UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

Almost there! Final tech is tonight!

Here’s Lilliana reaching the home stretch on the painting:

While Shelby and Nathan insert the prison side into the rotating frame that the painting will share:

In the theatre, Quinn and Katie work on setting up the seats:

And Alex finishes giving the theatre floor a coat of gloss black:

Finally, since we’re all waiting for Lilliana to finish, everyone hangs out, watches, and cheers her on:

First tech for “Poe Xs Two” is here! Alex, the sound designer, getting things ready in the booth:

The stage, while waiting for things to get rolling:

In between acts, director Angela gives notes to Ethan, while Jon waits patiently at the light board.

Lilliana, expressing her feelings after an afternoon of working on wild swirls of fabric:

For me, it’s a slow day. I’ve finished twiddling with props, and am pretty much here to make sure that Lilliana is on track with her painting and to help out with any snags during dry tech.

Here’s Nathan focusing a light for lighting designer Quinn:

And then Quinn at the board writing cues while stage manager Abrya walks the stage for him:

In the shop, Lilliana forges ahead with all the swirling fabric in the painting. Daunting, but she’s tackling it well — especially for her first time trying to paint a bunch of swirling fabric.

We have dry tech for “Poe Xs 2” this afternoon. I took Thursday off, as the only painting left to do was the Renaissance painting that Lilliana was working on. Today we’ll tackle the fabric and final elements together. Here’s where she was on Wednesday morning:

Since she wasn’t in to work on it Wednesday morning, I went ahead and painted the paneling at the top and bottom the flat:

I also aged some paper for the “Black Cat” half of the show:

At the start of Wednesday morning, all four central flip panels were up:

Here’s Alex and Nathan trimming the excess muslin off one of the side panels:

And then Katie and Nathan installing the panel in its frame:

Other projects included finishing up the hanging and circuiting (since Quinn, the LD would start focus on Thursday):

And dismantling the risers in order to set them in their new arrangement. Nathan’s under there somewhere.

A quiet morning in the shop. Alex and Nathan continue hanging and circuiting. Here’s Nathan checking his music lists while following the plot:

And Alex contemplates some circuiting:

After a bit, it’s time to paint the stage perimeter with gloss black:

I continued working on the St. Mark’s lion flat. I plan to finish it after lunch.

Into the final stretch!

Lilliana has begun to work up the large painting for act one:

Some more light hang occurs:

The pipe arrives!

Pipe is inserted into the flippy panels:

Nathan enjoys using the mallet:

Lilliana forges on ahead with the large painting:

The facing panel for the act one side of the flippy panel is attached:

And the act two side:

Up it goes!

A bit later, three are up!

I work on the prison door flat:

And the St. Mark’s lion flat:

Further work on the summer shows! Much of the construction is done — though the flippy panels will need to be installed — and emphasis has shifted to painting for a while.

Here’s my continuing project, the tracery for “Poe x2” act on:

Meanwhile, Alex and Nathan re-establish the boundaries of the painted sections of the stage floor. . .

. . . so Alex can lay in a base coat before painting the borders to match the facing.

Shelby seals the nosing:

And Lilliana traces out the painting that will adorn the stage right panel:

Work continues on the Summeround shows!

I finished two of the tracery panels for the first act of “Poe Xs” yesterday. Here’s one of them:

And this morning finished basing the prison panels for the second act of Poe:

The interior frames for the flippy panels are all done:

So, the exposed sides needed to get painted before they got installed. Here’s Nathan, glaring balefully at the camera:

And TD Katie with Alex:

They also started pulling lighting units from the Barnett Theatre. Some units need to stay in the air for Theatre Camp, so Alex made some quick notes on the stage floor to help them remember what needed to remain:

The construction of the flippy panels is in full swing, and I’ve started painting the central set for the first half of “Poe Xs 2.” First though, here’s a pic of the deck, sealed:

And the facing, sealed:

Base color of the central panels:

Since the walls will have painted inset panels and tracery, one of my projects this morning was to create a stencil for the tracery:

And then shade in the appropriate sections so we have a guide once we move to the actual painting:

And here is the intrepid team assembling the framework for the panels. Summer TD Katie working with Nathan on one of the 4′ wide ones:

Lilliana and Nathan discussing a drawing. Or life. Perhaps Beyonce.

Alex enjoys using the drill press:

And of course, happy technicians make for a happy shop. . .

Construction has begun on this summer’s shows — both “Poe Xs 2” and “Rounding Third” will use the same platform arrangement, and rotating walls will have replaceable panels for each show. Something very new this summer is the all student tech staff, including student technical director. Katie has been leading the others in getting things built, and here’s a photo of the platforming in place from the middle of last week: