Short Builds

When you can only have (read "rent") the theater venue for a limited time, it often happens that the set will still be being built as the painting progresses and the lighting hang and focus happen. Furniture, props and even costumes will cross the (wet, yet saw-dusty) set on their way to the dressing rooms.

Chaos!

Organized chaos.

All you can do is try to stay good-humored and helpful through this time. Try to accommodate your fellow toilers as you finish your own work.

In my case, it's a matter of keeping the messy paints etc. as grouped together out of the way as possible. I try to work where the others don't - that instant - need to be and to warn them of where the paint is wet.

It can be a little discouraging. You feel you're making progress painting across the set... then discover new, unpainted trim behind you. Or you turn to dip your brush in the can of blue-green paint just as the lights dip - and suddenly you can't tell the blue-green from the green-blue paint next to it.  (I advise setting out paints, then memorizing their placement. But I forgot.) Fancy brushwork tends to suffer when lighting changes frequently or when the painter, carpenter, and master electrician all need to work in the same four square feet of floor space!

Keep your sense of humor.