When intermission is coming to a close, places have been called, and the PSM is waiting on you to have your one performer in order to begin the second half, you know what's unhelpful? 33 people all dressed the same.

When we were in dress rehearsals for The Magic Flute, there was a day when the stage right ASM said she was missing one chorister for places. Our PSM asked if she knew which one, and the response over headset was filled with laughter. See, in Komische's version of Flute, the full chorus (16 men and 16 women) are all dressed as Sarastro doubles at the top of act 2 - complete with top hats and beards. 

As I was currently looking at the real Sarastro in that moment, I explained to him what was happening on level 1 and we had a good laugh.

2 weeks later, standing at the railing of the second level on the back of the wall that make up the set, having my PSM ask to know the moment I had eyes on the real one so we could start the second half, and staring down into a sea of Sarastros, I couldn't help but continue to laugh. 

When I interviewed with Minnesota Opera, one of the things I was most excited to hear was that they were again doing Komische Oper Berlin & 1927’s production of The Magic Flute. A close second on the list of exciting information was that, were I to get the job, I would be running the second level of the stage, in charge of 5 of the 6 doors. 

A few months later (or what feels like 30 seconds), and I’m ASM 1 on The Magic Flute with Minnesota Opera. And we’re about to open. And I’m absolutely in love with this production. (more after the video)

If you don’t know this production, the set is a giant, white, two-story wall that includes 6 doors. Hand-drawn animations are projected onto the wall through 700+ video cues. Singers are attached to 5 of the doors with harnesses where they stand on small platforms and, when everything is attached and ready, a rope is pulled and they are spun around to sing on the second story while animations of flowers, angry dogs, flirty owls, elephants, and a cat named Karlheinz are projected around them. Or, they are turned into a massive spider (the Queen of the Night), butterflies (Pamina and the Knaben), or a snail and a mouse (Papageno). Stunning doesn’t even begin to describe it. Innovative, spellbinding, and amazing get a little nearer the mark. (more after the video)

When individual paperwork assignments went out for this show, I was a little taken aback that I was only given deck running and the who what where. As MNOp did this show just a little over a year ago, the w/w/w was already in our format, and the deck running info was already fleshed out. What I didn’t expect, however, was the need for a complete reformat of the deck running, as well as how many different iterations and documents were needed to make the deck run smoothly.

See, at the macro level, there’s the master deck running document which covers both levels, all 6 doors, and a couple curtain pages. This is the document I, obviously, knew I would be creating, editing, and updating.

Yet, in order for our (seriously amazing) crew to run the show, each door, or set of doors, needs its own running paperwork that is attached to the wall near each sets of ropes. That means, on the micro level, there is running paperwork for door 1, door 5, door 6, and doors 2, 3, & 4 together. 

Then, in order for our head carps to run their Level 2 tracks, I created a Level 2 master so they didn’t have to wade through everything that was happening with Door 6 as they were running their tracks upstairs. 
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At the end of the day, that means that a change in the deck running means a possible change in 6 separate documents. 

Add in the fact that there were a separate set of documents when we toured the show to Duluth a few weeks ago, and that brings the total deck running documents up to 12. Needless to say, this has been both my Everest, and my baby. 

And that’s just the paperwork aspect. Running level 2 - with all the organized chaos, choreographed patterns, tight quarters, and rather constant cues is some of the most fun I’ve ever had on a show. At one point, we have 7 singers, 7 carpenters, 1 dresser, and me on the second level while I’m calling back-to-back cues to flip all 5 doors multiple times, sometimes with only a few seconds between. ​

At the end of the day, I’m not sure how I got here, but I’m so grateful I did.