Montana Ride 2006, Day 3 - in Helena

Day three was all about getting ready for, and putting on, our performance. I didn't touch the motorcycle.

Setting up

We showed up to the theater around 10:15, and I immediately started getting the lights in order. Fortunately, they'd been hung before we got there, so all I had to do was adjust them. Alas, it's not as simple as it sounds, and I was still adjusting lights by the time lunch arrived at 1:30. In the process, I'd had my hands on over 50 instruments, each one requiring aiming, some requiring the insertion of a gobo, which is a thin metal pattern that is transmitted by the light like a photographic slide in a projector. Of course, each light is separated by physical space, so for each one, I had to roll the little lift some distance, and its rolling speed while extended upwards is very, very slow.

The one exciting moment during all of this was as I was preparing to adjust a particular light. I asked the Myrna Loy tech guy (I don't actually know if he's Tech Director, or something else), Benji, to bring up the light I wanted to aim. He did so, and I saw that the light was changing colors rapidly. Then I heard the fizzling. I knew what was coming next, but before I could yell out, "turn it off!" there was a tremendous BANG! followed by darkness and the sound of glass falling to the ground. Fortunately, the exploding bulb (probably a 750W bulb) was shielded inside the instrument body, and I was uninjured. It was way more than I had been prepared to deal with, though.

I detached the light and brought the whole thing down after it became apparent that I wouldn't be able to get all the broken glass out of it in the air. That set us back another 20 minutes, and we were already running an hour behind where I wanted to be.

Lunch

Lunch came and went, and I went back to feverishly getting lights worked out. It was a good thing everything was already in position when we got there, or it's unlikely we could have finished in time. As it was, I barely got finished with all I had to do, performing final touches behind the curtain as the audience filed in at 7:30.

The opening scene

However, it did all get done, and the performance itself went very well. It was also very well received, with more than one performer commenting, "Montana loves us!" There was a reception afterwards, which I only cursorily saw, having spent most of it getting stuff cleaned up. We had to have everything out and on the road around 10 o'clock the next morning, so it seemed prudent to do as much now as possible. Particularly considering the traditional post-show party, which would doubtless extend into the wee hours of the night.

Sure enough, the post-show party did indeed extend into the wee hours of the night. Montana, one of the aforementioned courtiers, had purchased a veritable bonanza of Montana-themed merchandise during the day, while we'd been in the theater getting ready. Someone had procured numerous bottles of ardent spirits. Shenanigans were had.

We even walked over to the Helena International Airport, which was a stone's throw away, across interstate 15, and gawked at the helicopter at the gates. It had been set up in what appeared to be an about-to-crash position, 10 feet above the ground. Still, interesting.

I think I finally went to bed around 2 am, although I'm told that revels continued for a few hours afterwards.