Archive for July, 2014

Master Class

Posted in Lighting Design on July 28th, 2014 by Eric Appleton

Yesterday, I drove in for the designer’s run of “Master Class.” Milwaukee Chamber Theatre is housed in Milwaukee’s Broadway Theatre Center, along with Skylight Opera and Renaissance Theatreworks.

It is, of course, an Equity show, so no photos of the rehearsal itself (which would also be rather distracting). Instead, on a break, here’s director James Zager (on the right) speaking with Chris, our sound and projections designer.

And here’s our stage manager, Judy Martel, cuing up sounds cues the old fashioned way.

Today, the ME begins to hang the plot — I’ll be returning on Friday for focus and cuing writing over that evening’s onstage run.

Master Class

Posted in Drawings, Lighting Design on July 16th, 2014 by Eric Appleton

Further step by step photos of the plot for “Master Class” in progress:

Master Class

Posted in Drawings, Lighting Design on July 16th, 2014 by Eric Appleton

Drafting the overstage plate for “Master Class.”

Master Class

Posted in Lighting Design on July 15th, 2014 by Eric Appleton

The rough plot of “Master Class,” mostly laid out. Even if a student intends to draft the final plot with a computer drafting program, I am adamant that they lay it out on paper first. I, for one, don’t understand how you can lay out your plot without looking at the entirety of the space in a reasonable scale. It’s not click and drop, but looking at systems and their relationships to the space as a whole (architecture and scenery) and being able to see the whole thing at once as revisions occur.

Once the rough plot is finished, time to start drafting the over stage plate. There’s the rough plot, pinned to the wall.

Finally, some more old person grumbling. Sure, you can get the plans of the theatre as a PDF or Vectorworks file. But if you don’t have a printer of the correct size, or the PDF isn’t scaled right, or the set designer gives you hand drafting, you end up with paper everywhere as you piece it all together.

Muskie Love and Master Class

Posted in Drawings, Lighting Design, Scenic Design, Scenic Painting on July 15th, 2014 by Eric Appleton

It’s final dress for “Muskie Love” tonight. Here are the renderings and the groundplan pinned to the hallway bulletin board outside the theatre. When I started at Whitewater, I discovered that most of the Intro students doing their shop hours really didn’t have a sense of what the final product was to be, so I started hanging the drawings up outside our TD’s office so if they were at least interested, they could go take a look.

A view of the stage from one end. . .

. . . and the view from the other.

Roy’s bait shop sign. Since I’m not painting this summer in an attempt to let my hands have a break from the carpal tunnel, all the painting was done by students (and our TD, Steve) without my immediate supervision. I think they did a pretty solid job of it (though I apparently forget to tell them to age the fish as they did the letters — my fault, since they were working off a photo for that).

Finally, I’ve got “Master Class” on the drafting table. This is a lighting design for an August production at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. I have to get the plot and hookup finished and sent off no later than Thursday night.

Muskie Love

Posted in General Production, Scenic Design, Scenic Painting on July 9th, 2014 by Eric Appleton

The build for “Muskie Love” continues:

Here’s the completed boat that will be pushed around via foot power. . .

Kat works on the muskie part of the Roy’s bait shop sign. . .

. . . while Anastasia works on the lettering.