Section 98 – Open Source Entry #7 – Harbourfront Centre Tech Day in 2 Minutes or Less
Tech Day in 2 Minutes or Less
Shot at the Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, 2010 by Brittney Filek-Gibson, edited by Mike Last
by Aislinn Rose
We’re here on Day Three of HATCH at the Harbourfront Centre Studio Theatre, preparing for our work-in-progress presentation of Section 98. Some of you are familiar with the nature of “Tech Day”, but part of the purpose of our Open Source Theatre project is to reach a wider, non-theatre going audience… so for those of you who are not familiar with tech days, our Stage Coordinator Brittney Filek-Gibson – also known as BFG, also known as Praxis Theatre’s Social Media Sheriff – has created an amazing little video for you, that I like to call “Tech Day in 2 Minutes or Less”. In reality, tech days are much longer. 8 hours longer. Sometimes 12.
Don't go to the theatre regularly? Tell us why in the comments section and we'll give you a free ticket to our show!
So, to all you non-theatre goers… did you have any idea that theatre artists and technicians go through all of this just to make things pretty for your arrival? If you don’t normally go to the theatre, or if you used to go to the theatre but don’t anymore… we want to hear from you. What’s keeping you away? What can we do to get you here? Tell us why you don’t go to the theatre in the comments section below, and we’ll give you a free ticket to our show this Saturday night!
My mum has had a really hard time getting my dad to the theatre ever since she took him to a production of Man of La Mancha over 25 years ago, and a man “pranced around the stage on a broom pretending he was riding a horse”. To make matters worse for my dad, it was Good Friday and all the bars were closed.
I would go to the theatre every weekend if I could. But I haven’t been in a really, REALLY long time because babysitters are expensive. I can’t even use a free ticket if you give me one, unless it comes with a capable, free 19 year old willing to take on the kiddlies. (Do you have one of those? I could use one of those.)
Love theatre. Don’t go. Why? Time, plain and simple. Arthritis, another factor. We’re out in the bucolic boonies, work long hours, and the last thing either of us want to contemplate is a long drive to be entertained, confined to restrictive seating that will be uncomfortable for one, excruciating for the other, and then face another long drive home, late at night, when both of us would rather be snoring in bed.
We don’t even go to cinema anymore. In the winter it’s reading and possibly a DVD. In summer it’s music in the garden and the moon hanging in the willow.
I’ve been out of a job since November. So since then I’ve only seen shows that were free This makes 2 shows I’ve since November – I don’t know if that qualifies as “not going to the theatre regularly”, but I miss it.
I do not regularly go to theatrical performances. I’m not sure there is one specific reason why; after all, I actually do enjoy theatre when I’m there.
It may be for the same reason that I don’t go to the cinema, watch television, or go to other performance art events very often: I’m not one for entertainment. The reasons that come to mind: I feel like I should be doing something else, like work (always work); it’s a bit of a luxury that I may not have “earned”; it’s not returnable – if it’s terrible, my time and my money are both gone (yes, rather silly); legal concerns and a lack of physical capability (I’m not particularly big, you see) restrict me from exacting appropriate punishment on other members of the audience who engage in disruptive activities; and, finally, I don’t often find a story that appeals to me.
Thanks for everyone’s responses!
We still have a few more comps left for this initiative, so spread the word to any of your potential guests that they too can have a ticket waiting at the door if they don’t regularly make it to theatre and tell us why here.
Yev – your answer DOES count. Also, you should contact theatres you like about ushering opportunities. Show up 45 minutes early, hand out some programs, see the show for free.
mw
I pretty much never go to the theatre even though I usually enjoy myself when I do. I’m just unaware of what’s currently out there unless I make an effort…as opposed to movies where it’s nearly impossible to not know what’s playing. Since I don’t follow theatre, it seems more of a crapshoot and the thought of sitting through bad theatre is worse than sitting through a bad movie — wait, actually that could be entertaining in its own way. I guess in the end, I’m just lazy…
I don’t go to theatre because I have trouble suspending disbelief. I feel like I would have liked theatre more if I’d been exposed to it as a student, maybe even a young child. A general lack of appreciation for the theatre prevades it seems. Perhaps it is because people no longer spend as much time face-to-face.