Steelso vs Real Life

Ten

Today marks the 10th anniversary of me leaving the Tron after working there for 7 years. I remembered.

The Tron was a great time for me. I was technician on a part time basis then became permanent finally becoming Chief Tech and lighting designer for Tron productions. It was a great time. I worked with the best people in all fields, from production managers, my boss, the director I lit most shows for, admin staff and, thankfully, bar staff.

Recently I’ve been reading Rob’s (feels odd being so colloquial, I’ve never met the guy but he has a great blog) great mini series of posts on Enough is Enough. He raised some points that resonated with me on why I left theatre and why I loved it.

When Michael left and the new director came in there were “artistic differences” to say the least. I lit her first show, which was all right (though I have never seen so many people leave during a show, it has the highlight of our night to hear the sounds of seats being put upright and people storming out), but she was just so different from what I was used to and what I expected artistic directors to be like that after that show I had to leave. I was scared of being the guy at the end of the bar being bitter and looking back to the good old days. It was pretty obvious that either I left or would be fired. Both myself and my deputy, the hirsute Mr Shea, left at the same time. It was a great leaving party. But when I actually handed in my notice I went into the big shell of a theatre and cried my eyes out. I didn’t want to leave but knew I had to. Enough was enough.

I didn’t fare to well in the world of freelance lighting design. The Tron had given me a great comfort zone of creativity. For example a technical rehearsal in most theatres in about two days. For “The Trick is to Keep Breathing”, adapted from the Janice Galloway novel we had two weeks. It is unheard of in a production of that size. It felt like we were creating art rather than making it. Does that make sense? Anyway, after the Tron I found it really tricky to the tight deadlines of ‘real’ theatre and after about two years decided that, well, enough was enough.

I loved lighting. Loved it. I loved having wanky, arty chats with Michael about how a light should go up or down, what colour or what angle. I loved the collaborative approach to creation, bouncing ideas about and making them better. On the “The Trick….” we couldn’t turn off the theatre sometimes 30 minutes after the show ended because people were crying and not ready to leave the space that we created. I loved manually operating a lighting board to get the light to match the mood in timing and intensity rather than being just a cold, computer controlled affair. I could, and sometimes do, go on about how much I loved doing a plan then getting to see it come together and helping make something that can only live in the memory. Loved it.

But I was lucky to get involved with something that I love just as much, if not even more. I’m so lucky for that. I wrote about how similar I find my process of lighting and web development almost 2 years ago. hmmmm. Same old, same old…

Happy Tin Anniversary!

1 Comment to Ten

1. 

   While this will sound like a blatant creeping post - I came across your blog after you linked to my ‘When Is Enough, Enough’ diatribe and I have to say I love it.

   To be honest, that bothers me … because I now have another ‘daily must read’ which will result in me never having time to do any work whatsoever.

   You said my post resonated in parts - can I ask which bits, I am genuinely interested and would love to know how you feel now being away from it for 10 years.

   Thanks again!
Rob on July 25th, 2007

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