Diwali

Well, they picked a good time to have this show, there's a festival called Diwali going on while we're here and it's perfect for lighting designers. It's the Festival of Lights and I guess it's the new year here in some respect. It's great to just walk around at night. Practically every shop and tree near out hotel is swathed in lights. It's beautiful. (for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali).

Today was hot, and exhausting. It started out productive but we hit some bizarre obstacles. Our ride to the theatre was supposed to be at the hotel to pick us up at 1:00, but he arrived just before noon with 4 other people in our car already. They were the puppeteers and they were late, so there was talk about shoving 6 people in the car, but that was stupid, so David and I got a cab. We asked the hotel front desk what to expect to pay, and they said 150-200 rupees. However, after about a mile or 2 David noticed the meter wasn't running and the driver said it would cost 400 rupees. Well, now everyone was mad and it made the hour+ ride even longer. The driver eventually turned the meter on and I think the total was around 190 rupees.

Anyway, things at the theatre are going great. Ronnie and his electrics team are just amazing. The crew is cranking out the light plot, despite all of the obstacles that we're encountering. The biggest issue today was how to light the thrust from the side without the truss we need. It took all damn day to find a solution, but we think we have it. Watching the rest of the set go in is extraordinary. I can't tell what any of the set is for. Between the gigantic lady, the tree made out of naked people, and the parachuting cars I'm totally lost. At least the title of the show and the star's name are there in big, bright letters. There must be thousands of light bulbs on the set, I hope not too much of a load for the dimmers.