Keeping Busy in the Bay

Tech teams working together during Lockdown Level 4

Baycourt Theatre and Bay Venues, two Tauranga City Council-owned operations that manage the arts, sports, and event facilities, have kept their technical teams connected and industrious during the five weeks of lockdown at Level 4.

As venues across the country scrambled to reduce seating capacity to meet ever-changing audience limits, on Wednesday 18 March, the technical team at Baycourt Theatre found themselves halfway through pack-in for an Australian Tina Turner tribute band when the Council announced that there would be no more performances.

The touring group and Baycourt staff packed out, shared a few beers to commiserate, and then the tech team’s focus swiftly moved to preparing for whatever the future might hold. By the following Monday they had a list of things to do including laying CAT6 cable ready for a new sound system, preparing for DMX and Art-Net upgrades and fixing leaks above the grid. Dale Henderson, Technical Manager, recalls, “We felt pretty productive and were looking forward to doing all these jobs that we never get around to. Then we took a quick lunch break to watch the big announcement.” It quickly became apparent that they wouldn’t be nailing their ‘to do’ list any time soon.

Reeling, the team regrouped, “It was pretty confronting coming from an industry where the mantra is that ‘the show must go on’, for the show not to be able to go on, but we have managed to keep busy.” A highlight has been doing the one thing that they’ve never done before, because someone has always been working, and that’s have Friday drinks, but they have also achieved a lot more, “One lucky soul has bashed his head against the brick wall and reviewed the inventory, as much as you can when offsite. Another newer member of the team has started writing training manuals for the equipment. We have also created a 3D representation of the venue with our lighting console so that we can use the visualiser software.” Meanwhile Dale himself, as a council employee, has been working for Civil Defence putting together rosters and overseeing logistics, a bit of a busman’s holiday.

Over at Bay Venues, Cian O’Cinnseala, Production Manager has given his team a different bit of equipment each. Dale said, “They are looking up all the online resources and presenting all their learnings to the rest of the team at a weekly catch up. Over a few drinks of course.”

The one thing that Dale is sad about is the ‘Tauranga Teen Tech’ opportunity that had just been advertised for two students from each of the city’s secondary schools, “We were going to provide a hands on programme here at Baycourt, also taking them to see how productions are done at some of the bigger venues in Auckland. Over lockdown I am sending the students links to things that may interest them to keep them motivated but I am not sure when we will get the course off the ground.”

Now as New Zealand moves down the lockdown levels, Dale is looking forward to at least a few members of the team being able to access the venue, “We should be able to do a few of the more essential things on our ‘to do’ list, like checking out the leaks over the grid!”

For some theatres and venues, ‘The show must go on’ remains the mantra, all be it in a very different format.