ABC...

Out of Alabama! Into Baltimore! Next Week, Connecticut! At least we are going in alphabetical order.

Huntsville was a good city for us. The people were nice and somewhat intelligent. Most of the crew had at least a little bit of knowledge about what we were doing. It still boggles my mind how it is okay in this business to employ someone that has had zero training in the craft and just ignore the fact that the person has no particular skills that are useful to the show. I cannot think of many other business where a major client would come into an office and the office would let someone with no skills try and work with the major client. That is what we run into week after week. We are the major client that has limited time and resources to install a show into a theatre and we constantly get labor help that does not have a clue what we are doing. Huntsville was much better in this department that Montgomery. Montgomery is on the list of places that I have been that I will perfectly happy never returning to. I did not have a lot of time to explore the town of Huntsville (I spent so little time in my room that I did not even know I had a refrigerator until the last night I was there). The shows sold well there and the local crew was nice and fun to work with. The only downside is that there was a notice posted that Mamma Mia will be taking a 9 week layoff in mid July. They will be taking this time to negotiate and decide where the show is heading. I might be moving to New York sooner than I thought...

We had a 6:30am flight into Baltimore this morning. We arrived just before noon. I had the coolest cab driver I have had in awhile. He was this older Greek guy that knew just enough English to make awkward conversation. But at the end of the 20 minute ride, he told me that he could tell that I was mature and would make the right decisions in life. We hadn't even talked about life situations! He was like a Cabbie Fortune Cookie. I haven't had much time to explore Baltimore but I am looking forward to it. I am hoping to get at least one good photo shoot in so hopefully I can share some photos with you later this week!

Thanks For Reading...

Alabama does not believe in the Internet

Hey Everyone!

Yesterday was our travel day from Cleveland, OH to Montgomery, AL. I had a really good time in Cleveland. I got to see some great friends that I haven't seen for a long time. I had a lot of fun. I am dead tired from going out with everyone, but it was completely worth it. I still think my favorite night included a fantastic evening with a close friend that involved her falling out of a stool in downtown Cleveland. She was still functional, just not as coordinated as everyone else there. I had a blast and the friends made Cleveland worth it. It was good to be that close to home and see the people that care enough to make the drive when you are in the area. Thanks!
Our travel wasn't to Montgomery bad. We flew from Cleveland to Atlanta and then after a short layover, made it to Montgomery. We landed and needed cabs to get from the airport to our hotel. There was only one at the airport. The driver called in some backup and we all made it to our hotel. Some of the carpenters and Wardrobians Filled a cab full of people and the driver proceeded to stack all of the luggage in the trunk. He couldn't get the trunk closed and decided that if he drove carefully, everything would be alright. One of the Carpenters asked about the luggage and the driver said 'it's all good, sir' and got in the car and started it. I was suprised to see that all the luggage made it okay with no damage.
I checked in the hotel and promptly found that there is not much going on in Montgomery, Alabama. Just come crazy people arguing at the bus stop outside of our hotel. The hotel didn't have internet, so I started to venture out to find food. I was pretty unsuccessful. I couldn't find much in our area. The electricians went over to the theatre to look at the space and see what we were getting ourselves into. We then found out that if we wanted to use any equipment owned by the house, the promoter was going to have to pay for it and the promoter didn't want to pay for it. An hour later, we finally got the okay to use the house equipment and left the theatre feeling pretty decent about the theatre. This morning was a different story all together. We got in and found out that there are three different companies running this show. There is a promoter, the theatre and a labor company. It does not seem as if anyone spoke to the other about the show nor read our technical rider. Needless to say, it was a long day, I finally got everything ready for show about 7:40pm. The show started at 7:30...  It started when only about 3/4 of the labor force showed up to work and then they people that did show up were not very skilled at all when it came to stage craft. It was a long, frustrating day. We made it though. The show is up and they are currently singing 'Mamma Mia' on stage.

Well, I need to go hit some cues. Thanks for reading!

~Chris

Hope the River Does not catch on fire

Philly Moeller Style

My week in Philly was great. It was a great town. We had a good space, a good crew, the city was fun to be. It was a good change to what we have had lately. I got to do some sight seeing and try out the new camera. I had a chance to go see Independence Hall, Carpenter Hall and a bunch of other cool historical sites. It was a ton of fun. We got to go out and enjoy the city at night rather than going home because we had to load out the next day.
The travel to Cleveland was pretty easy. It was a 9:30am flight that went direct to Cleveland from Philly. It was painless. I got on the plane, fell asleep and woke up in Cleveland. I wonder how college kids that has happened to... The only hitch in the trip was that my luggage never made it to Cleveland. I am still waiting for it. Supposedly, my luggage has made it to Cleveland and is en route from the airport to my hotel. The agent said it could take up to four hours for it to arrive.
This week should be a good one, but a busy one. We load in Tomorrow, I have friends coming to visit on Wednesday, I am teaching a Lighting Design class in BG on Thursday, I might see some of Cleveland on Friday and then two shows Saturday and Sunday. It will be good to be busy. Let me know if you have any suggestions for what I should do while in Cleveland.
 Thanks!

The people in Philly are Loud

Ok, Sorry for the delay in the new post. Long story short, In the past week, my Macbook pro was dropped in Wisconsin while i was away from my desk. I decided to used the crippled computer as little as possible until I had it looked at, Had it looked at and then bought a new computer. So, with a new computer and a good internet connection, I can now get back to regular postings. I am hoping they will be every Monday since that is the day that I travel to the new town every week.

The last month went by in a blur. 4 weeks, 8 different theatres, 8 different cities, 8 different crews, a million different problems. The good news is that the long stretch of split weeks are over and we are in an awesome city with a great crew. Plus, instead of starting at 6am (like we do when we have never been to a theatre before and are not sure how the crew will be), we get to start at 8am. That was great on Monday except that we also had daylight savings time last weekend. So, when I woke up on Monday in Philadelphia, the sun was up (something I have not seen prior to a load-in in a month). This really messed with my brain and I was certain that I was late. I had no idea if my phone was in the right time zone or not. I had to check two different clocks in the room before I was convinced I still had 45 minutes until the work call. The load-in went great and I had my first real Philly Cheesesteak (chicken). It was pretty good. I do now believe that people from Philadelphia are inherently loud. The load-in on Tuesday was a day full of people yelling at each other, but not in anger. That was just how they were talking to each other. I noticed the same thing on the street today while walking around. This has been a really neat town to explore. I did laundry this morning, grabbed a salad and then just starting walking. I saw a ton of cool things (Independence hall and the Liberty Bell among them). I am looking forward to the rest of the week of not having to move the show twice in one week. Next week, we are in Cleveland. I am going to try and give a quick lecture in BGSU on Thursday. BG contacted me and let me know they were interested, now I just have solidify the details and figure out what the heck they want me to talk about.

Thanks for reading, sorry about the delay!