UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

Now that “The Tender Land” has been struck, the Barnett is getting ready for “Dancescapes,” our annual dance concert. I don’t have much to do with it, as Steve Chene (our TD) oversees the lighting students who will be working with the rep plot on their assigned pieces. The marley got rolled out yesterday, and here’s Steve talking with TAs Thad and Brandon about setting up the booms.

Meanwhile, TA Joe is training Intro student Mason on the board, as Mason will be the board operator for the concert.

In the shop, Emily and Emily (both in Intro) paint a wing flat black. Since the Barnett has a honking big apron (thank you Seventies architect) we need to place booms on the side stages (thank you Seventies architect) behind masking flats in order to get sidelight that far downstage.

I spent much of the afternoon in my office working on the section of “The Furies,” and figuring out how to better give Steve reasonably accurate measurements on all the angled platforms. I found the best way was to model it in Sketchup, and let Steve take measurements directly from the model.

Here’s the stack with a section plane down the center line, looking stage left.

With “The Tender Land” running, I’ve ramped up work on “The Furies,” getting a rough model put together for Angela (our director) to use in rehearsal. It will also help clarify much of what’s happening in pile-of-platform land. Here is the model set up for Delphi:

And here it is set up for Athens:

Since the budget is pretty tight on this one, we’re going for cheap yet effective. The platforming is intended to be all stock, the white strips are all white parachute silk we had in storage, Athena’s a flat paint and fabric hybrid, and all those shards will be broken up masonite scraps strung on manila cord. Fingers crossed.

Last night was first dress for the UW-Whitewater production of “The Tender Land,” which was also our first night with the full orchestra. Scenically, we’re in a good place — it’s down to details now. I spent some time this afternoon working on the windmill, and I must say I’m rather happy with how the blades turned out:

This gets attached to an old color wheel motor and placed atop the tower:

We had it in place for the evening’s run; in order not to become a spinning distraction, it rotates at the top of the show until Laurie’s entrance, and at the end of the show, after Laurie’s exit (the winds of change. . . ).

We also continued with clapboarding the house. Here are Bruce and Brendan working on that project:

Last night was the second technical rehearsal for the UW-Whitewater production of “The Tender Land.” While the stage crew was sweeping and mopping, I took a few photos of the the stage in its state of near completion (the cyc and scrim have yet to be stretched which is why they’re wrinkly upstage, there):

Yesterday afternoon the porch went up, roof pieces were attached, and window were installed. Today we’ll be attacking the clapboarding on the house, which is the last large project — other than the windmill.

Crates and barrels had finish painting done (don’t forget to re-establish the stave edges on the barrels or they end up very 2D).

And some tonal glazing was done on the shed and fence(broom included for scale).

Just before curtain, everyone settles into position. We have Jim Butchart (director), student assistant directors, student sound and electrics head, stage manager, light board op, and Steve Chene, exchanging his TD hat for his LD hat.

Finally, some photos from the run:

Last night was first tech for the UW-Whitewater’s production of “The Tender Land.” We’re still working on the set (which is what sometimes happens when the TD has to split time between being the TD and being the lighting designer and it all has to happen at the same time). The two larger things that need to get installed is the porch (posts and headers) and the split rail fence along the upstage walkway. Oh, and the clapboarding for the house. It’s all built, and I expect will get installed this afternoon. In fact, here’s Intro student Josiah cutting the last few holes in the fenceposts yesterday afternoon:

I finished the groundrow:

And here it is, installed behind the scrim:

In the evening, as we got ready to get rolling, here is a shot of the tech table, with board operator Jennifer with TD/LD Steve Chene beyond:

And stage manager Allison figuring out some cuing in her prompt book:

Finally, the actors do their vocal warmups at the edge of the pit, led by music director/conductor Bob Gehrenbeck:

Oh, and then of course, earlier in the day I started working up the revised groundplan for “The Furies,” and here it is on the drafting table, under my lists and fresh platfrom cut-outs which will be used for the next stab at a model of the pile of platforms. . .

Continuing progress on the UW-Whitewater production of Aaron Copland’s “The Tender Land.” The last few days have been busy. While Steve Chene (our TD and lighting designer for this show) is on stage focussing, I’ve been in the shop painting and supervising painting. The groundrow is my last big painting project, and yesterday I had students painting benches and crates and shed doors. The last construction bits included cutting holes for rails in fence posts and cutting strips of corrugated metal for the shed roof. Which I’ll have to paint tomorrow. . .

Here’s a shot of the stage at the end of the day. The cyc has been unbundled and is hanging to allow some of the wrinkles to fall out, though we will be stretching it (and probably misting it) later on. That piece of painted stone work up center is not part of the set; Steve was probably using that to stand in for the groundrow as he focussed.

Yesterday saw work on the final two portal flats for the upcoming UW-Whitewater production of “The Tender Land.” After this, of course, I will have to paint the groundrow. I thought I might be interesting to snap a photo of one of the flats at each step of the process.

First, here’s the palette of colors (I’ve just finishing stirring them at the start of the work session):

The other week, I based in shades of tan — lighter near the horizon line, and darker in the foreground — to help give a unified tonality to the whole piece, and to help create a sense of distance.

While it may or may not make sense from a painterly/fine art standpoint, it made sense for this project to base in the tree masses as the next step. The paint I’m using is pretty dilute scenic paint, so the approach is more watercolory than oil paintery; it’s really hard to lighten something back up once you’ve got paint down.

After the trees (mind you, you’ve got two flats going, so while one dries I work on the other. Back and forth, back and forth. . . ), I added the layers of ground. You can see the paint elevation on my handy little stand there. It’s covered in Saran Wrap to prevent splashed of paint from getting onto the original. This flat is the one on the far right of the elevation — it’s drawn in 1/2″ equals 1 foot scale.

Then I go back and start adding light and shade to my sylized tree and bush masses.

Now we’re heading into textures and detail. The plow lines and fence posts are also added.

Some more detail in the house and fence posts, some stylized stems and trunks, and some more lines of color to help create the plowed and planted fields. Those yellow dots on the bushes will become the centers of flowers.

Now is a good time to lay in the three sky colors, blending from darkest at the top to lightest at the bottom.

Barbed wire and the windmill. Also some flowers on the darker set of bushes.

This afternoon, clouds and done.

Yesterday afternoon production activities for the upcoming UW-Whitewater production of “The Tender Land.”

First, I finished up the fifth and sixth portal flats. . .

. . . as I was applying the final clouds and shading, students were readying them for hanging. Here’s Intro student James stapling up some of the flappy excess muslin around the edges. . .

. . . and TA Logan working with some Intro students on attaching the hanging irons.

In the Barnett, electrics work was wrapping up. The hang is done, and we’re about to move onto focus (in fact, we focused some units as part of that morning’s Intro to Tech class). Here’s TA Quinn and TA Joe at the tech table talking about some notes.

We also got the frames for the house (at least, the lower section) and shed up, so now the actors have doorways!

More updates from the UW-Whitewater theatre department as we continue production work on the upcoming opera, “The Tender Land.”

Steve, our TD, needed to leave early on Friday, so after he got everything rolling, he left TA Allison in charge of shop activities. Here is Allison working with Intro student Shelby on installing the painted planks of the shed porch.

You can see the 1st Electric behind them, and TA Quinn worked with other students on circuiting. Here’s Intro student Zach with Quinn working on the 2A Electric.

Here’s another group of students (I think that’s Bruce there in the black shirt, center) working upstage on the 2B and 3rd Electrics.

Over in the shop, painting continued. Here is Intro student James painting the planks and fascia for the house porch, with another student in back there priming things like the benches.

And I continued work on the fifth and sixth portal flats. At the end of the day, this one was almost done (except for clouds and barbed wire). . .

. . . and this one was getting close (clouds, house, windmill. . . ).

Yesterday’s progress on the upcoming UW Whitewater’s production of Aaron Copland’s opera “The Tender Land.” We’ve started hanging lights this week, and here we see TD and lighting designer Steve Chene explaining the applicable portions of the plot to a group of Introduction to Theatre students:

And here they are, a bit later, deep in the circuiting of the second electric:

Another major task for the day was to open the orchestra pit, partly to get the music director and conductor (Prof. Bob Gehrenbeck) into his performance location so the actors can get used to looking for him there, but also because the actors now need to get used to the fact that there is indeed this large hole downstage. Because the stage is never as large as it seems on paper, we’ve gone ahead and left in the two end plugs (in the points); my first task of the day was to paint those to match the rest of the floor.

After which, I went back to the second set of portal flats. Here’s one, complete and ready to go up. .

. . . and the other, just waiting on its clouds.

And up the flats go, while electrics work continues.