I have been pretty happy with the teamwork of our crew so far. Sure, a few of us have some mild idiosyncrasies, but Jack and Jeff put us into smaller groups where our strengths and weaknesses tend to support each other. Our smaller groups work independently to handle various projects simultaneously.
But last night, we all attempted one massive project together. We needed to convert the cement floor we had created on the stage for the firsts two shows to a terrazzo tile floor by the time the theme show rolls around with the shopping center. In between those shows, we have to make a tribal environment for the Indian dancers.
As most of the guys removed the film strip framing and steps, Bill and Jack taught Heather and I to snap a chalk line. George, Jim and Jeff started marking off 38” grid lines around the outer edge of the stage floor. As people finished removing scenic parts, they started measuring, marking lines, or laying tape along the grid lines. Paul, Floyd, and a couple of Jims joined us on stage. Alan and Gary started measuring and hauling paint and water in from backstage. Pretty soon, almost all of us were on the top of the stage caught in the middle of a maze of criss-crossed masking tape. It was a bit confusing as we called out measurements, threw rolls of masking tape back and forth across the floor, stepped around each other, and over the chalk lines. But once everyone got off the stage again, we had a neatly taped set of grid lines.
We painted the whole floor a reddish color. Then some of the guys added yellow dabs, while other people used a watered down mixture to smear everything together. Max and Scott came along behind us pulling buckets and pails to unpainted areas as we worked our way backwards across the different wings. Dave and Te had to keep wiping the edges to keep large amounts of wet paint from dripping off onto the ground.
At the end of it all, we had our tribal environment spread out before us. After the Indian show tonight, we will pull up the tape to reveal our shopping court and be ready to set up the mall on top of it.