Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1984 - 28

video display provides a calendar day,
and I or an assistant can type in the dates
as they come in by simply hopping back
and forth from one day to another.
A nice feature of TM is that a task,
once entered, need never be typed
again. TM permits me to re-enter that
task for different shows by simply going to a new calendar page and pressing
/MG. Then, it remains only for me to
change the show code letter, which can
be done with similar speed and almost
no typing.
Once the dates are in, to get list A,
above, I put a monthly calendar on the
screen (also nicely provided by TM),
simply press / P and indicate the time

period for which I want a total listing
(e.g., 5-11 will give me all targets from
1ay to November which will nicely
take care of the fall shows).
To get list B, I simply use the Category code I assigned to each show (e.g.,
M = Three Musketeers or F = A Funny

Thing Happened on the Way to the
Forum). TM then automatically restricts itself to printing consecutively
only targets coded with that letter.
To get list C, I enter into the keyboard an "account" designator which
I have also arbitrarily assigned to each
uppon area (e.g., ! for sets, " for costumes, etc.). TM then prints out consecutively only the target dates for that

TRS-80 Model III Light Plots
Using Profile 3 Plus
by Robert J. Thurston

The author has assumed that the reader will have some familiarity with the
Radio Shack software program "Profile III Plus." Documentation is available
fl'Om Radio Shack. Similar data management programs exist for several popular
computers and may be used for similar results. Inquiries about This application
of the program may be directed to Professor Thurston, Taylor Building, U C- G,
Greensboro, C 27412.
-eds.

During the 1983 four-show Summer
Repertory Theatre season at the University of orth Carolina at Greensboro, I utilized our TRS-80 Model III
microcomputer to generate a very facile
light "plot" capable of producing four
independent hook-ups in less than ten
minutes. The data management program utilized was the Profile III Plus'!)
by Radio Shack.
Profile III Plus enables the user to
specify various types of information
(fields) that can be arranged on the
screen on any convenient manner. Figure 1 indicates the format I used. Obviously, other production situations will
call for different formats but the basic
information remains similar.
Once the fields and screens have
been designed and recorded, crew
members enter the data for each instrument, I through 207 for example, rather than the usual practice of starting
with number one on each position. The
26

207 refers to the total number of instruments used. This makes the sorting
possible during the printing process.
For the past few years, I have been
using rubber stamp lighting symbols on
a master noor plan of the applicable
theatre. I rough out the hanging plot,
messy but to scale, with the stamped
symbols and all the appropriate data
and have the design assistant draft the
presentational plot. They merely trace
my in formation and make it look
pretty.
In this instance, the crew skipped
the drafting of the plot and took the information from my rough plot and entered it directly into the computer file.
The two people who entered the information took about the same amount of
time as if they had drafted the presentational plot.
There are several advantages to this
system: the Lighting Instrument Data
Sheet (Figure 2) was very easy to read

Theatre Design & Technology / USITT /Summer 1984

support area.
Space does not permit me to detail
many other graceful features of TM.
I will just leave one final hint: if your
emphasis is upon bookkeeping rather
than date- keeping, TM has addition /
subtraction with the possibility, for any
time period up to a year, of printing out
individual expenditures or totalling by
accounts (9), categories (26), priorities
(4), and key-words (infinite!).
0

George Gunkle is Director of Theatre at
Cali fornia State University, onhridge.

and understand by the crew during the
put-in; errors in hanging were nonexistent since there was no need to use
scale rules, or scales on the plot, or misinterpret lighting symbols; subsequent
changes of instrument data were merely
edited into the computer files; a new
printout was generated after changes
were made assuring an accurate and
clear Lighting Instrument Data Sheet.
The Lighting Instrument Data Sheet
indicates the dimmer, color, and focus
for each instrument for each of the four
shows. This was extremely handy during the daily regelling and refocusing
sessions. I utilized three designers for
the four shows and it was important to
allow us the freedom to assign control
channels as we desired. This nexibility
also allowed one of the designers to
focus another designer's plot after said
designer had departed for the season.
The hook-ups (Figure 3) were
printed by allowing the computer program to sort by dimmer number for the
applicable show. A fresh, accurate,
easy-to-read hook-up could be printed
in less than two minutes. I don't think
I'll ever do another hook-up by hand!
This method assumes the paperwork for a lighting design serves the
purpose of transmitting the designer's
ideas and wishes to the crew for a realized production. Since the format is
a eries of charts, it is not very valuable
for the student designer wi hing to
graphically explain a design for a production. I will continue to instruct student designer to know the traditional
means of drafting a plot, a section, and
continued on page 33 ...

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