The Fall semester has begun and we are heading into the first production of the year, “Toil and Trouble!” There’s a student set designer, a student lighting designer, students doing props, and a student sound designer.
The shop is back in action, doing an assembly line of cutting platform legs!
It’s a rather light week in the shop. With the structure of the set accommodating both of the summer plays, it’s mainly just repainting things and installing some specialty items.
One side of the rotating flats will be used in the bar and gymnasium. Those were easy to paint, and here are the center panels, installed.
The other side is a sky filled with clouds. We painted those on Friday. I painted these two to solidify the technique I wanted to use:
Then it was Lilliana’s turn. It was her first time painting clouds:
Here’s Katie working on one of the fence sections, while Nathan’s in the back there, grinding something down:
Here are Nathan, Katie, and Alex installing one of the cloud panels this morning:
And then Katie supervising Alex and Nathan on trimming excess muslin from the center panels:
A bit later, Katie paints the base of the rebuilt bar table:
And here’s her to-do list from Friday:
And now we start in on converting the set to “Rounding Third.”
Here’s Alex recovering one of the flip panels:
And Nathan rebuilding the frame for one of the panels that didn’t quite survive strike in one piece:
Katie’s to-do list:
Lilliana mixes paint:
I repaint the deck:
Alex seals the deck:
Katie paints the flip panels sky blue:
Well, “Poe Times Two” went up and came down. Here are some photos from the final dress rehearsal. Not many of my photos turned out due to the low light levels and moving actors, but here are the ones that are pretty decent.
Adapted from Edgar Allen Poe by Greg Oliver Bodine. Directed by Angela Iannone, with Ethan Wakefield in The Cask of Amontillado and Nathan Broege in The Black Cat. Scenery by Eric Appleton, lighting by Quinn Bauer, costumes by Tracey Lyons, sound design by Alex Carey, stage managed by Abrya Scheeberg, and technical direction by Katie Gundlach.
Set up for Act One, under worklights:
The Cask of Amontillado:
Intermission, with The Black Cat set up:
The Black Cat:
Almost there! Final tech is tonight!
Here’s Lilliana reaching the home stretch on the painting:
While Shelby and Nathan insert the prison side into the rotating frame that the painting will share:
In the theatre, Quinn and Katie work on setting up the seats:
And Alex finishes giving the theatre floor a coat of gloss black:
Finally, since we’re all waiting for Lilliana to finish, everyone hangs out, watches, and cheers her on:
First tech for “Poe Xs Two” is here! Alex, the sound designer, getting things ready in the booth:
The stage, while waiting for things to get rolling:
In between acts, director Angela gives notes to Ethan, while Jon waits patiently at the light board.
Lilliana, expressing her feelings after an afternoon of working on wild swirls of fabric:
For me, it’s a slow day. I’ve finished twiddling with props, and am pretty much here to make sure that Lilliana is on track with her painting and to help out with any snags during dry tech.
Here’s Nathan focusing a light for lighting designer Quinn:
And then Quinn at the board writing cues while stage manager Abrya walks the stage for him:
In the shop, Lilliana forges ahead with all the swirling fabric in the painting. Daunting, but she’s tackling it well — especially for her first time trying to paint a bunch of swirling fabric.
We have dry tech for “Poe Xs 2” this afternoon. I took Thursday off, as the only painting left to do was the Renaissance painting that Lilliana was working on. Today we’ll tackle the fabric and final elements together. Here’s where she was on Wednesday morning:
Since she wasn’t in to work on it Wednesday morning, I went ahead and painted the paneling at the top and bottom the flat:
I also aged some paper for the “Black Cat” half of the show:
At the start of Wednesday morning, all four central flip panels were up:
Here’s Alex and Nathan trimming the excess muslin off one of the side panels:
And then Katie and Nathan installing the panel in its frame:
Other projects included finishing up the hanging and circuiting (since Quinn, the LD would start focus on Thursday):
And dismantling the risers in order to set them in their new arrangement. Nathan’s under there somewhere.
A quiet morning in the shop. Alex and Nathan continue hanging and circuiting. Here’s Nathan checking his music lists while following the plot:
And Alex contemplates some circuiting:
After a bit, it’s time to paint the stage perimeter with gloss black:
I continued working on the St. Mark’s lion flat. I plan to finish it after lunch.
Into the final stretch!
Lilliana has begun to work up the large painting for act one:
Some more light hang occurs:
The pipe arrives!
Pipe is inserted into the flippy panels:
Nathan enjoys using the mallet:
Lilliana forges on ahead with the large painting:
The facing panel for the act one side of the flippy panel is attached:
And the act two side:
Up it goes!
A bit later, three are up!
I work on the prison door flat:
And the St. Mark’s lion flat:
