A Day in the Life of Lucy Frost, Touring Production Manager at Circus Oz.
Model Citizens Tour 2018
I wake up at 6.05am. Where am I? We arrived here the day before. The sunlight is creeping in and before I get out of bed I’m thinking of the day ahead.
An hour or so later I jump in the hire car with my clipboard of schedules, venue plan, LX plan, hanging plot, to do list and contact numbers. On my way in I swing by Coles to buy fruit and snacks for the acrobats.
Arriving at the venue there are a team of 5 or 6 venue crew in addition to our circus Oz team. I learn all the local crew names by heart as soon as I can. The roller shutter on the back of the truck screeches open and we get stuck in. I delegate to our new crew and check in with our Oz crew to see if they have everything they need, be it tools, time or man power.
We move quickly, I muck in flipping roadcases and making jokes to get everyone on side. I’m not a shouty production manager, and I believe in the cultivation of team spirit to get the job done.
The Circus Oz Model Citizen’s Crew:
Ryan is our rigger. He is so strong,I think he is made of iron. He has a beautiful smile and a hug so powerful it fractures your ribs a little.
Maddy is our touring head of lighting. She is an absolute boss, single handedly rigging and focusing, operating the desk from her phone, making jokes all the while.
Joe is our audio engineer. He has a record collection the size of Victoria and the dryest sense of humour I’ve ever known.
Alex is our tour director. He’s also a rigger and is on Ryan’s team during bump ins. He’s got a cracking attention to detail.
Mitch is one of our acrobats and also a rigger. His rigging persona is quite different to his stage presence, I enjoy seeing both sides of him on tour.
Cath is our stage manager. She’s never far from her trusty whiteboard and has developed a side line in shoe repairs this tour. She has some quality phrases such as “I’m so hungry I could eat the arse of a low flying duck”.
Our bump in days are usually 15 hours long. Each venue is different and there are problems to solve and compromises to be made. I repair any props and tick off my to do list. There’s a lot of car-park carpentry and I go to bunnings every other day.
Even in 2018, I face a lot of day to day prejudice about my capacity to do what some people see as a man’s job, particularly in regional towns.
Once Maddy is in to her focus time I settle in at the laptop, check in with HQ and do some forward planning, Looking at the next venue’s plans to problem solve in advance. What’s their loading bay like, is it at stage level, do we have to push shit up and down the ramp, do they have all the lights we requested, how much wing space will there be, will we have to modify anything to fit, are there points to guy our truss to…”. I have the list of questions and together as a team we find the answers.
Later in the afternoon the acrobats arrive to set their props and the band set up their instruments, line checking the PA with Joe. I field even more questions. Lucy… what’s the, where’s the, do we have, can you get me a, when can I.. the list goes on! I try and hear everyone out and answer each question like its the first time I’ve been asked. Patience is a huge part of my job description.
We break for Dinner which usually means wandering around the new town for a bit before settling on the first place we passed.
After this we safety check our lights with the acrobats going cue to cue through the show looking at each moment. When they feel safe in a scene they do this little teapot gesture which still makes me laugh even after hundreds of times. By this point the crew are tired, and the acrobats are pretty excited to be in a new place and are training new tricks in the wings. During this process I am keeping everyone to time, taking notes and casting an eye over proceedings to check whether I think they are safe or not. I’m also there in case of a first aid incident.
We wrap up at 11pm.
My goal as production manager is for everyone to have what they need to make the show the best it can be for audiences. This requires learning from the past and seeing into the future, to try and solve problems before they even appear and always have a plan B, and C and D in my back pocket. I know the schedule better than I know my own name. My energy is spent making it so others have to spend less of their own energy, where possible. I sometimes need reminding to save some for myself.
X Lucy
A Bit of Backstage Philosophy
As a backstage crew member, whether you work in lighting, sound, rigging, stage management, wardrobe, set design, production management or tour management you often get asked the same question… why do you do it?
There are some very obvious cons to the job:
- Long hours
- Hard graft
- Touring away from home
- No fame
- No fortune
So why do we put ourselves through it? I wanted to share some of my thoughts and those I’ve gathered from colleagues over the years.
1. WE ARE TEAM PLAYERS
We love working with others. Our show crew is our family. Yeah, we might argue from time to time but we share the same goal. In the same vain, once the show is up and running we are often isolated in prompt corner or the bio box or our makeshift tour office.
2. WE ARE EXPERTS
Whatever our discipline, more than likely we have spent years and heaps of $$ studying it, in addition to our years of professional experience. For example- my degree was in Performance Design and Management. We each have our areas of academic interest alongside our practical knowledge- mine is the relationship between design elements on stage and the performer, and communicating to audiences through semiotics.
3. WE LOVE PROBLEM SOLVING
Each venue and each show has its quirks. How can we make it work so the performers are able to deliver the best show to our audience? The set might not fit, something breaks, the hazer here doesn’t work so well, a costume doesn’t fit anymore. We will make it happen. Usually with gaffer tape.
4. WE LOVE TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR PERFORMERS
As performers, we know you are under a lot of strain. This is why we work through our lunch break so you can get yours or stay late at the theatre fixing the latch that won’t open or re-patching the lights. If we haven’t got to it yet, more than likely we ran out of time. We all want the show to be the best show it can be and that means making sure you are as rested and stress free as we possibly can.
5. BRINGING IDEAS TO LIFE IS OUR ART
We are collaborators. We each input into the process, like performers in rehearsals. We bring all of our life experience so far to the table. I often joke about “moon on a stick” directors. They wear the dreamer hat, we are the realists that make the moon when we can’t get the real one.
3 EASY WAYS TO SHOW LOVE TO YOUR BACKSTAGE CREW:
- Say thank you! We know it’s our job but we don’t get the applause from the audience to feed us in the same way.
- Bump In/Tech days are full on and sometimes we don’t leave the venue for 15 hours. This is when we would greatly appreciate a tea/coffee and a snack to get us through.
- Invite us out for a drink- we’re sometimes on different schedules but we really appreciate being included in the wider group when it’s possible.
Lucy Gamsby Frost
Luke David Kellett
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