UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

More updates from the UW-Whitewater theatre department as we continue production work on the upcoming opera, “The Tender Land.”

Steve, our TD, needed to leave early on Friday, so after he got everything rolling, he left TA Allison in charge of shop activities. Here is Allison working with Intro student Shelby on installing the painted planks of the shed porch.

You can see the 1st Electric behind them, and TA Quinn worked with other students on circuiting. Here’s Intro student Zach with Quinn working on the 2A Electric.

Here’s another group of students (I think that’s Bruce there in the black shirt, center) working upstage on the 2B and 3rd Electrics.

Over in the shop, painting continued. Here is Intro student James painting the planks and fascia for the house porch, with another student in back there priming things like the benches.

And I continued work on the fifth and sixth portal flats. At the end of the day, this one was almost done (except for clouds and barbed wire). . .

. . . and this one was getting close (clouds, house, windmill. . . ).

Yesterday’s progress on the upcoming UW Whitewater’s production of Aaron Copland’s opera “The Tender Land.” We’ve started hanging lights this week, and here we see TD and lighting designer Steve Chene explaining the applicable portions of the plot to a group of Introduction to Theatre students:

And here they are, a bit later, deep in the circuiting of the second electric:

Another major task for the day was to open the orchestra pit, partly to get the music director and conductor (Prof. Bob Gehrenbeck) into his performance location so the actors can get used to looking for him there, but also because the actors now need to get used to the fact that there is indeed this large hole downstage. Because the stage is never as large as it seems on paper, we’ve gone ahead and left in the two end plugs (in the points); my first task of the day was to paint those to match the rest of the floor.

After which, I went back to the second set of portal flats. Here’s one, complete and ready to go up. .

. . . and the other, just waiting on its clouds.

And up the flats go, while electrics work continues.

Work continues on the upcoming UW-Whitewater production of “The Tender Land.” Here’s an update on yesterday’s activities.

In the scene shop, students build benches. . .

. . . paint the floorboards of the shed’s porch (there’s a section of the primed groundrow over to the left, there). . .

. . . build a period looking screen door. . .

. . . and install the downstage two portal flats.

Here are the two flats from the back of the house:

Meanwhile, my project is moving onto the next two portal flats:

And when I return to my office, there are some lovely sunset-y clouds going on outside my window.

In the graphics seminar this year, the first sizeable project is to draft a groundplan for “True West.” Since we’re still focusing on the mechanics of drafting (we’ll do some designing in the last third of the semester) they need things to draft. To that end, yesterday morning was spent working up a quick design for “True West” that’s detailed enough they can figure it out, but includes enough places where they’ll have to make some decisions as they draft.

. . . and the second one, also nearing completion.

This afternoon I will add the clouds and then these two flats can go up.

Work continues on the upcoming UW Whitewater production of “The Tender Land.” Here we have Technical Director Steve Chene explaining to Shelby and TA Quinn how to lay out the upper framing of the house. . .

. . . and then a little while later when they are joined by Eric and start working through the angle.

In the shop, two of the Intro students are cutting out and assembling the groundrow. . .

. . . while my afternoon project entails painting the downstage most two portal flats. Here they are earlier as I rough in the base colors. . .

. . . and then a bit later as I begin to work in detail.

Some of this morning’s “The Tender Land’ tasks. Working up the paint elevations for the stage left portal flats.

And sealing the upstage walkway. I painted this yesterday afternoon, and after Thad’s scenic painting independent study work session this morning, I had enough time to get some acrylic on this so it will be dry in time for the afternoon’s shop hours.

There will be a fair amount of pictorial paint work on this show. Our TD has told he will build the portal flats this coming week so I can attack those first. That means working out the paint elevations, of course, so here’s the first half, for stage right. Again, borrowing from great American artists like Grant Wood, Alexandre Hogue, and Thomas Hart Benton.

The drafting for the upcoming UW Whitewater production of Copland’s “The Tender Land” is done, so I’m turning my attention to painting. Here is the ground row, in progress.

I was already pulling a lot from American artists Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, but a colleague from the art department dropped by and told me I should also look up the work of Alexander Hogue. His feminization of landscape is the most overt of these three artists, and boy, am I glad Prof. Wilk made me aware of his work!

“Clybourne Park” has been struck, and since no rehearsals are happening in the Barnett these last weeks of classes, I can go ahead and get the floor painted before platforms start moving in. Here is Tuesday afternoon’s progress. The downstage area is not included in the treatment because the pit cover will be removed (you can still see some Clybourne flooring there).

Of course, students being students, someone already decided to work on a scene last night, dragged chairs into the middle of the floor and left large black scuff marks. A senior, who should have known better. Gr.

Work continues on the UW-Whitewater’s production of “Clybourne Park.”

I went into the shop a little early today to rip down the masonite sheets that I had painted with the various tile colors. Here is the stack of bathroom tiles, waiting for installation, with the pink subway tile flats behind them.

And then, here is Liliana tacking them in:

The kitchen tiles, stacked and waiting. . .

The view up the staircase. . .

And good heavens, is there a lot of trim and molding in this show.

The set as it looked yesterday afternoon.

And then, one of my projects this afternoon was to finish the fireplace. Unfortunately, due to some measurement issues, I ran out of tiles and have to paint some more.