Backstage at BackstageJobs.com

I’ll be out of town and away from internet access (blissful freedom!) from Thursday afternoon through the evening of Sunday, May 11th.  That means I will be unable to answer e-mail, add or remove subscribers from the mailing list, or deal with log-in or password problems until after Sunday evening.  It also means that I will not be posting on this blog during that time (horror of horrors!).

Feel free to e-mail me or sign up for the mailing list during that time, but understand that I will not be able to respond or add subscribers until I return.  Also ponder why most of the News and Views links go to Playbill.com, as that is certainly a weird fluke…

PLSN reports that rigger Charles “Chuck” Houston, who died April 24th after falling 40 feet to the concrete stage floor at Snowden Grove Park in Mississippi, was wearing a harness but was not clipped to a anchor point or safety line at the time he fell. Houston was a rigger with Cole Entertainment Services, and at the time was working on rigging for Southaven Springfest at the Memphis area venue.

Read the PLSN article here. Additional article from Commercial Appeal here.

A sad way to begin the 2008 concert and festival season. Our thoughts are with his family.

Chicago’s own Keith Parham won Off-Broadway’s Lucille Lortel Award last night for his lighting design of The Adding Machine, a Next Theatre production now running off-Broadway. The Adding Machine lead all productions nominated with 4 awards: Outstanding Musical (Joshua Schmidt and Jason Loewith), Outstanding Director (David Cromer), Outstanding Lighting Design (Keith Parham), and Outstanding Lead Actor (Joel Hatch). Read the full list of winners here (Playbill.com)

Congratulations Keith!

With gas prices rising (I saw $4.09 for regular on Saturday), and the economy tanking, these are hard times in the entertainment industry. Now the government is trying to “stimulate” us (sorry, I don’t like the government trying to give me a tingly feeling in my no-no place).

As if that wasn’t enough, many companies are trying to get you to spend some or all of that “stimulus” check before it even hits your bank account (since obviously the US economy would benefit from you blowing $1200.00 on a big screen HDTV made in China for a Japanese company). When times are tough, we shouldn’t be spending money on crap we don’t really need.

So, since it costs over 33% more than last year (and 100% more than 3 years ago) to drive to work, and good paying work is getting harder to find, I thought it was time to do something to help out those that use the one paid service on BackstageJobs.com. Effective immediately, all new and renewed 1 year subscriptions to the BackstageJobs.com Mailing List are now just $25.00. That’s $10.00 less than the original price (and prices for the mailing list have never been raised in the 5 years that I have offered this service), and $15.00 cheaper than even the 6 month online only subscription to Artsearch.

As always, BackstageJobs.com, with its 1000+ job listings, and updated the instant a new job is submitted, remains completely free to use. (If this sounds like I’m bragging, check out Artsearch’s claim of 500+ listings updated every 3 business days while charging $40 to $75 to access them).

The oldest surviving theatre in central Ohio, CAPA’s 933 seat Southern Theatre in Columbus, Ohio offers this virtual tour. If you want to see any of backstage, however, you’ll need to see the still photo in the Southern Theatre link above.

The oldest surviving theatre in central Ohio and one of the oldest in the state, the Southern Theatre opened in 1896 as part of a performance space and hotel complex on the corner of High and Main Streets. The Southern was designed for theatrical touring productions and later accommodated silent films, vaudeville, first-and second-run motion pictures, dance, country music reviews, and community events.

Over its stage life, the Southern hosted performing celebrities, including singer Lillian Russell, actors Ethel and Lionel Barrymore, Maude Adams, Sarah Bernhardt, dancers Anna Pavalova and Isadora Duncan, John Philip Sousa, Al Jolson, George M. Cohen, Mae West, and W.C. Fields. Closed in 1979, the theatre was gifted to CAPA in 1986.

I thought removing the post would be enough, but I still see it on my Google Reader feed, so…

The opening night ticket offer posted earlier today is now closed.

We now return you to the regular theatre news and views…

First off, if you think you’ve stood on some half-assed platforms to do your job, check out this guy:

Since it is actually supported on all sides, and he is wearing a harness (which is even attached to something!), I guess we’ll call this quarter-assed… He still had to keep the thing balanced, and he was at least 40′ in the air.

Next: I think I found my shipping box. Maybe I really was left on the doorstep…

Finally: it was “dress like you are going to work” day at my son’s preschool a couple weeks ago. I didn’t have a policeman’s uniform (that is what he is currently saying he wants to be), but I did have a stagehand’s…

IATSE hat and button (Local 2, Chicago), work boots, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers backstage pass, old Goodman Theatre shirt, and a wrench on a lanyard with carabiner clip. (He also had my pricey Setwear “Hot Hands” gloves on a belt clip at school, but not in this pic.) I just had to bring him over to the theatre afterward to get a picture of him “working.”

I was told (by fellow IATSE members) that he was missing a donut, cigarettes, a flask, and an attitude…

Roger Waters’ pig has been found!

Keith Parham, lighting designer extraordinare, continues to rack up award nominations. This morning it was announced that Keith is up for a Drama Desk Award for his lighting design for the Off-Broadway run of the Next Theatre production of The Adding Machine. Keith is also up for a Lucille Lortel award for that design.

The Adding Machine is up for 9 Drama Desk Awards, and 6 Lucille Lortel awards. We’re rooting for Mr. Big Shot Keith, and everyone else from Chicago that has been nominated (we’re biased that way).

The 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards will be held Sunday, May 18, 2008. The awards show will be webcast by TheaterMania.com. It will also be broadcast live on satellite radio’s XM – 28 On Broadway.

It currently appears the floor collapsed due to concert-goers jumping to the music as the band played their second song of the evening. After the section of the wooden floor collapsed, water pipes that had been attached to the underside of the floor broke, pouring water onto the victims that had already fallen 10-15 feet. The shock of the collapse, possibly combined with the rest of the floor shifting, destabilized the crank-lift towers supporting the lighting and sound rig. The rig then fell forward from the stage into the house, with the truss landing across and on either side of the hole, as well as landing on audience members that were still in pews near the hole. Photos appear to show that the base of the stage left tower went into the hole, as well as the stage left speakers. It is amazing that no-one was killed.

Video: news report with video footage of collapse. -YouTube

Photo of concert prior to accident.

Photo immediately after collapse.

AP report, with photo.

CTV report.

Vancouver Sun report.