Framingham MCF 2006
Framingham MCF 2006
Each pic is a link to a larger one
I was asked to do lighting for the Multicultural Fair in Framingham
this year, and schedule permitted it, so I went. This is Nevins Hall,
the room and stage in question. It's the big meeting room at the Town
Hall, and is in fairly ratty shape. And the "immovable" stage backdrop
is this HUGE american flag, hardly what you want for a *multicultural*
fair, but apparently this has been the case for several years.
This was just after most of the gear was set up -- sound stuff ready
to go, and lights hung and focused. The Marathon had pretty much
started and would soon reach Framingham, but the hall wasn't open yet.
The rest of the room. The staff dolled it up quite nicely with
international flags hung almost all the way around the balcony. The
seats up there are classic, hard wooden things.
The light trees that Janet and I put together, and the plot. Pretty simple,
and it turned out to be just about the *right* amount of lighting for this
space. Despite lots of daylight coming into the hall and the room lighting
remaining on for the day, the stage definitely benefitted from the
additional lumens. Maybe next time we'll add side/back trees...
Maintenance isn't something that gets funding here. This is what
I called the "shipwreck" -- it's what's left of the pin-rail for
the old fly system, and upward pull has apparently long since broken
it loose from its mountings in the floor. Various random parts of
this nightmare are chained down [here] or up [overhead] to try and
prevent any further movement. But it's all very scary, there's a
bunch of furniture piled up around it, and nobody appears to have
dared touch any of it for years.
And the other really scary thing -- what passes for a "tie-in" is short
bare ends sticking out of those big globs of tape, that I had to then
barrel-connect the dimmer tails onto. [One of said barrel connectors
is sitting just under the leftmost breaker box, but that's the horked
one I found and removed while swapping mine in.] All of this is just
hanging out of the open raceway, the sharp metal edge of which has started
cutting into the insulation. I found a few pieces of cardboard under
the rats nest, presumably from previous efforts to prevent abrasion, and
*taped* it in place under the big wires. No, there's no disconnect -- no
way to turn any of this off, so I had to do the whole thing hot.
To keep dancers and other nontech personnel away from this as much as
possible, we found a voting booth backstage and pushed it up around the
wiring and weighted its legs down with the dimmer pack. Good enough.
Meanwhile, lots of sound noodling was going on...
and I noticed that Comcast local cable had arrived. So I went upstairs
to look at their little video nest. Their output feed apparently runs
out the window and into the cable headend that's down on the ground floor.
Yet more sound-noodling. The guy standing in front is the MC for the day.
Our little lighting board is on the roadcase at the far corner of the riser.
And of course, the usual snake-n-wires mess on the stage. The first act was
the most complex...
which was a Brazilian "smooth jazz" band of some sort. One nice thing about
how lighting worked out was that I *did't* light the flag much at all, which
made it visually retreat into the background in contrast to the talent
on stage. I thought this was entirely appropriate.
Meanwhile, a thrash-metal band had set up on the front steps of the building.
They were VERY LOUD.
The next act on stage was a men's chorus, doing various patriotic songs.
They were very, very red, even before the lights hit them.
After which came local kids doing scenes/songs from "Aladdin".
The gaucho dancers, who also danced with a pair of kids. [Which didn't even
look particularly terrified.] Sign of the times: where there should have
been a pistol holster in the past, is now occupied by his cellphone.
Classic Indian dance from the Triveni school. They also perform at NEFFA.
Having real lighting brought out all the facial expressions that are an
integral part of this art form.
Chinese kids' dances. Whoever thought to move those fugly sponsor banners
to the *middle* of the stage between acts was totally not thinking.
[Lighting gear transport for this gig is described
