USITT Elite Training – Day 3

Man am I exhausted. For the past three days Cirque Du Soleil and USITT have taken myself and 31 others on a chance of a life time. From 8:30AM till 5 sometimes 11PM we were at the mercy of the schedule, and boy was it worth it.

Today we summed up our training. In the automation section we practiced on the control boards a bit more. Joe and I were on the Acrobat G6. Boy is that thing a beast. In class we learned more about the shell of the board, learning how to change limits and make additions and corrections to the database. As well we learned how to “sculpt” a path using the eChameleon software. It was great to have hands on experience in this section as most colleges do not have access to funds in order to afford most of the gear we were using. But I have to give one more big shout out to our instructor Alex Hitchcock of Stage Technologies. He was a great instructor with years upon years of experience.

Then we were off to Mystere. It was great to see this show last as it was a great culmination from new and fancy to the oldest Cirque show in Vegas. Seeing this space allowed us to see how and why Cirque made decisions on later productions. It was also great to see a Cirque show with a larger focus on acrobatics. We toured along side a practice for the trapeze artists.

This space just has so much history to it. It was great to walk down the hall of memories and see regards to past and present performers, singed drum sticks, a drum head from a large Japanese drum etc…

One of the coolest elements for me though was the paint treatment all over the set. It was my favorite of any show I have ever seen. Maybe thats because I’ve spent way to much time with my scenic painter/ set designer girlfriend, but it was fascinating to see the different treatments and techniques, as well to learn that the original floor had anywhere from 90 to 200 different layers of paint. In all it seems like a great show and has tons and tons of history.

This experience has been like none other. I want to thank all those at Cirque and USITT for this opportunity, my brain is full with so much more information all of which I will bring back and share with my fellow peers. Students, I urge you all to apply for next year’s Elite Weekend. It was a simple FREE application form, for a wonderful FREE training seminar. So if you want to see what it is Cirque does and how they do it, fill out and application and APPLY APPLY APPLY!

Once again thank you everyone at Cirque and USITT as well as my fellow students, many bonds were made this weekend and thru the awesome world of Facebook I hope we will continue to see each other in the future.

Thank you everyone, it’s been a blast!

 

USITT Elite Training – Day 1

[singlepic id=1796 w=320 h=240 float=left]It’s 1:12AM here in Vegas. I just finished the day and I am back at the hotel. Whew, was I mentally out of shape for today’s events. We started at 9AM with great welcoming to the training center by Cirque Du Soleil’s very own Kim Scott, Director of Show Support Resident Shows Division. Followed by that was an inspiring and warming presentation by Calum Pearson, Senior Director of Technical and Show Support. And by 10AM we were off to our respective classrooms for the first session of classes.

That’s when I met my instructor Alex Hitchcock, Training Development Manager for Stage Technologies. He is a great guy with a passion to share his knowledge. The first 3 hours were jammed pack with basic facts and examples of who, when, where, why, and how automation is used across our industry. One of the facts that truly stuck with me is that the automation industry is on the rise at about 15% PER YEAR! That kind of growth for any industry is spectacular.

After enjoying a wonderful lunch provided by Cirque, we were back to the classroom for a brief overview on all the components of an automation system and a basic overview of the eChameleon, the software used in Stage Technology’s control desks.

Then it was off to our first backstage tour. The show… KÀ. I had seen the show once before during LDI last fall and I was just stunned at the amount of production value this show contained. As described by our guide, this show is the show of mosts, firsts and onlys. It is most expensive show ever, has biggest seamless scrim anywhere, and the list goes on and on. What was the most fascinating and jaw dropping however, was that the stage ‘void’ was really a small fraction of the theatre space. Backstage employees and performers have to constantly go up and down elevators and stairs of the spaces 9 floors! This is such a big element of the show, they even had to add the elevator as apart of the cue stack to ensure performers and technicians get to where they need to be when they need to be there. If you ever get the chance, meet someone who works at KÀ and persuade them to get you a tour of the space. We were lucky enough to see them do all the pre-show checks, which were educational, fun and mildly amusing… “THIS IS THE VOICE OF GOD. TESTING”

That was the end of the Elite Training Weekend itinerary. But after all it’s all about networking. A small group of us, Bryce Munro, Timothy Pedro and myself attended Blue Man Group, laughing our tired butts off the entire time.

All in all it was a great first day. Tomorrow we will be in front of the control desks in class and touring Viva Elvis later. As well I have two job shadows of KÀ that evening.

We’re staying busy here, so I apologize for the delay of these posts.

Thanks to everyone involved with putting this program together, and a special thanks to David Grindle, Executive Director of USITT, for pushing this thru. And of course to you guys, the readers.

Welcome New Guest Writer: Drew Carter

Hey guys! My name is Drew Carter, and for the next few days I will be writing here on isquint.net on my daily experience while attending the first ever USITT Elite Training Weekend. I’m a junior BFA Design/ Tech student at Central Washington University in beautiful Ellensburg, WA.

At the end of March I was accepted into the program to spend 3 days in Las Vegas, NV learning technology at Cirque Du Soleil’s resident show training center. So 31 others and I will be split into groups of eight and study in one of four areas; audio, rigging, multimedia, and automation. I will be studying automation, which will include lessons in products and solutions from Stage Technologies. As well, all of us will tour backstage of Viva Elvis, Mystere, and KÀ. On top of all this we all have the opportunity to job shadow on a show. For the automation group we will shadow KÀ, one show backstage, and one show from the booth.

While I’m there learning about automation (something I am very UNfamiliar with) I will post new things learned, my experiences with the technology, and hopefully pictures of the technology used in action! But alas, I am a lighting guy first and foremost so a few lighting pron pictures may show up…

I’m very excited to be here writing and I hope you enjoy!