UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

As focus continues in the Barnett (that’s student lighting designer Joe Berman over there to the left), working on scenery continues in the shop. Here’s student scenic designer Thad Kraus stopping for an overview of the Treegrass island flat.

As Intro student Matthew installs casters on the bottom of the flats.

And then, a bit later, Thad experiments with the shading of the dragon eggs on the wing masking flats.

Painting continues on “Nate the Dragon.” Here are two photos of student scenic designer Thad Kraus painting in the sky:

And this is where we left off at the end of shop today. There is still some work to be done on the mountains, and I’ve sent Thad back to do more research on water, since the image he adapted this piece from had some rather odd water.

Meanwhile, props artisan Allison Lozar works on dragon eggs.

TA Quinn works with two students on attaching jacks to the back of the bushes.

In the Barnett Theatre, student lighting designer Joe Berman focusses, using stand-in flats for scenery.

And finally, Steve, our TD, shows students how to mix a five gallon bucket of paint.

“Come Back” has been struck and next week we head into tech for our children’s production, “Nate the Dragon.” The scenic design is by student Thad Kraus, who is new to scenic design.

Here’s Thad considering a color chart in order to figure out how he will mix colors to match his image.

At the start of Wednesday’s shop session, this flat was at this point. . .

By the end of the day, we were here. It may not look like much change from a distance, but a lot was done.

At the same time, the masking/framing flats were getting base colors.

I haven’t posted progress photos lately, as I’ve been focusing on making progress on the set for the UW-Whitewater’s production of “Come Back.” We had our final dress rehearsal last night, so here are a few photos to take us through the past several days.

Here’s the top of the ramp on the scene shop floor. I’ve just finished painting it. Meanwhile, in the background, TD Steve Chene talks to students about the rolling desk unit they’re working on.

In the Barnett theatre, the large flats are laid out for painting. Here a couple of the Intro to Theatre students paint the cerulean flats while I start working on clouds.

Clouds. And More clouds.

The installation of the tree flats commences. The wheelchair off to the side is a piece from the show, and is on stage to ensure that there’s enough space between the flats to get it on and off. You can also see work on the ramp happening.

More progress on the tree flats. I think that’s Allison back there holding it in place while it’s tacked into place.

The finished set, under worklights.

Preset. The lighting was designed by student Jayson Winslow.

Scene from final dress rehearsal. Sky (played by Colton Larson) sits in his friend’s Erin’s wheelchair and mourns his death.

Painting begins today for “Come Back.’ Here are a fair number of tree flats, laid out in the Barnett, having been painted with their base sky blue. That’s Katie back there painting the edges and the edges of the holes.

In the shop, the last tree is cut out.

In the Hicklin, TD Steve oversees the assembly of the risers.

While Allison and Connor work on the ends of the deck planking.

Light hang for “Come Back” begins today (designed by student Jayson Winslow). Here is the lighting crew contemplating something, with TA Thad atop the ladder.

It turns out it takes three electricians to move one of our new, heavier speakers.

Here are the deck pieces, sitting against the wall in the Hicklin, ready to be assembled.

In the shop, students cut out the tree shapes. . .

Then muslin is glued to the tree flats with wheat paste. Here is Allison carefully laying out the wet fabric.

And below, one of the Introduction to Theatre students trims the edge of the trees once the flats are dry.

Some of the flats are rather large, and here Thomas, Quinn, Katie, Allison, and Bruce move a covered flat out into the sun to dry.

Here Bruce is doubling checking the edges to make sure the breeze hasn’t uncovered edges that haven’t adhered. We probably won’t get too many more warm sunny days. . .

Now that classes are in full swing, the shops are open and forging ahead on both “Come Back,” and “Nate the Dragon.”

Here are some of the tree flats for “Come Back,” set on the Barnett stage. The next step will be to cover them with muslin.

All these trees, are of course, cut out by hand in the scene shop. In our program, the students of Introduction to Theatre work in the shop as the lab component of the class. That means there are lots of new names and faces to learn, so I’m not going to name anyone in the photos at this point. . .

. . . though here is Technical Director Steve Chene working with a student on framing out one of the tree flats.

Down in the costume shop, students are working on “Nate the Dragon,” which will be presented with puppets.

That’s costume shop supervisor and “Nate” costume designer Tracey Lyons smiling there in the background.

They do have fun down in the costume shop.

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.

The floor treatment for Roy’s bait shop and the dock.

One of the gimmicks of the show is fishing in a boat the actors push around with their feet.

Paint treatment for Roy’s sign and the boat.

And down in the theatre, the floor is primed for the floor treatment. . .

As stage manager/propsmistress/painter Alison watches TD Steve Chene mix color for the floor. That’s Cat hiding behind the door, there.

With “Deathtrap” closing this weekend, production work continues apace on “Muskie Love.”

Here, leaning against the wall in the Hicklin are the two platformed areas — to the left is the dock and to the right is Roy’s Bait Shop.

On lovely, sunny days, we open the shop doors and do a little work on the loading dock. This is stage manager Alison, who is also doing a fair amount of painting and prop work on the show. She, Anastasia, and Cat are all base painting Roy’s sign.

On the drafting table, the last plate for “Muskie Love” is done — the boat, the counter, and some crates.

Which means I can move onto further paint elevations. Here, things dry for the dock and shop, with a little help from Jerome Robbins.