Some shop progress pics: Lilliana lays something out while Dennis also lays something out.
Steve sealed the floor this morning in preparation of putting up the upstage platforming.
And a close-up of the floor. Just because.
First, the new ticket booth is up and running in the atrium, but they discovered that people can look right through the display case at all the information displayed on the ticketing monitors. Until a permanent solution can be applied, our chair, Marshall Anderson (and one of our costume designers), set up a snazzy display with costumes from last Spring’s “The Furies” (which he designed).
Yesterday, our TD and I got to talking about when I was going to get to paint the floor and we decided that yes, it would be a good idea to do this before walls go up. I don’t have classes on Thursdays this semester, so I hit the theatre in the morning. . .
. . . and painted all day.
Tomorrow, it gets sealed, and all those walls leaning upstage can start getting put into place.
Since I was busy painting, I didn’t have a chance to get photos of students working in the shop, but here’s one of Allison painting the cladding for the upright posts.
Yesterday, the shop started cranking out pieces for “Sweeney Todd.” They’re mostly understructure for the tonsorial parlor and it’s much, much easier to paint them before they get installed. I went in yesterday afternoon to get those pieces based:
The problem, of course, is if you’re already painting the scenery it cuts down on time to prepare the paint elevations. At least I got some of the pictorial work figured out beforehand:
Meanwhile, construction continues at a rather furious pace. Here Joe and Bruce work on one of the platforms for the downstage galleries:
And a group of student finish up one of the escape stair units:
While Lilliana and Quinn prime another stair unit:
And I work out the sketching on the flats:
The KCACTF Festival is over, and we’re back at school, though classes don’t begin until next Tuesday. Time to revise syllabi for the Spring, get plans together, work on the book (the full draft is due Feb 1st), and get rolling on “Sweeney Todd.” Some in progress paint elevations on the drafting table:
Steve, our TD, started the shop up this week in order to get a jump on things and tells me he’ll have a major wall ready for me to start painting today. . . huzzah? Oh, did I mention I need to get some drawings for “Midsummer’s Night” going and there’s a stack of Audit and Review reports I need to read?
Presentations of Intro to Design’s final lighting design project happened this morning, and now the corridor is lined with projects:
Which means finishing up the grading, entering the grades, then doing some more work on “Sweeney Todd”. . .
. . . which I suspect will indeed kill us all since we’ve only got about two and a half weeks to build it when we return in January. We’ve also started meetings on “A Midsummer’s Night Dream.” Meanwhile, the next book chunk deadline is Jan 1st, and we hope to have four or five more chapters to send in. On the other hand, we’ve printed out the first nine chapters and will now go through them with a fine-toothed editor’s comb.
The day before Thanksgiving was the day the Intro to Theatre class’s costume design products were due. We spent the class period looking at them, and yesterday I dug in and started evaluating them. This is one of my favorite Intro projects, as the students do something they never before thought they were capable of doing.
There was also the push to get the groundplan of “Sweeney Todd” into the hands of all concerned:
Then, the fastest way to get more info to our technical director is to launch into the 3D modeling:
Now, heading full speed into cranking of “Sweeney Todd” drawings. This afternoon, working out small groundplans for all the wagons and other bits before launching into more detailed drawings:
Strangely enough, a friend of the music department had a harmonium for sale just when we needed it most:
And this morning, Tracey’s camera broke during her make-up class. I ran down to snap photos of students’ prosthetic work. Here are some of them working on their projects:
Just heading down to talk to the director and TD. . .
The end of the semester is fast approaching, and there is yet lots to be done. We opened “Radium Girls” this morning for the Arts Immersion Day matinee. Scenic Design by Eric Appleton, Costume Design by Tracey Lyons, Lighting Design by student Joe Berman, Sounds Design by student Mason Ronan, stage managed by student Allison Lozar, and Props Manager student Lilliana Gonzalez.
Act One, when Grace goes to meet Kathleen Wiley for the first time:
Roeder sights Grace watercoloring in the cemetery:
The faces of all the dead girls:
At the same time, I’m trying to figure out “Sweeney Todd,” and with every passing day there’s less time for planning and building, especially since the show goes up at the end of February and we don’t return from winter break until about January 20th. I scrapped my original direction and yesterday came up with some new thoughts, which Jim Butchart (the director) approved of.
Today has been spent working up a rough scale groundplan and truly rough quarter inch scale model to present at tomorrow’s production meeting so I can get some drawings into the TD’s hands next week.
Last week UW-Whitewater hosted the Wisconsin High School Theatre Festival. Three days, about 4000 high school students from all over the state presenting about 40 one acts, accompanied by a full program of workshops. Kudos to our department chair, Marshall Anderson, for organizing such a smooth running event!
Last night was our second dress of “Radium Girls.” Here is student lighting designer Joe Berman, light board operator Emily, and student sound desiger Mason Ronan getting ready.
The set under worklights. Spoiler: the pictures upstage are only revealed in the last moments of the play (nor are they completed, yet).
Student stage manager Allison Lozar settling in just before we get rolling:
Joe’s preset:
The girls chatting while applying radium paint to watch dials:
