Hannah Mackey

UB Springfest 2019 - 5/4

From late Saturday afternoon till very early morning, the show and load out went better anticipated.  After a very long load in process with tons of troubleshooting, the show went fantastic.  Our LD, Emily, did a great job of lighting the acts, and allowed our ME, Matvey, to light up one of the performer’s sets.  Towards the end of the evening, I was able to get on the board with Emily and help throw in effects for the two headliners.  Easily one of the coolest feelings, even if the music isn’t my typical cup of tea.   Throughout the show, I was able to help troubleshoot and change out fixtures and check issues when required, learning new things as the night progressed.  

Come time to load out, we were able to smoothly do so and learn more hands on rigging practices.  By the time early morning came, the job was done, and it didn’t feel like we had just spent so long there.  This experience as a whole was incredibly rewarding, to work alongside a small team of UB folk, Local 10, and with AudioImages.  Sam from AI was extremely patient and helpful to Emily, Matvey and I as we learned new things throughout this weekend, and throughout this entire month.  A 35 hour weekend is never long when you have great coworkers and are doing what you love.

UB Springfest 2019 - 5/3 & 5/4 Part I

TESLA - 04/13/2019

The Rapids Theatre - Niagara Falls, NY

RLTP - 04/07/2019

Show: The Undeniable Sound of Right Now Running: 4/26 - 5/19

Set Design By: Dyan Burlingame

Justin Timberlake - 04/06/2019

USITT 2019 - Louisville, KY - 3/20-3/23 Week of Bourbon, BBQ, and Business.

Fleetwood Mac - Key Bank Arena - 3/26/2019

Annnnnd, Part 3.

Travis Scott - Key Bank Arena - 3/10/2019

This was probably one of the coolest rigs I’ve been able to work with.  The trucks were late due to a snow storm coming from CT, but slowly the 20+ semis rolled in as the pre-rigging took place.  In total, it took about 12 hours of set up for this roller coaster rig. 

I was placed in electrics and was able to work with a smaller team on some of the truss and light set-up and rigging.  This team was very knowledgeable and most were fairly pleasant.  One of the most interesting things to set up was the set of circle truss without the video screen.  This truss required many mounted lights and pyrotechnics, but also was part of the separate “roller coaster” that audience members rode throughout the concert.  Thankful for my trusty wrench.  

There was a brief couple hour break during the late dinner hours where I was able to go work the office job before heading back for start of the show and load out.  Load out was quick and fairly organized, which was nice to get home before 3 am after a weekend packed with shows.

Next posts will show videos from the press box view.

Honestly, if I could do this type of work every weekend, and actually be on the tours, I’d be one happy person.  For now, as I continue my studies and gain experience, working shows within different venues around Buffalo is such an exciting and rewarding time.  Whether it’s at the Arena, CFA, Rapids, Shea’s, DL, Canalside, or anywhere else around WNY, I’m blessed to work jobs that further my experience, and that make “work” feel so worthwhile.  Looking forward to the day I’m not balancing 8 diverse jobs to get through school and can focus solely in this world.

OH! And fun tidbit, out of the hundred or more guys on the call, it’s pretty empowering to be one of the seven women trusted to work hard to build something thousands of people will enjoy for a couple hours.  

Part 2 of a long weekend

Zoso - The Rapid’s Theatre - 3/9/2019

This will be a 3 part post, as this was part of a 30+ hour weekend:

Mumford & Sons - Key Bank Arena - 3/8/2019

Lumaginations CAS Night at the Buffalo and Erie Botanical Gardens - 2/20/19

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra at Shea’s Performing Arts Center - 2/21/2019

After seeing the BPO perform many times at Kleinhan’s Music Hall, and not having seen a performance at Shea’s in nearly 8 years, it was refreshing to enjoy a show in combination of both the Orchestra and venue in an interesting twist of a performance.  This performance was a combination of live music and film.  Taking the brilliant score written by John Williams and performing it in sync with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (the first installment in the HP series), on a 40′ screen, was captivating.  The acoustics of the of the venue are incredible already for the BPO, but the mic set up they used spaced throughout the orchestra (you can see some in the top picture), really made it sound like the music was part of the film.  There were many times where you forgot that there was a a full piece orchestra performing right below the screen. Technical wise, there were some very minor blimps in the sound and lighting at the beginning of the performance.  The mic the director was using to speak with the audience cut out halfway through his opening remarks, though thankfully he was able to project and took on the mishap with humor and stride.  The lighting kept going in and out on the director as there seemed to be some discrepancies on when he was done speaking and ready to begin the performance, and other miscellaneous lights began to go on and off as if there was some mistakes happening at the board.  Nothing many people would notice, and thankfully nothing major that impacted the performance itself.

An 18 hour work day is never an issue when you get to help create a few hours of bliss for such an audience. Andrew and his crew were a blast to work with.

Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness 

Spackling and priming underway at RLTP.