A few weeks back I told you about our commencement changeover. Boston University's College of Fine Arts holds their graduation ceremonies on the stage of the Boston University Theatre. Scheduling is a little tricky this time of year, we need to get our production up and running before our subscribers go away on summer vacation, so it all happens during the first weekend of performances.
This year we were lucky enough to get some time lapse video of the entire process. Thanks to staffers Ken Porter who recorded the footage and Ben Emerson who edited it and added the sound track. You get to see the entire strike, graduation set up, graduation, and the Present Laughter restore.
This first video shows the first six hours (11pm - 5am) of the endeavor - following the performance on Saturday Evening May 19th. We move the scenery, lighting and props out of the way to make room for the chairs and risers for the onstage graduation party of over 200.
The second video is on Sunday, May 20th, and includes setting the lighting levels, checking sound, setting up all the diplomas and the ceremony itself. It covers an 8 hr period from 10am - 6pm.
The last video shows the "strike" of the graduation set up and the "restore" of Present Laughter. This video covers another 8 hrs on May 20th - from 6pm to 2am. Lighting, Sound, Props, and Paints all came in 6 hrs later at 8 AM on May 21st to restore the set mounted lighting, speakers, buzzers and phones, furniture and props, and touch up the few nicks and bruises caused by the move out and in.
A total of 38 hours elapsed from the curtain of Saturday's performance to the start of Monday's rehearsal, and we finished each step of the process a few hours early. Thanks to all of the Huntington staffers who planned and executed such an amazing turnaround.
Did I mention that the first time we put the show in it took 6 DAYS?
1 comment:
This is awesome. Literally. When I worked at the Huntington, I realized this took place, but until one sees it in its entirety, you don't quite fathom what is entailed. Awesome. And kudos to the incredible crew for making it happen.
Thanks for sharing.
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