't quite get her to understand.

I keep reflecting on the movie Gattaca and the quote "Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one." ~ Benjamin Franklin

My friend is willing to sacrifice her fourth amendment right to reasonable search and seizure when it comes to dealing with illegal immigrants. She would be willing to allow police to stop her whenever they wish, just to demand proof of citizenship. And not only is she willing to give up her freedom, but mine and yours as well.

For her, it's more important that a person who came to the United States illegally be arrested and deported, than keep the peace at home and avoid the idea of a police-state where we are constantly dealing with the roving drones who demand proof that we are law-abiding citizens.

I pitched a scenario of a legal US citizen walking down the street and is legally harassed by the police. She argued she had been through the scenario already, accused of being a drug addict as she walked home. I wasn't able to continue the argument that the police could continue to harrass this "hypothetical" citizen, day after day after day, because she became quite angry that I refused to see her side. I didn't push the argument because I'd rather concede than lose a friend.

But what if...

If you were that person, harassed every day by the police. They show up wherever you are, at work, at home, on the street with friends, and demand you prove you're a legal citizen, and there's nothing you can do about it. That's what this law has done. It has provided an opening for a peace-officer to make your life a living hell without reason, and without cause. They have the ability to use their own subjective standard to judge you and stop you from going about your day....

The Fourth Amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I'm not arguing on behalf of illegal immigrants, I'm arguing for myself. I'm looking at the ability of a state government to take away my constitutional right and acting as an American who adores her freedom.

As for my opening quote from Benjamin Franklin, if there is any argument that could sway me from giving up my freedoms, I haven't heard them. I've only heard one argument used over and over again, but it's still not enough to give up what our ancestors fought to create and protect. There has to be a better way to secure our country without compromising our best trait.

Atheist Resurgence

2010-04-03T20:53:00.000-07:00

Atheist resurgence

I find the coverage of religion and atheism is on the rise with CNN because of their comment pages becoming so popular. But the funny part is the same old, tired, arguments being used over and over again.

1. Atheists are immoral

Why do people believe that? What is it about me that is so immoral? I have never killed anyone. I have never been arrested. I don't cheat on my taxes. I care about my family (sans my sister who has yet to learn how to respect me). I don't abuse animals. I care about the environment.

2. Atheists worship Satan

How can we believe in Satan when we don't believe in God? We don't believe in the Bible as a literal history.

3. Atheists are incapable of committing an altruistic act

There's no such thing. Any time we do something good for someone or a cause, we get this funny little feeling called happiness. The only possible altruistic act would be to die to save another person. But even then, Christians look forward to going to heaven for this act. Therefore, they expect reward for doing good. Atheist's see no reward in death because there is no afterlife in which to revel for our achievements. Would I die to save another person's life? Yes. Do I hope that I ever have to? No.

4. Atheists are only pretending not to believe in god because it's a rebellious act.

Negative. I don't believe in god (or any other supernatural events/figures/gods/goddesses/etc.) because there is no proof. People love to cite the Bible (or other religious texts) as proof of god, but since all of them were written by humans it seems logical to conclude that god doesn't exist.

A Christian friend of mine, who was trying to convince me that the Bible has done miraculous works by converting pagans who sacrificed women and newborns to their pagan gods, argued that God intervenes by inspiring Christians to write these stories. This "reasoning" still doesn't count as proof. But it's a nice way of saying that Christianity was trying to do good and maybe we should learn that killing babies and women as sacrifice to pagan gods is bad. But all kids have to grow up and learn that Santa doesn't exist. They're stories made up by our parents to teach us right from wrong. Which goes back to argument number one. We don't gain our morals from god, we learn them from our culture and parents.

(Click the culture link to see how Japan has become the target of outrage because of simulate rape games)

So my point is, apologetics are tired and old. The world isn't flat , atheists are not the largest number of criminals, and I look forward to reading anyone's truly well thought out arguments that can make me think.

Until then, I am an atheist. I am an American. I am a law-abiding citizen.

I fought authority and authority always wins

2010-01-19T19:48:00.001-08:00

woc 123
Originally uploaded by teksalot

Well they win sometimes. If you ever have the pleasure of working with Russ Ketteringham, here's a fun list of ways to annoy and pester him at work.

10. Turn his cap sideways

9. Take lots of pictures of him, especially when he fumbling with his iTouch

8. Constantly point out the fact that he "should have taken that cruise ship vacation when it was cheaper."

7. Hide his life vest.

6. Sing songs his 4 year old son loves, knowing fully well that he'll get them stuck in his head.

5. Wait until you know he's just about to tell you to get back to work, then start saying "No" over and over again until he sighs or tries to throw you down a flight of stairs. (True story)

4. Wait until you see Chuck coming your way, then leave him to deal with the boss all alone.

3. Start and end the day by saying "No me gusta" then refuse to accept his battered spanglish.

2. Laugh at his old pics and call him a hippy.

1. And the number one way to bug him.... post a blog and share with everyone!

Enjoy!

Grandpa's Bday 095

2009-10-31T14:42:00.001-07:00

Grandpa's Bday 095
Originally uploaded by teksalot

This is my grandfather, Ramon Rosas. He is 95 years old, and suffered from a stroke last night. One of the most stubborn people in our family, especially when it comes to relaxing. He still works for Boeing, and even learned how to use computers just so he wouldn't have to retire.

Needless to say, sitting in a hospital room right now and being forced to rest is what's killing him. He was changing the engine on his beloved 1970's era ford pick-up when my aunt saw him, put his tools down, then kneel and lay down. She ran to him and his slurred speech prompted her to call 911.

My father visited him this morning and as expected my grandpa was furious. He hates being so dependent on other people and he absolutely hated having people see him in this condition. I decided not to go and instead fix my halloween lights that burned out.

I think I won't visit him for a few days, I know that if this happened to me, I wouldn't want people to see me like that either. And considering he has come so far, and they expect him to recover, I don't think I'll be losing him soon. And if I do, I'd rather not have my last memory of him be in such a bad condition. My last memory of my grandmother struggling to breathe was enough to make me never smoke again.

Las Vegas Bachelorette Weekend

2009-09-26T17:00:00.001-07:00

Andrea's Bachelorette Weekend 013
Originally uploaded by teksalot

Las Vegas was awesome! Despite the blisters from wearing unfriendly, but very cute, high heels, we had a great time. I learned going to Vegas with nothing but girls is great for getting into clubs for free. In fact, several of us girls on WOC (world of color) are planning a celebratory Vegas trip after the show opens.

As for the picture, we at Stack the first night. I snapped a pic right before I ate this little spicy crab appetizer. It was so amazing! I wanted to just order a large one as a meal, but it wasn't the only thing we had on the table so...

Anyways, the food was great. We wound up at Revolutions and then Jet afterwards for more drinks and dancing. Bottle service at Jet was wonderful. Like my friend Corrine said, once you do bottle service, you'll never want anything else at a club again. It's so nice having a reserved table and couch in the club for taking a break.

Anyhoos, that's it for now. I saw the Nightman Cometh at the Paladium last night, maybe if I'm not too lazy I'll blog that too.

OC Fair 2009 605

2009-08-08T13:11:00.001-07:00

OC Fair 2009 605
Originally uploaded by teksalot

This was my recent trip to the OC Fair with friends. We had such a blast and I had to post this pic. I loved the colors and was having a lot of fun playing with the manual mode of my Canon Xti.

We got to see a lot of fun stuff. The hypnotist show was packed so we watched from afar, there were tap dancers and guys juggling flaming pins.

I started up a flickr. pro account so any public pics will be available on...

www.flickr.com/photos/teksalot

My photoblog finally hit its cancellation because I would always forget to update it (kind of like this blog). But it's not like I have a subscription base of readers so ... :-P

Keeping Busy

2009-03-04T23:41:00.000-08:00

So with this faltering economy, I've been trying to find ways to keep myself busy. Lately I'm getting about 3 days a week at work. And that's not the number of days I'm scheduled. On average, I am scheduled 1 day a week and the only thing saving me right now is the number of call-in's to work. A lot of full timers are being scheduled in shifts they wouldn't normally be on and rather than do the work, they are nice enough to call in and let part timers take the shifts.

But in the mean time, I'm trying to keep busy. USITT is just around the corner and I've already booked my hotel and tickets for Cincinnati, OH. I'm also getting certified in CPR and looking forward to hitting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland before we leave.

We (as in the FCCT crew) are also gearing up to help out at the Theater Festival at Fullerton College for local High School students. My friends and I will host a mini session for techs in the afternoon. Something we are modeling after attending USITT last year. Zach and Steve attended a mini-session on light focusing and found it to be lacking true organization.

Our hope is just to get this started, it may turn out to be an Question and Answer session this time to find out what we can offer the students in the future. Maybe we can start the first high school version of a USITT session weekend?

It's amazing what we can come up with when we just have a lot of free time on our hands. And the funny part is, the only thing that has left me feeling really accomplished in the last few days was fixing the TV reception in the follow spot break room at work.

A new way of thinking

2008-11-30T19:07:00.000-08:00

I am currently being trained on a hog 1000. It's a fun step backwards after learning the ETC EOS. I've previously run a hog 500 for a dinner show, but using the hog for the night bands at TLT Disneyland is amazing.

I've never run a complicated show on the fly. Now I'm being forced to think in a whole new way. It's really exciting and really hard at the same time. I'm not musically trained in instruments, and now I have to anticipate how I'm going to light the verses, the choruses, and the key changes.

My trainer, asked me how I design. I told her it all depends on the script (thanks Bill). I determine the mood, the location, the time, the season. Factor in the costumes, sets and skin tones of the actors.

She said, not to think about that, because here, there is no script. Instead I have to find what texture the music makes me think of. She said that when she lights Teddy Bear by Elvis Presley, she thinks of flowers. Therefore, she chose magenta as a backlight.

Now I find myself listening to music and trying to think of a texture. I was listening to every random song on my ipod and trying to think of new looks for each one. I thought of velvet while listening to a Celine Dion song and choose purple. Then I listened to a Sweet Child of Mine by Guns 'N' Roses and thought of rain and chose layers of blue and white.

I kept doing this until I finally fell asleep and found it helped relax me from the anxiety I felt at having to process so much from my training. Hope this helps someone else out there.

LDI Las Vegas

2008-11-09T02:04:00.000-08:00

So LDI was awesome. My first time attending, much like USITT but there was booze everywhere! Gotta love Vegas.

I had a great time attending the Ohm's Law class. Learned a lot but I need to practice my math skills quite a bit. Brain Age on my DS doesn't quite cover resistance and voltage in their math lessons. Too bad! (Hey million dollar idea, Brain Age: The tech's version)

I got a close up tour of the GrandMA 2. Beautiful board in black, squarish. Not as futuristic looking as I thought it'd be, but it still has the "Erect" button.

Also took a session on PRG's Series 400 power and data distro. Great idea running networking down the same trunk line as the breakout boxes. Plus the built-in safety features of power are great. (i.e. If you plug a 120 breakout into the 208v output, the distro will not send power down the line, and if there is a addressing conflict, the network will not broadcast until the problem is fixed)

I also attending a paperwork class on festival and rep theater. Not as exciting, basically emphasized using the class feature in Vectorworks and synching multiple worksheets in Excel or LightWright to keep track of what lights can work with multiple shows.

Can't wait for USITT in March 2009! Hope to see ya'all there!

Learning the Boards

2008-04-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last two days with Disney Cast Conservatory learning how to run light boards. The first one being the Hog iPC (Hog 2) and the second being the Grand MA.

My head is absolutely reeling from all the information that was poured into my head at such a fast pace. Learning the two syntaxes (syntaxi?) is like learning a new way of speaking. Plus I trained on the ETC Eos at USITT...

I'm currently working on making cheat sheets for the basic functions, and when I compile them, I'll scan them and post them. Peace out!

USITT 2008 Houston, TX

2008-03-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

USITT Itinerary

Tues:
8:30am to 5:30pm EOS Board Training
Presenter: Anne Valentino
Anne Valentino helped design the EOS board.

This class was amazing. We spent 8 hours, 3 people on a console, learning the new features on the board. We patched, learned setup, created cues, presets, & palettes, and used Capture software to see our results.

Wednesday:
12:00pm to 1:30pm Dance Lighting from the Crazy Horse Paris

Don Childs showed us how projecting images can enhance dancer movements. The panel was a bit lacking in other visuals. The speakers didn't show any images from the actual show and were afraid to show video for fear of being sued. It would have been a lot better if the dancer had been featured on a stage as well instead of being on the same level as the audience. We had to stand at the back and sides to see anything, but the concept is definitely something I'd love to play with in the theater.

2:00pm to 3:30pm Programming Moving Lights in Book Shows

Tom Littrel basically covered everything I learned in Brad Schiller's book Automated Programmer's Handbook. I feel I actually learned more about programming moving lights in the EOS class.

4:00pm to 5:30pm Wireless Dimming and DMX in Practice

Ian Phillips, creator of the RC4 magic dimming system hosted more than presented this class. Ryan Davies, Kathleen Devault, Dennis Long, and Nick Van Houten all gave examples with real production problems and solutions, showing how wireless dmx and radio dmx saved their shows. Amazing images, great ideas.

6:00pm to 7:20pm Transformers, Generators and Voltage

Roger L. Lattin and Steve Holliday were the moderators for this very informal seminar. Unfortunately, Mr. Lattin's luggage was lost and he was without paper handouts for his presentation. They actually corrected the title of this lecture to read "Transformers, Generators, and Non-Standard Voltages." Both had wonderful stories on gigs they've worked and tips for certain regions of the US and even some international problems they've encountered.

References:
http://www.powersmiths.com
http://www.egsa.org
http://mikeholt.com
www.Aggreko.com

7:30pm to 8:50pm Pigment, Fabric and Light -- Interplay of Costumes & Painted Scenery Under Colored Lights
Presenters: Don Childs, Kristina S. Hanssen, Peter Monahan, Robert O. Moody

Basically, we watched ETC Revolutions and Varilite Washes scroll through several colors while the designers placed a painted backdrop, various black maskings and cyc materials, painted swatches and costumes on a small stage. This really didn't teach anything, but gave everyone an idea of what different colors do to different colors on paint and fabric. It would have been better in a true black box setting where there wasn't a large amount of light bouncing off the floors of the convention room.

Thursday
12:15pm to 1:35pm Convention Fixture Projections
Presenters: KC Hooper, Shawn Irish, Bryan Stevenson

This was a big let down. Apollo spent most of it's time trying to sell their "make your own gobo" kit rather than show new and creative ideas for using old equipment and gobos.

2:30pm to 3:50pm Physics of Theatre: Rigging
Presenters: Dr. Eric and Beth Martell

Too much math and not enough demo. The couple have a book coming out on this subject and I do look forward to reading it, but my lack of math skills makes me doubt it would help someone who's looking to understand enough rigging to keep myself safe and not actually become a rigger myself.

References:
http://www2.kcpa.uiuc.edu/kcpatd/physics/index.htm

4:45pm to 6:05pm Tuning your palette -- Lighting, That is
Presenters: KC Hooper, Holly Blomquist, Rich Dale, John Horan

This panel was quite fun. Questions were prepared in advance and each designer took a turn answering with fun stories and great ideas. Attendees took turns asking questions on how to deal with directors and color choices and the answers from the different types of design backgrounds were great!

Friday
4:45pm to 6:05pm Designing with LED's
Presented by Derek Barnwell, Buddy Combs, Anthony R. Phelps

This was a great presentation on the limitations and features of LED's. An actual LED engineer presented what an LED actually is and why it's structure creates light. The future of the LED was discussed leading to the idea that LEDs will eventually be able to replace conventional fixtures, but are not quite ready for that task as of now.

Saturday
10:00am to 11:20am Stump the Rigger
Presented by Bill Sapsis, Gwen Sees, Don Dimitroff, Tray Allen, and Eric McAfee

Great panel question and answer session. The winning question was "What is the load rating of a paper clip?" A woman had a set piece go on the road with a show, when it returned, it showed signs of being rigged overhead with a paper clip as a connection point.

References:
http://sapsis-rigging.com/
1994/5 Garth Brooks Truss collapse
Emery Atlanta GA Truss collapse

12:15pm to 1:35pm Distinguished Scenic Designer: John Lee Beatty

Mr. Beatty chose to present informally. He showed us photos and sketches of all his work over the years, answered questions and basically offered insight to his design process. He was awarded with a lifetime achievement award from USITT and received a standing ovation at the end of his presentation.

Patrick's Wedding

2007-07-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

Well I have once again neglected my duties to update this blog. Seems my myspace gets all my attention these days. But here they are at last, my photos from Patrick's Wedding. Simple design to say the least.

The room before anything has been done.

A swatch of Patrick's tartan for my color choices

The Set Designers concept of what it will look like

Well it turned out as well as it could for an afternoon wedding. But the groom wished for a theatrical wedding and this was the best I could do competing against the sunlight. I think I did quite well, and it only cost him a bottle of Cazadores Tequila. Now that's a great designers fee. But I promise not to make that the standard.

Fantasmic & Friends

2007-06-28T14:36:00.000-07:00

I have officially been signed off now as a followspot op for Fantasmic at Disneyland. I have to say it is one of the hardest shows I've ever spotted. I sit in a tower about 50 feet up in the air and when the wind kicks up the tower sways. I'm not afraid of falling, I use a fall arrest harness and lanyard for safety purposes, but the hard part is keeping the spot steady enough to make the pick-ups and follow the actors smoothly.

My hardest shot is Peter Pan at the top of the Columbia but since I'm new, they are letting me get away with picking him up in a wider iris and narrowing down after I come on. Eventually I'll be able to get him in a tight shot at the start and follow him when he flies down to fight Captain Hook.

I left my job at Pirates and said farewell to a lot of new friends. I know it's a risk because Disney isn't going to give a newbie a lot of work, but if I want to succeed, I need to have a clear schedule whenever they do call me for work. Financially I saved a lot of money so that if a rainy day comes along I will be ok, and I am ready for that. Plus, I am using the "free time" for my neglected friend and family duties. This weekend I'm hosting a baby shower for my niece, who is doing quite well and should be home in August after being born three months premature (Thank goodness for life-saving technology) and next weekend I am designing lights for my friends wedding up at Mt. Sac. (Gotta hate that no alcohol on school district campuses policy!) But pictures will follow if all goes to plan and it's worth putting on a portfolio. Hopefully the schools inventory is as available as they have promised and the short load in time is plenty enough.

New Job

2007-06-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

Well today was my first official day working for The Mouse. I'm loving it so far. Great people, learning a lot, working with great technology. My first day was 12 hours long (6am to 6:30pm) with a 30 minute lunch. Built truss, hung some light Mac 700 washes, profiles and Mac 2k's. Fun times.

I'm hoping this job works out. So far, the hours aren't great, not enough that is... But if it doesn't work out... There's always the cruise ships.

Tiffany and I went to Fish in a Bottle for some great sushi afterward to celebrate. She's got a lot more hours than me though because she's been placed on the training crews for Fantasmic. Grrrr....

And yet more pics

2007-01-21T23:44:00.000-08:00

Final Dress

2007-01-19T09:18:00.000-08:00

Light Sings - The pit rises with the scaffolding on the pit

Light Sings - Music changes with the 'sunrise'

Monologues - Each character has a short quote or thought that gives insight to who all of the characters are.

Dream Babies - Nora sings her child to sleep as other look on in enjoyment of the pretty night

Hear My Song - Not part of the original show, added by the director as a way to tie the episodic show together

Monologues - As the scaffolding revolves, a new character is revealed and they talk about their made up ties to celebrities. 'I am the long lost son of Paul McCartney..."

Hear My Song - Final pose before bows

Show opens tonight at 8pm on the dot. Door lock and entry will not be available to anyone until intermission after show starts. Tickets are free

The Me Nobody Knows

Campus Theater
Fullerton College
321 E. Chapman Ave.
Fullerton, CA 92831

tech rehearsal

2007-01-17T01:33:00.000-08:00

I arrived at the theater around 11:30am today and began working on notes before I finished programming. First thing I did was change the gobos in onstage gobo wash. I changed to a circular foliage gobo instead of the squared off sponge looking ones. This helped with the coverage problem I seemed to be having. A good bit of advice that I remembered: "Don't shutter if you absolutely don't have to."

Next I sat to fix a few patch problems and found my wonderful friends had already jumped in to fix some. (Where would I be without them?)

Finally it came time to start programming and rather than move on, I decided to jump backwards and fix previous cues I had pondered on over the night. I guess things didn't look so bad afterall. I decided to fore go the stop watch and just have the stage manager call as many cues as possible. No more nice Roxie. :-)

And after finishing cues (30 minutes before tech was supposed to start) I sat down to meet my crew. I placed the girls with the most spot experience on the followspots, and the sound girl who decided to run lights for this show on the light board. I'm really happy with how things are going. I got a lot of compliments with "buts" attached.

"The cue looks great, but..."

Mostly, the director had specific colors in mind (no problem with color faders) and he wanted a lot more movement and changes in two of the numbers. Well, without a hog I guess I'll be programming a hell of a lot more tomorrow. Good thing I can go to the hundreth of a decimal in programming. I have several cues like "22, 22.1, 22.11"

Thanks ETC! :-)

blah

2007-01-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

So I started programming my show today. And my first impression is that it looks awful. I'm hating my color choices and I'm having so much difficulty learning how to program with tracking. I've always programmed in cue only because I never used intelligent lights. Now I find myself working with technobeams and color faders and auto yokes.

Tomorrow I'll set up the fog machines and see the cues with the actual cast on stage and maybe I'll see it differently. I still have yet to meet my crew since the stage manager was kind enough to not give me a freakin contact sheet! Still! The show opens this weekend and I'm still in the dark as how to contact anyone but the director and her.

I will never again, ever work on a show that doesn't have a production manager. EVER!

Oh and the show music, which I finally got today (an hour before I started programming) sounds like some guy recorded himself playing a little casio keyboard. Blah!!!

Meeting the director

2007-01-06T09:09:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I spent the morning up in the booth loading old shows and finding something close to house plot and what's actually up in the air, just so I can see what's actually up in the air. The problem with designing a show off a current plot is that no one usually wants to share their paperwork. I've asked several times from a friend who's the master electrician and house plot designer for the theater, but I think even he wants to protect his design and he keeps sending me stuff that helps, but doesn't quite cut it.

I asked him to send me the house plot on vectorworks. First he sent it in version 12, I had to reask for it in version 11. When it finally came, I opened it and found it was his plot of The Crucible which had also adapted house plot. Then he sent me a word document which was a poor scan of the electrics from a hand drawn plot. No info on FOH.

So yesterday's morning was well worth it just playing with the board and RFU bringing up channels and taking lots of notes. I will be spending any free time I have at work today trying to figure out how to use as many of the lights that are up in the air, and where I will switch some out or just plain take them down to make room for the 6 to 8 technos (I wish I could get a clear answer on inventory) and the 5 auto yokes (the 6th is out for repair and won't be back for probably a year, seeing as how the school district's delivery is slower than my grandmother).

And I still don't have a clue which linesets the scene designer wants. I keep asking him and the director, but they can't meet until Monday to decide that and no one wants to take a guess. So until then, I'm going to try to stick to the current electrics, which I've made clear I will not move because of time.

The meeting with Gary went wonderful. Since I attended their first blocking rehearsal I was able to write out all the opening cues of the show and so far, he loved them. He had a lot of ideas of what he wanted for certain songs and certain moments which I loved. He's not one of those directors forcing his idea of what the lights should look like, he just uses key phrases and always re-iterates that it's up to me.

For example, the song This World, he asked for lots of circular motion. I said with the technos I could have lights chasing circular and he added, "sounds great" and just said to do it however I wanted and make it as busy as possible. The next section is a series of people speaking. His idea is to create "hallways" with lights. Basically isolating a horizontal plane of the stage as the person crosses from SL to SR (or vice versa). I recommended pure side light with different colors as each hallways is revealed moving upstage along with the followspots. He said great and we moved on for an hour like that.

So now I'm off to work and taking my notebook with me and my ipod which has the old version of the show music on it so I can learn it. The new music won't be ready probably until tech rehearsal begin which blows since timing is key. So until then, I just have to keep figuring out how to finish the plot and keep the hang/focus time under 2 days without changing too much and rendering the theater useless since there are events going on in there the weekend before our show.

First rehearsal

2007-01-03T22:11:00.000-08:00

Today was the second production meeting ever for Me Nobody Knows. I scheduled time on Friday at lunch to meet privately with the director and ask him tons of questions and listen to what he wants from lighting for the show.

The director informed us all that this show is about to open in New York as well, so I guess we'll all be keeping an eye out for how it does.

After the meeting I headed into the theater to watch the first blocking rehearsal. This helped a heap just to find out how the shows going to start. I got many of my questions answered ahead of time. Basically the show will start as follows...

main in, and hazer going
(second and third electrics are in to the deck)

Q1 preset - house lights, curtain warmers, basic worklights on stage

Q2 house to half, worklights out (overture)

Q3 fade all
first "ding ding" Main flies out in black

Q4 second set of "ding ding"
sounds in the Light Sings number cues the pit to begin rising

follow spot picks up soloist on top of center scaffold that has just
risen out of the pit filled with fog

"stars in the sky"
Q5 third electric begins to fly out and lights come up

"kids start to shout"
Q6 second electric begins to fly out and lights come up

"... and its the sun!"
Q7 Light build

Basically, you can see where I'm going. I've obviously made my description on here a lot shorter than what I actually will be doing. I took a massive amount of notes and have tons of auto-follows with color chases, bumps, etc.

Me Nobody Knows

2006-11-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

First Production Meeting

Met the whole production team (sans prod. mgr - away for personal reasons)

The director led the discussion beginning with a brief idea and objective lesson. Our concept is episodic, no through line, modern, rock concert-esque. Our objective is to induct high school kids, who will be performing in the show, into a college production in the hopes of enticing them to come to Fullerton College, and at the same time, teach them something new about Musical Theater.

The 1960's music of the show seems very dark, and grim. The director wants us to add that spark of hope to the show. The music is being arranged to speed up the tempo of some of the songs. And costuming will consist of jeans and sneakers (provided by the cast) and shirts of different colors (most likely dark colors in the beginning) which will become a "rainbow of colors" for the finale.

The scenery will consist of scaffolding. The scaffolding will be one and two stories high and on wheels so the configurations can change. The idea is to create rail balcony, tenement like setting with the scaffolds and a series of flown in windows at different levels for the actors to sing from.

The cityscape will be created by yours truly (lighting designer) with gobos. Otherwise my job is only to draw attention to the music through movement of light. Basically, think Rock Concert!

I'll be adding zip strips to the floor on the upstage and left and right of the stage. All (or most) of the lighting will be completely exposed.

For now, I will begin reading the script, which I just received 40 minutes ago. And take a listen to the old 1960's version of the music. I will then begin researching the inventory of lighting (including 4 auto yokes, 8 technobeams, 2 fog machines, 20+ SL zooms, and tons of source 4's and PARS) along with any photos of previous dance/jazz/rock concerts that have taken place on that stage before.

I also have to keep in mind that with the time limit, I will be adapting house plot so that the next show in the theater can load-in in the amount of time they've been given as well. This is the unfortunate circumstances of doing a low budget musical in a rental house with very, very, very little time and crew.

More Notes

2006-10-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

So I finally have time off to catch up, clean, etc. I typed up some more notes, the first is my little color guide to wires.

The next set of notes is off some connectors I was using at the amusement park.

So I spent yesterday at Disney's Casting center for hours upon hours (really just 2 1/2) but it seemed longer since I had nothing to do while waiting for my turn to be interviewed.

Just like last time, I was told I did well but there are no openings. So if I don't hear from anyone in 2 weeks, I have to call them and ask "what's up?" In the meantime, I have my resume in at a pirate themed dinner theater. I just left a voicemail with the guy in charge of hiring an hour ago.

It should go well seeing as how Casey and Patrick were kind enough to talk me up to their boss. Plus I went to college with another one of the guys in charge and he gave me good references from when we worked together on school shows.

Go me!

Back at Home

2006-08-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

Well life has been swell back at home. I'm working again at an unnamed theme park in Southern California (not Disney) and surrounded by all my wonderful friends.

I took up jogging and recently started researching tips. I found an interesting one (#10 on Jogging Blog that says the pain caused on the right side as you jog is caused by the liver pressing against the diaphragm as you breathe and can be corrected by exhaling on the left step. Also, in a forum on Suicide Girls, it was recommended that you breath in through the nose, and out through the mouth on an odd count. (ie. 2 in, 3 out or 3 in, 4 out)

But other than the unnamed theme park and jogging, I'm also taking random gigs through the local 504 IATSE union. I worked a rolling stones concert last year but this year I got to help the Wicked Load out at Orange County Performing Arts Center last Monday. And tomorrow night, I'm loading out a concert at the Verizon Wireless amphitheater. Did I spell that right? Hmmm, maybe I'll fix it later, if I feel like it.

I'm also taking notes on stuff I tend to forget (because I forget a lot). I'm taking cursory electricians notes on basic things I tend to forget, and writing down math because I can't do it in my head very fast.

I'll post my notes here in case anyone else thinks they may be useful beginning out in the theater electricians field.

I've got a note on 6X12 Altmans lens trains having both curved sides facing each other too, and when I get around to cleaning all the old, rusted piece o crap 6x9s, 6x16s, and 6x22s, I'll make a drawing too.

New York and Home

2006-07-07T22:01:00.000-07:00

I spent July 3rd to the 6th with my dad in New York as a way to wind down from the last 4 hectic months. We saw the Empire State Building, Battery Park, rode the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Ground Zero, Central Park and Times Square.

To top it all off, we went to see The Producers at the Saint James Theater on 44th street. The show was amazing, the theater sucked, but it was all still worth it.

Thursday night, we both headed to JFK and left on separate planes to California. My flight arrived later than his at LAX but he drove up to pick me up and we headed home. I walked in the door at 1am(ish) and couldn't sleep. I was so thrilled to be home and see my dog.

I spent my first day home washing laundry and visiting grandparents. I also did dinner with my mom, stepdad, sister and brother in law. But it was all just to see my Nephew who can now make baskets with the hoop at 6 foot tall.

Would I do it all again? Hells yeah, but I'm not going to :-D

Last Day

2006-07-02T04:29:00.000-07:00

It's my last day on board the QM2. Yay! I started packing about three days ago and only have to pack my carry on bag now. I can't believe how much crap I have. I didn't buy souveneirs, I bought shot glasses for my collection, that's about it. Everything else was little magnets, one's for mom of course. ;-)

Italy was amazing. We took the train from Civitavechia to Rome. I saw the Vatican, the colosseum, the spanish steps and this really famous fountain (you'd know it if you saw it).

Livorno Italy was boring as all hell. If anyone ever invites you to the beach in northern Italy, pass it up. Livorno is close to Pisa, but I didn't have enough time in port to travel that far.

So now I'm doing tiny errands, returning gear, I only have three duties today, then I sign off the ship at 5:00pm today and have my luggage checked at 8pm. Tomorrow we dock about 6:00am and I have to go through immigration and customs. I'll probably actually be able to leave at 10am like last time when mom and Eddie came to visit me. Then I'll high tail it to the hotel where dad will be staying and we'll see what happens from there.

I miss you all and will see you in about 4 days :-) Love you guys!

Roxanne

Spain

2006-06-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

Uma Thurman is gorgeous! And tall! I saw her twice on the last voyage with her two kids. They're cute! I don't know her history so I don't know if they're actually hers or adopted like Brad and Angelina...

Well yesterday was Vigo, Spain. Very pretty, but very boring. We were only there for a couple of hours and because I accidentally slept in (I really did need the sleep) I only got two hours of shore time.

Today we cruised through the straight of Gibraltar. I got some photos but it was amazing to see Morocco.

Now I just need to see Australia, the North Pole and the South Pole :-)

Tomorrow is Barcelona, Spain. I'm hoping to get a lot of shore time but we may have crew drills. Stupid MCA is awful. They have such stupid rules about stuff. Talk about paranoia. And they schedule their drills in the biggest and best ports so it's takes away all the time we could be exploring. It seems every other day there is some kind of drill.

La Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona

Well, 16 days left? I haven't started packing. It's kind of hard because I have no idea what Portugal and Italy will be like. Most likely hot like it was in Vigo, but until then, I don't know what I'll need to wear. I'll be missing Cannes, France. But no loss there. I've met so many French people on board, I'll be happy to miss their rude little ways. I'll just ask someone to buy me a shot glass and take a Casey's Gay photo. I'm still trying to get Lisbon, Portugal. I'm willing to trade Gibraltar since I've heard there's nothing but vicious monkeys running wild there. Wish me luck! And see you all really soon!

Itinerary

2006-06-08T06:46:00.000-07:00

June
9 - New York
15 - Southampton, England
17 - Vigo, Spain
19 - Barcelona, Spain
20 - Cannes, France
21 - Livorno, Italy
22 - Civitavecchia, Italy
24 - Gibraltar, UK
25 - Lisbon, Portugal
27 - Southampton, England

July
3 - New York
6 - Placentia, Ca. USA!!!!

Random: I was watching CNN earlier and there was a report on a kid with a sleep disorder in Placentia, CA USA. Very random...

Ok, so the Bahamas was amazing! We stopped in Port Lucaya and I got to head off to a beach and swim again. Since we're not allowed in any pools on the ship (and I'm always working on crew spa night) it was relaxing. I got a bit sunburnt, I had to borrow the dancer's sunscreen and SPF 15 was just not cutting it.

Port Lucaya was rather expensive so I didn't buy anything. Just a burger and a Strawberry Daquiri. I ordered it while I was on the cell phone with my mom who was shocked that I was drinking so early. But it was 11am where I was :-D and 7am for her

After that we headed off to Charleston, South Carolina USA. Boring! I was port manning so I couldnt leave the ship, but from what I've heard there wasn't anything to do. There was an old aircraft carrier parked across from us which is now a museum. That might have been neat to see, but I'd rather take a US port manning because of all the interesting ports coming up.

We got back to New York today and I got to see Times Square again. Very cool! Bam Bam went off and did his bus tour to see Ground Zero and the Empire State building. Since I will be spending a couple of days in New York after my contract, I spent it trying to relax with Caroline (my old roomie who returned recently) and Paul (her aussie boyfriend who is now the sound tech). We got sushi, did some gift shopping for our wonder production manager who was stuck on board and depressed (a family guy doll cheered him up, along with a Gremlins bobblehead doll).

We went to Toys R US and FAO Shwartz to see the keyboard Tom Hanks danced on in the movie Big. We also saw the Hershey's store. Surprise Surprise, I didn't buy ANY chocolate there.

Now I'm back on board and heading for Southampton where a Norovirus scare has been going on for a week. I'm dreading that passengers will get it and bring it back on board. I do not want to miss the Mediterranean because some retard can't wash their hands. Grrrrrr....

Uma Thurman is supposedly on board for this voyage, but I haven't seen her yet. We're not allowed to take pictures or ask for autographs unless she volunteers time to meet the crew (which probably won't happen).

Off to bed, good night all! Hope California is doing well. Someone put a word in at Disney for me. No more pic updates unless the ship decided to lower the wifi rates for crew. I'm out!

Southampton and New York

2006-05-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally made it off the ship in both Southampton England and New York. I only made it as far as Brooklyn last time with my mom and Eddie when we hit New York in April. (Was it that long ago?) This time, me, Paul and Andrew ("Bam Bam") took the crew shuttle to Brooklyn, then hopped on the subway to Times Square. It was amazing. When we came out of the subway, I couldn't believe how tall the buildings are. I took lots of pictures, which I can hopefully upload a few, and lots of mpegs (thats digital movies for you older folks).

Jay (our crew chief) gave me a copy of a program he uses to edit movies, it's only a trial version though so I'm limited as to what I can do. But it came out great. I will try mailing home a copy, but guess what? I've only got a little over a month left. Woo hoo!

As for England, it was nice. Not exciting and not the best food. We had pizza in both places so I'm not so homesick on the food part. We arrive in Southampton in 2 days and I will be port manning again so I'll be sending money along with Bam Bam to bring me back a McDonald's Cheeseburger or something. Have I mentioned the food sucks on board? (At least for the crew).

Next ports are
May 29 - Southampton
June 4 - New York

We have a charter coming up which will take us to South Carolina and a stop in the Bahamas before we hit New York again, then on to the Mediterranean (Italy and Spain) with a new cast of singers and dancers.

Miss you all! See you in July.

Norway and QM2 in the News

2006-05-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

So most of you have probably heard by now (thanks to CNN, BBC and SkyNews) that there was a death aboard the QM2. This is slightly true.

During lunch time, in the crew mess several days ago, a Filipino crew member (unnamed) attacked one of the ships asst. electrician's in full view of the ships crew. Rumors vary but the main story is that he hit him from behind with a hammer and ran (thankfully I wasnt there to see it). The crew member suffered critical injuries and was airlifted off the QM2 within an hour and a half of the incident. Unfortunately, he passed away after he left the ship.

The authorities joined the ship in Bergen, Norway and the attacker was taken off the ship temporarily while the police investigated. The ship left the port on time but with the assailant and police staying on board. The police will hand over the suspect to British authorities when we arrive in 2 days and he will be prosecuted there.

The ship's crew is still in shock and collecting money for the victim's family (wife and two children). Police tape and blockades are still up in the crew mess, so I try to avoid the area as much as possible. A mass and moment of silence have already taken place with the ships priest, Captain and Cunard Counselor.

Ok, back to Norway. Norway is absolutely gorgeous (and extremely expensive). They use Kroner (spelling?) for their currency. Only the 100 and 50 are in paper form. All other currency is in change. The rate is about 5 kroner to 1 dollar and I got two slices of pizza and a soda for about 68 kroner. So my souveneir shopping for all three ports was minimal. I was able to see Bergen and Aelsund, but I was port manning for the second stop in Flamm.

Flamm seemed to be the most beautiful port so I took pics from deck 13. I tried getting a hold of those little plastic viking helmets as a gift for my mom and step-dad, but they only sold them in Flamm and ... yeah... port manning.

We're on our way back to Southampton, which I'll probably miss again for the fourth time because we have to do lighting maintenance. But then it's on to New York then we're doing a charter for the Merryl Lynch company down the eastern coast of America. This means lots of T-mobile time. :-) I love those weekend minutes.

Miss you all, can't wait for July 3rd, I may spend a few extra days in New York before flying home just so I can actually see it without having to rush back to the ship. Sorry guys.

Hamburg & Photos! (Finally)

2006-05-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

We just docked in Hamburg, Germany (literally 10 minutes) ago. We pulled into the dry dock area and as I type, crews are working to pull the gates shut behind the ship and start pumping out water so they can begin working on the broken pod. Crews joined in Southampton last time we were there, yesterday morning and already fixed stuff all over the ship. The floors in the pub were sanded this morning and have already gotten a first coat of new varnish.

Tomorrow morning we start running our production shows for a filming crew and will spend all day running pieces of the show over and over and over... for multiple camera angles and stuff. So it will be a long day. But, tomorrow night, we will also all venture out into Hamburg to see a club called the "Reeperbauhn" (SP?)

But... until I can come back on here and post another blog, you'll just have to settle for PHOTOS!!!

Here's an artistic pic I did off the coast of Chile. It's freezing, about 7 am in the morning, and yes I am wearing layers upon layers of clothing.

First stop on the trip was Acapulco, Mexico. As you can see, I had a great time. This was the last time I saw a tortilla and guacamole since yesterday. The ship decided to celebrate Cinco de Mayo for the small amount of hispanics on board. Unfortunately, the British think Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day.

Valparaiso in South America.

The greatest steak I've ever had was in Uruguay. Rhymes with Casey's Gay.

There's the statue of Christ overlooking Rio in the background.

This guy was carving replicas of the Jesus figure at Ipanema beach. I tipped him about a dollar. That's how most of these people make their money. Most of them would just come up and beg you for money, people like this artist were the only ones I tipped.

Rio doesn't call it a "Royale with Cheese."

Puerto Montt in Chile.

In Panama. The dancers greet guests coming off cruise ships. We didn't wander too far from the boat. Had a beer and a hot dog from a local stand.

This is Peru's National Soccer Stadium. I took the pic from a taxi cab while driving thru on our way to a mall.

Off the cape of South America.

St. Kitt's. This is just before we came back to the US for the first time since I left L.A.

St. Thomas. Finally back in the US and the first time I was able to get a phone signal. Stupid T-mobile.

My boss. He's drunk

An artistic photo of the crew rave night in the crew bar. This is where my boss got drunk at.

Jay, Jorge, Matt (my boss), and Caz (my old cabin mate)

Me and astronaut Kathy Sullivan. She came on board to lecture about life in Space.

Me and Caz. This was on the 4th of May, the night before she left. :-(

Ok, that's it for now folks. Everyone take care. I miss you all. Good night, or good afternoon for you. I'm 11 hours or so ahead of you now.

Roxanne

Brooklyn

2006-04-29T17:29:00.000-07:00

Today I got to see my Mom and Eddie in Brooklyn, NY. It was quite a long day.

It began at 6:15am when my alarm clock woke me so I could go to the 6:30am Immigration inspection. I stood in line for 30 minutes so an official could look at my passport, look at me and say "next." He had to do that for all 2000 crew members so it took quite a while. It also was unfortunate that every single crew member had to be cleared before crew shore leave was granted (that didn't happen until about 10:30am). I had to go pound on my neighbors door at 8:00am to remind them to go get checked so they could go back to sleep. And even at 8:00am people were still not showing up to get checked.

Anyways, we finally made it off the ship and I was able to meet mom and Eddie at the gangway. Mom sniffled, but didn't cry. I took them on a tour of the ship starting with my cabin and I loved my mom's response on first seeing it. "Two people live in here?" Yes, it's a tiny cabin, but we actually have one of the largest crew cabins because it used to belong to a married couple.

Then I took them up to deck 2 to meet the boss and drop off keys, we headed up to deck 3 to see the Planetarium, the Royal Court Theater and then the Grand Lobby. We headed to the back of the ship to see the Photo Gallery, then the Queen's Room, and finally the night club G32 (named after the ships engineering title before she was named the Queen Mary 2).

We headed up to deck 7 to see the Winter Garden and got a great shot of the Statue of Liberty. Then we jumped on the crew shuttle bus to Fulton Street where I did $80 worth of shopping at Target. I needed a bunch of stuff especially since we won't be back this way for a while. I hate trying to buy necessities in other countries because I don't know if I'm getting a good deal or not while trying to convert dollars into whatever it is they use.

Lunch was a really good hot dog from a street vendor (don't say ewww until you've eaten the crew food on this ship). We ate some ice cream at Baskin Robbins and said our good-byes (mom cried) from Fulton St. I made it back to the ship and participated in the passenger drill at 4:30pm then headed back to my cabin. My cabin mate and Bam Bam (Andrew) were waiting there with boxes of pizza so we ate and watched Team America for a while.

They headed off to do tonights show and I headed up to deck 13 to watch the sailaway from New York. We passed under the Verrazano (sp?) bridge again and the passengers cheered when we crossed under because it's only a 13 foot clearance from the ships smoke stack to the bottom of the bridge. It's an amazing sight and I braved the cold to get an mpeg.

I got to talk to my dad and send out some text messages. Plus I sent out this link again with a reminder to you all to check it during the daylight. http://www.cunard.com/qm2

I miss everyone! I can't wait to see Robyn and Danny's puppy and get home to some good old fashioned food. I'm going to have to buy some exercise equipment just to keep the weight off.

Laters!

Trannies

2006-04-22T04:10:00.000-07:00

Trans-Atlantics (or 'trannies') are 5 days long. It consists of going from New York to Southampton or Southampton to New York. This is when the crew gets absolutely no sleep and works non-stop. And this isn't just our department, it's everyone!

Our ship has 3 production shows plus two versions of a Welcome A Board Show (WABS) and a going away show called Thank You For The Music (TYFTM). The production shows are Rock at the Opera, Appasionata and Zing Went the Strings. Rock at the Opera is a fusion of Rock and Opera music which isn't as bad as it sounds. The only problem is a 2minute transition shift cue we have that is insane!

In two minutes time, three crew members have to move 5 columns and load a moving bridge truck (automated scenery) into a track. The actors (at the same time) are striking 6 rolling arches pretty much into the same area that we have to move columns, so like all shifts it's timed to work like choreography. If one person is late or slow on a shift, it throws everyone off. And the show is all timed with MIDI so when the music runs out, and if the shift isn't complete, we're "proper fucked."

Rock at the opera also features the fiber optic wall upstage and a quarter of a million dollar chandelier above the apron. The chandelier looks like a half dome, then the "petals" open like a flower lowering a full sized crystal chandelier from that, and a disco ball. The fiber optic wall displays a skyline of Barcelona. The floor has 6 lifts built in which can all be programmed to raise and lower with the music while at the same time a built in revolve spins the stage.

Zing went the Strings is a lot more intense. The shift involves striking the rolling truck, striking a flat, rolling two scroll walls upstage of the main and then making a clearing in the center for the truck to roll back downstage thru a swagged opening in the main. During my first time in rehearsal, we didn't make it and had to stop the run thru. Our second try, we still didn't make it, so it was decided that having two new people on the crew at the same time was a bad idea. So from now on, only one new crew member will run the rehearsal and show while the other new person "shadows" the veteran crew members.

Appasionata is the easiest show for crew. There are six panels. Two mounted on the floor far stage left and the other stage right. Four panels fly in on one flybar. On each of them, one side is mirrored and the other has built in LEDs to match the star drop upstage. All you need to remember to be a stage hand is which way you're supposed to turn each panel on each cue. Clockwise or Anti-Clockwise and the stage manager calls that before each shift. The only other job I have during that show is handing a mashenka (sp?) to a dancer thru the truss and handing a drum box to a dancer.

I'm going to try to get an mpeg of the chandelier and the revolve onstage during Rock at the Opera because it is amazing!

This weekend our boat was chartered by a company in England so a lot of shows are running right now in every single venue. It's almost 12:30pm so the shows techs (who came on board) are setting up for tonight. We assist them where we can but we're still responsible for the main theater's show. Last night and again tonight we did a Jamie Cullem concert. He's really famous in Britain and I can see why. I'm ready to buy his CD just after listening to him play and sing in the Royal Court Theater.

Hope all is well, Casey's gay! And my friend Andrew has his wireless working on his laptop so I'm going to try to upload some pics after this charter is over and we get free time. Plus, I'm thinking I may have to get a domain when I get home. Casey's Gay Dot com?

Happy Easter

2006-04-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

So I'm supposed to call home at 10am (Pacific Time) but I'm hearing from all of my friends that everyone on this ship is trying to call home so chances of me actually getting through at a specified time are one in a million. I will try as close as possible but at 2pm today (10am Pacific time) I have to be on stage working. So I will call at 1:30pm and if I can't get through, well then... Happy Easter.

New York was awesome. I was stuck on the boat but we circled the statue of liberty and crossed under the Verazano (sp?) bridge. The boat only has a clearance of 13 feet when we go under so it looks like we're going to crash into it. It's amazing!!! I can't wait to come back and actually see the city.

I also wanted to share a poem a friend showed me here on board. No one knows where it came from, but it's hillarious

Last night as I lay sleeping

I died or so it seemed

Then I went to heaven

But only in my dream

Up there St. Peter met me

Standing at the pearly gate

He said "I must check your record,

Please stand here and wait."

He turned and said "Your record

Is covered with terrible flaws,

On Earth I see you rallied

For every losing cause.

I see that you drank alcohol,

And smoked and used drugs too.

Fact is, you've done everything

A good person should never do.

We can't have people like you up here.

Your life was full of sin."

Then he read the last of my record

Took my hand and said "Come In."

He led me up to the big boss and said

"Take him in and treat him well,

He used to work on Cruise Ships.

He's done his time in hell."

Happy Easter!

PS Amy, if you're reading this... where's LOST? :-(

Caribbean

2006-04-13T17:20:00.000-07:00

So the last few days were in the caribbean. I sent out some more post cards and bought a few more so I could write them on the way to New York. I'm missing a couple of peoples addresses, so if you REALLY want a post card, e-mail me your address.

The ship is getting knocked all over tonight. We're in the atlantic heading north to New York. We'll be there on the 15th and again on the 29th. I won't be able to get off the ship until the 29th when my mom comes to visit because of shows and such. We're actually going to do a show tonight at 8:45pm which is in 25 minutes for me. If the first one goes smoothly, we'll do the second, but the dancers were slightly hesitant to do the show tonight because of how bumpy it is right now. The cruise director has a comedian on stand by to do the second show if the dancers really dont want to do it, or if one gets hurt.

Our lighting guy today got really sick during rehearsal. His blood sugar level dropped or something but he's doing better. So all in all, it's been a really hectic day.

I'm gonna post the new york mailing address again for anyone who needs to write to me instead of e-mail, or if you're a certain blond mailing me the LOST season on DVD ;-)

QM2 - Roxanne Rosas
c/o Cruiselink 238
676A 9th Avenue
NY, NY 10036

I think it's a little different than the first one I posted, but my friends said the port usually figures it out if it's close enough to that. I found that I actually can receive some small packages to that mailing address, but they go through loads of security so it would be a while before I got it. And we hit New York several times during this contract so it's probably the safest bet to mail something to me there.

Miss you all, remember if you post a comment to sign your name cuz I have to guess who it is otherwise. I don't get to see your e-mail address if you post and I'd rather not have to make anyone sign up for an account with blogger if they don't want to.

Miss you mom and dad! oh... and Robyn.... :-)

PS Casey's Gay and I have a picture with a monkey to prove it! Muah ha ha!

Schedule Update

2006-04-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

April
5 At Sea
6 At Sea
7 At Sea
8 At Sea
9 At Sea
10 Barbados
11 St. Kitts
12 St. Thomas
13 At Sea
14 At Sea
15 New York
16 At Sea
17 At Sea
18 At Sea
19 At Sea
20 At Sea
21 Southampton
22 St Peter Port
23 Southampton
24 At Sea
25 At Sea
26 At Sea
27 At Sea
28 At Sea
29 New York
30 At Sea

May
1 At Sea
2 At Sea
3 At Sea
4 At Sea
5 Southampton
6 At Sea
7 Hamburg Germany
8 Hamburg Germany
9 Hamburg Germany
10 Hamburg Germany
11 Southampton
12 At Sea
13 Aalesund Norway
14 At Sea

Rio de Janeiro

2006-04-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

So we spent the last two days docked in Rio de Janeiro. Yesterday I wasn't able to go ashore because of this huge show that came on board. Fafa Nebelem or Debelem. I think that was her name... anyways... She's famous here in Brazil and she came on board for a special performance that drove us all insane. She's a total diva so the requests that she had were outrageous at times.

We had to partition the connex area of the ship that guests are used to crossing thru because she was afraid she would have fans bugging her a lot. So the passengers were getting upset at us because they couldn't go where they normally did, they'd have to find alternate routes and it was making them lose their way. I've learned the best way to not get lost on this ship is to always have a favorite route to where you're going, I'm guessing the guests do the same.

Plus, memorizing where certain art pieces helps to guide me. There are modern art collages in the connex area so I always know I'm between the theater and the planetarium when I enter the connex rooms.

So after hours of load in, which was all a pain because these people speak portugese and not spanish making it harder to understand them, Fafa shows up a couple hours late for her own personal sound check. The lighting guy wrote all over the light board in sharpie, and the sound guy did his own EQ of the room so both of our lighting and sound guys were frustrated.

Then we had to fix up connex rooms 4 and 5 for Fafa and the band, in that order. Room 3 was converted into the MC's own personal room. Then Fafa's entourage started asking for alcohol and food so I became more of an errand runner than a stage hand. But then they couldn't have tap water, they wanted bottled water. After that all arrived then they told us the MC wanted food and water of his own. After that arrived, then Fafa and her band needed 4 more bottled waters (smaller than the ones in her room) and a bucket of ice. When the ice arrived, apparently the bucket was too big. Ugh! Divas...

So basically, my work day yesterday was from 9:30am to 1:00am. I got up at 10am today so I could go to shore, and now I've eaten dinner, I'm waiting for the DVD rental place to open so I can get "Little Britain" season 1 and something else. Then I'm working at 8:45 and 10:30 tonight for the Welcome aboard show for the passengers who joined us in Rio.

Well, I better be on my way. Miss you all and love you lots. Robyn, turn off Ryan's TV and Mom I hope you're enjoying Da Vinci Code. Dad, I'll call again soon. My first pay day is in 2 days and I have no idea how this works since I'm having most of my money directly deposited into the savings account.

Roxanne

PS Remember if you leave a comment to sign your name, because they are sent directly to my Gmail with the name "Anonymous" in the header.

The Cape and Uruguay

2006-03-31T15:09:00.000-08:00

So we finally rounded the cape of South America. Took forever because the captain did a loop so the boat could see it again. I don't know why it was so interesting that it required us to pass it a second time. It was just really rocky with some amazing waves crashing all around. The boat was getting tossed around good. I took some mpeg's of it with the camera and you can see just how much the bow of the ship is moving up and down. Most of the crew got a bit sea sick from the waves, but I fared pretty well. Got a head ache and didn't have much of an apetite but I did ok.

I did just have a cold though. (Yes I'm dressing warm mom) It only lasted two days and I got loads of medicine from the medical center. They really stock you up with medicine when you need it. I went in, saw the doctor within 5 minutes and walked out 10 minutes later with cough lozenges, cough syrup and some aspirin. I slept well and drank a ton of water and poof! All better.

So I didn't get to see Argentina. I was sick, but we were only there for a few hours so they didn't allow any crew to debark so we wouldn't inconvenience the passengers. So I just slept. Didn't see much except from what was visible from the port windows in the crew mess. Didn't look like much to see anyways. The port was far from where we were anchored so the passengers had to take the tenders (the little boats) to shore. My friend Andrew was lucky to be assigned to a passenger tour so he got to go ashore. He was taken on a boat ride and saw seals and penguins. He got me two postcards and a little tiny penguin doll. So it wasn't a total loss.

Today we're in Montevideo, Uruguay. The ship was actually able to dock so I went off shore with Andrew and some other crew. We had lunch at a really nice little restaurant. I got a sirloin beef steak, fries, sprite and half a litre of beer for $13. I also got some postcards and really cute ceramic shot glass. We all walked around looking at the little shops and the sites but had to return to get deck 8 ready for the deck party tonight. Luckily its really hot outside and its expected to be really warm tonight. Last time we did the deck party was on the other side of the continent close to the equator so it was about 80 degrees out at 10pm at night.

I'm going to try to mail some postcards home today to Mom, Dad and Robyn/Danny. I was told the pursar's office sells stamps and will take the postcards right there to be shipped out in the next port. As for New York, I don't know where the port is exactly, but I know it's in Brooklyn. No one on the crew knows the exact name of the port, but we should be there April 15th.

The caribbean is after Rio De Janeiro but of the 3 stops were making, I'll only be able to see St. Kitt's unless I can find someone willing to switch port mannings with me. I may have to give up a day in Rio for it. I don't think anyone would really be willing to give up Barbados though. Sigh...

Ok that's it for today folks, miss you all. I'm learning a lot. I'm running the Grand Ma (light board) for Royal Court Theater more frequently. And the lighting engineer is leaving when we get to South Hampton but so far Cunard hasn't found a replacement. ;-) Maybe there's hope for a promotion or at least more training. My boss said by the end of the contract, Andrew and I will probably be fully trained on how to do the lighting engineer's job. Yay! Disney, here I come!

Peru and Chile

2006-03-24T12:10:00.000-08:00

Well, since my last update I have visited three ports. The first was in Peru. I forget the name, but we didn't spend a lot of time at the port. We (me and 4 other people) took a cab ride to Lima, Peru. We spent the day at a shopping mall called Miraflores where we ate lunch at a Tony Roma's. It was nice having a really good American Meal. Cheeseburger, fries and an onion loaf that we all split. After that, we went back to the port where there was a little market for the tourists. It was nice because you could haggle prices. I purchased two shot glasses, a wooden recorder and a cute little llama. I only spent $7.

Today, I'm in Puerto Montt, Chile. The last port was in Valparaiso, Chile. But to be exact Puerto Montt Chile's coordinates:

Lat: 41 28.880 south
Lon: 07 56.242 west

I'm sure if you google it you can find it on a map. It's really bad weather so we got drenched by the rain, we only spent about an hour shopping and to our wonderful surprise, we found a pizza hut and ate pepperoni pizza. Sorry Robyn, but I splurged and had a Coke. :-)

I bought a cute little ring for $2 for my Mom, which is an addition to the little present I bought her for her birthday. A fridge magnet that's also a bottle opener from Acapulco. It has a little turtle on it so I'm sure she'll like it. I figure it's better I tell her here that she actually has something rather than wait until April when I might get a chance to see her.

But the bad weather isn't a total waste. At least I won't have to carry all the band equipment up to deck 8 for their outdoor concert in a while. Now, we just have to lug two speakers up to deck 12 where there is an indoor swimming pool and lounge area covered with a glass ceiling. That's a lot easier. Alright, the ships engines are warming up so we'll probably be leaving in another two hours. Usually when the ship starts pulling out of port all the satellite signals go haywire and you can't make a phone call or get on the net for a bit.

I miss all of you, and lots of love.
Roxanne

PS I saw a real llama today. What's up with South America and putting llama's on everything? ;-)

Greetings from Ecuador

2006-03-17T11:31:00.000-08:00

I've gotten all of your guy's e-mails over the past few days, and yes I wish I could reply to all of them. But I love that I'm getting them, so don't stop! :-)

We just returned from Ecuador. The captain added a second stop to make up for the missed Costa Rica port. I drank 2 beers and basically sat on the beach getting more of a tan. I'm a bit burnt, just from setting up the bands outdoors on deck 8. But I took a towel and held it over my head while I was standing in line waiting to get back on a tender to go back to the QM2.

We left Karl behind because he wanted to stay longer, and we've pretty much seen as much as we could with the time we had. Lucky Karl doesn't have to work till way later tonight. But he's still searching for a shot glass for me, since I couldn't find one.

I can't feel the boat moving anymore like I used to, but everyone keeps saying that'll change when we go around the cape of South America. We're also expected to see some really neat glaciers and penguins! My nephew would love that! I keep hearing about drydock in Germany in May as well. We should be there for a few days doing maintenance and rehearsing shows, but we'll also get some time to go explore the city.

New York is still set for April 15th. That's when a lot of the entertainment crew leave and me and Andrew won't be the new people anymore. My roomie will be leaving too so I'll be getting a new cabin mate. We spent last night out on the deck partying for the "Crossing the Equator" party. It was awesome. I actually forgot I was on a boat for a while, until I walked over to the rail and looked out at the blackness all around us. All I could hear was waves and see the wakes from the boat. (We had a full moon, so it was gorgeous). Then we struck the band at midnight.

Ok all, glad to hear Andrea's moving. And thanks for the picture of the puppy Robyn. Oh, and for everyone, Disney wrote back, they're super interested and the guy wrote he'd put my papers thru to be interviewed in the next round when I return. Yay!

Bye all! Casey's Gay!
Roxanne

Port Manning

2006-03-15T14:50:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Ecuador. I won't have a lot of time because I will be port manning. That means, when we get to shore, only so many % of the crew are allowed off the ship. The rest that are required to stay onboard are called "port manning." So I will be missing Ecuador, but my cabin mate Caz (nick name for Caroline) will be taking some of my cash ashore and getting me a shot glass, postcards, and hopefully getting a really good "Casey's Gay" picture.

Before I go any further, if anyone is reading this on Thursday...

Happy Birthday Mom!

I will try calling home, I haven't figured out how to get my stupid satellite phone in the room to work. But I have a $10 calling card and I can try my cell phone again from Deck 13. I've just been told it's hell to get a signal from a third world country. That's the plus side of missing Ecuador, a lot of the guys aren't planning on leaving the ship because they've been to Ecuador before and just keep saying there's nothing worth seeing. The country is aparently really dirty, and kind of dangerous (even during the day).

So that's it. Oh, and I'm officially not a Pollywog anymore. That's someone who's never crossed the equator.

For those FCCT people, while I was in Panama, I heard the original Dancing Cucumber Song from Veggie Tales. Joel knows what I'm talking about. I heard the tune playing and it took me a while to realize what it was. Ok... adios!

Sans Costa Rica

2006-03-14T14:33:00.000-08:00

Well the itenerary has changed. Yesterday we were unable to dock in Costa Rica so the passengers are upset. The swells were huge and it was knocking the whole ship around. People still actually wanted to try to get on the tenders (little life boats that take you to shore) so they could go on their little tours! I can't believe some people were willing to try. Anyways, the captain picked up anchor and we headed towards Panama (where we are right now) so we're a day ahead of schedule. I don't know if we'll continue on a day ahead of schedule or if he'll just slowly creep on so we wind up back on track.

Bad news, I can't upload photos. Not at all. It costs 12cents a minute here at this terminal and it wont allow me access to the USB or CD-ROM. I could use the wireless I was told, except it costs a fortune per minute and uploading pics would take quite a bit of time. So when I get a lot more pics, I will mail them home to my mom/dad/sister to upload. They'll have to give you the link, but it will be a while. I haven't taken enough pics to make it worth the while yet.

Alright, I have to run up to deck 13 (crew deck) so I can get a Casey's Gay picture. I forgot to take it ashore with me so it will have to be me holding it with Panama in the background. I didn't get to see the canal because it is about an hours drive away and we weren't allowed on shore that long. I worked at 4 pm today and I will be working at 8:45 and 10:30 again tonight. If you didn't know, I'm 3 hours ahead of you guys now. We lose an hour every time we change timezones, but it hasn't affected me. I actually get to take naps in the middle of day (no port hole) so when I turn off the lights the room is pitch black.

I miss you all. I'm glad Ryan did good at his t-ball game. If you guys leave a comment, try not to type in all CAPS, its really hard to read (I'm looking at Mom and Dad on this one).

Roxanne

Schedule

2006-03-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

March
11 Acapulco
12 At Sea
13 Puerto Caldera
14 At Sea
15 Puerto Amador
16 At Sea
17 Esmeraldas
18 At Sea
19 Callao
20 At Sea
21 At Sea
22 Valparaiso
23 At Sea
24 Puerto Montt
25 At Sea
26 At Sea
27 Punta Arenas
28 Ushaia
29 At Sea
30 At Sea
31 Montevideo

Acapulco was amazing. Spent a couple of hours on the beach with my co-workers. Since they've been there several times they knew exactly where to go. We ate lunch (carne asada, rice, guacamole, and tortillas) and drank Corona beers. Not much going on today. I'm working followspot again tonight for a show. Last night I just observed. I had issues updating the blog last time, I thought it didnt work, but it did! Yay!

Miss you all, here's some info, letters only, NO Packages. Mail should be sent way in advance, if the ship leaves port before the letter arrives, I will not receive it, at all.

Montevideo Mailing Address (3/31-4/1)
J.R. Williams
Solis 1533, PO Box 248
Montevideo, Uruguay

Rio De Janeiro Mailing Address (4/3-4/4)
Inchcape Shipping Service
Rua Sao Bento 9, 1andar, Centro
Rio De Janeiro RJ-20090-010, Brazil

New York Mailing Address (4/15, 4/29, 5/23, 6/4)
c/o Cruise Link II, LTD
676 Ninth Avenue, Box 238
New York, NY 10019
USA

Mailing should include
Roxanne Rosas
Queen Mary 2
Ents Tech/Entertainment

Upper left area of envelope should say "Crew Mail"

And just an update for you Knott's People, I have 2 pics of "Casey's Gay" in Acapulco. Yay! The crew here loves the idea.

Mexico

2006-03-10T12:19:00.000-08:00

We're a couple miles off shore from Mexico right now. I've taken some photos but haven't got enough free time to upload any. I'm in between projects right now and should be taking a nap like some of the others. Maybe I still will.

Our first stop will be Alcaupolco and I will allowed to leave the ship. The next stop after that will be in Ecuador, and I will have to remain on board, but I've been told that I'm lucky for that. Apparently Ecuador is a disgusting little country. Last time, one of the crew actually saw a dead person on the side of the road, so most of the crew won't be leaving the ship.

As for the boat repair ride to Germany, it's still on for May, we'll be there 4-6 days while the boat is in Dry Dock (which means it'll be up on stilts) but we'll still be living on board with absolutely no passengers. Basically it becomes a huge maintenance week for everyone.

Food is good. Beer is plentiful. And the sights are amazing. I haven't felt the boat rocking much until just after we left dock in San Pedro and today. Probably because we're close to the tip of baja california and the wakes are bigger. I havent gotten sick from the sea, but I did start to get a little nauseous from the drinking my first night. It's an initiation to get the new people drunk the first night, but I was ok. I stayed away from the tequilla.

Alright, I miss all of you, I wish you were here, mostly to help lug stuff around. And I can't wait to hear back from you. You can just post a comment on here, I don't think you have to sign up for anything, but you'll have to do a word verification (Dad hates those).

Robyn, hug Ryan for me. Mom slap Robyn for me (just kidding ;-) wink wink)

Roxanne

FAQ's

2006-02-17T08:17:00.000-08:00

I have been receiving a load of questions since I announced I was leaving, so I created an FAQ list

Q: Where are you going? Why are you leaving?
A: I have taken a job aboard the Cunard's Queen Mary 2 which means I will be going to South America and Europe.

Q: How long will you be gone?
A: 4 months, I leave March 8th and return July 3rd

Q: What will your job be onboard? Lighting?
A: I will be a stagehand, the lighting job requires an intensive amount of training in intelligent lighting.

Q: Are you working in the theater?
A: Yes, and the other 14 venues on board like the piano lounges and lecture halls.

Q: Can we see you when you leave?
A: I have to be on board at 9:30am but the ship doesnt leave until 4pm. And no, I will not be on the deck to wave good-bye since my training starts at 2pm.

Q: Can we send you stuff?
A: No. No packages will be delivered for ship security reasons. But I will use the ship's internet to stay in touch. It costs about 15-25 cents a minute to use, so I will update this blog and/or e-mail when I can. My cell phone should work while I'm in New York, but I'll only be calling mom and dad so... yeah.

Q: Do you know where the ship is going? What is your schedule?
A: All I know is we're going to South America first, then to the east coast, then to England and back again. I don't know the exact dates and ports.

Q: Can you get off at the ports?
A: I've been told I will get some time, at some ports, not all of them. It's not guaranteed that I will get time depending on my training and the work that has to get done.

Q: Are you going to take pictures?
A: Obviously!

Q: Do you get your own room? Bathroom?
A: No, I am rooming with one girl. I have no idea who. I believe our room has it's own bathroom but the showers are shared. I don't know this for sure, but I was told she was going to be a production assistant.

Q: Do you have to wear a uniform?
A: Yes, I've been told it will be black slacks and a polo shirt with the company logo. I am also required to have steel toed shoes. I will also purchase a formal pants suit for evenings where formal attire is required to functions.

Q: What supplies do you have to take? What if you forget something?
A: I have to take the basics (clothes, tolietries) but there is a store onboard that sells the basics as well. If I forget anything, I'll have to live without or try to purchase it during the trip. And I have read there is actually a mall of stores on board.

Q: What does it pay?
A: I will be making $1600 a month, plus I am covered by medical and dental while on the ship. A doctor and dentist live on the ship as well. Any emergency medical problems will be dealt with off the ship.

Room and board are also covered so as long as I keep my expenses low, I can keep what I make.

Q: What about taxes?
A: Taxes will be taken care of when I return so I will save every penny I can.

Q: How did you get the job?
A: I applied in two places. Directly with Princess Cruise Lines and with c-deck.com. Cunard called me and interviewed me over the phone.

Q: What steps did you have to take to get the job?
A: I have to have a Norweigian Maritime Medical, take drug/blood tests, take the Yellow Fever vaccine, have a criminal background check, apply for a Seaman's Discharge Book, obtain a passport, and provide passport photos along with signing a contract with Cunard.

Q: How did you hear about this job?
A: I have spoken to people who worked as techs and performers on ships before and decided it was something I'd like to try. The turnover rate is high because some people don't like it and there are always openings for stage hands.

Q: What if you don't like it?
A: I will work the 4 month contract and quit if I don't like it. Otherwise, I will get a month off and leave early August again for another 4 months.

Q: Are you going to party onboard?
A: Probably, depends on the crew

Q: Are you having a going away party?
A: Yes, for all you Cal Poly peeps I will be at the TGIF in Brea on March 3rd at 8pm, for family I will be having a "gathering" on March 4th either at my mom's in Anaheim or my dad's in Placentia (not decided yet)

I will also be trying to get in touch with people from work at Fullerton and Knott's, but probably only on a person by person basis, no actual party plans since Fullerton is in prep for Festival season and Knott's people are scattered to their own lives/jobs.

A list of advice I have already heard and taken in.
1. Don't become a lush
2. Don't gamble
3. Don't get pushed over board
4. Try hard to see as much as possible, this is the chance of a lifetime.
5. Get your flu shot
6. Party
7. Don't get caught up in all the food available

Bon Voyage

2006-02-03T09:18:00.000-08:00

I got the job. I will be working for Cunard aboard the Queen Mary starting in March. That is, as long as I pass all the required medical exams. I had no idea how much paperwork was involved. Currently I'm filling out an application for a Discharge Book and/or British Seaman's Card. It was e-mailed to me from the people in the UK overseeing the final steps of my hire.

I also spent the morning going over some documents e-mailed to me regarding life on board the ship and what is expected of me as crew, and not just as an entertainment technician. It feels like moving back into a dorm situation my first year of college. I have no idea who I'll be staying with, but the paperwork made it sound like it would not even be an American. Most of the crew is British or Phillipine. This should be interesting.

I also am waiting for a phone call back from the doctors office to find out when/where I will go to get my maritime medical exam and yellow fever vaccine. I did a google on yellow fever and quickly added mosquito repellant to the packing list.

This whole process looks like it's going to cost a bit of money. I have to pay for the exam, the books, a visa, etc, etc. The whole point of going for a job is to make money because I certainly don't have it. Guess I'll be maxing out that credit card again, sheesh!

Update on The Search for Work

2006-01-24T15:34:00.000-08:00

So work has been sparse, and by sparse, I mean I haven't worked in over 2 weeks. I'm going insane and the house is spotless, except of course for my desk which will forever be an organized mess.

I had a phone call from Princess Cruise Lines today, a phone interview. It was rather nerve wracking, I had no warning... just... "Ring! 'hello?' ... 'Hi this is Denise from Princess Cruise Lines...' "

Yup. I did well, I didn't get the job I applied for but they wanted me to seriously consider the position for stage crew. Basically my resume screams educated grunt.

I don't know if I want to take it. I'm scared of leaving, how sad is that? I'm always saying I want out. I want out of here and now the opportunity presents itself and I hesitate.

I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that I'd be sharing a room with a stranger (haven't done that in years), trapped at sea (never done that), and my aging grandparents are starting to get weak. All 4 are alive and it would be hard to drop everything if they died to get back in time for funerals and their masses (they're catholic, I'm not).

Sigh... Why can't Disney just call? I called the phone number my interviewer gave me and was told there was no update. He hadn't heard anything so I thanked him and said I'd call at a later date. I had a former teacher say she'd call and put in a good word for me. I was so excited, but then I remembered she tends to forget stuff. I hope she doesn't forget this.

Disney Again

2005-12-29T16:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't get the job I wanted with the Royal Caribbean cruise lines, so I've reapplied to Disney again.

I'm not getting any work from the union, so I had to get off my ass and stop waiting for them to call. I call every monday and give my availability (which is basically 24/7) yet still no calls. At least the one gig I did work for them looked good on the resume since Disney requires their tech employees to join that union. IATSE local 504.

Crossing my fingers again, and this time I brought home a valid phone number. Last time I tried to call to find the status of my application, I was only able to talk to the silly disney automated computers. Now I've got the business card to my interviewer and I can call him to see whether or not I get the next interview.

Wish me luck... again.

Weird Point in my Career

2005-11-04T17:05:00.000-08:00

So I'm at this really weird point in my career. Do I give my resume to the cruise lines or not?

I just worked my first union gig last night, and I'm working another one tonight. It's really great working in a venue so large and insane. I thought I'd be totally unqualified and unprepared to do the job, but all they needed was grunts. Physically I'm not in the best shape to be doing something like this, but I managed. I even got myself quite dirty, dirtier than the boys even. ;-)

I think I'm kind of scared to turn my resume in. It means a huge change in my life. Leaving everything comfortable and familiar. There's still a huge chance I wouldn't even get the job, so I'm really only worrying about something that hasn't even happened yet.

My job at Knott's ends as of Thanksgiving morning when we hit the deadline to change the park over to Christmas. Halloween Haunt was like seeing if I could handle the cruise line (since I was working the same show 3 to 4 times a night per week) and I know now that I can. I just have to learn how to keep the music out of my head and my mp3 player fixed that ordeal.

I'm also learning that I need to take on a lot more responsibilities I've ignored. My mom always handled my car insurance since I was an honor student and she got great rates for me, but now I'm not living with her anymore and out of school. I started quote shopping and its so confusing. Plus I'm looking at taking over my dad's house payments from him which would be A LOT per month so I'd have to find a roomie. But if I got this job, I'd only have to worry about a place to live for 2 weeks every 6 months.

I've decided to hand in the resume, see what I can get. I can always turn the job down... only problem is, I've run out of options. I just haven't found where I want to be.

The Hills are Alive with the sounds of dinner theater

2005-10-11T21:30:00.000-07:00

So I spent the last two days helping a friend (for a paycheck) at the Candlelight Pavillon Theater(The Sound of Music) in Claremont. She anticipated lots of problems and wanted to bring in someone she knew because of all the confusion in the pre-production process of the show.

It tooks weeks just to get a copy of their house plot from the house electrician, and when she did get it, it was a jpg file (she needed the CAD file). It was obviously done in CAD but they didn't seem to know how to get the original and send it.

So she dragged the jpg into Vectorworks and created her plot over that. She told the house electrician she would adapt their house plot so that's all he had to worry about doing before she arrived. We showed up on Monday and lo and behold, house plot wasn't finished. Plus, there were speaker clusters blocking the view of many lights in the first FOH position (not on the plot).

So...

-The house electrician took it upon himself to "redesign" the FOH and change the purpose and angle of some lights for her benefit (uncircuiting everything putting us off schedule)
-Their additional electrician actually cut one gel out of the center of a sheet of gel and threw the rest away
-The additional electrician also refiled gels we had pulled for focus time, so we had to redo that
-We asked for two or three floor mounts, and they brought us the bases of mic stands
-A base went bad on a 6X9 so I asked for the cap off an altman ers we weren't using, the house electrician brought up a cap with the ground wire actually dangling outside of the connector and said "don't worry, if it's out of the connector it can't hurt you, it's not carrying a current."

So sadly, I could only help two days, so when she should have been sitting down to start building cues, she was now sitting watching yet another rehearsal trying to figure out where she could cut cues tomorrow. She's gonna have to rely on their electricians to finish the focus and fix any other problems that arise. I felt so bad leaving her there, but we couldn't work while the rehearsal was going on.

And before I left, we both happily noticed, one of the speaker clusters had a blown speaker in it. Looks like the director and audio's gonna have some fun on this run.

Knott's Argh...

2005-10-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

**Original first paragraph's erased**

OK, on to other issues. I'm working at Knott's Scary Farm right now. I'm the video switcher for the Ed Alonzo show and I"m hating it! I took some tv and film courses in junior college before I settled on theater, and now I'm back at the damn board wishing I had said I wasn't available for the month of October. I was told I was going to be a stagehand which is why I said yes, but the day I walked in, they informed me (well, the TD informed me) that I was the new video person.

I think I used a switcher maybe once at Fullerton? And it was a lot easier since it was programmed by someone else so all I had to do was move the lever up and down, not push buttons. Sigh...

Oh well, October 31st isn't that far off. So I'm using this time to siphon all the info I can out of people about working for the cruise lines. Another girl, named Kaycee, just stopped working for them, and has given me loads of info. She didn't like it, but she said some people do. I'll never know if I'll like it till I try it, so... yeah.

Princess Cruise Lines

Carnival

Royal Caribbean

Disney Cruise Lines

Links to all of these and a couple more

senior project finished

2005-07-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

Monday, Christina and I finished our senior project. It's official. It's all over.

We took it in to the copy & mail place (which should also now be known as we charge up the butt for slow ass service) and had it bound. I'm hoping to scan the cover and post it when I get it back from my dad. He's going to try and read it when he returns from New York next Sunday.

In the mean time, I am focusing on work, and planning a weekend trip to Vegas when one of my girlfriends comes down from San Francisco. It's gonna be a girls road trip and I'm so looking forward to it!

PS Lisa, I'd really love a response. I think your criticism is worth pure gold since Christina and I were robbed of the traditional post mortem with the theater department.

Roxanne prepares for the Real World

2005-06-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

So here I am now. A college graduate. Out seeking for that job. I spent two hours at Disney today applying for a tech services job. The people at the front desk didn't understand what I meant. They kept grouping me with kids who were there to work in the park as ride operators and food services. It was rather annoying.

So after spending a lot of time working on a resume, I decided I need to create a personal webpage. I have one that links to this blog and my little Tech Theater website on geocities.com, but I'd like to actually own my own URL. It's just the tech geek in me. I'm gonna spend my free time messing with Dreamweaver and Flash for a while, hopefully I'll get better and have another skill to add to the resume.

This is my resume, not the actual one, just a compilation of the items on it. (Some additional jobs that did not fit on it). I'm posting this just for my own benefit, but if you have any experience in a template that works, please let me know.

Roxanne Rosas

teksalot@yahoo.com

Professional Experience

The Bus Stop Journals 6/05
Light Designer
Production Manager: B Morse

Knott's Berry Farm 8/04 - 12/04
Seasonal electrician
Supervisor: T Nelson

Fullerton College - Theatre Arts 7/98 - Present
Board Op, Stage Hand, Followspot
Supervisor: S Pliska

Fullerton College - Fine Arts 3/99 - Present
Maintenance (Facility and Equipment), Board Op, Followspot, Stage Hand, House Manager,
Concessions
Supervisor: Ed Huber

OCPAC - Founders Hall 98/99
Set-up and Strike crew for the black box theater
Supervisor: C Fisher

Handless Man Theatrics - 98/99
Basic Carpentry, Set-up and Strike
Supervisor: Jim Book

Target Fullerton - Hardlines Sales Floor 6/97 - 7/97
Target Tempe - Hardlines Sales Floor and Back-up Cashier 8/97 - 11/97
Handling money, helping customers, organizing products
Supervisor Fullerton: J Gagnon
Supervisor Tempe: S Price

Marymount College - Financial Aid Office Assistant 9/96 - 5/97
Answering Phones, Office/Clerical Work
Supervisor: Les Butler & Ana Saucedo

Educational Experience

Growing Up Johnny & Stosh - Master Electrician
Twelfth Night - Light Designer
Hopscotch - Director (10 Minute Scene)
The Importance of Being Earnest - Master Electrician
The Crucible - Light Board Op
The Laramie Project - Follow Spot
No One Is Alone: A Cabaret (ADDY G Foundation Fundraiser) - Light Designer
Gross Indecency - Co-Light Designer
Tommy - Audio 2
A Midsummer Nights Dream -Co-Sound Designer
Blade to the Heat - Assistant Light Designer
Sly Fox - Light Designer
Much Ado About Nothing - Rehearsal Stage Manager/Head of Backstage Crew
A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley - Sound Board Op
West Side Story - Rehearsal Stage Manager/Light Board Op
Scenes from an Execution - Wardrobe Crew Head
Assassins - Follow Spot
The Crucible - Light Board Op
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying - Stagehand

Skills

ETC Obsession II, ETC Expression, Strand Mini-Pallette, Strand 550i, Dove Light Board, Strong Gladiator II Follow Spot, Maintence for ETC Source 4, Strand Leko, Altman Light fixtures, Soundcraft and Mackie Sound Boards

Awards

2005 Outstanding Graduate Cal Poly Pomona
2003 - 2005 Honors all quarters while attending Cal Poly Pomona
2001 Special Achievement in Design and Technical Production - Fullerton College
2002 - 2003 National Dean's List - The Association of Educational Publishers
1996 - Cultural Arts Commission Scholarship - City of Placentia

Education

Cal Poly Pomona 2005 B.A. in Theatre - Tech & Design Emphasis
Fullerton College 2001 A.S. in Computer Information Systems
Fullerton College 2001 A.A. in Theatre
Valencia High School 1996 High School Diploma

Zimbabwe Meets Pomona CA

2005-06-19T21:10:00.000-07:00

The senior project for Twelfth Night was completed on schedule, and is still waiting to be graded, in the mean time, I began working on my first professional light design. The Bus Stop Journals written by Bernardo Solano as a community based theater project debuted June 18th at the Downtown Center in Pomona, CA. It was a great success.

The show featured former Cal Poly Pomona Alumni and community members. The play was written by conducting interviews with many bus riders, asked questions that began with "If a man approached you, told you he was from Zimbabwe and asked things like 'How could I contact Oprah?', how would you react?"

The responses were from all sorts of people you meet while either sitting at the bus stop, at the bus depot, or while riding the bus. A man named "Africa 'Thembi'" arrives in America with his band, but when it's time to leave, he stays behind and winds up in Pomona, CA. He thinks he will make it big with his Mbira (An African musical instrument consisting of a hollow gourd or wooden resonator and a number of usually metal strips that vibrate when plucked), but has lost his ability to play it because of his loss of faith in God. When his mother passed away recently, he was unable to say good-bye because he did not see her soul pass on to the next world.

He makes friends with new people, Carl (a teenager who offers him a place to live) and a blind woman named Nancy (she lost her sight 3 years ago from a gun shot to the head). Her insight is stronger than her blindness and she reminds Thembi of his mother with her wisdom. A month goes by, Nancy has become Thembi's friend and Carl has managed to contact one of Oprah's personal assitants. While taking the call Thembi hears the mbira music of his soul, and he sees Nancy dancing toward him to the African rhythm, he knows she has died and he is watching her soul pass on. He takes this as a sign that he must return home to the family he left behind, because he has regained his faith and ability to play the music he loves.

Thembi (Nehemia Chivandikwa) meets Donald (Michael Sartain), a drunk who attends Mt. SAC. The ladder is from the set designer (Bill Morse who also plays the bus driver) still hanging a map during the last dress rehearsal.

Thembi meets (Oz), a goth who hangs out on 2nd street and tries to convince Thembi to seek politicial asylum to stay in the U.S. legally

Nancy enters the stage and Thembi is shy about talking to her at first

Thembi has forgotten the phone call temporarily and dances to the music as Nancy (Sandra Fogler) passes on to the next world. Images of Thembi's home flash on the back drop as he remembers what he has left behind to come to the U.S.

This summer, several of the cast and production crew will travel to Zimbabwe to tell the second part of the story. An American student (Courtney Rowan), enters the exchange program, but when she arrives, she is left stranded alone in a part of Africa and we see how she views their culture. The play will be constructed in much the same way as it was done here. Several Cal Poly Students were interviewed as to how they would react to being in that situation.

I wish I could go, but alas, I have graduated from Cal Poly and this was my last venture with them. I have to enter the real world now (damn!) and get a real job (double damn!). So traveling to another country to do a project for free (plus pay my own way there) is just not possible at this time. But it sure was nice to be involved on this side of the project.

backdrop pic

2005-06-06T23:54:00.000-07:00

research paragraph... incomplete

2005-06-06T23:06:00.000-07:00

In order to begin my research, I needed to create a list of things I would need. Because I already had a good idea on the colors I would use, I decided to focus on the time of day each scene would take place in. Any time I would feel lost or uncertain about where to go next, I would always return to the script. The play, for me, was the one constant among all the changing circumstances and provided the clues I needed to start researching. Historical research did not seem to be of much use to me. But curiosity drove me to research the meaning of the play’s title.

Twelfth Night refers to the end of winter festivities that begins on All Hallows Eve. A common theme during the celebrations is reversal. Shakespeare wrote the play Twelfth Night or What You Will to be performed on the twelfth night using mistaken identity and gender role reversal as part of the story. The play’s title mimicking the date of celebrated misrule only compounded the importance of the main character’s reason for adopting a masculine appearance.

I searched the plays words carefully looking for ideas on what time of day each scene would take place, and then I tried to construct a timeline for the entire play so the transitions would make sense. Unfortunately, this idea was ditched as I began to receive rehearsal reports from the stage manager explicitly stating that the director wished certain scenes to take place at morning or sunset. I decided to follow the director’s wishes rather than dissect the script any further.

Rehearsal reports also clued me in to a new obstacle. The director had rearranged the script’s opening sequence which made my primary resource into a variable instead of a constant. I began re-reading the play for a fifth time trying to imagine the storm that begins the story, but is not scripted out in detail. We only learn about the storm through exposition and now I had to work with the sound designer to actually create it.

It was also at this time I began to question how to deal with the director. I interviewed several members of the department and asked how previous encounters had gone with her. The majority of answers led me to believe that designing this show would be easy, until the last few weeks, which was correct. I’ll address those issues later.

I turned to the High End AF1000 strobes for lightening. I had just seen them in the previous show’s main stage as a lightening effect for The Foreigner and loved the color temperature and wash they created. I considered using PAR lamps to hit the high points of the scenery, but I really wanted to use an instrument I had never used before. I also wanted the chance to try to learn some DMX technology.

I continued searching the script for clues and began scribbling notes in the margins about how each scene should look. My analysis of each scene had already told me the mood, but my final decisions were all based on keywords by characters or the ends of scenes into the next ones.

My first actual encounter with a text clue to the time of day was in act I, scene 3, when Maria says: “By my troth, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier o’ nights.” I figured it was after sunset by then, if Sir Toby is being scolded for returning home so late. I learned from some of Christina Russo’s research on the Caribbean that the streets were developed in an array of mazes to confuse attacking pirates at night. Sir Toby’s late hours would put him in danger if he were out and about in the dark. The idea of the corridors was scrapped later though because the director felt it looked to urban.

I continued in this fashion for the rest of the script, finding keywords and deciding on the time of day for each scene. When I was done, I was better prepared to being color testing. I started with my cast because of the wide range of color tones. Searches on the internet led me to R54, R05, R35, R51, R62, R60 and R33. I began tracking down cast members and quickly lighting them with the gel book and my trusty Maglite.

As for the rest of the colors, I relied heavily on virtual light lab version 1 and version 3. I own a copy of version 1 which is severely limited in options, but version 3 allowed me color test a jpg file of the cyc sent to me by the set designer. I narrowed my selection to a range of purples, blues, and ambers to the cyc; pinks, blues, lavenders, and ambers were still the main choices for back, down and side washes.

Awards

2005-06-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

Last night was the awards party for the end of the year. Seniors are recognized and the Alpha Psi Omega organization on campus awards the "best of" people. I was honored last night to receive best light design for Twelfth Night.

I also received a plaque for being a graduating senior, and to my shock I won outstanding graduate. I so thought Lauren was going to win for all her community work with peer theatre, but she was given a separate award for that and a scholarship. To my advantage though, Bill forgot the Dr. Seuss book that is tradition for the outstanding graduate to read from. Unfortunately, the department will not forget, and I'm sure I will have to read it at some future time.

I'm continuing to work on the research portion of the senior project, I'm focusing on the numbers I went over on color temperatures of lamps and sunsets. I wish I had saved and documented that portion better, but I just glanced over it and scribbled notes on post-its. I'm noticing that Christina's research is a lot more thorough than mine, which is probably why it's so much easier for her to type it out.

Analysis

2005-05-30T23:05:00.000-07:00

When I read a script for the first time, I analyze the scenes by the colors that best suit the mood. My first impression of the script led me to pinks, oranges and lavenders. It is the romance and setting of the Caribbean Illyria that formed these images in my mind. Psychologically, I see nothing dark about this play, but I have to remember the title is still a part of the play. The words “Twelfth Night” creates images of blues and dark colors which really does not go with the selected concept, but after reading the actual text I began to agree more with the chosen locale.

Viola’s (Brittney Kalmbach) journey is one of love. It begins with the decision to come to a new world, where her brother has good intentions of marrying her to someone who can care for her. But a storm changes their plans and separates the twins, forcing Viola to fend for herself in a man’s world. She takes on a new role and finds Orsino (Leo Barrales), a man in love with Olivia (Tori Ugarte). Olivia is in mourning for the loss of her father and brother and has turned her back on all courters, but eventually falls for the cross-dressed Viola. Viola’s twin brother Sebastian (Kevin Gonzales), who is assumed to have died at sea, appears in Illyria, and because he is Viola’s twin, they are mistaken for each other.

All of this is the set up for comical adventures with a sea captain, townspeople, Oliva’s servants, and Olivia. There are also subplots involving tricking a grumpy servant named Malvolio (Matt Guerra) and provoking a duel between Viola and Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Christopher Gelvin). The struggle of power is a major theme is these three story lines causing Viola’s change in gender appearance, Malvolio’s awkward behavior, and Sir Andrew’s idea that he has to fight for Olivia’s attention. The director decided to focus primarily on the first theme of masculine versus feminine by dividing the stage through scenery.

Stage right became Olivia’s world, lush in foliage and curved architecture. Stage left became Orsino’s world, very masculine and domineering over the rest of the stage with it’s second story. I retained this information and decided it would best be supported through color washes from opposite angles, but those final selections came later when I learned color schemes.

I really didn’t want to create light cues just for the sake of creating light cues, but the division of the stage made it feel as if every time we switched locales I had to change the focus. This kind of design always reminds me of a tennis match which fortunately, it really didn’t mimic. Lisa’s blocking took characters all over the stage regardless of where they truly were. Olivia chases Viola all over, even downstage of Orsino’s; Orsino, supposedly watching Olivia from a distance, wanders far downstage away from his home; Malvolio, Olivia’s servant, takes a seat on the steps of Orsino’s without leaving Olivia’s backyard.

Although I hate heavy isolation, I did want to really emphasize one part in particular. Viola seems to make a statement that I felt needed attention. Her aside sums up the main story line in two lines, much like the couplets at the ends of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Straight and to the point she says:

“yet, a barful strife!
Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife.”

The two lines preceding these are directed towards Orsino and are the start of the light cue that sweeps in towards her. And as soon as she’s said the next line, I began cross-fading to the next scene.

The first time Lisa saw this cue, she immediately came to me at the tech table and said the infamous phrase: “Roxanne, I think this cue is beautiful, but it’s a bit to theatrical. I think we need to cut it.” My first thought was to point out the historical inconsistencies on the stage or the fact that we were in fact sitting in a theater or the fact that she had described Illyria as a mystical place, but I remained calm and simply asked if there was anything I could do, because I really wanted the cue to stay where it was. She replied: “Maybe we could use it somewhere else, but it’s really… just… too theatrical,” then she walked away.

Later, we re-inserted the light cue in another place, it gave Viola more to say, but at this point in the script, I had grown weary of listening to Viola’s constant questioning of her abilities and actions in the story. Pointing out the foibles of the main character showed a weakness in the feminine though, creating the necessity to take on the masculine role for survival and I think it worked out fine in the end.

[picture inserted here]

Senior Project

2005-05-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

We (the set designer) are now working on writing our senior project thesis so that we may graduate. We have already written an introductory paragraph, but it needs to be edited.

Below is my second section which deals with my first impresions of the play, which will be edited to go with hers. It is incomplete but it's a start.

I first met Lisa Wolpe in the movement class in spring of 2004. My first impression of her was one of amazement and intimidation. Her approach to teaching was one of Socratic Method, placing students in on-the-spot performance situations and answering in tones of skepticism and disbelief. She was not one to tout her own resume though, and I learned later from others of her very impressive list of qualifications.

During the winter quarter of 2005, the quarter when I took on Twelfth Night, I enrolled in Lisa’s directing class as part of my bachelor’s degree requirement. When I attended Fullerton College, I was able to design for a director while participating in their acting class. From that experience, I learned how to anticipate the director’s needs by seeing how they approach a script; I was hoping that would be the case again here, but it was not. Instead I was given a set of guidelines in Lisa’s class that plays should be directed with, but with Twelfth Night I witnessed the extreme disregard to those set rules.

My first meeting with the director, along with Bill Morse and Christina Russo, made me feel a bit unprepared. I had read the script, but was not given any information on the concept at this point, leaving me a bit in the dark when the set designer began pulling out photos of Caribbean architecture. I quickly had to begin rethinking my initial ideas due to the new information I received. My reading left me with a feeling of a romantic comedy that evolved into a television sitcom. Later miscommunications also had me confused on the final choice in time period; the director and costume designer both had about a century’s gap between ideal settings for the play.

After reading the play again, with more information to take into consideration, I began seeing the stage washed in pinks, oranges, and lavenders. I also had keywords straight from the director that I contemplated: “Life force.” Illyria is a mystical life force, lush with tropical foliage and femininity. Olivia and Viola take priority in the story, along with the gender change in casting for the role of Antonio, the Pirate King. The idea of life force immediately made me think green (a rather scary color for many light designers). Green is affiliated with many bad concepts (illness, envy, inexperience) and I had to try to position it in such a way that it would enhance the foliage and cover a wide area, but not affect the rest of the scenery or costumes and make-up for the actors.

Preview Night

2005-02-25T07:29:00.000-08:00

Last night was preview. Basically, there is an audience, but they didn't pay. So the designers are free to touch up as the show goes on and take pictures. I spent it running up and down stairs in order to fix some problems. We didn't have the tech table set up anymore so I couldn't just call on clear-com to fix stuff. Then I made two cues at the end of the show (Cues 900 and 901) for Zach to photograph. They were cues I wanted in the show, but the director said they were too dark. So I re-created them for my portfolio's sake.

I decided to post the pictures next to some research I had been using for a while.

And here is a scene of virtual light lab next to the ending pose.

So does this look caribbean to anyone? I hope so. I posted just the first picture on LiveJournal for theatertechies and they loved it. I'm so happy (sniffle)

All this work comes down to this. Now I've done the happy pretty show, now I need to balance it with a dark dirty show. That should be great for my portfolio. But I also have to recognize that if there wasn't something beautiful for me to light, it'd be useless. Christina Russo's set design is amazing. After all that hard work, both of our projects won't exist in two weeks. And it's kind of sad.

I think I made some really good friends doing this and learned a lot. I know I definitely need to be more paper organized. And I need to learn how to delegate more stuff out. And somehow I need to learn to be more stern in getting what I want without stage managers thinking I'm a bitch.

Thanks to whoever reads this. I'm sure I'll post more when the show closes and post-mortem hits. (post mortem is a meeting with all involved to discuss how the show went, its not a morbid thing, its a constructive criticsm thing). ;-)

A night off

2005-02-23T19:07:00.000-08:00

Didn't get to update yesterday. I was so tired. I've gotten totally drained, I think I'm coming down with something. (Damn telemarketers... where was I?)

Yesterday was the addition of the eigth practical and three more front lights (Porch Door, Porch walkway, USC). Also, Lisa asking for a brighter scene (again) and the introduction of the lightning effects. I couldn't get the effect to work by adding it to the cue (proper syntax used I swear). Cue 4 FX + 10 * should have started FX number 10. Instead I just have my board op using a macro designed by Ozzy.

Today, rehearsal was cancelled. Everyone just needs a break. And I need to catch up on homework. We spent two hours doing lighting notes. Most of the time was because its hard to get to certain lighting positions with the set in the way. The genie lift can only do so much. Poor Zach. At least he has longer arms.

The I had the master electrician touch up the bench focus on some lights and hang another light (Orsino's Platform).

Ahh... a night off. I think I'll do my art homework.

Yeah... Can we make that one brighter?

2005-02-21T00:40:00.000-08:00

That was the catch phrase for my first night of cues with the director. "Can we make that brighter?" It's called Twelfth NIGHT! Night! Night as in dark. Night as in, it's ok to make the stage look like night time. As in, the audience won't have lights on a tech table in front of them causing their irises to open and allow them to see in the dark better.

Ugh!

She walked in as we finished running thru the show for the first time tonight. When we were ready to start the second run thru, she initially sat in the front of the house. But after criticizing my first two cues, she thought it would be better to sit right next to me so she could just "tell [me] what to change."

Basically, every cue's front light went up in intensity and the whole show is now a big tennis match. Every time a scene takes place on Stage Left, there is a cue, if it's on stage right... well that's another cue. And the two times I did actually focus on one part of the stage, she didn't like.

I should have bought a pack of cigarettes today. I only smoke when I'm stressed. This is my senior project and its completely unfair that I'm losing creative control. I was really starting to like the show and today, people were just looking jaundiced from the amount of yellow light to emphasize the "daytime."

Ever heard of establishing the scene? Yeah, the scene lights get brighter with an auto follow after I've established a time of day. She decided to start criticizing before the cue was even finished running its course.

So in conclusion: I have a lot of work ahead of me this week.

Tech Rehearsal One

2005-02-20T01:26:00.000-08:00

Today started at 11am. With no crew.

Nobody decided to show up and rather than be hindered by my light board op, I decided to work alone. First thing, I changed my blue cyc color from R65 to R80. And I changed my warm diagonals from R41 to R339. This made such a big difference. I also added a gobo to an SL on the first and blind focused it to Orsino's platform (mental note: I don't blind focus well).

I set up the ground row of Par 38 striplights (4 of them). The center 2 have R23 in their center cells. All 4 have R86 in the first cell. I am not using the third cell as of yet... We'll see...

To my pleasure, when I came in, all of the practicals had been set up and wired. (I love my stage manager Seth). He also helped me by placing two mini-pars up above the hut's window. One R15 and one R23 pointed straight down to make the window glow just slightly.

The tech went well. The director still has not attended because she is in grad school. So we had to use a lot of self-restraint from goofing around. I think we did an ok job seeing as how we were done at 10:30ish instead of midnight.

I think tomorrow will go well.

Building Light Cues

2005-02-19T09:21:00.000-08:00

So yesterday at 3pm, Teresa (my LBO) arrived so we could get ready to do light cues. We built groups and finished a little patching. Then at 4pm we started building cues. It was nice having some random painters and carpenters walking through once in a while because it gave me a chance to see what it would look like on actors.

We would have been done by 8pm but I forgot an important thing. I forgot to turn off tracking. So after running through the cues again, I finished at 9:30pm and went on a set dressing adventure with the stage manager and assistant scene designer. They proceeded to pull a lot of practical lighting devices which I began to fear would out number the standard lighting instruments.

They wired one up and it looked great, so I didn't fear them so much anymore as I did the amount of work it would take to wire all of them up.

Dress Parade

2005-02-17T20:14:00.000-08:00

We used the lighting class today to try to finish focus the lights, but unfortunately not a whole lot of people showed up. But luckily I got a hold of the program and started crossing names off so :-P to them!

So now I have the flippers done. My paperwork was kind of screwy. Still haven't figured that out. Just labeled them wrong as SL for SR and vice versa.

I'm noticing the reason I had so many problems when the set moved, was that it didn't just move downstage, it flattened out to be parallel to the stage. And the balcony on SL isn't drawn correctly for me (I think). I might be reading it wrong, but I thought I was going to have some opening on the DSL of Orsino's. So my high side light on the farthest part is useless. But I'm sure I'll find some use for it. ;-)

The set designer and I also went shopping. She purchased two light poles that resemble Bamboo. They're very cute. And she also bought some tiny lanterns that were very cool. But the theater manager pointed out their size would be lost by the back row of the theater. So I believe the set designer is going to return them and we'll use some other lanterns that the theater manager will convert into powered flickering lamps.

Today was also dress parade. It was a very nice chance to see what my lights look like on the actors and the costumes. I turned on my front, side and back lights to help the costume designer and took the opportunity to ask a friend what he thought. His only advice was to add top hats to some fixtures out of courtesy to the people in the first few rows. Not that they were being blinded, it's just as though they were getting quite a bit of ambient spill. I think he's right, so I'll do it.

Tomorrow at 8:30am, an asst. stage manager will let us in so we can finish focusing. I'm just going to rip through these as fast as possible. Then at noon, everyone should start showing up for dry tech, I'll build my cues and do a paper tech thing with the stage manager.

Moving scenery wasn't planned

2005-02-16T21:11:00.000-08:00

One week to go till the show opens

Today the director decided to move the SR scenery downstage about 5 feet, and she flattened it out, so now it runs parallel with the proscenium and not at a 45 degree angle. So that screwed me over... A LOT!

My front light is affected so much as architectual lighting I specifically place for the scenery. I created 2 new electrics in the theater using drop boxes, but now those positions are no longer capable of making the shots because of masking. So now I am in a rush to work on refocusing them tomorrow. (Not like I got a whole lot done today).

Today we finished focusing the proscenium pipe and then we got 3/4 of the first electric done. It was a mess though because I didn't know how to focus them. So now I'm back on vectorworks changing the scenery and re-doing the purposes for lights. Some lights that would have been down or back lights are becoming set toning.

Although as I type, I'm wondering if I should just delete lights, re plot them, and rehang partially in the morning.... hmmm.... Although that would cut into the whole 3 hours I have to focus tomorrow. Damn!

And knowing Bill, he'll probably take up the first hour trying to lecture. Damn! Damn!

And on top of all that, I have a shitload of art homework tonight. Lots of painting to do.

I wish I could take a break. I wish I could get away.

half an electric

2005-02-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

Class started at 10am, we only had 2 hours today and the first hour was spent listening to Bill lecture. He set my trims on the masking so that was nice. (I hate that part)

Then I focused one light.... that changed after he pointed out some issues with it... so I moved Olivia's set upstage, flew in the first, moved the light back to its original position, added a fresnel to it, changed the circuit of a Data Flash, flew it back out, had the guys flag the electrics on the lock rail, and searched for missing paperwork.

When that was all done... I sent Rich and Keith (master electrician) up in the genie lift. Junior was dead so Ryan couldn't focus at the same time. And he wasn't up for focusing on the A-frame (pussy... just kidding... my trims are way fucking high) Damn set (oh did I say that outside of a parenthesis?)

We started with the proscenium pipe, the numbers were wrong on my paperwork. I couldn't understand why the dimmers I called out were coming up wrong. I assumed it was my fault (bad job at transferring numbers from the plot to vectorworks then to excel). Then I decided to check on my rookie light board op (maybe she was doing something wrong). She was doing fine as far as I could tell. Then my master electrician started calling out numbers from up above, looking at the labels on the connector. He called out 222 so Teresa brought it up, and a different light came on.

BINGO! The socko cables were plugged in wrong upstairs to the back of the rolling dimmer rack. There's no reason for those to be changed. Why would someone unplug the socko connectors? Socko that's permanently labeled for specific circuits. (Am I spelling socko right?)

We were finally able to get focusing steady at about 11:45.

So at 12:15, class was way past over, and we only had HALF OF ONE ELECTRIC focused. I can't believe I'm supposed to be building light cues on Friday. And Zach's show opens this weekend so he'll get priority, but he only has some circuiting problems to deal with. The theater manager doesn't like the way some cables were ran I guess.

Humf.

So now I'm dealing with bad transfers from Vectorworks to Excel. Vectorworks paperwork publishing is awful. So I copy and paste into Excel to make it pretty, but Vectorworks only publishes stuff it thinks is important. If you decided to use a specifically created symbol, as opposed to a symbol created within the resource browser, it doesn't list the name of the "instument" and creates something really confusing to look at. (It's kind of hard to explain). Basically, the theater manager's template for all designers to start off with has buried symbols that conflict with the light design. I wound up copying and pasting lights just to avoid some of the confusion. (And convert to instrument didn't help this situation).

Maybe I'll get some work done tomorrow, but doubtful. I'd only have the theater from 4 to 5:30, not a lot of time to get stuff done. Especially with a limited supply of manpower.

Light Focus Tomorrow

2005-02-14T19:02:00.000-08:00

Production Meeting today:

Very short, very nice.

My only concern: the change in color for the upstage hut on short notice. Went from a greenish oceany color to a purple and orange wood hut. Why? Budget. Reusing mixed paint from old shows and because the building on SR is very green.

Walked through the scene shop to see this little change of color. Not bad. Wish I would have known sooner. That's the only thing.

Talked to the sound designer regarding the opening light cues and sound cues. We have to communicate clearly about the start because of the lightning and thunder that starts the show off. Plus I pitched my idea about the preshow cue that will run as the audience filters in.

I want the stage to look very happy and "Caribbean" and over the course of 30 minutes get darker and become more storm like in appearance to get us ready for the show. He will be playing upbeat caribbean music anyways and no storm sounds will appear until we start to dim the house lights.

Now I leave you with some virtual light lab photos:

Opening Picture downstage

Opening Picture upstage

Malvolio in his cage

Sunset

Pictures created with Virtual Light Lab 1

Load In Part 2

2005-02-13T23:29:00.000-08:00

Well as usual, things were not organized at Cal Poly. We arrived (we being Zach and myself) to the mainstage at noon because we were not allowed to work in the studio right away. The set designer worked on painting the floor for the third day, then enlisted us to help load in her scenery.

After all that, we were able to continue focusing lights. We had to get it done today because tomorrow is the first tech. Yesterday the tech designer kicked us out at 6pm promptly. Today she was kind enough to give us an extra 15 minutes to actually finish.

Now we didn't get finished, but it was focused well enough for the first tech. We will definitely have to do a lot of notes. My show got the front lights focused (I love having Zach to watch my back).

Our master electrician didn't show. He was supposed to be late, but instead he allowed himself to be kidnapped by his fiance for valentine's day celebrations. Which sucked because the only people we had were Connie and Teresa. Connie left early and Teresa arrived late so it was as if we only had 3 people to do all the work all day long. I still can't believe we got that much done.

Tomorrow I will have my patching and circuiting done. And Tuesday is the light focus with the class. That should be interesting...

Twelfth Night Load In

2005-02-13T08:44:00.000-08:00

Ok, I guess this will be my online journal of the progress of my show.

Yesterday was load in. When we first arrived half the plot was already hung, so my master electrician, assistant M.E. and myself started working on the flipper sections. My light board operator was no where to be found. (Basically, she hasn't inspired any sense of ambition yet)

When that was done, Zach (the L.D. for the studio show arrived) needed us to help on his show because his opens first. So I switched gears from L.D. to crew and we did as much as we could since the floor was being painted. I (in my own little way) made it clear to the set designer that when she runs behind, she makes other people run behind. (She didn't like that)

So 5:45 rolled around and the technical director wanted to leave so we had no choice but to stop working and go home. Or as she called it "return to your lives people."

Today will be fun because the set designer requested the first 3 hours of the 6 hour call to keep painting. So I guess we'll work on my show for that three hours, and have to rush to get Zach's show working because IT OPENS FIRST. God I hate all crew load in days.

skool sux

2005-01-29T13:21:00.000-08:00

I hate my life... No wait, I hate school... No wait, I hate school schedules.

How am I supposed to take a MWF class next quarter when festival season runs FSSun? Imagine all the money I'll be out because one fucking class goes on friday mornings. Fuck this shit. I hate school. I'm so ready to turn and run and just try to get by in life without a fucking bachelor's degree.

And then I see my parents and go... Oh wait, I can't do that.

Damn't! Damn Cal Poly and its fucking budget cuts and its stupid class scheduling.

Disaster Relief

2004-12-31T09:16:00.000-08:00

New Blog : http://roxannerosas.blogspot.com

I just mailed in $1. I know it's not much, but I'm dealing with financial problems. If everyone else posts this and sends in a dollar each though (you can mail it in as well) we can really help.

Thanks guys

PS Sri Lanka just hit midnite, they were crying and yet when the clock struck midnite they kind of cheered. It's really sad, but they managed to have a small celebration. Happy New Year everyone!!!

These are so great!

2004-12-05T23:52:00.000-08:00

Technical Theatre is Total Love

Alan Rickman is Love

Kingdom of Loathing is Love

The Cash-In of the Christ

2004-11-20T13:50:00.000-08:00

Passion Story on Yahoo

' Breaking with a growing Hollywood practice of heavy-handed pre-Oscar marketing, Gibson and his Icon Productions partner Bruce Davey have vowed not to spend a cent on television, radio or print ads hawking "Passion" for Academy Award consideration, a spokesman said on Friday.

However, Icon is presenting promotional screenings of "The Passion" and plans to send out thousands of DVD copies to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (news - web sites) and other industry groups that present year-end film awards.

"This film should be judged on its artistic merit, not on who spends more money for advertising. That's really what the academy was meant to be and to celebrate," Davey said in a statement issued through Icon's publicist, Alan Nierob. '

Not spending a cent on advertising for the oscars? But promotional screenings and sending thousands of free copies to academy members for oscar consideration isn't advertising?

Huh?

I'm a little fishy

2004-11-10T21:19:00.000-08:00

This is my fish twitch. He's the bastard who keeps me awake at night. Below him are little decorative pebbles. Well, he likes to flick those against the glass bowl, but only at night.

Why not remove them you ask? Well because the fish poop and excess food he doesn't eat would be totally visible and that's not pretty to look at.

I thought these fish only live about a year, he's coming up on 2 years.

Little bastard!

Phew

2004-11-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

I had a meeting with my evaluator today (nice lady), she says my US History class should have transferred over too. She was a little confused as to why that didn't happen automatically... humf!

Then I helped out with The Foreigner for a while. Nice times. I was about to leave for the day, when I spotted Ozzie and out of habit asked if things were going okay with the show. He said he had a few things I could help him out with... damn! But it went quick, it was ok since I got out of costume design early.

Now I'm at home, trying to relax. It's kind of hard because I have a to do list that stretches a mile and I don't know where to begin. Plus, I have to talk to my step-dad about maybe skipping rent this month since things are kind of tight. I'm living off my savings account to get by and now that it is getting small, I have to focus on work as much as possible and skip on some school activities. (Hence my not being on running crew for The Foreigner).

Ugh, I am so tired. Not just physically, but mentally. I'm so close to being done with school, and there's no time to stop and rest. As soon as school ends, I'll have to sell my soul just to get by. I have to think about moving out as soon as possible because living with my parents (even if it's in the guest house) is just a bit too corny for my age.

Just think when Bush is leaving the white house, I'll be 30!

Ugh....and since I'm in such a rotten mood, I think I'll end on a funny note:

Our President Ladies and Gentlemen

2004-11-04T18:42:00.000-08:00

See the video for yourself

Dead bodies on display in the name of Science

2004-11-02T20:33:00.000-08:00

So today, I went to the California Science Center and saw Plasticized (sp?) bodies. These are real life bodies that have been preserved and are on display for you to learn about. Our vocal approaches class went as a field trip, which is much better than actually doing voice class because it sucks!

For the most part it was cool, but then you had to walk through this area with preserved fetuses and a woman who died in the 8th month of pregnancy, and it was a little harsh... but I managed. I guess the hardest part was images of my nephew kept flashing in my head because I witnessed his birth.

The I spent the afternoon back on campus and helped wire up the hanging practicals for the black box show.

After that I stopped by the polling place and voted for Kerry. At which point I ran into my dad and told him my daily events over dinner.

I posted that info on my livejournal as follows:

"So earlier today, Sally tells me she is still voting for Bush. I beg her not to, just this once, deny her republican heritage and vote for Kerry, no matter how big a douche he is. And she says to me "you don't change the linebacker in the middle of the game." I said, ok, I agree with that, but I still can't respect Bush because he's a liar and a war profiteer (sp?)

Anyways, I go to dinner with my dad tonight and tell him about Sally's little analogy. His reply:

"Yeah but if the opposing team sacks our quarterback, we should go for theirs, not their cheerleaders."

In other words, after the WTC, Bush should have gone for Osama not Saddam.

My dad, ex-football player making more sense.... Sorry Sally."

What a fun filled day... so I'll stay up, find out Bush is gonna stick around for 4 more years probably and go to bed awaiting the coming apocolypse (sp?).

To Do List

2004-10-25T18:23:00.000-07:00

Valparasio (spelling?) A.K.A. That damn black box show

Show's going well. Opens next week. Just a few things left to do

Circuit the last 2 fresnels (nearest circuits are 20 feet away)
Add the last minute specials to the light plot that the designer forgot about
Gel
Patch
Focus
Prepare for a handful of practicals (4 circuits in the air, 1 on the ground)
*Damn scene designers trying to light their own friggin' set!!!

That's about it
Show only runs for one weekend, so in the end, it doesn't seem worth it. But whatever creates a little revenue for the school... right?

oh yeah

2004-10-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, the original blog that started this one?

http://ihaterr.blogspot.com

Now you understand why my blog is http://iloverr.blogspot.com

I'm not in love with myself... really.

I'm not.

Awww cute, my first entry

2004-10-22T08:33:00.000-07:00

So one day I get an e-mail message from a friend. It has a link to this site.

Why? Well because someone decided to create an "I hate Roxanne Rosas" blog.

So, the I hate Roxanne Blog, was not about me. It was about another Roxanne Rosas, but I posted on that one anyways. I let the account sit for a while. I didn't do anything with it, then I remembered it as I was sifting thru a notebook I keep filled with all my passwords.

I decided to make this blog. Nothing special. Just something to fill random time with.

Hope you enjoy. That is... If I remember to post stuff once in a while.