WHO HAS THE KEYS?: BY SAM LANDGRAF
As an itinerant company, we find ourselves making home a lot of different places. In all the migratory art-making, we are lucky to have a steadfast compass in Sam Landgraf, PSM extraordinaire and ensemble member.
About a week before tech week, we have our last meeting where the production team gets together and talks about their area of focus. Not having our own space that we always work in, one of the most important topics in this meeting is the handing off of the keys. Typically we will receive the keys for the space that we are working about a week and a half before opening night. After that we try to take advantage of every second of time that we are able to be in the space.
Planning who will be in the space at certain times is kind of like a game of Tetris that is always changing with each location and show. We have to think about the location of the lights, what the set is, what type of equipment is used to access the lights, and how much time each person thinks they need to complete everything that they need to get done along with the availability of each person and many other things. For instance, for Amerikin, most of the stage is covered in a low platform and the LatinUs theatre has a small lift in order to access their lights. We cannot put the lift on the platform; therefore the lights above the stage must be hung and focused before any building can be done. You also have to consider how each person will need to use the space. You can’t have a painter in there working when the lighting designer is making the cues because the lights will constantly be changing and turning on and off. You also can’t have a sound designer working in the space when you have someone building and using loud tools because the sound designer won't be able hear their sound cues properly. But some people can share the space. Your sound designer and painter could both be working at the same time, or there is some worth that your builder can do while your lighting designer is working on cues.
Once we have figured out everyone's availability, how much time each person needs, and who can logistically work together, you have to figure out the key hand off. A lot of the time while all this work is going on in the performance space, the actors, stage manager and director are somewhere completely different still rehearsing the show. If we are lucky someone in the production team lives close to the performance space and they kind of become the default key holder. Or designers will overlap and can actually hand off the keys in the space. Sometimes someone ends up having to work later than they were planning on and the key hand off ends up being a mailbox drop-off.
There are so many layers and things to consider when there is one set of keys and only a few days to get everything done. The coordination and teamwork that goes into these few days is truly mind blowing. Theatre is truly a collaborative art and cannot be done properly if not everyone is willing to help each other out in some way. Any theatre or production team has to believe that collaboration is important, but with Seat of the Pants we get an extra exercise in it by asking “Who has the keys?”
If you’d like to collaborate with us as a box-office-record-breaking audience in this final weekend of performances at our current home at LatinUs Theatre within the Pivot Center on W. 25th Street, Cleveland, Ohio, make sure you grab your tickets now for Amerikin by Chisa Hutchinson. Don’t miss it!
