Austin Improv

I want to pick that stuff up but I have NO truck. Anyone with a truck out there willing to help me move that stuff to the hideout?!?!

How about a clock to be placed near the light booth so that we'll know when to end our shows. Maybe even one with a timer that counts down from Twenty-two minutes...

Like red LED clock that faces the stage? Good idea Chris.

Also, two other ideas I had last night which may be more pie in the sky. Carpeting on the stairs and pad the wall of the green room on the cabaret side. Both of these are mainly sound-absorbing solutions to make tromping up and down the stairs and warming up less of a problem when there is a show going on, but it may also help make the stairs a little safer. Carpeting would be harder to install and maintain than the foam, but just tossing some ideas out there for clean-up/improvement days.

clock is a fabulous idea. the light dipping at two minutes till the end of the cage match set is not effective for us. the upright citizen's have a red LED clock that counts up to 30 minutes for the del close marathon and they are strict about the blackout. but it's ok because its right there in front of you in plain sight.
another solution is to give some kind of warning at 20 minutes and then take the lights out whenever appropriate until exactly 22 minutes. i would much rather lose two minutes and go out on a huge laugh than miss a sweet ending and have them turned off at a random time. by random i mean within a scene. do the blackout when it makes sense for the show.
plus, i think the cage match sets could be a max of 25minutes instead of 22, with the light dipping or whatever warning at 23 minutes.
it's cool that both groups get exactly the same amount of time but think of it like you're playing a game of half time. half time is where a two minute scene is played out for the audience. you then tell the audience that the same actors will now do exactly the same scene in one minute, all while appearing to rigidly time it. really what you're doing as the time keeper is calling "TIME" at the right time comedically whenever it's close to a minute. the audience is not watching their watches, trust me. then you do the scene in 30 seconds. then in 15 seconds, etc. What use is it to the game to let them stand there for three seconds of stupid silence when they have completed their scene ahead of time? which is my point with the cage match. end it approximately whenever it makes sense up to whatever exact threshold you want. most groups that are struggling will thank you for killing their set on a high note if one comes around. they're already dying and there's little chance of bringing it all home in a grand fashion.

never put the rules of the format above the quality of the show. do what's best for the show, even if it means bending the rules of the format. i believe this insures a higher rate of success.

did i just rhyme?

bearded lamb

More stuff for the Hideout's Wish List -- Signage...

1) A (lighted?) "box office" sign that sticks out from the wall so that people coming in through the Hideout's main door know where to buy tickets

2) Roped off area to help ticket buyers and pre-show audiences line up. The shows are general admission, but part of the benefit of arriving early is to get a good seat.

3) A *large, noticiable* sign indicating the "Main Stage" downstairs, and an arrow pointing to the upstairs "Cabaret Stage".

4) A large, noticable sign (above the box office? on the back wall of the box office?) that indicates what the shows are that night, and when each show starts.

another solution is to give some kind of warning at 20 minutes and then take the lights out whenever appropriate until exactly 22 minutes.

The one time I lit the Cage Match, one of the troupes did in fact actively request this. They came up to me and said "after the 20 minute flicker we'll start tying things up and if we do and hit the button before 22 minutes is up, go ahead and cut the lights." Which I'm fine with.
I don't necessarily think it fair in a 'competetive' format to blanketly empower the lighter to end a show early, but I think that the troupes should take a little more initiative with the lighting and sound people to actively request such things. Same with colored lights and stuff. I noticed in some Cage Matches one show will have absolutely no lighting while the other will get color and spotlights and stuff. I don't think it fair for the lighter to take it upon themself to decide how much lighting each show gets, but the troupes should go to them and say "hey, feel free to light the show as you want, to be a part of it with spots and stars and all that jive." But this is a discussion for another thread.

Regaurding Signage...

I saw a marquee sign -- black, segmented, felt sign that came with white letters with feet -- like you see in the box office of places like the Doby. Do we want to get a sign like that to put in the Hideout box office? We could get enough letters to advertize the shows that are on that night?

Another option for the box office could be a chalkboard (store-bought or made with "chalkboard paint") and chalkboard markers. They've got this kind thing happening behind the food counter. I like this option better because the sign could be colorful and we wouldn't be restricted by how many letters we had.

What do you guys think? Anybody even in favor of putting a marquee sign on the back wall of the box office?

Re: Signage:

Do the Hideout's programmable LED signs still exist/work? It's probably not a major deal to program them with a laptop and a serial cable; I'd be willing to mess with one and see if I can get it working.

IIRC, they're BetaBrite 1-line displays with an infrared controller but also have an RJ-11 (phone jack) for programming via serial cable. Manuals are available online.

I think I might have thrown those away in a fit of frustration over all the ancient, broken crap in the Hideout.

acrouch wrote:I think I might have thrown those away in a fit of frustration over all the ancient, broken crap in the Hideout.

told you we shouldn't have thrown all that shit away. heh.

was it ever determined whether the computer in the upstairs booth works? should i bring my old computer this weekend?

andrea wrote:inspired by the chronicle's listings of non-profit wishlists, i thought i'd start a thread about what we would like for the hideout (a lot of these came up on saturday). people could also post if they have one of said items to donate.

for the greenroom:
couches
comfy chairs
shelves
storage container
some sort of message board
coatrack
costumes

for the theater:
projector
cd player
soundboard
colored gels
additional lights/sound equipment

Hey look, we finally crosed everything off of the list...

Sweet! And may I say, I *love* those LED lights!

Absolutely. The LED stage lights are faboo!

Matt wrote:Sweet! And may I say, I *love* those LED lights!

Indeed.