From the Cave - vol. 1

From the Cave Alegria Arena Tour Vol 2: March 2010

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(Save Paper. Try to Recycle… You will have the pdf file on your cirque account)

Cedar Park Events Center, Austin TX Assembly Hall, Champaign Il Joe Louis Arena, Detroit MI

Welcome to the 2nd Edition of “From the Cave”

Already the end of the 4th leg! Time in arena flies like bats…

For this leg, the cities were not the most exciting but by looking at the pictures and the journal I realized that where we are is not that important but the people that we are traveling, working and hanging out with are. When difficult situations happen and marked our lives, it is often the times that we notice that we are surrounded by an amazing group.

Thank you to the editors, Ken, Isabel, Pedro and Lars. Thank you also to Stephanie for the pictures and Denys for the translation (his second job!).

Enjoy

Claudine

A day in the clown’s life


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Lance Armstrong Visit Back stage! Playing with Lady Gaga’s prop’s

Nathalie Pechalat’s visit (French Ice dancer)

Best tour break receipts presentation!


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A week in the life of… Everyday we see the same people, we know their names, their faces, where they live, but most of us don’t really know

what exact roll each person play on tour!

So here is a chance to get to know what some of our friends do for living!

(This session was suggested by Amanda. Thanks Amanda!

A big thanks to everyone that took the time to answer the questions.

And if you have any idea for the “From The Cave” talk to Isabel.)

Crystal – Assistant to Head Carpenter

On my days off I enjoy golfing and exploring the city if it is worth it.

Tuesday “load in” for me starts around 6am with a walk around the new arena building with Michel and the building person. We figure out where the offices will be, the dressing rooms and

where to put all the carts. Around 7 am I get 16 stage hands and start unloading the 18 trucks with Mike. This takes about 4 hours. When a department have emptied all their road cases I get the cases and store them where was checked earlier. I also help Wardrobe setting up. At 5 pm I pass to Stage Management how we planned the backstage area and we make sure all masking are good with no gaps (masking are the black curtains that separates backstage from front of house). I walk around with the Fire Marshall to see if there is nothing on the way of the emergency exits.

Wednesday to Saturday I run show tracks like net set up, fire extinguisher, storm, trapeze, power track. I also do office stuff like working schedule. I usually call the next venue to talk about how the load in will go

Sunday is the same thing as load in but backwards and faster!

Katie – Catering

On Monday we come to the Arena to set up catering, go to grocery stores and prepare breakfast for load in. I work around 3 hours this day.

Tuesday is load in day. We figure out what is going to go where in the catering room, do the preparation of the salad bar, cut all fruits,

vegetables, slice the deli meats, fill out all the fridges.

Wednesday to Saturday From 8 am, I clean up the left over and dishes of the night before, restock all fridges, prepare salad bar, cut fruits and vegetables.

Sunday is “load out”. I start the day walking around offices,

dressing rooms and backstage collecting the things that do not belong there: cups, bowls, silverwares… Than set up the omelet station, clean up the stock, send everything to the dish washers, get everything cleaned and packed.

On my days off I enjoy shopping and visit the city if there is anything interesting.

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Dr.Pepper Starcenter, Frisco TX Sears Center, Hoffman Estate IL US Cellular Center, Cedar Rapids IA

A week in the life of…

Remy – Truck Leader

My Monday starts usually

driving since Sunday night. After arriving at the new arena I receive all the trucks, make sure they are parked safely, sometimes meet the venue people. Some Mondays there is pre-rig and so we need to unload the trailer for that.

Tuesday I start usually at

5am preparing the load in, placing the trucks, making sure they will not be blocked by cars. Start load in at 7am, finish around 2 pm. The big part of my job is to direct the traffic, I am always outside and I coordinate the drivers and te trucks. After I park the trailers for the week and do some offices stuff. On tour we have 4 trucks and 18 trailers, so every week we have 14 different trucks and drivers and there is a lot of communication to be done with the transit company we work with. I usually finish the day around 6pm.

Wednesday I sleep late and it is my office day. I start preparing the load

out plan, go around the venue, check where to place the trucks. Every Arena is different so there are different things to check for the load out plan; for example the location of the loading dock like if there is a parking lot and things like that. This day I usually do the advance for the 2nd week after (for example, if we are on the week 1 I do the advance for the week 3). I also work on the maintenance of the trucks, finding garages and taking appointments if needed, and prepare the working plan for the other drivers on tour.

Thursday I do the maintenance needed or take the day off.

Friday is usually my day off, when I go golfing, visit museums and find a

good restaurant.

Saturday is preparing the load out with the drivers on tour, move

trailers, meet Michel and Mike to go over any special request or issues for the final load out plan. Packing night.

Sunday starts at 10:30, loading in all we can, move trailers, receive the

transit drivers, give them the instructions, maps, deal with eventual delays and coordinate the different sizes of trucks with the trailers.

Thomas - Head of Sound

On Monday I am usually off

and I try to go fishing, training or shopping.

Tuesday is load in. Me and my

team start between 8 and 10am, depending on the week. I usually meet with the 6 stage hands that will help us for the day and start laying out the cables at the truss (the big

metal frame where the lights are) so it can go up. We hook up the speakers in catering and dressing rooms area and the PA at the front of house. We install the sound console (the mixing board I use during the shows). I help setting up the band gear and the monitor console used by Pierre-Luc backstage. Fine tune everything (which means testing and adjusting the sound), make sure the paging system (speakers) and the commons (head sets and communication system used by the technicians) are all working well. I install Stage Manager’s desk in the front of house.

Wednesday to Saturday I arrive 1 or 2 hours before sound check to

do maintenance, improve system and do the sound check. Than it is basically show operating, making sure everything sounds perfect during the show.

Sunday is load out: same thing as load in but backwards! “Load in” takes around 12 hours, “load out” 3 and a Half Hours.


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A week in the life of…

Isabel - Production Coordinator

Monday and Tuesday I am

usually off.

Wednesday is my load in. I set

up the mail boxes and the boards near the catering, update it if needed (internal communication, reminders, job posting). Set up the map in the

office, the clown mascot, Cigna forms and internal mail boxes. Check with Mike and Crystal where the laundry place will be and put up the signs. Make the contact info sheet with the cell number of the runner and the venue contact and post in the offices so everyone can have it right away. After that I check my e-mails and start the action needed. Immigration, HR, Social Affairs and Internal Communication, all from Head Office, are the most frequent senders of the e-mails in my inbox! At 5pm I meet with the venue people to go over the show details (like when the ushers should stop sitting people on the floor, how they should proceed with cameras, where we want security to be at) and Jon or Kim are usually there also to talk about emergency procedures. When the show is about to start I go to the front of house to make sure everything discussed during the meeting are being done.

Thursday to Saturday, I don’t really have a routine. But there are

some things that I work with in every leg. The tour book for example. I use the tour show schedule, the precious binder Amanda has for all hotels information and the beautiful production master sheet that Mike does, to put up the major information in our tour book. The cover is usually the most fun part of it and the mistakes I find after printing are the most not fun part.

Other things that take my time are the Green Committee, the Fun Committee and the Journal . Lately only the Journal “From the Cave” has been in full speed, as you may have noticed.

I am the link between the Head Office and the tour for all internal communication. When Guy goes to the space, when the company has a

contest or something to share with all tours, it comes to me and I make it come to you.

I also have monthly meetings with representatives from all touring shows to exchange information and share how things are on each show. For every city we go, the Road Management makes a city report. I am the one making sure we get everyone’s information and I am the one putting it all up together and sending to Montreal.

When someone arrives on tour, I meet them to give a brief of how some things work on tour (like laundry, insurance), fill out some forms, handle tour book, take picture for the file and make their tour pass. I make sure they have a Social Security Number, and if they don’t I organize their application.

My favorite part is Immigration. Soon we will renew all US visas, make sure your passport has empty pages enough and is valid for over 6 months. Thanks.

Sunday is load out. But before packing everything I have some

paperwork to do. Based on the Daily Medical Report that PMed prepare every day, and any eventual accident report that I get from the departments, I have to go to the US workers compensation insurance website (Liberty Mutual) and open a file for every injuries so that you will be paid by the insurance when you can’t work due to a work injury. I am also the one that inform HR at the Head Office if anyone left the tour, arrived on tour, is injured and/or out of work. They use this information to update their system, and Sylvie and Payroll use it to calculate salaries. The packing up part of my load out is pretty quick. And finally when we are traveling by bus I am there to handle the lunch boxes, check the names of who is coming in the second bus and give the go ahead to the driver. I love when we travel by plane.

On my days off I enjoy shopping, visiting the city if there is anything interesting and watching movies

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Ask a Technician corner By Peter “Pedro” Thompson

How many Technicians does it take to change a light bulb?

ZERO! It’s a f@%#ing LAMP! Lighting technicians use the term “lamp” to refer to the many light creating objects that we use. This is due to the fact that most of them are not at all bulb-shaped, and most are cylindrical. But seriously, Alegria uses ten different types of “lamps” so the answer would depend on which type and where you were changing it, so let's say 2-3 people. One to climb up there and one to hold his ladder, if the lamp has just burned out. Sometimes they explode, and it takes three people one to climb up and tie a rope around the lighting fixture and two to lower it down, and clean out the broken glass, so that it doesn't effect all of the inner workings for the moving light. Now, it might alarm you slightly to here that there are a hundred objects above your head that could possibly explode. I assure you, it is not as exciting as it sounds. When a moving light lamp explodes, it normally just makes a pathetic sizzling pop sound followed by a slight smell of burnt chemicals, and then somewhere in the distance you here the nearest light technician say something like, “Well so much for lunch!” or something else that would not be polite to write down.

Do you ever finish set-up with extra pieces (you know, extra parts)?

We have several spare parts, just in case things break, in fact spares are the thing that help technicians to sleep at night. Load-in is not finished until all the parts are in place. Load-out, on the other hand, is such a fast-paced affair that on occasion something does not make it into the right box, because the boxes are moving so quickly onto the truck, that objects get misplaced. Office chairs, because they don't ride in boxes tend to wander around the building. Before the last truck door closes, we do an “idiot check” to find what has been left out of the boxes, or has attempted to wander away. Things we have found:

Small cables,

Artistic department chairs,

Artistic department roadcases,

pins of various shapes and sizes,

A power track mat,

and LOTS and Lots of used snow.

How much would it cost to sabotage the power-track on a Sunday

Morning?

Sabotage is, perhaps, the opposite of what a technician does. When something in the show does not work as planned, it is deeply unsatisfying to the technicial team if we are unable to fix it in time for the show... However, a couple of bottles of Johnny Walker Blue and a magnum Dom Perignon 1914 might make us feel a little better. (kidding of course).

There are no stupid questions, and if you're afraid it might sound that way, feel free to make your question anonymous. All questions answered, and the best ones will be featured in the next issue of "From the Cave". drop a letter in the "Ask a Technician" Box located next to the mailboxes or send an email to

[email protected].

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A day in the clown’s life - part 2


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After many years of research Lars discovered some valuable information that we had never thought about before…

За многие года Ларс нашел очень много ценной информации о которой мы даже и не могли подумать.

Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis IN

Every year, about 4 people in the UK die

putting their trousers on.

Каждый год,около 4 человек умирает в UK от

надевания нижнего белья.

The University of Alaska stretches over 4 time zones.

Университет Аляски имеет 4 часовых пояса.

More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.

От нападения такого животного как осел,в одном году умирает больше лудей чем в авиакатастрофах.

In New York City approximately 1600 people are bitten by other humans every year.

В Городе New York приблизительно 1600 людей укушены другими людьми.

A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for approximately sixty-nine years.

Человек с именем Charles Osborne икал приблизительно 69 лет.

The average person spends about 2 years on the phone in a lifetime.

На разговоры по телефону обыкновенный человек тратит 2

года своей жизни.

10 percent of the Russian government income comes from the sale of vodka.

10 процентов Российского бюджета составляет от продажи водки.

Cows poop 16 times per day.

Коровы ходят в туалет по 16 раз за день.

The average American butt is 14.9 in. long.

Задница Американца приблизительно 38 сантиметров в длину.

The poison arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people.

У одной из разновидности лягушек(poison arrow frog) яда достаточно штоб убить

2.200 человек


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Top Ten biggest requesters From Halifax to Chicoutimi, they have friends and family every where!

Name of the Artist / Employee

# Tickets since Arena tour

started

Mark 43

Fritz 39

Rasmus 38

Lars 34

Tyler 30

Alexander Andreasen 26

Alan Parry 22

Evgeniy 22

Ken 22

Maksym 22

Micah 22

Fernando 19

Alexander Kashlev 18

Slava 18

a)There was a waterfall downtown? В каком

из городов водопад был в центре города?

b) Catering was in a restaurant? Кухня была в

ресторане?

c) The snow started to fall? Где пошел

первый снег?

d) The Arena was lighted colorfully at night?

Где арена светилась разными цветами

ночью?

e) There was a plane crash in front of our

hotel?

Где было падение самолета прямо перед нашей

гостиницей?

f) Where we were haunted by the Train Horn’s?

Где нас пугали гудки поездов?

a) Greenville, b) D

etroit, c) Worcester, d) H

ampton, e) A

ustin f) Cedar R

apids and Om

aha

Conglatulation to Mitko and Ada

For their Wedding


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In memory of our dear Chris.

We’ll definitely miss you!

Documents

From the Cave - vol. 1