Opening Night

Tonight at 7:00pm the curtain goes up for McGregor's Annual Christmas Pageant. Actually, we don't have a curtain. I guess a better expression would be the baton drops at 7:00pm. I'm pretty sure we have a baton.

I mentioned in an earlier post my role in the Pageant is Click Track Operator. The question I often get is "what does a Click Track Operator do?" Let's see if I can I shed some light on this.

I have been doing this now for 4 Pageants, so I consider myself somewhat of a veteran in the Click Track field. So, what is it I do. I push buttons on the remote control device in the picture above. That's right, a lot of button pushing. This remote device controls another device called a Multi-Track Recorder (see pic below). The Multi-Track Recorder is the heart of the performance. It keeps the orchestra, singers, soloist, and even all the computerized lighting together among other things. Throughout the performance there are stop and start times and I have to be watching the director (Rob) very carefully to know when to stop and to start. Very precise work here.

So, I guess you could say the entire Pageant is riding on my ability to start and stop the show accurately. No pressure. Actually, it's a lot of fun. I'm sitting back in the booth between the audio operator (Austin) and the light operator (Pastor Russell). If you attend one of the performances this year, stop by the booth and say Hi, just not while I'm pushing buttons!

Thanks to Rusty for teaching me everything I know about Click Track Operating. I miss you this year!