June 2, 2011

We're happy to say that it's been a very busy Spring here at Criterion:

In March we worked with Resolution Productions on the installation of the show White Noise that opened April 9 at the Royal George Theatre. Our experience with the Royal George dates back seventeen years and this was, by far, the largest and most technically complex show to open at the George since Angels in America began their first national tour there in 1994.

We had to pass up the fruits of our labor on opening night because during Previews week we were brought on by Chicago Scenic Studios to help manage the We Are One rally on Daley Plaza, April 10th. With our experience from years of working on the Christkindlmarket Chicago on the Plaza, we were able to maneuver the event through the normally months-long permitting process in a matter of days. We also generated the layout for the event, oversaw the execution and stage managed the show. The event was an enormous success drawing approximately 10,000 participants in a lively but peaceful rally.

After several weeks of planning and prep for the summer festivals, we were brought in by Chicago Scenic to coordinate the round-the-clock loading dock operations for the "Surprise Oprah! A Farewell Spectacular" show at the United Center with only 1 week of prep time. This was more than a little complicated. Not only were we were tasked with keeping the dock moving 24 hours a day for the Oprah Show but also seamlessly integrating with the regular facility operations and deliveries which were in full-swing with the playoff schedule. Keeping the dock from becoming the bottleneck in the process was a very real hazard with such a large production, such a compressed timeline and so many variables.

The date for load-in could not be set for almost a week as it was entirely dependent on the Bulls playoff schedule. Every playoff game after Tuesday of that week could have triggered the load-in process and a complete revamp of the schedule. Ultimately, the full load-in process did not begin until 12:01 AM Monday, May 16th and the show had to be ready for rehearsals at 8:00 PM that same evening.

During the Monday load-in, the dock operated so efficiently that the project lead informed us that we had to temporarily stop unloading trucks - there was nowhere to put the materials.

Once the taping was over on Tuesday night, the load out began and the project had to be completely out of the central part of the facility by 9 AM Wednesday morning for a Visiting Team practice. The concensus expectation was that while this could likely be achieved, the result would be that the dock would be loading trucks until roughly 4:00 PM Wednesday afternoon.

We loaded 26 trucks in 10 hours. All dock operations ceased just before 11:00 AM, there was nothing left to load and the crew call ended 5 hours early, generating enormous savings in crew costs.

As we were leaving Wednesday morning we received high praise from one of the two heads of Security at the facility, "You can come back and load a show anytime you like."

Our thanks go out to world-class facility staff at the United Center that made us feel welcome and right at home.

We're looking forwards to a great Summer festival season! Check out our Current Projects page for the list of events we're working on this Summer.