UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

Construction continues on “Twelfth Night,” (student scenic designer Megan Grove) and not only are platforms are starting to go into place, but the light hang has begun. We have a guest LD for this show: Noele Stollmack.

Here’s Michelle (who is also the SM for the production) consulting the plot with a practicum student:

In the shop, framing the big hexagonal platform wraps up:

And a bit later, Kory finishes fastening down the lid to the hex platform (though I think Kory’s lower back will not be pleased. . .):

A bit later, in the theatre, Abby works on framing up the groundrow of mountains:

While Mary measures and cuts lumber for the next groundrow pieces:

In other news, I’ve got a rough preliminary model of the Addams Family Musical put together. The director (Bruce Cohen) and the choreographer (Piper Hayes) have both taken a took at it, said yes, so I’m now working up a draft of the groundplan and figuring out all the bits and pieces that will be needed for the various scenes.

“Resort 76” had a successful run; two high school matinees as well as an extra weekend matinee brought us three more performances than our normal schedule does. It’s been struck, the scaffolding returned, and all the bits and pieces are waiting until we hear whether the production is to be invited to the January KCACTF Region 3 festival.

So now it’s time to turn to “Twelfth Night.” Senior Megan Grove is designing the scenery. Below are her groundplan and an elevation of the Sketchup model:

Megan has chosen to draft in AutoCAD, which means she’s been working with our TD, Ruth, on learning that program.

In the shop, platforms are getting legged up. Here’s Intro student Savannah working with KG:

And then Megan herself framing up a triangular platform:

I get to spend some time in my office working on “The Addams Family Musical.” We’ve discussed the option of having the orchestra on stage, but since there’s a lot of percussion (as well as 16-18 musicians) it looks like they’ll have to be in the pit; this means we lose the option of having a stairway into the trap room. Ah well. We also toyed with the idea of smart caster rotating wagons:

But Bruce Cohen, the director, decided he wasn’t too keen on that and wished to go back to platformed levels. In Intro to Design the other day, one of the students brought up periaktoi as a method to alter a stage environment. Today I thought, hey, periaktoi! We get some movement, we can shift from interior to exterior to park to graveyard with relative simplicity. . . so I worked up a version with platforming and periaktoi:

I ran it past Bruce and our choreographer, Piper, and they both said to run with it.

Onward!

With the swift move from one show to the next, I just noticed that I did not post any of my final dress photos of Theatre Gigante’s “The Beggar’s Opera,” (for which I designed lighting). It closes this Saturday evening.

Here are a couple highlights:

Macheath introduces himself:.

Explaining the concept of the ‘tranche’ to the cast members:

Mrs. Peachum sings:

Hedge fund managers carousing in the tavern:

Jenny Diver is not putting up with it:

“Resort 76” opened Monday night. Since we don’t usually open Monday night — rather, opening is normally the Tuesday morning student matinee — I thought I’d be able to go back and take more production photos Monday night. Sigh. At least we were indeed done Sunday night. . .

With the wrap around set (which one of my Intro to Theatre students said was quite effective in immersing the viewer in the environment — yay!) it’s difficult to get photos which include the complete vista.

So instead, here are three photos under work light that show the three directions of the space — south, west, and north.

You’d think that using scaffolding would make construction a bit easier, but it does not. No, it does not.

On to the next!

Second to last dress rehearsal of Shimon Wencelberg’s “Resort 76” last night. Here are a couple of photos from the evening. despite my fears earlier in the week, we’re heading into final dress with only a few set detail notes to finish; student LDs Abby and Nick have done a really solid job with lighting and also have an expected number of cuing notes to accomplish this afternoon.

Herr Krause listens to stories of America:

The resolution to be a father, after all and in spite of:

But the inevitable is how it ends:

Opening tomorrow morning. Production meeting for “Twelfth Night” this afternoon. Meetings about “The Addams Family” musical later this week!

We are in the midst of technical rehearsals for Shimon Wincelberg’s “Resort 76.” Here are a few photos from the evening of the first dress rehearsal.

First, a view from behind the tech table as we wait to begin, with the set under worklights:

The director, Bruce Cohen, wanted a very industrial look to the space, and wanted to use scaffold to create this look. One of my challenges was to not only figure out what this might look like, but then to determine what pieces of scaffold would be needed (as well as what style of scaffold would be best) and then put together an order for all the bits and pieces required. We’ve wrapped the the action around three sides of the theatre (kind of a reverse thrust) to surround the audience with the environment — Bruce is very interested in immersive theatre experiences.

Here’s a pic of the character Krause, standing on the ‘balcony;’

And then a view off toward house left. That’s our publicity/marketing director Audra Lange taking publicity shots down there:

Monday night will be final dress, with our Tuesday morning matinee being opening. Then it’s on to “Twelfth Night”. . . .

Tech week begins, and we’re a bit behind. Mind you, it is only the fourth week of classes. . .

The scaffolding is largely up; here’s a view toward the southwest corner of the theatre:

I’m painting what is built. Here are the two side flats for the factory door entrance, completed and waiting for the factory door to be finished:

Yesterday was dry tech, so here’s the production team at the tech table, writing light cues, working through sound, etcetera. We’ve got student co-LDs Abby and Nick, student SM Alex Carey, faculty sound designer (collaborating from the Music Dept) Jeff Herriot, and student sound board op KC. That’s director Bruce Cohen sitting to the rear, there.

This morning, I snuck down bright and early and got most of the floor painted so it’d be dry by the time shop starts up this afternoon. Now to prep for Intro to Theatre’s quick and dirty history session — we’re going to race from the end of the Romans toward the Elizabethans!