In the last 6 days I have put 45hrs in to building and rehearsing the Indianapolis Opera Company's production of Hansel and Gretel. http://www.indyopera.org/Pages/default.aspx Tonight is opening night! My job is to man the fly rail with 7 other stagehands. 
The setting of the show changes frequently. This is accomplished in 3 ways. [1] Giant set pieces are either rolled on or off the visible stage area. Sometimes the same piece is turned around to reveal a different side. [2] Changes in lighting effect the setting of the stage. On Saturday I was part of the crew that hung over 150,000 watts worth of lights. Some of them are 2000 watts in one light alone. [3] Dozens of large tapestries, called DROPS, hanging on pipes can be flown in or out. Some are the full width of the stage while others may be arched to allow sets and movement to pass under them. We even have two pipes each with a Witch hanging on it that once we fly it in, a carpenter has to grab the traveler-rope and pull on it to make the witch travel from stage left to stage right. This is repeated upstage a while later as she returns in the opposite direction. Any way... That's why you haven't seen me for a while. I've still been playing with Drupal, Joomla, Xcart, SOAP, PHP, etc.... just at crazy, odd hours. After tonight's show we have our last show Sunday then come back Monday to pack it all up into 3 semis. I'd rather be running a live show than loading a semi full of sets, lights, wardrobe, etc... Being a stagehand isn't the most glorious gig in the world... but I dig it! - dv ... My next Blog will be technical... I promise....