UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

“Arrangement for Murder, No. 2” opened Tuesday night (it went well — the audience was receptive and gasped at the ending twist). I drove into Milwaukee Wednesday to chat with the ME and TD at the Skylight about the upcoming production of “Boeing Boeing” for Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. Got copies of the first wave of set drawings (scenic design by Brandon Kirkham).

It’s gonna be interesting. The set is pushed all the way against the proscenium, and there’s a giant mobile hanging over the playing space. The doors all have an overhang (though with recessed lighting over each). The ceiling and the mobile aren’t so much the challenge, it’s that there’s no place to get a lift for focusing once the set is in place (which was the main subject of our discussion). Almost all the lighting will be coming from the FOH, and what is over the stage itself is going to be a mite tricky. . .

We opened “Master Class” at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre last night. Here are some photos from the photo call rehearsal on Wednesday. Someday I will be able to afford a digital camera that takes better low light photos (I rather miss my old Canon AE-1); since the monologue sections featured a tight pool on Maria with projections in the background, my camera, even on the best setting, tends to bleach out faces.

I always take my own portfolio photos since I’m after full stage shots — theatres and photographers tend to go for close ups that they can use for publicity, so those shots are of limited use to me. One of the important reasons for getting full stage shots of this play (aside from overall composition) is that the battens and booms are part of the scenery and in full view. The point is that Maria belongs in the theatre, not the concert hall. As she admonishes the students over and over, it’s not enough just to sing the notes — no matter how beautifully. If you don’t know why you’re singing the words, if you don’t understand the feeling behind the passage, the pretty notes are empty and meaningless. Callas’s revolutionary act was to inject theatrical truth back into opera.

The first soprano takes a stab at “La Sonambula.”

Maria remembers the great nights at La Scala.

At one point, Maria recalls how Visconti brought up the houselight at the end of her aria, including the audience in the image as Amina wakes from her dream. I projected templates and color into the house, and as our houselights came up, our boxes felt as though they, too, were festooned with flowers.

The tenor works on “Tosca.”

The second soprano announces that she will attempt Lady Macbeth’s letter scene.

Maria remembers her own performance in “Macbeth.”

As the the memories continue, Maria becomes more and more alone. . .

And a return to La Scala. . .

Finally, Maria offers a few words of wisdom after the second soprano storms off.

Yesterday was first tech, and we got almost all the way through the show. For lighting, we’re about three cues from the end, which we’ll pick up in the first hour today (it’s our ten out of twelve day today). For a show that takes place on a supposedly bare stage (an empty stage where a master class is taking place), it’s actually a rather complex show, especially when you add in the music and the projections.

Speaking of projections. . .

. . . here’s one of the directors (James and Jill are co-directing) James with Chris, the projection/sound designer, working through some things.

A view from the tech table of the image they were working on. It’s the ceiling and chandelier of La Scala projected onto the bandshell of the set. The projectors are hidden on the booms stage right and stage left, obscured by old lighting instruments (the play takes place when Maria Callas was giving a series of master classes at Julliard) and are surprisingly strong. Often you worry about a careful balance between actor light and projections, but beside the strength of the projectors, a very helpful thing is that the projections are used only during Maria’s monologues, when she retreats/reveals/confronts the past and most of the stage light drops out.

There are some moments when I feel that this is turning into one of my best lighting designs.

Today is focus for “Master Class” at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

Here is the set under works at the start of the day. It’s pretty simple, and that meant focus went pretty lickety split with no scenery to move around or time needed to situation the lift.

The front of house in the Cabot Theatre.

The Cabot also has a fabulous ceiling. The quote is “To help us forget some things, remember others, and to refresh the dry places in our spirit.”

Colleen and Greg, hard at work.

And Colleen at the tech table. She was running the plot for the call.

Tonight, I head back in to write some cues over the evening’s rehearsal. Tomorrow is first tech!

Yesterday, I drove in for the designer’s run of “Master Class.” Milwaukee Chamber Theatre is housed in Milwaukee’s Broadway Theatre Center, along with Skylight Opera and Renaissance Theatreworks.

It is, of course, an Equity show, so no photos of the rehearsal itself (which would also be rather distracting). Instead, on a break, here’s director James Zager (on the right) speaking with Chris, our sound and projections designer.

And here’s our stage manager, Judy Martel, cuing up sounds cues the old fashioned way.

Today, the ME begins to hang the plot — I’ll be returning on Friday for focus and cuing writing over that evening’s onstage run.

Further step by step photos of the plot for “Master Class” in progress:

Drafting the overstage plate for “Master Class.”

The rough plot of “Master Class,” mostly laid out. Even if a student intends to draft the final plot with a computer drafting program, I am adamant that they lay it out on paper first. I, for one, don’t understand how you can lay out your plot without looking at the entirety of the space in a reasonable scale. It’s not click and drop, but looking at systems and their relationships to the space as a whole (architecture and scenery) and being able to see the whole thing at once as revisions occur.

Once the rough plot is finished, time to start drafting the over stage plate. There’s the rough plot, pinned to the wall.

Finally, some more old person grumbling. Sure, you can get the plans of the theatre as a PDF or Vectorworks file. But if you don’t have a printer of the correct size, or the PDF isn’t scaled right, or the set designer gives you hand drafting, you end up with paper everywhere as you piece it all together.

It’s final dress for “Muskie Love” tonight. Here are the renderings and the groundplan pinned to the hallway bulletin board outside the theatre. When I started at Whitewater, I discovered that most of the Intro students doing their shop hours really didn’t have a sense of what the final product was to be, so I started hanging the drawings up outside our TD’s office so if they were at least interested, they could go take a look.

A view of the stage from one end. . .

. . . and the view from the other.

Roy’s bait shop sign. Since I’m not painting this summer in an attempt to let my hands have a break from the carpal tunnel, all the painting was done by students (and our TD, Steve) without my immediate supervision. I think they did a pretty solid job of it (though I apparently forget to tell them to age the fish as they did the letters — my fault, since they were working off a photo for that).

Finally, I’ve got “Master Class” on the drafting table. This is a lighting design for an August production at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. I have to get the plot and hookup finished and sent off no later than Thursday night.

Preview night for The Optimist Theatre’s production of “The Winter’s Tale:”

Part of the Milwaukee skyline at sunset as we begin.

The end of the introductory dance, with Hermione and Leontes downstage center.

Leontes begins to explain his suspicions to Antigonus.

Paulina begs Leontes to accept the baby as his daughter.

After distaster, Leontes begins to accept the magnitude of his delusion.

Antigonus about to leave the baby on the shores of Bohemia.

Perdita and Florizel get ready for the sheep shearing.

Dion, Paulina, and Leontes, reflecting over the events of the past fifteen years.

In Paulina’s hall, marveling at the statue of Hermione.

Tomorrow, opening night, will be Friday the 13th. With a full moon.

It was also nice to note that a UW-Whitewater graduate, Lexie Higgins, was working as assistant stage manager on this production.