up on the catwalk

and no, not the one you're thinking of.

we're reading "The Glass Menagerie" in my advanced drama class (well, i finished it last night; it's that good) and my teacher brought up the subject of lighting certain scenes. in this play, he pointed out how certain lighting gave an emphasis to a certain character, but it never seemed to make too much sense until you read into it. for instance, during the scene where Tom and Amanda have the huge argument, a slightly brighter shaft of light is focused on Laura, while Tom and Amanda are more dimly lit. so we've been learning all about the technical terms of lighting--i'm amazed how much i've retained--and learning the different names of all the bolts and clamps and gels and you get the idea.

so today he asked for three people to go up on the catwalk and work with some of the lights up there. i've been up there before, and it's quite the view. the catwalk, in technical theatre terms, is the walkway where they go and change the lights, and to get to the one in our auditorium, one must climb up a tall ladder backstage, walk a little ways to yet another ladder, and crawl on hands and knees to reach the opening where the lights are. it's an awesome experience, i love being up there. however, i'd never handled the lights before, and for good reason--i don't know how, and they're pretty heavy when you add gravity to the equation. we were told to lean out a little bit to angle the light straight down. there's a bar there to lean your torso against, but the way down is looong. it was a little scary.

but it was kind of cool to just sit up there and watch people move back and forth across the stage. like i had a real bird's eye view. it was even a little breathtaking, just the concept of being up that high, but that was probably partially due to all the dust floating around up there. but it seemed like an escape to me. althought there was only one way up and one way down...it was an escape...

it was pretty cool. i'd recommend it to those who don't get vertigo.

-d