UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

We have dry tech for “Poe Xs 2” this afternoon. I took Thursday off, as the only painting left to do was the Renaissance painting that Lilliana was working on. Today we’ll tackle the fabric and final elements together. Here’s where she was on Wednesday morning:

Since she wasn’t in to work on it Wednesday morning, I went ahead and painted the paneling at the top and bottom the flat:

I also aged some paper for the “Black Cat” half of the show:

At the start of Wednesday morning, all four central flip panels were up:

Here’s Alex and Nathan trimming the excess muslin off one of the side panels:

And then Katie and Nathan installing the panel in its frame:

Other projects included finishing up the hanging and circuiting (since Quinn, the LD would start focus on Thursday):

And dismantling the risers in order to set them in their new arrangement. Nathan’s under there somewhere.

A quiet morning in the shop. Alex and Nathan continue hanging and circuiting. Here’s Nathan checking his music lists while following the plot:

And Alex contemplates some circuiting:

After a bit, it’s time to paint the stage perimeter with gloss black:

I continued working on the St. Mark’s lion flat. I plan to finish it after lunch.

Into the final stretch!

Lilliana has begun to work up the large painting for act one:

Some more light hang occurs:

The pipe arrives!

Pipe is inserted into the flippy panels:

Nathan enjoys using the mallet:

Lilliana forges on ahead with the large painting:

The facing panel for the act one side of the flippy panel is attached:

And the act two side:

Up it goes!

A bit later, three are up!

I work on the prison door flat:

And the St. Mark’s lion flat:

Further work on the summer shows! Much of the construction is done — though the flippy panels will need to be installed — and emphasis has shifted to painting for a while.

Here’s my continuing project, the tracery for “Poe x2” act on:

Meanwhile, Alex and Nathan re-establish the boundaries of the painted sections of the stage floor. . .

. . . so Alex can lay in a base coat before painting the borders to match the facing.

Shelby seals the nosing:

And Lilliana traces out the painting that will adorn the stage right panel:

Work continues on the Summeround shows!

I finished two of the tracery panels for the first act of “Poe Xs” yesterday. Here’s one of them:

And this morning finished basing the prison panels for the second act of Poe:

The interior frames for the flippy panels are all done:

So, the exposed sides needed to get painted before they got installed. Here’s Nathan, glaring balefully at the camera:

And TD Katie with Alex:

They also started pulling lighting units from the Barnett Theatre. Some units need to stay in the air for Theatre Camp, so Alex made some quick notes on the stage floor to help them remember what needed to remain:

The construction of the flippy panels is in full swing, and I’ve started painting the central set for the first half of “Poe Xs 2.” First though, here’s a pic of the deck, sealed:

And the facing, sealed:

Base color of the central panels:

Since the walls will have painted inset panels and tracery, one of my projects this morning was to create a stencil for the tracery:

And then shade in the appropriate sections so we have a guide once we move to the actual painting:

And here is the intrepid team assembling the framework for the panels. Summer TD Katie working with Nathan on one of the 4′ wide ones:

Lilliana and Nathan discussing a drawing. Or life. Perhaps Beyonce.

Alex enjoys using the drill press:

And of course, happy technicians make for a happy shop. . .

Construction has begun on this summer’s shows — both “Poe Xs 2” and “Rounding Third” will use the same platform arrangement, and rotating walls will have replaceable panels for each show. Something very new this summer is the all student tech staff, including student technical director. Katie has been leading the others in getting things built, and here’s a photo of the platforming in place from the middle of last week:

“Animal Farm” has opened and closed, and we’re heading into the final days of the semester. Production work doesn’t stop though — this week saw the presentation of the Directing I scenes in the Hicklin, and Friday night will feature the Emerging Choreographer’s Concert in the Barnett.

We’ve started moving not just on the two summer shows, but production meetings are scheduled for the first Fall show (“Toil and Trouble”), and student designers have been given their timelines and deadlines so that they don’t panic the day after Labor Day when we both return to class and start building the set.

Here are the preliminary Sketchup renderings of the two summer shows. First, “Rounding Third,” since we had a meeting about that show yesterday:

Since we have a small budget for the summer as well as a first time student TD, I’ve chosen to go with a rep arrangement of platforming and pivot walls that can accommodate simple scenic environments for both plays. Here’s the first half of “Poe Xs 2:”

We have our Poe meeting tomorrow, but the director likes what she’s seen so far.

The students, of course, have been working their tails off as well. In the advanced design seminar, two students chose to develop their rendering skills by analyzing and painting various fabric textures. Here’s Lilliana’s:

And some of Allison’s:

Lilliana is also at work on a scenic painting project:

Finally, our TD (Ruth) has been feverishly putting together a comprehensive production calendar for next year. Here it is, pinned to the board outside her office for all to see and refer to:

When you put the whole thing on a piece of paper and color code it, well, it sure reinforces the fact that we do quite a bit here!

Final Dress of “Animal Farm” was last night. Adaptation of the George Orwell novel by Ian Woolridge. Directed by Angela Iannone, scenic design by Eric Appleton, costume design by Marshall Anderson, lighting design by student Quinn Bauer, props management by students Andrew Walsh and Ben Treinen, sound design by student Costandi Kuttab, stage managed by student Brianna Cullen.

Here are some photos. There’s a lot of constant movement in this show that my little camera can’t handle at lower light levels, so please excuse the blurriness in some of these images.

The set under worklights:

The “Manor Farm” sign was a late addition. I’ll be toning it down this afternoon.

Old Major addresses the animals:

The expulsion of Snowball:

The completion of the windmill:

Teaching the young animals:

Pilkington vists the pigs:

At UW-Whitewater, our students are encouraged to undertake research projects under the banner of the Undergraduate Research Program. In the Theatre/Dance program, partial funding for conference particpation in KCACTF and ACDFA comes through student participation in UR. In March, for one day, students from across campus gather in the University Center to present their work. For Theatre/Dance students, this means presenting the work that they’ve presented at their conferences. The design/tech/stage management students have physical displays (as do some of the dance students), while the actors present one of their short pieces. Here are photos of our students setting up their displays, ending with one of the performance students presenting Hermia’s monologue from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to his fellow UR participants.