Sometimes Students Really Impress Me

My blog is becoming exclusively about work. Sometime soon I am going to have to get pissed off about something in the news so I can rant about it.

I got back my curtain assignments from the rigging class. The assignment is to produce a working model of two kinds of stage soft goods effects from a list. You can pick traveler or split-traveler, tab, Austrian or Venetian, or standard roll or Olio roll. I think I started giving this assignment so that PTM students would have something to bring to crits, but I've also found that the kind of annoying, ditzy problem solving you have to do in scale is often the same as the annoying, ditzy troubleshooting you have to do in the theatre. Except for the assignment you can do it sitting at a desk rather than straddling the stick at the top of an a-frame ladder. This is the third year I've done the assignment. The first year people really didn't get it. Last year was better, with a couple of stand outs. This year pretty much everyone got the idea and did good work.

Also this year there were some real stand outs. Some excellent model making, a mechanized Austrian and Roll Drop, and an automated Austrian and Olio.

Here's an example of neat model making:

It has a velour curtain, moulding around the edges, a stained finish, and a locking lid. Very cool

The roll drop is actually suspended on a system pipe as well. Pretty neat stuff. They also did these furniture like ball-feet.

One pair of students asked if they could go "off the board" and do a Kabuki Trip-Drape. Usually I don't let people do this because you could just sew a piece of velcro and call it done. So I explained that an extracted a pledge to be more creative. They did real well. The solution they used was a solenoid trip mechanism, exactly like you might use in an actual production only smaller. They'd even wired a little control button.



The first time I tripped it the piece worked perfectly. Naturally when I went to record, it failed. But I think you can see the idea. Also, it was a bitch to reload - just like it would be in a theatre.

This last pair has almost certainly ruined the rest of their semester, if not the whole of their time here based on what I will be expecting from them in the future. They did a great model to start, attempted and successfully managed a working Olio - which in and of itself is an achievement - and then they went and automated the thing and programmed it to run cues.



They used a Lego Mindstorms controller and motors. It runs two cues and worked time after time without faulting. Just excellent work.

I wonder if I am making the projects too easy? If things keep improving at this pace, soon I can expect tiny little robotic actors, and lighting, and musical accompaniment. I can't wait.