UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

As we move into first tech tonight, lots of things getting finished, or close to finished, or close to close to getting finished. . .

. . . the beanstalk is encased in muslin so we can paint all that plastic without having the paint flake off, and so all the tubing has a chance of staying attached both when Jack climbs it and all the transport is must endure.

Here’s Eric painting leaf after leaf after leaf.

Close to done with one folding screen. . .

. . . as Anna paints birds and leaves on the other.

With tech beginning tomorrow, we’re painting up a storm on “Jack and the Magic Beans.” Everything’s been cut out since last week and has been in use in rehearsals, so it’s really about making sure we don’t have acres of white-primed scenery that light will bounce off and blind us during tech. Though of course, the beanstalk itself is a bit more complicated than that. . .

Here’s TA Keri (at the top of the stalk) working with a crew of Intro students on wrapping the sonotube with ethafoam tendrils and vines. Tomorrow we’ll cheese cloth the shebang to provide stability and a decent paint surface. That’s Thad over there on the bandsaw, cutting out templates of birds, trees, and pigs for use on the big folding screens.

Here’s Kyle and Joe working on the town groundrow.

. . . and from another angle.

I started laying out the patterns on one of the large portal screens. There are those birds templates that Thad was cutting out on the bandsaw.

And while it might seem like Kyle and Joe were everywhere in shop today, they just happened to finish with the town at a time I needed to start filling in shapes on the screens.

Finally, some of the mostly finished pieces sitting on stage after the afternoon’s dry tech session. I am rather happy with how the fence turned out.

Working up the second act of “Anything to Declare?”, namely Zeze’s garret of art and seduction. The first and third acts went a bit circus-y, and now we’re looking at ways to make the garret feel a bit cubist-y. I just sent this image to the director (Jim Butchart) and our TD (Steve Chene) for feedback.

Now that “Dracula” has opened, the push to get Jack and the Magic Beans into the shop has begun. This is a quick sketch of the farmyard set up for the beginning and end of the first act.

I’ve given Steve (our TD) the first plate of drawings, and am now working up the Giant’s furniture to get to him tomorrow. Then I have to figure out the beanstalk. . .

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I also said I would have a groundplan for the first act of “Anything to Declare” on Friday (our December show); the colorful images (artwork is by French artist Paul Cignac) taped to the wall are part of preparations for that design.

As much as I hate to admit it, we were down to the wire on this one. It’s the first show in my six years at Whitewater where we had a fair amount that had to get done the day of opening — at least it was almost all scenic elements above the actor’s heads and didn’t have too much of an impact on the tech and dress rehearsals. Jayson Winslow, the student set designer, didn’t have a chance to cue in the candles before yesterday afternoon, but since his overall look was already solid and the candles served more as accent, again, not horrible.

At the beginning of shop, yesterday afternoon, finishing up the central gable of the bed/crypt structure. That’s TD Steve Chene and one of the Intro to Theatre students, Sean.

Students work on wiring the canldes, as well as painting the theatre floor black and numbering the seats.

And at the end of the afternoon, the peaks are all in place and the candles are all wired. The units with the candles rotate, revealing statues for the crypt scene.

Smoke check, with ASM Nick.

Then finally, the whole shebang, done.

This evening’s dress rehearsal:

The stage under work lights, as we begin setting up.

A bit of a closer view. There’s still a fair amount to be done on this end of the stage — before we got rolling, I finished filling the bookcase, and during rehearsal, painted the balustrade’s mate. I’m rather impressed that it really does look so greyscale.

In preset; the lighting designer is student Jayson Winslow. That black fabric is draped over the arm chair because even though I’d painted the back hours before, it was such a humid day by go it still hadn’t dried completely.

And finally, a couple moments from the run.

More progress, getting ready for last night’s first tech:

. . . completion of the full moon (gotta repaint the black surround, of course). . .

. . . getting hoses and pipes ready to vent the fog under the deck. . .

. . . for a successful fog check.

Steve Chene, our TD, continues to forge ahead on the gabled peaks for the crypt/bedroom structure. . .

. . . as I tackled carving out the statues that will flank the sarcophagus.

Finally, the doors are installed for use in last night’s first tech. The bookcase stage right has a swinging portion at the bottom for one of Dracula’s escapes. While we’re not as far along as we’d like to be (the price of ambition in the first slot of the season), everything needed for rehearsal was present, if not perfect. But then, tech rehearsals are voyages of discovery.

progress yesterday and today. . .

. . . the arches atop the study walls went up. That strip of cloth stapled to where the French doors will go is the stand-in bell pull. . .

. . . and today the second act sarcophagus lid got painted, as well as all the ‘wood’ trim for the study. . .

. . . the moon light box was built and painted. . .

. . . and wired. Just gotta paint the full moon on it now. . .

. . . while the last bit of trim for the overhead hanging arches was measured, cut, and attached. . .

. . . and the sofa was rebuilt, since it was just too old to handle our exuberant young actors.

The brick never ends. Here’s Anna, working on the arches. Since her independent study is on scenic painting, I co-opted our usual class session to have her work on the brick for “Dracula.” But that’s okay, since we’re actually at the point in the syllabus where we’re talking about brick.

And here’s Kenneth and student lighting designer Jayson covering the sarcophagus lid with cheesecloth in preparation for painting. Jayson’s head of schedule on focusing, so the lighting crew was moved into the scene shop for the day.

Yesterday afternoon, a push toward getting all the brick done on the arches; we’ll be finishing these up today, hopefully, the ones that go over the study can go up today.

And then earlier this morning, trying to figure out how to lay out the bedspread using the bits and bobs of greyscale printed fabric I was able to buy on sale at Jo-anne’s fabric. No matter what you do, fabric costs too much, is never a normal size, and you always end up six inches too short. Thank heavens I can call on someone like Tracey Lyons, our costume shop supervisor, to help me figure out how to make this work.