Here’re Alison and Joe working on the partner desk for “Deathtrap.” I pretty much gave Steve a photo and said go for it. Alison, after sprucing up the rest of the furniture in the show, went ahead and figured out the paint treatment for this piece. Way to go, Alison!
Meanwhile, I worked up the floor treatment for “Muskie Love.” Next on the agenda; the boat.
While I was off driving back and forth to Milwaukee for “The Winter’s Tale,” Steve (our TD) and the students made headway on “Deathtrap.”
It’s in the round but on the stage of our proscenium space, as the black box is seeing refurbishment this summer. It will also feature the new risers we got last year.
Since there’s a fair amount of staircase action, here’s the staircase, built into one of the voms.
And here are students Joe and Alison (who is stage managing “Muskie Love,” the next show) working on the french doors in the another vom.
Our TD, Steve, and the students have been getting the stage of the Barnett ready for “Deathtrap” rehearsals. Since work is being done in both the black box and the house of the Barnett, we’re doing it in the round, on the stage. The playing space is really small — 9 feet by 20. The risers are in place, they’ve hung the rep plot, and are starting in on the corner stair structure.
And I’m working on paint elevations this week, since I won’t be around much to supervise this work. Here’s the floor treatment, pinned to the hallway bulletin board outside the shop.
This is the finished rendering, also on the bulletin board outside the shop.
And here is a plate of wall elevations, looking very paint by numbers.
The semester’s over. I’m trying to cut back a little this summer in order to have a little down time, so I’m only going to be working on four shows. First, I’ve signed on to do lighting for the Optimists’ production of “The Winter’s Tale,” which is their Shakespeare in the Park offering in Milwaukee this summer, and will open the second week in June. This is the pavilion in which we will play:
As befits the pavilion, the director has chosen to go with a somewhat “Star Trek” informed aesthetic. Since it won’t be dark until halfway through the show, and we’ll have maybe 24 dimmer tops, lighting will be — well, minimal yet inventive. We’ve been discussing handheld LEDs and solar powered actor manipulated sources.
I’m still working on the two UW-Whitewater Summeround shows, though I’m designing and then handing them off to our TD. Here’s the groundplan for “Muskie Love,” hot off the drafting table.
The last project of the summer will be lighting “Master Class” for Milwaukee Chamber Theatre in August. So a little reading up is in order:
Tech week continues for Theatre Gigante’s “Midsummer in Midwinter.” Here’s the stage under worklights as we get ready to roll. There are two musicians who spend the show on the small platform up right. The two blonde chairs up left were set there both as symbol and to balance against the musicians. We’re cutting those. The columns (there are four, one at each corner of the playing space) are the only things we are allowed to alter, so we’ve painted them to look like the design on the posters. I traced out the trees, and actor and company co-founder Mark has been filling them in with brown paint.
Here we are in preset, with stage manager Therese answering dancer Edwin’s question. That’s Bo on the right.
And here’s my tech table. The “booth” is a table set off in the corner with just enough space for the SM and sound and light operators. There are no head sets. So I’m tucked up in a corner with a clip light and my script, furiously taking notes which we then put into the board at the end of the evening. Not the first time, won’t be the last.
Getting ready for a run through for Theatre Gigante’s “Midsummer in Midwinter.” It’s being mounted in a black box space at the UW-Milwaukee’s Peck Center for the Arts. We open this Friday and Monday night was our first rehearsal in the space. I spent the afternoon finishing focus and getting the fabric hung — it’s a small show with a negligble budget. The lighting is pretty much the fixed rep plot (which we’re not allowed to move) and about 12 more dimmers (1.2 k) with a handful of assorted units from their storeroom.
This is the tech table/booth back in the corner, with Sam, the sound operator killing a bit of time.
Some production photos from last night’s final dress rehearsal. My set, lighting by student Nick Skaja, costume design by Marshall Anderson, sound design by student Joe Berman, directed by Angela Iannone, assistant director Jen Samson, Keri Ryan and Alyssa Krantz props artisans. Marguerite Frey, stage manager.
Benvolio and Romeo.
Lady Capulet, the Nurse, and Juliet.
The Nurse and the Montague toughs.
Benvolio and Mercutio getting ready for the fight with Tybalt.
Mercutio stabbed.
Nurse delivers the bad news to Juliet.
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The Capulets decide to marry Juliet off to Paris.
Juliet is told she’ll marry Paris.
Romeo about to drink poison.
Romeo drag Juliet out of the tomb.
Juliet and Romeo, dead.
Some images from today’s dress rehearsal. My set, student Nick Skaja’s lighting design, faculty member Marshall Anderson’s costume design, students Keri Ryan and Alyssa Krantz as prop artisans, and even though you can’t hear it, sound design by student Joe Berman. Directed by Angela Ianonne, with student AD, Jen Samson.
Since Angela had a performance today,. here is Jen giving notes to the cast after rehearsal.
Things are getting more exciting than they should be. Our TD is out having surgery, so I’m finishing up the set in his stead. Because of other professional commitments, our director can only attend a single tech rehearsal, which has been rescheduled for bright and early Saturday morning. Oh, and the student assistant technical director is out with the stomach flu.
Meanwhile. . .
. . .the afternoon dry tech. Student lighting designer Nick, student stage manager Marguerite, and student sound designer Joe put things together at the tech table.
I used the Intro to Tech class today to get the rest of the over head truss pieces put together, the wooden railings assembled, and a push to get the upstage structure in place.
As the brick facing gets painted, it gets put back on the structure. This is one side of the gatehouse section.
Keri, Rasell, and Mike work on truss pieces that will form header pieces between the vertical perimeter structures. Mike is the student assistant TD on this show.
One of my painting projects for the afternoon was to start painting the vertical perimeter pieces.
Alyssa works on the poison bottle. The director has asked that it light up from within, so she and Keri have been devising a way to attach an LED to the base of the bottle.
Finally, the end of the day. That’s our TD, Steve, off to the side. Much facing has been reattached, and you can see all the vertical perimeter pieces that still need to get painted leaning up against the back wall. The horrible post-installation realization was that some of the masonite floor/facing pieces that I painted weren’t actually meant to be concrete, but wood. Ah, the importance of labeling.