Although 2018 started off a as a quiet year for the Tech Crew with the Aurora Centre being out out of action for Term One, it definitely didn’t stay quiet.
Even though this year was rather different from previous years with no Stage Challenge or major production, the crew were still kept busy with The Oscars, Compass Wars, Talent Quest and Dancing with the Staff.
Stage Challenge was cancelled for this year due to a lack of funding. Because of this, Burnside created its own version known as Compass Wars. This required lots of hard work from the crew over the weekend before. Even though there was basically no set for any of the divisions’ performances, lots of effort went in to the lighting design, with each division having its own lighting operator. This allowed the younger members of Crew to have a chance to try different jobs including lighting operator and follow spot.
Our second major event for the year was The Oscars which was performed by the Senior Dance and Drama students. During this the Crew did an incredible job of dealing with all of the changes in Aurora caused by the construction work. This gave the Crew a chance to try out stage crew, something that was not available to them during Compass Wars.
We also had the yearly Talent Quest and Dancing with the Staff in the last week of Term Three. The Talent Quest is always a good learning opportunity for the Stage Crew as there are always many different things to move around. With little time to rehearse, this is often rather stressful and the Crew coped with this very well.
Throughout the year we also set up our portable sound system out in the quad for many different events including Pink Day, Maori Language Week and mardi Gras. These help to lighten the mood around the school as well as let the prefects, arts leaders and cultural leaders communicate with the rest of the school.
As normal we held the weekly training sessions on Monday after school every week. With no Aurora Centre for Term One these had to be held in M block. This was rather difficult as it meant that we didn’t have access to all of our equipment to train the new members of Crew. A massive thanks has to go to the new Crew who stuck with it even though we couldn’t get into Aurora until later than expected.
I know I speak for all of the Crew when I say that we have to credit all of our success to Mr WIltshire. Without him we would not have the skills required to be successful theatre technicians. He has not just helped to form us into great theatre technicians but also great people with the ability to work as a team and with all different sorts of people. So once again, from me and all of the Crew, Thank You.