spent bulbs for
so in the show we’re producing right now, there’s a scene where a character goes out into the hallway and breaks three light bulbs. the sound designer decided that a live bulb-breaking sound was better than the recorded version, which meant that i needed a source of light bulbs to break (about 25 per week). it seems ridiculously wasteful to break brand new light bulbs, so i called the facilities services on campus to see if they could hook me up with a source of burned out light bulbs. about 6 conversations and referrals later, i ended up in touch with a guy at the campus steam plant, apparently one of the only buildings on campus that still uses incandescent bulbs instead of recyclable fluorescent ones.
so i explained what i was looking for, and the next week i hiked out there and a nice guy about my age gave me the box of burned out bulbs he’d saved for me. as per my usual, when someone does me a favor like this, i told him we’d be happy to comp him a pair of tickets for the show, and gave him my business card.* we set up a standing appointment for me to drop by at 1pm on fridays to collect spent lamps for the rest of the run of the show. so today i stopped by, and my pal wasn’t there but his manager was and when i explained what i was looking for he remembered what was up and had some other guy bring out the box of bulbs. it wasn’t until i was bringing in the box later that i noticed the penned inscription on the side. tee hee. what i love about this is not that the steam plant guy was willing to save light bulbs for me because he thought i’m cute, but that his buddy went to the trouble to scratch out the phrase “cute theatre** chick” with a ballpoint pen before bringing the box out for me.
bets on whether anyone asks me out before the last light bulb pickup? or maybe the scratching out of “cute theatre chick” was an editorial on the part of the second guy.
*by coincidence, last friday was the first time in two weeks of tech that i didn’t need to be dressed in grungy working-on-the-stage jeans and t-shirt, so i took advantage of that and the spell of warmish weather to wear a pretty new shirt. and actually wash and fix my hair, and put on some makeup. apparently it worked to my advantage. i don’t think a lot of women hang around at the steam plant, is my guess.
**i give the steam plant guys props for spelling theatre with an “re”