UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

“Anything to Declare?” opens this morning with our student matinee. Below are two photos from last night’s final dress.

A moment from the series of revelations late in Act Three (Act One takes place in the same locale — the Dupont’s parlor).

And a moment from Act Two, Zeze’s garret, when her maid comes to inform her that she has a vistor in the midst entertaining another vistor. . .

I must admit to be being happier with how the second act turned out. The wireframe elements that were supposed to top the walls for Act 1/3 didn’t work — the wire used was too soft and bendy and it was impossible to get the clean sweeps and swirls I’d hoped for. Oh well.

A hold moment during first tech last night. We’re just about to move the buzzer from the stage left side of the arch to the wall upstage of the stage left chair so the actor ringing it won’t have to upstage himself.

And a moment in the second act act. The paintings were created (painted adaptations of the source images) by student propmaster Nick Skaja.

Dry tech this afternoon, so here is director Jim Butchart sitting behind stage manager Alyssa and student lighting designer Nick as they work through the cues.

The stage set up for acts one and three, the Dupont parlor.

And the stage set up for act two, Zeze’s garret. Yes, there’s still a fair amount to get done on both sets. . .

. . . and here in the shop we have Intro students Annaliese and Kathy working on the wireframe cake toppers while. . .

. . . Intro student Hannah paints one of the easels.

Today, we got to a point where much of what was built is painted and can now start being assembled. Very exciting!

This is Zeze’s groundrow, which is the view through her tall artists garret windows out onto the alleys of Paris. The holes will get material and light so that it seems like someone is home.

Here is student lighting designer Nick Skaja focussing.

Meanwhile, in the shop, the window gets painted. . .

. . . the wireframe ‘cake toppers’ start to take shape. . .

. . . masking flats get based. . .

. . . and when lighting takes a break, walls go up. That’s TD Steve Chene in the forground, and Nick pointing up where one of Zeze’s practicals will get hung.

At our production meeting for February’s “Into the Woods” I presented this rough model of where I was heading (based, of course, off of earlier discussions). We’re chosing to highlight the artifice of storytelling — the devices and effects will be clearly devices and effects. As both boundary and place of journey, the forest has also got a structural grounding in Tatlin’s “Monument to the Third International.” This is the machine that creates family, in what ever form family will take. . .

With the structure of Zeze’s garret pretty much done, the shop is turning to the curved walls of the Dupont’s parlor. Here are students working on some of the door sections.

My project for the afternoon was getting the rest of Zeze’s walls painted with their “cubist” treatment.

All the walls were built in smaller sections (which made them much easier to paint, it must be said) because this production is our ACTF submission. Should it be chosen, we will have to transport it to the January conference.

First, the elevation for the second act, Zeze’s artistic garret, on the drafting table the other day.

Here’re students Shakiva and Nick applying wheat paste to the luaun so the pieces can be covered in muslin.

And students Nick and Mike with TD Steve Chene putting together one of the door walls for Act Two.

And finally, one of my projects, rebuilding and recovering this footstool. There were about five layers of previous upholstery attempts, as well as a rotted out bottom. It almost looks comfortable now. On to the chaise!

This is a photo of the drafting table last week as I was finishing up the elevation of acts one and three. Construction has already begun; it’s a good thing that our TD (Steve Chene) and I have established a pretty good system of working together. I can get him partial drawings or sketchup models if time is crunched, and with some talking through things he has enough information to get tech drawings generated. Very important when you’ve got students in the shop waiting for things to do — and deadlines to meet. . . and “Into the Woods” to get designed. . .

That being said, here’s Steve with some of the students bolting together the central pivoting platform. Those large shapes behind them are pieces of Zeze’s garret.

TA Thad measures stuff.

TA Keri and Intro student Samantha working on another piece of Zeze’s garret.

And finally, since the Dupont’s parlor will feature a gradated paint treatment, here is my first experimental stab at working out the colors and the gradation.

Last night was first dress, so a couple of photos from the evening:

The set up for the first scene, the yard of Jack’s House, under worklights. Today we’ll be taking the floor back to black. There’s still detail to finish on the two screens, and this afternoon’s project will be to complete the beanstalk.

This is the set up for Act Two, the Giant’s Kitchen. That’s Jack hiding behind the stove.

We have a single performance of the play on campus (this Saturday). After that, it will spend its life on the road, visiting various local schools with their variety of performance spaces.

The beanstalk is now covered. Tomorrow, we paint.

The screens are mighty close to being done. They’re awfully busy, but then again, so are the research images.