UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

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.

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.

Yesterday’s work on “Dracula.” Dry tech is, after all October 2nd. . .

Here’s TD Steve Chene ripping down styrofoam for the cornices. . .

. . . and students attaching the finished facing as the lighting crew looks on. . .

. . . and my final project of the day, working on the wallpaper for the study. Wainscoting will be attached to the bottom halves, and the last thing to do will be to add narrow dark strips on either side of the grey stripes this afternoon. Hopefully, these will then go up today.

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.

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.

Progress on the floor of “Dracula.”

One of the Intro to Theatre students base coats the platforms.

Laying out the wood flooring and one of the areas of stone. The door in back there is left over from classes andnot part of the set.

Glazing the center stone floor.

Drying the grey wash. The student upstage lays out the grid for the tile floor.

And yesterday’s stopping point at the end of shop. The wooden floors are sealed and done. The central stone floor is sealed and done. The upper stone floor needs shadow and a grey wash, and the tiles are in progress. I hope to finish all the floor work by the end of today’s shop hours.

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. . .

The second city flat, done. I then headed into cornice madness.

Students working on the umbrella cart. Or at least gathered around it.

Student propmaster Krissy Fisher cutting out clouds.

And those very same clouds getting primed.

Finally, student Mitch Van Dyke working on the wings of the biplane.