At one point during tech tonight, my light designer added a cue and stopped to give me a note on the cue number and it's placement. My sound designer respond with, "Way to show me up, Kristeen. I was just having her GUESS where all my cues go." We all laughed about it and started to joke that our tech table was The Hunger Games and we were all trying to outwit each other to survive.
I so love the camaraderie that can form up at a tech table. It doesn't always happen, but when it does I feel safe and warm and supported. Today I felt a little like my light and sound designers' kid sister, but in the best way. They joke with me, they trust me, but they're also looking out for me.
The bonding feeling of tonight reminded me of my last tech in the Winningstad. Same theater company, same director, same TD and same production manager. But that is where the similarities stop. The mood, the difficulties, the joys, the message have been so unalike, I hadn't really compared the two before tonight. I also had a very different light designer to my right and a very different sound designer to my left. Stinky Cheese Man may feel warm and fuzzy, but Storm in the Barn was momentous for me. I learned a lot at that tech table. It was not even a year ago, though it feels so much longer. My first professional SM gig, my first chance to really prove myself to the people of Portland theater.
I have very different relationships with the two men who flanked me at that tech table last April, but some things are true about them both: they are both brilliant, they both throw themselves into their work, they both pushed me to be good enough to support their designs and I grew from that pushing. They are also my two favorite men in Portland theater, hands down.
I was having fun tonight, but I had a moment when I missed being in the trenches with those two. Not "but," actually, but "and:" both feelings existed together because I get to/got to live and feel both experiences. My current designers are lovely, my past designers were inspiring. I got to sit in the middle of that tech table, and I get to sit in the middle of this one. Squished in middle, intellectually cuddled up and safe.
Sometimes, a girl gets lucky with who she's surrounded by.
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