UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

Now that “Dracula” has been struck and the Hicklin restored to classroom set-up, we head into the construction of “Jack and the Magic Beans.” Most of the pieces have been cut out and primed already, so now we begin laying out patterns and some basic color fill-in.

This is Intro student Jeffry laying out the internal lines for the town groundrow.

And student Megan painting the the supports of the sun. The other tripod past her is the support for the cloud.

Then finally, while the students are in the shop working on “Jack,” I head back to my office to finish working up the final groundplan of “Anything to Declare?”

As much as I hate to admit it, we were down to the wire on this one. It’s the first show in my six years at Whitewater where we had a fair amount that had to get done the day of opening — at least it was almost all scenic elements above the actor’s heads and didn’t have too much of an impact on the tech and dress rehearsals. Jayson Winslow, the student set designer, didn’t have a chance to cue in the candles before yesterday afternoon, but since his overall look was already solid and the candles served more as accent, again, not horrible.

At the beginning of shop, yesterday afternoon, finishing up the central gable of the bed/crypt structure. That’s TD Steve Chene and one of the Intro to Theatre students, Sean.

Students work on wiring the canldes, as well as painting the theatre floor black and numbering the seats.

And at the end of the afternoon, the peaks are all in place and the candles are all wired. The units with the candles rotate, revealing statues for the crypt scene.

Smoke check, with ASM Nick.

Then finally, the whole shebang, done.

This evening’s dress rehearsal:

The stage under work lights, as we begin setting up.

A bit of a closer view. There’s still a fair amount to be done on this end of the stage — before we got rolling, I finished filling the bookcase, and during rehearsal, painted the balustrade’s mate. I’m rather impressed that it really does look so greyscale.

In preset; the lighting designer is student Jayson Winslow. That black fabric is draped over the arm chair because even though I’d painted the back hours before, it was such a humid day by go it still hadn’t dried completely.

And finally, a couple moments from the run.

More progress, getting ready for last night’s first tech:

. . . completion of the full moon (gotta repaint the black surround, of course). . .

. . . getting hoses and pipes ready to vent the fog under the deck. . .

. . . for a successful fog check.

Steve Chene, our TD, continues to forge ahead on the gabled peaks for the crypt/bedroom structure. . .

. . . as I tackled carving out the statues that will flank the sarcophagus.

Finally, the doors are installed for use in last night’s first tech. The bookcase stage right has a swinging portion at the bottom for one of Dracula’s escapes. While we’re not as far along as we’d like to be (the price of ambition in the first slot of the season), everything needed for rehearsal was present, if not perfect. But then, tech rehearsals are voyages of discovery.

progress yesterday and today. . .

. . . the arches atop the study walls went up. That strip of cloth stapled to where the French doors will go is the stand-in bell pull. . .

. . . and today the second act sarcophagus lid got painted, as well as all the ‘wood’ trim for the study. . .

. . . the moon light box was built and painted. . .

. . . and wired. Just gotta paint the full moon on it now. . .

. . . while the last bit of trim for the overhead hanging arches was measured, cut, and attached. . .

. . . and the sofa was rebuilt, since it was just too old to handle our exuberant young actors.

The brick never ends. Here’s Anna, working on the arches. Since her independent study is on scenic painting, I co-opted our usual class session to have her work on the brick for “Dracula.” But that’s okay, since we’re actually at the point in the syllabus where we’re talking about brick.

And here’s Kenneth and student lighting designer Jayson covering the sarcophagus lid with cheesecloth in preparation for painting. Jayson’s head of schedule on focusing, so the lighting crew was moved into the scene shop for the day.

Yesterday afternoon, a push toward getting all the brick done on the arches; we’ll be finishing these up today, hopefully, the ones that go over the study can go up today.

And then earlier this morning, trying to figure out how to lay out the bedspread using the bits and bobs of greyscale printed fabric I was able to buy on sale at Jo-anne’s fabric. No matter what you do, fabric costs too much, is never a normal size, and you always end up six inches too short. Thank heavens I can call on someone like Tracey Lyons, our costume shop supervisor, to help me figure out how to make this work.

Yesterday’s images, as we continue to work on “Dracula” with deadlines approaching. . .

. . . finishing up the wallpaper for the study. . .

. . . and into the theatre so they can go up. There will be cornice, there will be baseboard, there will be wainscotting. . .

. . . here’s Elizabeth and Molly, two of the Intro to Theatre students, gluing ethafoam trim onto an overhead arch. . .

. . . while propsmistress Cristine (right), and assistant Alyssa (left) work on stakes and crucifixes. . .

. . . and the flown arches get base painted for eventual brick texture (and the lighting crew passes through on some lighting errand). . .

. . . and finally, student lighting designer Jayson decides to get a jump on focussing two days early. Which may or may not be good thing — it’s great he’s ahead of the game, but on the other hand, once those flown arches go up he’ll have to retouch things.

Yesterday’s work on “Dracula.” Dry tech is, after all October 2nd. . .

Here’s TD Steve Chene ripping down styrofoam for the cornices. . .

. . . and students attaching the finished facing as the lighting crew looks on. . .

. . . and my final project of the day, working on the wallpaper for the study. Wainscoting will be attached to the bottom halves, and the last thing to do will be to add narrow dark strips on either side of the grey stripes this afternoon. Hopefully, these will then go up today.

More “Dracula” construction. Here, shop TA Thad works on facing the inside of some of the arches.

. . . and some of the Intro students prime other arches. . .

. . . and TA Keri works with another student measuring and snapping out lines for what will becomes the study’s stenciled wall paper. . .

. . . and in the Hicklin, light hang commences, lead by student lighting designer Jayson Winslow. . .

and finally, my project for the afternoon, laying out the mortar lines on the platform facing.