When I was in junior high and high school my church youth group had a thing called the Great All-Nighter each year. It was a big event involving hundreds of students from about 12 different churches. There would be speakers and entertainment then we would go to the university's rec center and play games all night long. There were donuts in the morning so it was an exhilirating night of delerium and was awesome to stay up and be with friends.
College also has Great All-Nighters. They just happen differently.
Tuesday, my friend Rebecca and I were working on our lighting project and decided that the best way to get stuff done would be to work through the night. We took turns programming and sleeping, so I left on Wednesday morning having slept from 2am-4am and from 7:15am-8:00am. When I left, I was amazed that there was light outside!
Thursday, I had an involuntary all-nighter. I went to bed at midnight, dozed for about a half hour. I was wide awake after that so when I heard some theatre friends in the parking lot outside my window around 3am I decided it was worthless to just keep laying in bed, so I got up and did a couple things before finally sleeping from 6am-8am.
Tonight, I am sitting in the light booth again, with a pillow and blanket at my disposal. I have actually FINISHED my project (it may need a little tweaking, but it's complete and presentable where it stands). My friend, Hayley, will be programming most of the night, so I am keeping her company. Fortunately, there is more sleeping and less homework ahead for me this evening...I hope.
In the world of theatre we usually take existing materials and adapt them to our purposes. This can lead to some interesting shopping trips, asking for products that look or can be used a certain way regardless of the objects intended purpose. This summer, we needed a floor made of old and weathered looking lumber. Fortunately, one of the cast members has an uncle who is a fire chief and was in the process of burning some barns that were completely ruined. We were able to take a trip to one of these barns to take some wood before they burned it.
The trees had grown up around it so closely that we could not even see the barn from the road. The wood was nasty and falling apart and filled with rusty nails (which can go through tennis shoes, by the way), still this was one of my favorite days of the year. The magic of theatre is that this ruin became a beautiful set.
