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Stagehands or Performers?


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53 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:

Remember the portapotties?  They were so heavy that 200 lb men had trouble pushing them around, and here’s 100 lb girls doing that.  Plus, on the bottom they had grocery cart wheels on them that went in every which direction.   Engineering flaw. 

Do you mean the 2013 Cadets towers?

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25 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:

Yes.  Jim helped assemble them before shows when he was driving that year.  It took three people 15 minutes to assemble each one.  And they were heavy. 

Heavy does not begin to describe them :-/  Got stuck helping at an early show.  They were terrible.

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On 7/22/2018 at 12:17 PM, jeffmolnar said:

 

 

On 7/22/2018 at 12:18 PM, karuna said:

 

If you need stagehands, convince a bunch of kids to pay $4000 to ride around in buses and move props every night.  What?  You wouldn't be able to find such kids?  Hmmmm....

Ok rant over. 

And about 10 years ago I said something like this when Cadets horns came on the field carrying ugly picnic tables. Forget what they were used for just remember seeing horn in one hand and other grabbing an end of a table.

Edited by JimF-LowBari
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On 7/22/2018 at 10:44 AM, karuna said:

Props are now a very large (pun intended) part of DCI productions. They can create all kinds of interesting and engaging stages.  Cool. 

What annoys me is that for large portions of a show, members ( who spent countless hours becoming the most talented musicians and performers and spend a lot of money for the privilege of joining a corps) are now relegated to being prop pushers. They don’t get to perform;  they get to push monstrously heavy props all over the field and they break character to do it. Used to be you’d get dinged for breaking character. Now we see people putting their backs into it all over the field  I know these things are cyclic but I sure wish performers got to perform for the whole show.   You know — march well, play well, spin well?  God bless all those stagehands out  on tour.  

For what it's worth: actors have to do this all the time in theater.

(And because the actors' union requires additional payments if actors are doing work that could be assigned to stagehands, directors work hard to stage prop movements so that they appear to be "in character".)

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44 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said:

For what it's worth: actors have to do this all the time in theater.

(And because the actors' union requires additional payments if actors are doing work that could be assigned to stagehands, directors work hard to stage prop movements so that they appear to be "in character".)

This was the point I was going to make but you beat me to it.  

It is so true.  Go to ANY play at any performance level and you see very creative prop management handled, at least partially, by actors. 

Personally, it doesn't bother me in drum corps.  Do I notice it sometimes?  Yeah.  But I just consider it part of the show.  Since drum corps performances have become so theatrical, scene changes are required - and are yet another example of the steady evolution of the activity.  

I actually enjoy the creativity behind how the scene changes are designed and executed.

Edited by luv4corps
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On 7/22/2018 at 2:59 PM, Bluzes said:

It doesn't seem with modern show design and starting positions that there is concern for the (free) labor required to lug around the props or comfort when electronic problems delay the show. Constantly expending time and energy on prop handling takes away from face time with the creative staff which is what they are paying for. While providing free labor. Wish I had them parameters in my spread sheets at work.

Mechanical issues not infrequently cause trouble for stage productions. Last year for opening night of one of our shows the turntable didn't work, so the actors had to add extra choreography into their moves to get from point A to point B where they normally would have been carried by the automation.

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On 7/22/2018 at 7:27 PM, xandandl said:

which is exactly what Gaines has become used to with his Japanese units.

Interesting. I didn't know he'd been working with Japanese groups. Does that explain the comparatively limited use of field space by SCV this year?

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10 hours ago, Ghost said:

Being literal for a moment, props are not required, but you're obviously stating that corps feel like they have to have them in order to keep up with the Joneses.  Plus, corps with props probably get scored better than corps without any.

How do corps feel about this? They set the rules. They can tell judges that the presence of props should be weighted less, if they wish.

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