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by Elizabeth Rand (Author)
These days it's common for a high school to rent their theatre out to the community and host other schools in their district, as well as use it for their own school events. High school theatres often host such a variety of different events that they essentially operate as a "roadhouse", which can cause a variety of conflicts between its users. The band teacher complains that the drama teacher is always leaving the lighting system set up wrong, and the drama teacher complains that the band teacher is always leaving the lighting system set up with no color. The choir teacher stays out of the fray because he doesn't know how to operate the lighting system at all. The outside events that rent the theatre are frustrated by the amount of time it takes them to figure out how the lighting system is set up while they are paying for the rental at an hourly rate. Does this sound like a familiar scenario at your school? If it does, this book is for you. Although every event that comes into a theatre is unique, there is a way to provide a lighting system that can easily be applied to many uses of the space. This is called a Rep Plot (short for Repertory Plot). A Rep Plot is a standardized lighting system, which is versatile for almost all performances and can be easily adapted to provide lighting for any event from class meetings, speakers, film presentations, variety shows, band and choir concerts to plays, musicals and dance recitals, while allowing for show-specific flexibility within a reasonable time frame. This book will take you through a step-by-step process to design, hang, focus and patch your own rep plot at your high school. If you've never had a Rep Plot before, or if your Rep Plot needs a bit of TLC, once you follow the step-by-step process in this book to design, hang, focus and patch your own rep plot, you will be able to tame the Chaos inherent in running a "roadhouse" in a high school setting.
