Final Reflection

When I proposed working as the Production Electrician for Nunsense as my senior project, I noted that I wanted to work primarily on my communication skills when it came to directing other students. This semester, many of the practicum students who were working as electricians had little to no experience in this field, which helped me improve on these skills. I think this was beneficial, but also provided its own difficulties. It was necessary to explain things in great detail to the electricians, which sometimes took time away from other things that I wanted to be focusing on. However, about a week into hang, I began to incorporate ten minutes into the start of labs where I knew that I would have electricians to stop what I was doing and work to get them started on something, as I recognized I couldn’t always just give them instructions and have them begin work. Sometimes this would entail showing them where different cables were, how to frame gels, how to read a plot, or even working alongside them to begin a task before I could return to what I was working on. I also learned to ask the electricians how they learn best and started to incorporate that into my explanations to them, too. This did lead to some electricians re-cabling the house left and right box boom 2 positions multiple times, as they told me that they prefer to learn by doing. I appreciated being able to foster this connection, as I think it made me a better leader and it encouraged them to learn in the way that was best and most applicable for them. 

I also noted in my proposal that I was anticipating challenges that would push me, and I certainly encountered that. As such, there are certainly some things that I would do differently, if presented with this production again. The biggest place that I faltered was with the installation of the LED tape, which wasn’t a component of this project that I handled well. I recognize now that I need to give myself more time to account for curveballs, which is part of where I got caught up on this. Looking back on the week before focus, I would have given myself more time in the evenings to work on Nunsense, rather than just relying on the day. There were many scenic elements that hit my plate at the same time which all needed my attention (“Grease” sign, records, jukebox, and the portals), and I would give myself more time to attend to all of these pieces in the future. 

I also learned that I need to give myself time to troubleshoot problems, which seems like common sense looking back. On the Monday of tech, we had all of the LED tape installed but only the first portal fully cabled. I was so focused on getting the other two portals cabled that I didn’t leave myself enough time to check that the first portal was patched correctly ahead of tech that night. There were issues with the portal that I would have been able to fix had I not been preoccupied with trying to get the other two portals cabled first. 

One thing that I feel as though I tackled well was the scenic move and the subsequent plot changeover. On October 7th, one week into a hang which we were mostly done with, the set moved upstage, and an additional portal was added. As such, the plot had to change to accommodate this, which meant that some of the work that we had already completed was going to have to be redone and changed. While this was a major change, and certainly would have put me back if I had not already been ahead of schedule, I compared the previous plot to the updated version to see what could be changed over. After this, I focused on getting everything rehung that needed to be, as well as adding any new units based on the updated plot. I tackled focus with a similar vigor, with Jason remarking that he had never attended a nighttime focus call where we completed such a high percentage of the plot. 

In general, I feel like I worked efficiently and generally made good use of my time throughout this project. There are things I will do differently in the future as a result of this experience, but I am proud of the work that I did.