UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

Yesterday, assistant designer Abby and I had a meeting to discuss progress on “The Addams Family Musical.” One of her projects is to research, design, and draft the crypt wagon, and another is to research ways to create the upward stabbing spike of the heretic chair. She shared some videos and info in which folks used bungees and rather awkward levers. I’ve been thinking about other mechanical solutions to this effect and in explaining my thoughts to Abby I whipped up a little three minute model, which turned out to be rather adorable:

We’re still looking, but we now have a fair amount on the table to sort though.

I’ve also been working up the first wave of paint elevations. Here are the periaktois and flip panels, in progress on the drafting table:

It’s the last week of classes! Sadly, our production of “Resort 76” was not selected to travel to the KCACTF Region 3 festival in January. Time to start taking that apart (though since the shop had to clear the corridor where we were storing half the show in order to make room for the arrival of the shelving system for the prop and costume collection spaces, the scenery and props have been crammed into the trap room for the time being. . .).

On the other hand, drafting continues on “The Addams Family Musical.’ I’m up to plate 15, now, and student assistant designer Abby is working up a plate for the crypt wagon.

As I’ve firmed up dimensions, I’ve also gone back to the Sketchup model and added some more details:

I’m also getting ready to dive into the paint elevations, so here’s a pic of the drafting table as I lay out the periaktoi faces:

On to finals week!

As I mentioned in the previous post, this week I’m working on the drafting for “The Addams Family Musical.”

Here are two of the plates, featuring one of the periaktoi faces:

And another featuring the details of the periaktois’ Mansard roof pieces:

On both plates, there’s some information yet to be added and/or revised as I work out features on upcoming plates. That’s one of the nice things about drafting with a computer program; it’s a bit easier to revise. Since I haven’t gotten to all the detail plates for the smaller, moveable scenic elements I don’t yet know what the total number of sheets will be. . .

On the other hand, I have enough concrete measurements to begin a detailed Sketchup model. Here’s an image with the platforming, periaktoi, and flip panels that I shared with the production team this morning:

“Twelfth Night” closed before the Thanksgiving Break, but since I took about a 1000 photos at final dress (and it’s the final weeks of the semester and I’m drafting The Addams Family Musical) it’s taking me a while to go through them all. Here’s a selection of production photos from the first third of the show.

Scenic design by student Megan Grove. Lighting design by guest LD Noele Stollmack. Costume design by student Grace Rusch. Stage manager student Michelle Dohm. Props team students Abby Lezama-Smith and Siena LoMastro. Sound design by Hans Pregler.

The set under work lights:

Preshow. KG walked and played as the audience entered:

Top of the show, on the beach after the shipwreck:

Toby Belch and conspirator:

Feste and Olivia’s court:

Preparing for Viola’s entrance:

Sebastian and the captain:

Belch and Aguecheek:

Conspiring against Malvolio:

Malvolio reads the letter:

More to come!

Last night was first dress! Things are going a little slowly, but smoothly. Here are some photos from the last couple of days:

First, here’s student set designer Megan working on painting the edges of the platforming;. She’s tracking the plank colors down onto the sides to make it appear as though the planks have thickness:

One of the props is an aspergillum. Here’s co-props manager Abby proudly holding up the in-progress holy water wand, which is part whiffle ball:

Nathan adds black lines between the planks while Byron paints platform legs:

And a broader shot of the stage from Friday afternoon, with Nathan and Byron painting stage right, and Mary painting more center, and Megan down there working on her platform edges down left:

The view from behind the tech table at last night’s dress. Student light board operator Siena, with guest LD Noele Stollmack, and student SM Michelle at the far end:

Megan’s in the house, taking notes:

Taking a pause, and using the opportunity to fix a cravat (costumes are designed by Student Grace Rausch):

And here’s Malvolio reading the fateful letter:

Tonight is first the first night of technical rehearsals, and as usual, a lot has been done and a lot is still to be done.

First, here’s a pic from the wrap up of focus, with student ME Nick talking to guest LD Noele Stollmack about the history of the Autoyoke:

One of my tasks was to frame up and paint two hedge pieces. Here’s one of them drying against the wall in the Hicklin theatre:

Student scenic designer Megan paints the small patio table:

Here’s student Sam P., working on Megan’s fiendishly angled stairs:

Abby is co-Props Manager (with Siena). Here she is repairing the bread:

And Megan, once again, working out paint recipes for her pier floor treatment:

Today, KG painted the angled stairs with Megan’s lovely violet ‘slate’ colors:

And then went on to help me paint in the pier planks. Here’s a pic of the stage at the end of the shop session:

A bit further on the painting for “Twelfth Night.” Got the brown beach areas laid in on the main deck:

Megan (the student set designer) is getting me the flagstone paint treatment for the platforming later today, so the plan is to start basing those areas either this afternoon during focus, or Monday before class.

Here’s the mountain groundrow laid out on the Hicklin theatre floor and base painted. Our TD stitched it together with old painted flats, freshly muslined flats, and luaun profile pieces — lots of different textures that all grab paint differently, so I’ve had to put down extra coats of the base to even things out. Not all that happy with it at this point. . .

Hard to believe we’re two thirds of the way through the Fall semester! Still, that means it’s time to present the final scenic design projects for Intro to Theatrical Design!

In the five weeks we work on scenic design in the class, the students analyze a script, do scenic breakdowns, work up a design metaphor, gather visual research, create a groundplan, and build an experimental white model. All this work was presented this morning.

Here are some photos of the students pinning their work to the hallways bulletin boards, in preparation of their presentations:

The big pile of furniture and props at the end of the hallway there belong to “Resort 76.” We’re waiting to hear back from KCACTF on whether we’ll be invited to present at January’s festival, and since we don’t have our store rooms back on-line (because of the print room expansion project) there’s not much any other place to keep things. . .

Next week, we dive into lighting design!

We’re a week from dry tech. Focus starts tomorrow! Here are some photos from the past few days of work on “Twelfth Night!”

First, the platforms have all been put into place, and here’s a pic of the electrics crew wrapping up hanging and circuiting the overstage battens:

Our guest designer is using all of our automated fixtures, which means they’ve required some long overdue checkups. Here’s student ME Nick doing some trouble shooting on the iris of one of the Autoyokes.

Sharva, one of the Intro students, looks very happy to throwing a quick coat of primer down to prevent the new masonite from being a slip hazard:

Megan, the student scenic designer, gave me two images of the mountain groundrow and asked me to combine them. Here are my first experiments:

After consulting some of my watercolor technique books, I tried again, and came up with something that worked better. Megan said to go with this approach:

I popped in this earlier morning to prime the deck and platforms. During shop hours I was able to lay in the blue ‘water’ area as per Megan’s instructions (she was at class this afternoon):

And then finally, since we are heading into focus, the tech tables need to get set up. Here’s Nick working with Harry and Jeremy on disconnecting the lighting control console to move it down to the table:

Construction continues on “Twelfth Night,” (student scenic designer Megan Grove) and not only are platforms are starting to go into place, but the light hang has begun. We have a guest LD for this show: Noele Stollmack.

Here’s Michelle (who is also the SM for the production) consulting the plot with a practicum student:

In the shop, framing the big hexagonal platform wraps up:

And a bit later, Kory finishes fastening down the lid to the hex platform (though I think Kory’s lower back will not be pleased. . .):

A bit later, in the theatre, Abby works on framing up the groundrow of mountains:

While Mary measures and cuts lumber for the next groundrow pieces:

In other news, I’ve got a rough preliminary model of the Addams Family Musical put together. The director (Bruce Cohen) and the choreographer (Piper Hayes) have both taken a took at it, said yes, so I’m now working up a draft of the groundplan and figuring out all the bits and pieces that will be needed for the various scenes.