Theatre Tips And Tricks: Sleep.

Theatre Tips and Tricks: Sleep.

The header is a bit misleading.

So you want to be in live theatre/concert tours/film and tv?

Do yourself a favour.

Take your circadian rhythm.

Gather it up in your arms.

Now carry it out back.

Give it one last, tender hug.

Put it down.

Tell it what a good sub-conscious control system it's been.

Now shoot it.

Or if you're Canadian and don't have a gun, use a rock, I don't know.

Just.

Put it out of its misery.

You'll be doing it a favour, I promise.

Because if you don't do this,

It is going to die a long, suffering, trembling death.

And it's going to take you with it.

Okay, joking aside, our 'time off' varies from month to month, week to week, even day to day. It's difficult to work in 'normal life' things such as shopping, banking, raising children, and sleeping. Fortunately, with 24 hour stores, online banking, and internet shopping, some things are easier than others.

Sleep is not one of those things.

One day you might be an afternoon matinee, the next day a morning work call, the afternoon off, and an evening show. Right into another morning call followed immediately by a matinee. Then you're off until the next evening. Then an afternoon and an evening. Finally an afternoon. And then your day off.

That's your week. But the next week is totally different. And the next.

Okay so that's an example of Repertory theatre like the Shaw Festival or Stratford (Ontario).

Back at Aquarius, 'stock' theatre, one show at a time, it wasn't uncommon to have twelve to sixteen hour days during tech weeks, setting up the lights and set, programming, actors onstage. And then it opens and you're just in for evenings and two matinees a week, for three weeks, and then do it all over again.

Or you're on a film shoot, and one day you start at 6am, go for twelve hours, then break. But because of turn-around stipulations, you can't start the next day until 8am. And the next day until 10am. So you begin the week up early and out in time for supper, but you end the week starting in the late afternoon and there until the sun rises.

Or you're a road crew touring the globe. You pull in at 7am, direct the local crew on how to put everything together, make sure everything works, trouble shoot, maybe rehearse a song or two. Catch a nap if you can, then it's concert time, immediately followed by directing the local crew how to take everything apart, shove it back in the truck, grab a shower, and it's 2am, back on the bus and off to the next town to start again in four or five hours.

That's not counting things like commuting to and from your job. Or the getting up and getting dressed, or the unwinding after you get home. Just because you have eight hours between calls doesn't mean you get eight hours sleep.

Sure, there are 'laws' against pushing people like that, or bonus time pay penalties to employers who make their workers keep such hours. But this industry also pushes people hard, and burns them out quickly. There's tons of unscrupulous bosses all too ready to take advantage of an earnest technician. Having the weight of a Union backing you up at times like that can certainly help to keep things legal, but not every venue has one. So then there's the boss saying something like "oh but this has to be done by tomorrow, I thought you cared about the arts..." These people don't care about the arts, and they certainly don't care about you. Look after yourselves.

Driving fatigued kills tons of technicians yearly. It's not "on site" so it doesn't count as a workplace concern. But it should.

The machismo attitude of "yah well, I did all that on only two hours sleep and twenty bottles of jolt!" feeds into this terrible cycle, encouraging people to push themselves harder and longer to get the show up.

And that's why this whole thing is absolutely terrible on our bodies.

Even if you're happy where you work, and love putting in that over time, our bodies need to rest, and our brains need to shut down. It will be incredibly hard to keep any sort of normal sleep cycle with standard working conditions.

As long as you're aware this is going to be part of your life in this industry.

And that there will be health repercussions down the line.

So how do I cope?

I keep odd hours. I'm usually up noon to 2am. Thick curtains can help keep the room dark to simulate night for dozing during the daytime.

I catch naps whenever I can. Back to back shows? An hour meal break in between. I'll curl up on a couch and close my eyes for fifty minutes. Sometimes I manage to doze off. Generally it's just nice to zone out and unwind. 'But that's your MEAL break!' Trick is... There's usually time preshow, or even during, where I'm sitting around bored. I can eat then. Eating on the clock is okay, sleeping generally isn't. Weird.

I try not to ride fatigued, but it's unavoidable. Leave yourself plenty of time, and plenty of space between other vehicles. Your reaction time is horrible when you're drowsy, so having that extra buffer helps.

Other common sense things include "eat healthy, avoid drugs and alcohol, exercise" and so on, but let's be honest, what we 'should' do and what we 'do' do often don't mesh.

Caffeine and stimulants might keep you awake, but at what cost 'later'. Tired bodies have weaker immune systems, but we don't have time to be sick. Take some pills and push on. -Also unhealthy.

At the end of it all, I have no "life hack" for sleeping and working in the entertainment industry. I don't know that there is one.

I love my job, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. And part of my job is being up at all hours, which means squeezing sleep in as best I can during the off hours. I'm okay with it, but I also don't have a social life.

Someone with a family, or friends, of whom keep 'normal' person timetables, trying to squeeze them in around rehearsals and runs, more power to them. And often times it just doesn't work. Which isn't me saying "you can't have friends or kids". It just takes more... effort? Or there are times you just have to miss important moments because time tables don't mesh?

It can be a tough career, and a tough way to live, but it's also the best jobs in the world.

Just make sure you're going into it eyes open.

Gaze impatiently into the booth void, and the booth void stares back. With ice cream.

House just got handed back at the end of intermission.

Man in the back row of the balcony turns around to peer into the booth with an expression of "what's taking so long".

Looks at Audio, leaning back in his chair browsing his phone.

Looks at Stage Manager, making notes on times and Important Things in the script.

Looks at me, looking right back at him. I grin, saluting him with my half-eaten creamsicle.

He winces, realizing he's been caught staring, gives an awkward half wave, and turns back around.

Yes sir, that IS two way plexiglass. Enjoy Act II.

Ppppprrrrrroogggramin'

Happy Openings to Sex, The Russian Play, Ladykillers, and The Glass Menagerie!!

Up next: Cyrano de Bergerac, Man and Superman +, and Victory!

Woot! Go IATSE!!

Proud Local 129/461.

I always had what I thought was "trouble" with math when I was in school. I could -do- the math, I understood how to use the equations, but my brain is no good for memorizing which to use when.

So every test would be like "use one of the five equations you learned this past week to solve these problems. And also figure out which equation solves which problem" and I'd struggle miserably.

I knew I could DO it. I just couldn't remember how. So it was very frustrating.

High School in Southern Ontario in the late 90s only required 2 Maths credits to graduate, so once I had done my obligatory Grade 9 and 10 and barely passed both, I waved goodbye to stupid memory problems.

"It's not like you're going to have a calculator in your pocket" the teachers warned.

Comes the end of Grade 11 and my guidance councillor asks in a puzzled tone as he reviews my Grade 12 choices "Where's your math?" :Fuck THAT: I laugh. To which I got the typical "maths are important" arguments.

:Yes, they are: I agreed. :And I love problem solving. But I can't keep track of which equation solves what problems, and almost fail. Why would I knowingly take a course that causes me distress and annoyance, that I might very well bomb?:

He considered this, then responded with "But what about Technical Math?". Eh?

Normal Math, he explained, is crafted for scientists and doctors, who must pull formula from thin air to solve problems and save lives. Hence the focus on memorisation.

Technical Math, however, was designed more for Trades workers. And every shop has a handbook somewhere on a shelf that breaks down how to solve your problems. So the focus was less on memorizing, and more on understanding, as well as usable note taking, because all tests were open book.

Well THAT was enticing. I could DO the math, and my penmanship was meticulous after several years of drafting education. I agreed to give it a shot, and signed up for the Grade 11 course.

As expected, the class was mostly loaded with what were considered the deadbeats and the druggies, looking for a sleeper course. There were perhaps three or four other people "like me".

And once the ability to solve the problems no longer hinged on my dodgy memory, I was able to blast through the course with an A+, something that was unimaginable for me in math up until that point.

And I almost missed out on the chance to discover my delight in numbers, if not for that one thoughtful moment from my guidance councillor.

Because he was right.

Every theatre should have one of these somewhere.

Trigonometry for rigging?

Electrical load equations?

Metric to Imperial conversions?

It's probably all in here. And in theory, since I understand it, I could work through it.

Plus there's the fact we all have calculators in our pockets.

So yah, just because you might not "get" math, it might just be because they're teaching it to you with the wrong expectations. Scientists are great, but some of us just want to build things.

Oh boy but I sure do hate the way math is taught in schools.

I have never gotten a grade higher than a C in a math class, ever, in my life.  One of the big reasons I wasn’t able to finish my degree is that I couldn’t pass college algebra.

Then when I entered the big-girl workforce and had to start doing things like building rafters and wet-batching chemicals it turns out that math is actually hella easy and I’m super good at it.