UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

More adventures here at Write Now! I spent yesterday afternoon and evening revising, and today we read through the revised script. I actually caused the office to run out of peach paper because of the new pages.

Here we are, breaking up after today’s rehearsal. A lovely group of actors who dived right in, asked a lot of interesting questions, and just generally attacked the whole thing with great gusto.

Afterwards, we had a meet and greet with the staff of the Indiana Rep, and then Talleri (our team’s dramaturg) and Dwayne (our team’s director — who was just named artistic director of Childsplay in the coming year!) and I got some food and went over notes.

Now I’m back at the hotel, and am about to crank out a fresh draft for tomorrow!

My department chair was kind enough to let me go to Indianapolis to attend the Write Now! workshop and conference, so here I am. We’ve had readings of all four plays now, and my director and dramaturg have sat down with me and I now have a long list of things to consider as I move forward with revisions to “Three Excellent Cows.”

Meanwhile, between readings and lunch today (tacos!) we were given a tour of the Indiana Rep’s space. It’s a converted 1920’s movie palace that was built in Spanish Moor style. Here we are, all gawking at the wonderfully over-the-top lobby:

And then continuing backstage where the original proscenium decoration has been preserved:

Yes, those are daschunds holding up that urn. And that’s one of the most exciting fly rails I’ve yet run across:

Last night was the first tech rehearsal for the UW-Whitewater production of “The Furies.” It went pretty well; things were discovered, things were addressed, lists were made. Here are a few photos:

A preliminary preset (lighting design by student Logan Bydalek):

The Furies take the stage:

Athena begins the trial of Orestes:

The Furies object to the results of the trial:

As we head into first tech for “The Furies” tonight, here’s a look back at some of what happened yesterday in shop!

First, Here’s TA Joe putting wheels on Athena. . .

. . . who looked like this at the start of shop:

. . . and this at the end of shop:

I also started laying out the mortar work on the stage floor. The snake-like route is the path Clytemenstra follows.

And a picture of the stage as a whole, with TD Steve Chene working with some students on the cover for the stairway to the underworld.

We’re days away from the first tech of “The Furies” here at the UW-Whitewater. Actually, we have dry tech this afternoon, and first tech Thursday evening. We’re in pretty decent shape, I think.

Yesterday afternoon the shard curtains, now complete, were moved into position. . .

. . . and here’s Intro student Kim way upstage there working on the short traveller track for the curtains that close off the upstage space. . .

. . . and then an action shot of TA Thad and Intro student Mason tying blacks onto the traveller.

The Navelstone platform proved a bit on the large side, we we ended up trimming it down and adding some extra platforming way upstage to allow for better movement and storage. Here’s Kim again, with TA Bruce and Braden working on that:

Meanwhile, I was in the shop working on the 15 foot tall Athena:

We have a production meeting for this summer’s “Arrangement for Murder, No. 2” so here’s an image of the set as it currently stands. The director likes it, though I haven’t yet passed it by our technical director (though I don’t see any issues from his end), and I do still need to put in the overhead lighting fixture.

Here are pictures from yesterday’s work on “The Furies.” First, the hanging of the shards continues. getting started:

And moving along:

Here’s TA Thad working on the rolling stairs which will enable to jurors to get up to their platforms:

And Intro to Tech students Teresa and Josiah painting some scrim scraps black to help mask the lighting instruments (audience blinders) tucked underneath the platforming:

Athena’s been cut out, and waits to be framed. There will be a doorway through her lower half, covered with fabric (her skirts), through which the actor playing Athena will emerge.

I finally got the danged snake onto the Navelstone:

And got it painted. Done.

Getting closer to tech week for the UW-Whitewater production of “The Furies.” Our TD, Steve, was out this afternoon, but he left plenty of assignments for the students to work on. With the lights hung (student lighting designer Logan Bydalek), circuiting is in full swing. Here’s TA Bruce working with Intro student Jenna on one of the electrics.

At the same time, shard stringing was happening, with a group on either side of the stage measuring, sliding, and gluing. Here’s Allison (another Intro student) and one of the Bunbury twins (sorry once again) on stage left. . .

. . . and Intro students Liliana and Joe working with TA Allison on stage right.

While I’m ducking into the Barnett every so often to check on things, I busied myself in the shop cleaning up the image of Athena:

— and filling the new snake. My old version was just not flexible enough, so I asked Tracey Lyons, our costume shop supervisor, if she could make me a long tube. She even made it out of a more stretchy material. Here it is, filled, with the head attached and glue drying.

Updates on the UW-Whitewater’s upcoming production of “The Furies.” Here’s the stage in the Barnett. The platforming is all in place, though there is facing and stone paintwork to be done. The lights are hung and waiting to be circuited, and all the shard curtains strings have been tied to eyehooks on battens and will start getting their shards today.

Speaking of shard curtains, here’s Braden tying those pieces of twine to the eyehooks. . .

. . . and Mason and Bruce doing a little untangling. We decided that each string will be loaded with the proper number of shards, tied off at the bottom, and the placement for each shard measured from the top, raising the batten as we progress. The tedium continues. . .

This is a picture of the path that Clytemnestra takes around the stage, pushed on her wagon. I will be somehow incorporating this path into the stone work.

The navelstone is, well, sort of done. The leaves have been attached and painted.

Here’s the rolling base for the navelstone, with steps for Hermes.

I say sort of because the snake has to be completed and attached. I discovered that my approach of wrapping ethafoam in muslin will not work — it’s just not flexible enough. I have asked our costume shop supervisor if she’ll sew me a very long tube, which I will then fill with. . . something cheap and available.

Here’s props manager Allson working on arrow ends for Apollo’s quiver:

Finally, work has begun on our giant Athena. Makenzie, Jennifer, and Bruce projected and traced the image, and are here seen to begin cleaning up their tracing, straightening and smoothing lines before it gets cut out.

Continuing work on the upcoming UW-Whitewater production of “The Furies”!

First, a visit to the costume shop, where we find the masks of the Furies themselves. . .

. . . and student Amy (who is also a nationally ranked champion swimmer!) working on the noise rattling juju bracelets. . .

. . . while up in the Barnett, light hang begins. Here’s TD Steve Chene working with two students from the Intro to Tech class (Josiah, and it looks like Shelby standing behind him) on the cyc electric. Student Logan Bydalek is designing the lighting for the show.

Here’s Steve in the shop working with TA Quinn and Intro student Joe on the short flight of stairs that will be set into the navelstone, allowing Hermes to ascend and pour water over Orestes.

Elsewhere in the shop, Logan works with Intro students Brandon and Joe on running some facing through the table saw.

In the hallway, Intro students Jennifer and Teresa cut the lengths of twine that will be used to string up the shards.

I continued work on the navelstone. Here’s the front half of the snake that twines around the stone. . .

. . . and went ahead and painted the stone itself. . .

. . . . only to realize I hadn’t put the leaves around the base. Looks like I will be doing some repainting today!

And while all this is going on, I’m also working on the set for the summer production of “Arrangement for Murder, No. 2.” Here’s where I am with the Sketchup model, after our production meeting conversation the other day:

It’s the end of the semester and we’ve got multiple shows in progress at the UW-Whitewater. Tech for “The Furies” draws closer, and last night the actors were able to rehearse in the Barnett on the platforming.

This picture is from two days ago, after Angela (the director) came up after the production meeting to take a look at it. She, Steve and I talked about a couple of the higher stack platforms and made a couple of adjustments.

I’ve continued to work on Apollo’s Navelstone. In this picture, I finally have the shape carved out of the block of foam.

And here it is yesterday afternoon after being slathered with Dan Katula’s recipe of Weld-Bond, paint, and toilet paper. It dried like concrete, which is nice, but on the other hand, a day later, there are still places where it’s not dry at all. So instead of doing some sanding and painting, I spent an hour working on the snake.

I think I came up with one of the most tedious scenic projects ever in the shard curtains. They may all be painted, but now each one needs a hole, after which they will be meticulously threaded onto heavy twine.

Yesterday we had our first production meeting for this summer’s “Suds.” I had checked in with the director, Skip Grover, on my direction, so I went ahead and presented a pretty much complete set at the meeting. Though I did forget to include the piano.

And even though “Arrangment for Murder, No. 2” is the first of the summer shows, I haven’t made as much progress on it as I have with “Suds.” Still, we have the first production meeting for that show later today, and I do have some preliminary thoughts to share.