UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

Yesterday’s images, as we continue to work on “Dracula” with deadlines approaching. . .

. . . finishing up the wallpaper for the study. . .

. . . and into the theatre so they can go up. There will be cornice, there will be baseboard, there will be wainscotting. . .

. . . here’s Elizabeth and Molly, two of the Intro to Theatre students, gluing ethafoam trim onto an overhead arch. . .

. . . while propsmistress Cristine (right), and assistant Alyssa (left) work on stakes and crucifixes. . .

. . . and the flown arches get base painted for eventual brick texture (and the lighting crew passes through on some lighting errand). . .

. . . and finally, student lighting designer Jayson decides to get a jump on focussing two days early. Which may or may not be good thing — it’s great he’s ahead of the game, but on the other hand, once those flown arches go up he’ll have to retouch things.

Our final show of the Fall semester is “Anything to Declare,” a French sex farce that has two locales — the parlor of the Dupont household and the Zeze’s ‘artist’s’ garret. The added wrinkle is that this show must be able to travel, as it is our ACTF submission. Even if it’s not selected to participate in the festival in January, we have to assume it’s going and design/build accordingly. Right now, I’m exploring how to get some feminine curves into the set, and looking at the work of artist Paul Cignac for colors and textures. This is an image of the current Sketchup model I’ll be showing at this afternoon’s production meeting.

More “Dracula” construction. Here, shop TA Thad works on facing the inside of some of the arches.

. . . and some of the Intro students prime other arches. . .

. . . and TA Keri works with another student measuring and snapping out lines for what will becomes the study’s stenciled wall paper. . .

. . . and in the Hicklin, light hang commences, lead by student lighting designer Jayson Winslow. . .

and finally, my project for the afternoon, laying out the mortar lines on the platform facing.

This morning, before meeting with the director of “Dracula” to discuss the sarcophagus lid, working on “Jack and the Magic Beans.’ “Jack” is our touring children’s show which goes up pretty much immediately after “Dracula” closes. We’re going with a mix of Scandanavian folk art and Richard Scarry, all flat and portable and able to fit through an ordinary doorway.

Work continues on “Dracula”. . . .

Students Nick and Keri work on the sofa. The back two legs were cracked and needed to be replaced. The whole thing will be recovered with a greyscale fabric.

TD Steve Chene works with a student on creating the ‘broken’ surfaces of the flown arch pieces.

Student Anna works with some of the Intro to Theatre students cutting out items on the band saw. . .

. . .while two more Intro students cover the platform facing with a two color wet blend scumble which will eventually become a rough stone surface.

My project this afternoon was finishing the floor textures. There’s Nick working on the sarcophagus.

Finally, the furniture placed in approximate position for use in rehearsal tonight. It will all also be going grayscale.

Still working on “Dracula” details and figuring out fabric on Sketchup. Here’s an image with curtains! Which were mentioned in the script, but the director doesn’t want them after all.

The semester begins and the shops are now open. The students from Introduction to Theatre spend their lab time working in the shops on the department proudctions, so here, on day three of construction (under the supervision of TD Steve Chene), the platforms for “Dracula” are largely in place in the Hicklin Theatre. With the dance classes now taking place in the new dance studio, we’ve reclaimed the black box for academic year performance; “Dracula” is the first school year show in the Hicklin is quite some time.

Picking back up with “Jack and the Magic Beans,” the second show of our season at UW-Whitewater. This is our touring children’s show of the year, with only a single performance on our mainstage before we send it off to area grade schools. This means that the set has to fit into a small panel truck (12 feet long or so), fit through whatever doors the schools have, be able to be set up with relative ease and speed by the actors, as well as be flexible enough that the scenic elements can be shifted on site as needed to accomodate performance spaces of various sizes and limitations.

Back in the Spring our costume designer, Tracey Lyons, suggested a Nordic folk feel to things, so I’ve been researching Nordic folk art, from rosemaling to woodcrafts to quilt patterns, threw in a dose of Richard Scarry’s Busy Busy World, and come up with what I hope will be a colorful storybook environment with a Scandinavian feel.

Folding screens will frame the space and provide masking. Other scenic elements will be flat and foldable and easily shifted during full-view scenic changes. The second act takes place entirely within the giant’s castle, so scale becomes an issue where flatness and ‘folk’art’ perspective will help — think Colorforms. . .

Finished drafting “Much Ado” today and handed the drawings over to the director. It will be interesting to see how Stage Q puts this show together, since it’s probably the biggest show they’ve yet attempted (and that goes for costumes and lights as well. . .). Here’s wishing them luck.

Drafting up plates for the Stage Q production of “Much Ado About Nothing,” being produced this Fall in Madison. We have a production meeting tomorrow night, so I hope to have the whole thing drafted to hand off, since I will not be around to help them build it (since I’m designing all three shows this Fall for the UWW, and when this goes up, we will be hip deep in “Dracula.”) The trick, of course, is trying to design something that can be successfully built by volunteers, within the highly theorectical minimal budget, in the fuzzy time allotted. . .

The groundplan.

The elevation.

Platforming.

More platforming, with the bar and dj booth.

And finally — a few years ago we did “The Threepenny Opera” at UWW. I was hoping to snag this sign I painted for my office, but it was whisked away by persons unknown at strike. It suddenly showed up at the end of the semester this year. . .