Getting started is the hard part. You’ve got this big blank page, and there’s so much to say. And as someone, most recently Larry Leggett, said “You only get one chance to make a first impression”1. I’m the lighting designer for Theater Schmeater’s upcoming production of “The Twilight Zone: Live“, and the staff at Theater Schmeater has graciously, or possibly mistakenly, allowed me to do some guest blogging here on their blog. With that in mind, I guess I’ll dive right in with some first impressions of my own.
It seems I’ve come almost full circle. I worked on my first show at Theater Schmeater in ‘98, on “The Twilight Zone Marathon V”, as a replacement sound board operator. Over the next few years, I worked on a number of shows at Theater Schmeater, and spent a lot of time on Capitol Hill. Now, after several years of relative hiatus from theater, I’ve come back both to Capitol Hill, and to The Schmee.
We had our first reading on Monday. I live east of the East Side so I tend to leave some extra travel time, as I really hate arriving late. My plan was to wander around Capitol Hill and see what had changed. Unfortunately, this is Seattle, the meteorologists still haven’t figured out how to forecast the weather, and the weather takes to heart the motto “never put off ’till tomorrow what you can do today.” The sunny weather that was supposed to last into the evening condensed into rain, putting a bit of a damper on my interest in strolling around.
As I rolled onto Capitol Hill from the freeway, I noticed that some things had changed, and some had stayed the same. On the changed side, there are a lot of condos, and it looks like more are coming. The building the Cornish scene shop used to be in has been replaced by a noodle restaurant, and the gas station up the street from the Egyptian is now a Bartells.
On the ’stayed the same’ side, free parking is still difficult to find, though even more so now that Seattle has eliminated the bulk of the free one and two hour parking. Many of the familiar restaurants are still around. The Rosebud is still there. Bill’s is still off Broadway. Theater Schmeater is still in the same location.
Location aside however, there have been a number of obvious changes at Theater Schmeater too. As I strolled up to the theater, my first impression was “Oh my Go… uh Goodness, they’ve got a door.” When I worked previously at The Schmee, entry into the theater was through a sallyport in the roll-up door. Now, they’ve got an actual door with actual hinges and everything. Once inside, I noticed that the lobby has been brightened up and cleaned up. Or possibly that’s just lingering shock from discovery of the door. Off to the left as you enter is a computer where patrons can sign up for the Theater Schmeater mailing list, right in the lobby. The bar is still there, and they’re having a ‘Swine Flu Special’, which I presume will last through the run of “Maria/Stuart.”
Inside the theater, currently in a configuration rotated 90° from what I think of as it’s ‘normal’ configuration, all of the seating is in theater seats. Nice comfortable theater seats. Gone are the old ‘if you wanted a comfortable seat you should have arrived earlier’ benches crammed along the back wall. For “The Twilight Zone: Live”, they’ll be returning the theater to it’s ‘normal’ configuration, although I don’t know if they’re bringing back the benches. If you feel a need to recreate that part of the traditional Theater Schmeater experience, maybe you can bring your own piece of plywood to sit on.
In the backstage areas, I understand that they’ve added an actual office, and cleaned up the shop and dressing rooms, although I haven’t been back there myself.
Finally, from a lighting standpoint, there have been some changes as well, especially when considered in contrast to ‘98/’99. There’s a bunch of shiny new lighting instruments. There’s Unistrut to hang the shiny new lights from, so you no longer have to balance a 10 pound lighting instrument with one hand, while struggling to drive another %$#@$ lag bolt into the ceiling. The old NSI light board, and the patch panel from He… uh a very warm place, are long gone, replaced with a set of modern dimmers and a computerized light board. Some of this was happening in the early 2000’s, but taken in total, lighting a show at Theater Schmeater now should be a very different experience from lighting one in the late nineties.
All in all, it looks like this isn’t quite The Schmee I remember, and that may be a good thing.
’till next time.
-daveh
[1] Strangely, I can’t seem to find out who actually said that. We’ve all heard it, and thousands of web sites use it to promote their products, but I couldn’t find anyone actually attributing its authorship.
