Eleez’s Backstage Crew Experience

Three or so weeks ago one of my friends Senaya, who was to participate in the Spring Gala 2022 managed to get me involved in the concert’s backstage crew. I thought this would be a good opportunity to gain experience in something I hadn’t done before. Me, along with a few others (Diyath, Pep, Stefan, Thevuni) were the stage management crew. We were called for two full-day rehearsals to work some technical aspects of our job, this included learning the setups and developing a good system to make the process of setting and striking the stages much smoother.

Eleez going through setup details with Mr. Lakshitha

Stefan had taken the liberty to create a very thorough document listing all performances along with all pieces/objects required for each item. Each person was assigned multiple pieces to handle for each performance. This meticulous system left no room for mishaps on the day of. 

Stefan’s careful plan

Unfortunately, the two days of rehearsals were not in the order of the actual performances, this made our job slightly complicated as we wouldn’t get time to familiarise ourselves much with the actual order of performances. 

To make sure everything went according to plan we spiked the entire stage with labels for major items required for performances making sure to include the number of the performance to minimise confusion. 

In the image you can see the colour code we had developed for said labels. 

🟠: Singing Mics 

🔴: Instrument Mics 

🔵: Chairs 

On Friday, the day of the concert we all felt a bit stressed, especially for some of the more complex layouts, like the guitar ensemble setup or for the string quartet which required very specific instrument mic positions. 

All 5 of us sat directly behind the stage during the performances, we made sure to sort things out for the next item as minor changes were made to everyone’s assignment. 

Backstage discussions

Despite there being a few difficulties when setting the stage (ESPECIALLY WITH THE INSTRUMENT MIC STANDS) overall as a team we operated did well, while we didn’t serve ULTIMATE SMOOTHNESS everything went all right for the most part. 

Learning Outcomes: 

  • LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
  • LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

 

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