That's great drose, had any feed back from the punters as yet?

As for gaafa he is fine
I felt he was hogging the forum too much [1K of the posts] So I thought he needs to be filed away for a while - untill he realises that it is far better to share around!

with me it's more of an altered ego or could even be an Ultra one.
it came about with the great crash of the Greenroom a while ago now. After Chris & Mike managed to get the site working again. Which must of been a mamoth task, after being hit by a 'Hacker' getting thier jollys off.
I attempted to post as Gaafa again, but ended up registering as plain joe Mc instead.
It was undoubtably my fault, I probably put the MacHines into a 'Temporal Flux' or sent into a 'Hystereses Loop' at least. {I always thought for years that the first was a women thingy & state of mind, then the latter a contiseptive device?] But when my son set me up with his handmedown computer & updated me - Gaffa raised his ugly head again, it was amasing just like magic!
Not only but also, I had a clue in finding your lost AE mate by checking if she was registered on your birthday?
NBG your the only one celebrating in that month - not long to go before you reach the big one now - {although some yoyo's reckons it it's the new 20? Weird I don't feel like 40, I wonder wot gum tree they are sitting in?}
Anyhow it's great your play did well!
The Poobah of our mob has writen a show 'Corpse cabaret' they are planning to do as the next production in '08, I talked her into directing it herself. But in the mean time she gone & got her self a job in America. I'm not sure where but it;s over there some place. I think it must be connected to theatre, as she has a degree in theatre from the local Uni.
She stepped into the breach recently when our President moved to the other side of the river. To date she has done a great job getting them all back on the tracks, pity she plans to evaporate.
Now they are all running around like chooks with thier heads chopped off, madly chasing a director from somewhere else!
I though I had engineered them to do thier own thing & be self contained from within. Strange what panic will do, as the first audition is on this Saturday, so why hit the big red button, they have heaps of time?
Anyhow 'Toi Toi Toi choookas' for the rest of the season drose.

The net is a great resource for lighting these days & a couple of the better sites are;-
http://www.stagelightingprimer.com/

http://www.mts.net/%7Ewilliam5/sld/sld-toc.htm
You can't go to far wrong, as they are focused around the American stage & fixtures, you would normaly come into contact with. Which may assist you better because they use your supply low voltage & of course resulting higher current values. For safety reasons this a major factor in your situation.
Not from the design piont of view but a hands on techie enviroment.
Women have been making thier mark on Broadway, from as early as the 20's  as designers & still  are  today in a lot of theatres.
Although they tend to be thin on the ground in Comeatre. I believe mainly because most groups are hard pressed finding techies, they tend to hunt for blokes primarily & have a hang up when giving a female a go. Which offer a greater available catchment area in almost every community theatre group.
But things might slowly change, I hope with forums such as this.
Some of the better designers I have worked with have been from the fairer gender, but they shy away from the actual techie bit. I suppose when more females enter the various trades generaly, the attitude of groups will follow as well. But I hate to hang by thumbs untill we reach that Port.
I remember when I was lecturing in the electrical trades & the first female fronted up at the college, with Electrical Fitters Indentures in hand. I expected the other blokes to treat her  like men did historicly, when females dared to become doctors or type writers eons ago. But blokes being blokes, the other lectures hung around her like bees to a honey pot. Which didn't help the young lass only get her fellow male apprentices backs up & would of became quite ugly, if not for the attitude of the lass & the experiance she aquired working at a male dominated Mining Company in the far north west of the state.
With the two sites above you will probably find that Jeff is more perdantic technicly, while Bill is easy to grasp by a student, but that is only my opinion.
At times I have enjoyed getting up Jeffs nose by refering to lighting designers as techies. Unfortunetly he tends to bust a poopah valve over the term being applied, usualy with the a rebuke of "We in the USA theatre do not refer  to ourselves as common techies & being just tradesmen" ['come in spinner']. He would take the bait every time. But give him his due, he is well versed in his trade & aparently strives long & hard to impart his skills to the lesser mortals - So g'donya Jeff your dinkydie in the wool true blue!
But don't let me put my slant on which is probably up the preverable creek anyway, glean what assists you trundling down the this cobbled toepath.
When I was a wee bloke {although I'm still height impared - so nothing changes}I always remember being advised, when checking out a lighting colour state. To bend over with your back to the stage & view it quickly with head between your legs. To achieve a true colour optical view of it. It only works for a few seconds & then switch back to the normal & get vthe true colours for another short period. These days for me I'd only end up A over turkey on the deck. If nothing else it might put your weight up with others watching your antics, after they stop laughing. Then build kudos when you explain what your up to & why you are doing it?
At the least if you don't baffle with  science, you always resort to bulldust?
I will have to find out were young Mel is going to in the States, she will be the third member of our mob recently to go there. I wonder what the atraction is? It can't be just money!
Two of them were founder members that have settled in Albuqueque  New Mexico two years ago, but one of them was a yank anyway & returned home with his aussie wife.
  I have not read Mels script as yet, but it is a musical on the rocky Horror Show style I believe. I will find out at the auditions this weekend & let you know drose.
 



 

Putting the complex into the simplex, the eye has 3 colour light receptors Blue, Green & Red called cones, these are conected by 3 rods to the brain, that does the process of mixing the differing colour hues, to give you the actual perceived colour of the reflected light your viewing.
This is also the same virtual principle of how a PAL colour TV camera & transmition monitor works.
By putting your head between your legs you reset the brains processor & for a short period of time, percieve the true colours of the bounced light on a setting. Then the old brain slacks off & settles down again into it's mundane mode. Not suggesting if you turn your TV monitor at home upside down, you will improve the colour reception. There again you might by dislodging the collected dust  or completly bugga it up?
However not being an optical medical bod or eye  specialist, that's my take on how the system works. But being visualy impared  on my left side, you could say I'm rather one eyed on the subject.

Here is a new toy from Rosco which is innovatetive, if you wish to give moving inteligent lighting effect ago, by utalising your normal Profile lighting lamp fixtures;-
http://www.rosco.com/promotions/icue/index.html
Instead of going down the costly road updating by buying the whole shabang from scratch. [I want half a dozen]
Also I picked up from Stage Directions Emagazine this;-
http://www.bmisupply.com/spechdw.html

With the new Rosco controlable mirror lamp attachment.
I can just remember when Strand Lighting introduced thier new 5 position  colour wheel, that was operated from  the Bio Box. Which was  a big step at the time  fitted to the Strand Patt 23 Profile, not that I can remember the introduction of the Pt  23 at all.
which proves the piont that if it hadn't been for Rock 'nRoll, happening when it did, we might still be playing about with just gobo's  in lanterns.