La Musica Lirica
A little more catching up on the experience at La Musica Lirica, in Novafeltria, Italy.
This is the scene shop, in the school, and even though construction is getting under way (scenic designer and technical director: Renee Suprenant), this is pretty much what it looked like when we arrived.
This is the costume shop, also in the school. That’s Renee in the foreground, and costume designer Stephanie Henderson back there behind the water bottle and laptop.
Scenic interns in the foyer, covering flats with found material. Muslin was impossible to locate on such a short time frame and we were lucky to find a cache of interesting upholstery fabrics in a corner in the shop.
Since the theatre did not have a fly system, there were no stageweights or sandbags to be had. Since the stage floors in all the indoor venues were raked, and the outdoor venues were, well, outdoors, we ended up buying sand and using some of the found fabric to make sandbags. Here’s the propsmaster and the scenic painting intern making the most beautiful sandbags ever.
One of our first tour dates was in Sant’ Agata Square in San Marino. Renee, Antonio, and I drove up to check out the plaza and find out what facilities were available for us. The screen is where the stage was to be constructed, and behind us, not in the photo, is the quite lovely theatre space where the dressing rooms were located.
We also drove to the town of Russi, to check out their space.
This is half of the front of house lighting available in Russi.
Note the steep rake. All the linesets were suspended by cotton line. No weights again.
Our first event was a concert of assorted show tunes and opera bits in the Castel Sismondo in Rimini. Renee, the set designer, was mistakenly noted as the director of The Marriage of Figaro — really Candace Evans.
The stage in the courtyard at the castle in Rimini. We would come back to this venue a number of times in the next few weeks.