De Ja Vu
Only once in my life have I ever been angry enough that I had to be physically restrained and removed from the situation by another party in order to prevent me causing someone bodily harm. That event occurred almost 5 years ago at one of the first summer stocks that I designed (rather than working as a painter or a props person) and my intended victim was the lighting designer.
During the first technical rehearsal I had approached the LD with a few simple notes, light that was hitting things that shouldn't be illuminated, or in one case was exactly the right color to make something onstage glow like it was under blacklight. Each time I spoke to him he said, "There's nothing I can do about that." It was my first real design gig, and I hadn't had a lot of experience collaborating with other designers, so I let it slide, and assumed that he was telling me the truth, that he literally couldn't focus the light in any other way that would prevent the problem.
During the second day of tech, I bit my tongue on many other such notes, notes that I have rarely had to give an LD since, but when one glaringly obvious and ugly lighting problem came up I approached him about it. He followed his standard "can't help it" reply with a physics lesson on light. "You know, I can't just make light stop wherever I like, sometimes there are shadows." The attitude and condescension immediately struck a raw chord in me, and the next thing I remember is being seated on the steps outside by the Production Manager. He had evidently gently taken me aside, and out of the situation because I had already clenched my fist and was pulling back as if to swing. He had removed me from the situation, but I was seeing so much red that I was barely aware of it at the time.
All I'm going to say about last night is that I have once again been prevented from committing mayhem, this time because the LD was already in bed by the time I found out what had been said, but the similarity of the situation is striking.
During the first technical rehearsal I had approached the LD with a few simple notes, light that was hitting things that shouldn't be illuminated, or in one case was exactly the right color to make something onstage glow like it was under blacklight. Each time I spoke to him he said, "There's nothing I can do about that." It was my first real design gig, and I hadn't had a lot of experience collaborating with other designers, so I let it slide, and assumed that he was telling me the truth, that he literally couldn't focus the light in any other way that would prevent the problem.
During the second day of tech, I bit my tongue on many other such notes, notes that I have rarely had to give an LD since, but when one glaringly obvious and ugly lighting problem came up I approached him about it. He followed his standard "can't help it" reply with a physics lesson on light. "You know, I can't just make light stop wherever I like, sometimes there are shadows." The attitude and condescension immediately struck a raw chord in me, and the next thing I remember is being seated on the steps outside by the Production Manager. He had evidently gently taken me aside, and out of the situation because I had already clenched my fist and was pulling back as if to swing. He had removed me from the situation, but I was seeing so much red that I was barely aware of it at the time.
All I'm going to say about last night is that I have once again been prevented from committing mayhem, this time because the LD was already in bed by the time I found out what had been said, but the similarity of the situation is striking.
I'm telling you Scott, scientists should study that place, up until roughly three weeks ago we all seriously loved each other. We were just together a bit too long, and a bit too much. It can't sour the whole experience, but it certainly soured me one certain people.