UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

It’s been a hectic semester so far, and I haven’t had much time to post pictures from our last two shows. In fact, on the first show of the semester, “Love, Loss, and What I Wore,” I didn’t get the set dressing done until the afternoon we opened, so I never managed to get photos of the complete set during a run (or production photos for that matter.).

Still, in the spirit of catching up, here’s a photo of the finished half inch scale model. . .

And the set under preset lighting as we wait for tech to begin. That’s the back of director Angela Ianonne there on the left.

This is from final dress, and Gingy talks about her Brownie uniform. You can see the unfinished dress drawings hanging in the alcove, there, as well as the empty shelf cubes. . .

But, the audiences enjoyed the show and we did get the whole shebang done for opening!

We opened “Street Scene” on Sunday. The past few weeks were very busy, and I did not manage to take much in the way of process photos. However, below are pictures from the final dress rehearsal on Friday. Of note are the student stage manager, student sound designer, student supertitle designer, and the fact that I had a student ALD helping me on the lighting (I did both scenery and lighting design on this one). It was directed by Kymberly Mellen, who is new to our department this year. Cast-wise, it’s the largest number of performers on the stage since I’ve been here at Whitewater, and a two story set added to the technical complexity. We made it to the finish line, though.

The top of the show, and how hot it is:

Mrs. Maurrant sings of her loniliness and how trapped she feels:

Mr. Easter tries to tempt Rose with Broadway:

“It’s a murder!”

Rose confronts her father after his capture:

And the cycle continues — how hot it is. . .

Time speeds on, and we’re on the verge of dry tech for “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” We’ve had a small dip in students able and willing to take on some of the technical responsibilities, so I’ve been the ME on this show.

Here are two pics from the other day, with Intro students Jack and Jacob working with Emily on some patch trouble shooting, and Intro student Nick on stage letting them know when the unit at hand turns on.

Some photos from the final dress rehearsal of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Set design by student Lilliana Gonzalez. Costume design by student Kat Middleton. Props by student Jordan Meyer. Stage managed by student Alex Cary. Lighting design by Eric Appleton. Technical direction by Ruth Conrad-Proulx. Directed by Charles Grover, to bookend his years at Whitewater. Sleepy Hollow was the first show he directed when he started his position here, so many years ago.

Preset:

The Storytellers:

Outside the Tarrytown Tavern:

Ichabod learns about the bridge:

Ichabod hobnobs with the ladies of the town:

Ichabod and Brom vie for Katerina’s attentions:

Brom and Katerina:

Ichabod gets ready for the dance:

All they could find was his hat and a shattered pumpkin:

Brom and Katerina tie the knot:

We are heading into tech for “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and we are behind, but catching up. The set is designed by student Lilliana Gonzalez. I’m doing the lighting design this time around.

Here are the tree-trunk stools, ready to get painted:

Intro to Theatre students applying gaff tape over the gap between the two halves of the trees:

Making headway on the painting of the backing flats:

These half trees are done (except for painting the framing black). They get attached to the side masking flats to frame the playing space.

The trees on stage, as we get ready for rehearsal:

Light board operator Stephanie doing some programming at the tech table:

The view over the monitors during the run:

And then coming in bright and early this morning to continue texturing the trees with Lilliana, and putting lots of fans on them in the hope that they will be dry by tonight.

It’s hang and focus week on “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Student ME Dan is leading crews of the Intro to Theatre students on getting the show hung and circuited. A view from the booth:

Down on the deck, working on the 1A Electric:

Looking up into the Beams:

In the shop, work on the trees and props continues.

And we forge ahead with the painting of the backing flats:

“On the Verge” opened on Monday. I wasn’t able to get photos under stage lights this time around (will have to look forward to the photos that Sarah Altermatt, our publicity manager, took), but here’s a not blurry photo of the set under worklights with no tools, ladders, or students. . .

And the floor, from two angles:

The production freight train rumbles on. I drafted the light plot for “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” since the hang starts on Monday.

And construction of “Sleepy Hollow” got rolling in the shop. Here’s TA Quinn working with two Intro to Theatre students, cutting out the surround for Ichabod’s blackboard (set design by student Lilliana Gonzalez):

Finally, I need to get the groundplan of “Public Enemy” finalized and distributed. In the midst of that this afternoon:

“On the Verge” opened last night, and here’s a slightly blurry photo of final cleaning and touching up on Monday afternoon:

Yesterday, I presented images of “Public Enemy” to guest director Mary MacDonald Kerr at our production meeting. Here’s a slightly revised version of the first scene of the play:

This afternoon, I’ve got “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” on the drafting table, working out the lighting design so I can get the plot turned in this week.

It’s the first week of classes, and we’re off and running! Our new technical director, Ruth Conrad-Proulx, is getting the shop up and running so we can start building “On the Verge” next week. Here’s the final rendering:

Angela Ianonne, the director, has asked that all of the larger props have a hand-crafted ‘proppy’ look to them — as though everything was made out of lightly decorated cardboard. Here’s a sketch for Grover’s mask, based on a contemporary Masai mask:

And, since “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is our second show, we’re forging ahead with that as well. Student scenic designer Lilliana has been working on her drawings over the summer, and since we had no one to slot into the lighting design position, I’m going ahead with that. Here’s the start of some lighting sketches:

We opened “Boeing Boeing” at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre last night. Here are a couple of photos from the photo call.