UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

Last week UW-Whitewater hosted the Wisconsin High School Theatre Festival. Three days, about 4000 high school students from all over the state presenting about 40 one acts, accompanied by a full program of workshops. Kudos to our department chair, Marshall Anderson, for organizing such a smooth running event!

Last night was our second dress of “Radium Girls.” Here is student lighting designer Joe Berman, light board operator Emily, and student sound desiger Mason Ronan getting ready.

The set under worklights. Spoiler: the pictures upstage are only revealed in the last moments of the play (nor are they completed, yet).

Student stage manager Allison Lozar settling in just before we get rolling:

Joe’s preset:

The girls chatting while applying radium paint to watch dials:

“Radium Girls” heads into focus today, so I’m catching up with grading and working on “Sweeney Todd.” Here’s a page full of doodles on the drafting table:

I also wandered into the costume shop during the make-up class. They’re working on latex prosthetics today, and here’s Tracey Lyon’s class, mid-project;

Activity continues on the department’s production of “Radium Girls.” New things this week include the beginning of the light hang. The lighting is being designed by student Joe Berman, and TA Quinn is the ME on this show. Here is Quinn looking at Joe’s plot:

Intro to Theatre students Brent, Dustin, and Jane hang the first light on the second electric:

Then a bit later, after more of the position has been hung, and Jane consults the plot:

In the shop, base painting furniture pieces continues:

Tomorrow, we’re going to start in on painting the deck.

Yesterday, Milwaukee scenic and costume designer, as well as puppet designer and builder, Brandon Kirkham visited our Intro to Design class and brought a bunch of stuff to share, including his model and research from the production of “Boeing Boeing” we worked on together last summer. Here he is talking to the students:

He was so inspiring one of the students is now considering shifting her BFA emphasis to scenic design. Thank you, Brandon!

This morning the second half of the puppet workshop with Dan Katula takes place. Here the students pose with the puppets they worked on last week:

And Dan then gets the session rolling. Today will be less about fabrication than about manipulating the puppets.

And finally, some boring photos. “Radium Girls” is deep into rehearsal, and since the set is fairly stripped down and simplified (both to serve the play, and to allow us to take it apart, store it, and then put it back together while the Wisconsin High School Theatre Festival descends upon us in two weeks), I’m actually getting to work on “Sweeney Todd.” We’ll start the paintwork of “Radium Girls” next week; everything in the photos is only base coated.

The rolling factory table, multi-purpose table, and reclining bench:

More benches:

And the platforming: