progress

 It is absolutely astonishing to think how one act, how one week, can change EVERYTHING, if you let it.

Last weekend I met some people from a local circus troop (think cirque du soleil, not elephants and clowns) and I offered up my services to help rig and build the set for their upcoming show.  Tom, the leader and creator of Fuse circus, was more than pleased to have an actual rigger on board and I was thrilled to actually do my job. Especially if my job involves hanging upside-down from truss, putting a gigantic birds nest safely on it’s perch and humorously oversized flowers 25 feet in the air.

The art director (actually, she was the entire art department) and I hit it off from the get go. My kind of lady – wears a tool belt, drives a campervan, not afraid to put down a few beers, and does long ocean swims. Awesomely enough, she, her brother and his girlfriend are moving into their new house in February and they have a couple extra rooms to fill -- just when I need to move out of my current place. Not only that, but she is doing construction on The Hobbit.

Last night was the indoor dress rehearsal where they invited friends, family, neighbors and the like. Did I forget to mention that their warehouse was part of the Weta Digital complex? Needless to say, I made some great contacts, not only from Weta but also the guy who hires all riggers for stage shows both in Wellington and Auckland.

I also got a couple of paid work days, too. A friend of my current roommate works for a company that does lighting design for museums and expos. They just got back all their stuff that had been at a show in China for a year, so I got the pleasure of cleaning off 365 days of Chinese dust from a ton of gear. It was boring as hell but nice to break up the monotony of working for free.

Tomorrow marks the day that pre-production of The Hobbit starts back up after their long holiday break. So I’ll be lurking around the stages to see what I can drum up. It feels like everything is coming together.