UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

As much as I hate to admit it, we were down to the wire on this one. It’s the first show in my six years at Whitewater where we had a fair amount that had to get done the day of opening — at least it was almost all scenic elements above the actor’s heads and didn’t have too much of an impact on the tech and dress rehearsals. Jayson Winslow, the student set designer, didn’t have a chance to cue in the candles before yesterday afternoon, but since his overall look was already solid and the candles served more as accent, again, not horrible.

At the beginning of shop, yesterday afternoon, finishing up the central gable of the bed/crypt structure. That’s TD Steve Chene and one of the Intro to Theatre students, Sean.

Students work on wiring the canldes, as well as painting the theatre floor black and numbering the seats.

And at the end of the afternoon, the peaks are all in place and the candles are all wired. The units with the candles rotate, revealing statues for the crypt scene.

Smoke check, with ASM Nick.

Then finally, the whole shebang, done.

This evening’s dress rehearsal:

The stage under work lights, as we begin setting up.

A bit of a closer view. There’s still a fair amount to be done on this end of the stage — before we got rolling, I finished filling the bookcase, and during rehearsal, painted the balustrade’s mate. I’m rather impressed that it really does look so greyscale.

In preset; the lighting designer is student Jayson Winslow. That black fabric is draped over the arm chair because even though I’d painted the back hours before, it was such a humid day by go it still hadn’t dried completely.

And finally, a couple moments from the run.

More progress, getting ready for last night’s first tech:

. . . completion of the full moon (gotta repaint the black surround, of course). . .

. . . getting hoses and pipes ready to vent the fog under the deck. . .

. . . for a successful fog check.

Steve Chene, our TD, continues to forge ahead on the gabled peaks for the crypt/bedroom structure. . .

. . . as I tackled carving out the statues that will flank the sarcophagus.

Finally, the doors are installed for use in last night’s first tech. The bookcase stage right has a swinging portion at the bottom for one of Dracula’s escapes. While we’re not as far along as we’d like to be (the price of ambition in the first slot of the season), everything needed for rehearsal was present, if not perfect. But then, tech rehearsals are voyages of discovery.

progress yesterday and today. . .

. . . the arches atop the study walls went up. That strip of cloth stapled to where the French doors will go is the stand-in bell pull. . .

. . . and today the second act sarcophagus lid got painted, as well as all the ‘wood’ trim for the study. . .

. . . the moon light box was built and painted. . .

. . . and wired. Just gotta paint the full moon on it now. . .

. . . while the last bit of trim for the overhead hanging arches was measured, cut, and attached. . .

. . . and the sofa was rebuilt, since it was just too old to handle our exuberant young actors.