A flurry of updates about life in Ninja-land.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is my last day of work for #HeritageTheatreRefurb!
I’m definitely looking forward to being out of the political side of it, there’s been some really big dramas and power plays going down - which has been part of the reason I’ve been pretty absent - and I’m honestly looking forward to heading back to my squad in Tāmaki Makaurau.

But I’m also really sad to be leaving my awesome new friends behind.

We are still a building site.

We still have contractors on site finishing core systems.
We still have fire doors that don’t open.
We still have fire doors that don’t close properly.
We still have an obscene amount of incomplete works, whether they’re defects or deferred works.

I still don’t know if we can run haze in the big theatre without evacuating the entire building, let alone in the smaller ones.

Four weeks.

#VenueBuild #HeritageTheatreRefurb

If you are going to undertake a #TheatreRefurb or a #VenueRefurb, especially a #HeritageTheatreRefurb, be generous with your budgets in the beginning. I know it’s really scary, but it’s less scary than getting to the last push and having to decide to commission a system later or skimp on your equipment.

We had three people under our stage today, ripping out and replacing a system that wasn’t completed in the 2010s refurb, as we can’t get the parts to finish it.

PomPom was hired about three months after ground was broken on the rebuild, six months after the design and budgets were signed off on.

This is where a huge amount of problems have come from in this build - there was no one on the venue side to ask the hard technical questions or flag practicalities.

If you want to build a #Theatre or do a #HeritageTheatreRefurb, or open a #MusicVenue, get a couple of experienced professional technicians involved BEFORE the architects and consultants.

I started on this theatre build coming up 18 months ago. My boss, PomPom, has been on coming up 2 years. We are the technical theatre specialists (with awful job titles that don’t reflect this).

Both of us have opened venues before.
PomPom has opened heritage venues, and one of about the same size.
I’ve opened found spaces & cabaret venues, and I’ve opened venues in Nz which he hasn’t.

Our skill sets have large overlaps but complimentary skills & gaps.

#HeritageTheatreRefurb

This time in four weeks, all going to plan, I will have just armed the #HeritageTheatre having had our official Grand Opening Gala, and be about to lock the door.

We have what is probably best described as A Metric Fucktonne of things to complete between now & then.
Many of them are not my responsibility but somehow my problem.

A bunch are both my responsibility and my problem.

This will be a wee thread on the weeks ahead. & a bit of a warning for folks considering a #HeritageTheatreRefurb

On this #HeritageTheatreRefurb I have an awful official title, but my job is venue design and delivery second.

Where PomPom (my boss) is the king cheese, I’m the creamy blue that is sharp & sweet depending on the context. And how badly you done goofed.

I’ve helped design systems; asked annoying questions; tracked #Budgets; driven equipment #Procurement; helped with #LightingDesign, #SoundDesign; argued a lot about #Drapes, #Paint, & yes we need fucking door handles there are you shitting me

Those of you who are part of the #TwitterMigration may recognise some of these pictures and tales, as this has been like 85% of my life since Sept 2021, but hopefully there’s some new things too.

This will be a bit of an ongoing series now I have a little bit of headspace, so feel free to ask questions or request things for me to talk about!

I’ll start with this thread being a bit of an #introduction to me & my role in this #HeritageTheatreRefurb

Today I learned that some of the new power points in my venue don’t work.

About half an hour before an event.

Cue scrambling around to find one that did, somewhere I could drop a cable without it being offensive to look at or a tripping hazard.
Which. Is a bit frustrating when we’ve been assured they’ve all been pinned out.
And, more relevantly, they were all working fine.

Ahh well

#TechniciansLove #HeritageTheatreRefurb

Cw: photos hidden as third contains direct eye contact