Lights Out at Wild West Show

The lighting person at Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (La Legende de Buffalo Bill), Disney Village, Disneyland Paris France, had his hands full during both of tonight's shows. The show has around 200 lighting set-ups programmed into its automated, computer-controlled lighting console, which has never failed in almost 17 years. Tonight, however, it failed, making the lighting person have to work with a higher level of awareness and expertise than is normally the case. Wait, that's an understatement. The console's failure struck panic and fear into the hearts of the stage manager and technical team, almost resulting in the show's closure. OK, maybe that's a slight overstatement, but only slight. The show went on, but tonights lights were manipulated entirely by hand and memory judgement of the technical team, making for a much less dynamic-looking show. One difference I noted in particular was while exiting downstage into total darkness. Neither I nor my horse could even see where the exit door was, so rather than gallop offstage we walked, sensing our way forward.