Theatre Tips And Tricks:

Theatre Tips and Tricks:

Doors!

More accurately, how to keep doors where you want them:

So you've got a set, and it has a Door. But. Your stage isn't level, or your flat isn't square, or there's a strong airflow current or any number of things. And the door just won't stay Shut/Open/Ajar/In Place.

Paint brushes!

As you can see in the photo above, paint brushes secured to the back of the bottom corner of a door will work like a movable wedge.

They're flexible enough to slide against the floor when an actor moves the door intentionally, but if secured properly, will provide resistance against whatever gravitational or structural forces might conspire to swing the door when unattended.

For example:

This door wants to swing towards me, which has pushed the brush back as it attempts to settle. The pressure of the bristle mass, however, are gripping against the riser and pinning the door in place.

You can increase or decrease the 'hold' by moving the brush up or down the door panel.

And it's virtually undetectable from the front.

Just a tiny blob in the bottom corner of the door.

Hope that helps!

And when they cut your pay/hours/benefits for no reason maybe you can get your XBOX to collectively bargain your employer for you with the help of your PlayStation. Wow! Thanks XBOX!

Spring = Babies

Or rather, the genetic urgency to procreate and carry on the species.

So when two bird fighting in the air about two feet off the ground flew across the road directly in front of my bike, quick braking saved their lives, but also reminded me to pass this along -

Between territory fights and protecting nests, foraging for food after a long winter, showing off to mates, and many other distractions, our fellow earth inhabitants are incredibly distracted at this time of year.

Please keep a watchful eye on the roads ahead!

----

This extends for a few months as baby critters are born, and stumble around after mothers desperate to keep them fed and alive.

My weird... Happenchance moments.

So my Dad is visiting this weekend, he usually comes up twice a year. Unfortunately we're right in the Onstage for my first show and I'm working non stop.

Between my matinee Understudy and my evening Onstage I have exactly two and a half hours. It takes half an hour to get home, and half an hour back, leaving an hour and a half to grab supper together.

I decide to take Niagara Stone Road out of NotL, which I 99% of the time avoid like the plague. It has several different speed limit areas, three school zones, stop lights, intersections, residential driveways, flat open fields with huge cross winds, a roundabout, and nonstop tourists trying to get back to the QEW and having no idea how.

On the map it's more direct. In practice, less so. But for whatever reason I decide to try it today.

So I'm stuck behind confused cars going "why the HELL did I go this way?" and everyone's backed up waiting to make left turns at the intersection light in Virgil, and that's when I spot this little guy.

Stunned. Hunkered against the ground. Beak open panting. One eye scrunched shut. Sopping wet in the rain. Dead centre of the roads.

Being completely aggressive when it comes to protecting innocent life, I immediately pull over and storm back into the middle of the streets. You want to go? You're gonna have to go through me.

Cradling the little guy in my gloves, I get him back to the sidewalk, but he's far too wet and dazed to determine how injured he is. Now... The responsible circle of life option would probably have been to stick him in a bush and hope for the best.

But. I also grew up in the heyday of Disney Channel "children adopt an injured wild animal and nurse it back to health". I make a snap decision to get him home and let him rest and warm up. But also fearful that birds can stress out very easily? Well. I'd plucked him from certain death, if he could hold out through the trip home, I'd do my best. Also the NC750X has a built in trunk.

Back at home, a light paper towel dry, some seed and water offerings, and he was bright eyed, suspicious, and flying around the bathroom in no time.

Health apparent and senses restored, the best option seemed to be "put him right back in the area I found him," so Dad shows up and I'm like "No time for food, we're helpin' a birb!!" Sparrow goes in a box and us goes in a truck and truck goes back to Virgil and, welp;

I dunno how to rotate that. Oh well. Better at riding bikes than writing blogs.

Yah for not dead Sparra Warrior!

Just a little taste of what’s going on at my workplace right now. We have been fighting for a raise because a lot of people who work at Disney have to work 60+ hours a week just to get by. What was their response? “Ok, everyone gets a bonus. $1000. But not all at once. $500 now and $500 at the end of the year.” (in case some people get fired or quit, so they don’t have to pay the full amount to those people). Of course, we were like “No, that’s not what we said we wanted. We want a PERMANENT RAISE.” So Disney was like OK, fine, whoever is NOT part of the union fighting for a raise gets the $1000 bonus :) Meanwhile, we are still fighting for a raise…

Unacceptable.

So I'm riding home last night, just after 11pm, and my normal route takes me along the Niagara Parkway to Queenston Heights, site of a massive failed assault by the Americans back in the War of 1812, and resting place of General Isaac Brock. The zone is a giant public park, memorial, and forest full of hiking paths along the Bruce Trail.

Note the 'forest' part.

So it's with some dismay that I notice a camp fire blazing away about 30 yards down one of the path access pull offs.

At first I'm like "not my problem," which is quickly overridden with "of course it fucking is, I'm a Canadian, aren't I?" So I double back and do a slow pass, looking for people.

I don't see anyone, but of course it's dark and in a dark forest. So I park, pop on my hazard lights, and approach the camp, flashlight on and pocket knife out (folded!).

Best case scenario; couple young people having an ignorantly improper marshmallow cook out. As long as they had a water pail or sand or an extinguisher... It's wrong but... Just be careful.

Bad scenario; I get jumped by some cracked up sociopaths and take as many of them with me as I can.

But what I found was worse.

Completely fucking unattended fully ablaze camp fire built with no brush clearance or containment pit in the middle of the hiking path. Surrounded by tall grasses, which embers were being blown into freely. And two deep tire ruts where a vehicle had struggled to get out of the mud when the party ended.

What the ever loving fuck.

At this point a car stops and another guy walks up asking if the fire is mine. Fuck no. He starts kicking it flat, but as you can see from the video, even knocked to coals, the fire would catch wind and pop back to life in seconds.

There was a car sized puddle about twenty feet away, but neither of us had a means to carry the water to the blaze.

So I had to call the fire department.

Who had to suit up and drive over.

To spray down a fire pit.

Firefighters who may have been needed at an actual emergency.

A camp fire that could have sparked a park wide blaze, destroying the historic sites, recreational grounds, wildlife refuge, and millionaire housing.

Why?

I must stress this was a -camp fire-. Whomever had made and left it had made zero effort to douse the blaze, stamp out the embers, or disperse the coals.

There is no "maybe they just did a poor job" or "didn't know better." They had enough knowledge to BUILD the damn thing, they would understand the inherent danger leaving it would cause.

Just... Fucking unacceptable.

Thanks to other random passerby and the respondent fire crew.

You can see the ruts left behind. Just above the car.

PEOPLE. YOU CAN DO BETTER.