Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men, the film night organised by Melaleuca Refugee Centre and co-sponsored by Brown's Mart on Friday (15 June), was a huge success not only as a fund-raiser but as a community arts event. Andrish and I noted that most of the more than 120 persons who attended were a different and new audience for Brown's Mart, and that this was an audience that we definitely wish to have more and more. This was an audience similar to the ones we had at the Human Rights Day Celebration in December and International Women's Day in March; those events were also fruits of our partnership with Melaleuca Refugee Centre, as was the film night. We should have more nights like this, and more people from these sectors, at Brown's Mart. We had wanted this as part of Brown's Mart's reivention; looks like we're on the right path.
Also, the gig reminded me yet again of how hard theatre techs work.
As we had two big events that day (the other being the Fringe launch), we again suffered a tech shortage. So I was tech for the film night. I re-attached the scrim on the curtain rails; we'd be using that as the projection screen -- sweaty, scary business, tying that scrim while perched on a chair on the balcony (I'm a bit scared of heights). Then had to set up the data projector and laptop to play the DVD.
I had a problem; the sound desk was some metres away from where the projector had to sit; I either had to find a long audio cable or a long video cable -- not as easy to do as we are in the process of organising our gear (a way of saying I didn't really know where things were). After a bit of running around, I found two long video cables; relieved, I ran to the projector and the laptop -- the laptop did not have the needed S-video port for the cable. Remembered Andrish was there so I borrowed his laptop which did have the needed port.
It worked. The film was 50 minutes long; stayed in the control room the whole time, wishing nothing would break. Nothing did, so after the film I happily packed away stuff and locked up the Theatre.
We really need a dedicated projector in there, and maybe a DVD player too. And more techs in Darwin. The wish list grows.