On the Road

One experience in my life that fascinates and delights me so, is when I get to be involved in the loading in, assembling, disassembling, and loading out of various productions that travel from city to city. There is a huge sense of excitement and wonder as I pull wheeled boxes out of trucks and send them in various directions according to the instructions of the people connected with the show. These people are called roadies. They know the show, they sleep, travel, eat and live with this production from city to city. Some even put their transportation from their bed of the night to the show's venue on the trucks that carry the show. I remember packing one lady's 21-speed bike in with the show.

Every show is different, they say, and I have seen that firsthand. This is of necessity. There are Broadway plays, rock bands, wrestling shows and all sorts of other productions travelling the road, and they all carry with them the inevitable sense of adventure that loading them in and out at their performance venues generates. Shows have to carry with them every piece of equipment they need to make their show happen according to its design. Some true genius goes into this design, as not only does it have to have its equipment, it has to pack that equipment in such a way as to use as little space as possible.

The Commission on Presidential Debates used 6 trucks to haul its production around to the 4 cities it goes to every 4 years. In these 6 trucks lies an incredibly bewildering array of monitors and controls, lights and set pieces to make a debate happen. It takes 4 days of unloading and assembling by a large crew to turn a venue into a debate site. It also rents the means to power the lights and sound equipment it uses. At Ole Miss, there were several locations outside the theater where you could watch the debate on a large screen. The Grove was full of students watching the action inside the theater from outside the security ring. The generators and screens weren't part of the debate hardware, but they were part of the scene there, and it was truly exciting and fun to be a part of.
All that said, the morning after the debate, we started out at 8, and had it in its trailers on the road by 2:30.

Rock shows, such as Rascal Flatts, run around in a large collection of trailers. Rascal Flatts had 21 trucks, and took 5-6 hours to unload and assemble their very elaborate set, stage, lighting, and other accoutrements as they needed to put on a show. They did the show, we tore it back down, and loaded it out, sending it on the road sometime next morning. On the road again . . .

But those are one time, one day situations. The roadies I mentioned are the heart and soul of making it happen. Usually they are very safety conscious, watching meticulously for careful handling of everything they had charge of.
But sometimes, they get impatient, careless and downright stupid. One roadie's demise came about directly as a result of this. He had gotten up on a lighting truss without having it tied off to contain its possible sideways motion. It was this uncontrolled motion that led to his demise. Not only did we have to deal with a work fatality on the site, we also lost the wisdom of that roadie to help us pack up his show. His wife and kids also lost a dad and husband. Totally avoidable.

As a result, the local IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) people had meetings over that, and stressed all over again the strict need for being careful, and avoiding accidents. The union had NOTHING to do with the site of the accident, but several people who work with the union had been on that site. The trauma of that event takes years to get out of the system, and it is this fact that motivates the safety we engage in at union sites.

At the Orpheum Theater, in Memphis, the crew is exclusively union, a fact which is interesting, considering Tennessee is a right to work state. The theater chooses this because of the professionalism and safety record of the union.
The union costs shows more to use, pays better to the crew and gives the show a sense of consistency in the help it uses handling its equipment because it is an international organization. The stage crew unloads, moves into place, assembles everything, in conjunction with and under direction of, the roadies. Light racks, speaker clusters, props, false floors, all of it are put in place and assembled by the crew. When you unload a show like "Wicked" with 13 trucks, or "Lion King" with 26, you may be reminded of the circus gig where a large number of clowns climbs out of a very small car. They just keep coming out and coming out, and you start looking for a trapdoor under the car!

As I said before, every show has to carry everything it needs to make it happen. But it doesn't always need to use everything it carries, because the venue is sometimes sophisticated enough to have that equipment built in, So, the unused equipment gets packed away in a basement. This happened with several shows at the Orpheum, as the house had built-in light circuits,dimmers, etc. Come load-out, you have to dig out the unused stuff and pack it, too. Every show is different. Sometimes we used the movable part of the stage to get sound equipment out to the front, sometimes we went out side doors in the back and back in side doors near the front.

To me, the true genius of a show is not only how the show is assembled and produced. The second part is how it is packed away on as few trailers as possible. The trailers all have diagrams on one wall or another. The trailers are numbered and backed up to the dock in a sequence that loads the earlier parts of breakdown in some and later parts in others. Lighting and sound controls might load first, then wardrobe, then some props, etc. The specific truck needed is there to take its load to the next town, at whatever hour of day or night.
The way these trucks are loaded is a true work of genius to me. The roadies have it all figured out before they leave the first venue. Some items get stacked, hung, turned around, and set sideways to fit tightly. Hardly can you find a wasted cubic inch in these things. There are straps which get used profusely to keep wheeled items in place. Then there are space bars to do the same. They lock into tracks built into the side wall of the trailers. The straps also lock into the tracks. The driver never has to worry aboat rolling stock moving around inside.

The crew is divided into the various disciplines of assembly/disassembly and then there are people called pushers and loaders. Pushers take items going to the truck and stage them for loading. Loaders take the staged items and push them into place in the truck. Some of the workers end up travelling with the show. Riggers and others who set up the debate at Oxford were asked to stay on and help direct the debate assembly in the other cities. That's a case where the first venue is the first ever assembly of all the parts, and the roadies like having some crew experienced enough to make it go together faster. They know how the pieces fit best and what goes where.

If you'll always be a kid and you know it, this work is one true piece of excitement and fun! You always have be a mature enough kid to be on time and helpful in whatever way you can, but it is a fun way to spend your time and collect a few bucks.