UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

Light hang for “Putnam County” started today (guest LD David Gipson), so it’s time to start juggling electrics, construction, and painting. Here’s a shot from the booth of all the activity happening down on the stage yesterday afternoon:

There’s a projection screen that hangs off a batten, which is used for some of the Gen-Ed courses that get taught in the Barnett, so that had to be moved to another pipe. Here, student ME Quinn works with some of the Intro to Tech students in transferring the screen:

In the shop, construction of the large (sixteen feet tall!) flats for the gym walls continues. Here TAs Lilliana and Nathan confer over a drawing while Intro to Tech student Kolten watches attentively:

In the Barnett, Lilliana works with some students on framing up one of the flats:

While back in the shop, Nathan rips down wood with Intro students Megan and Kolten:

I continued with some of the painting. I think the Puma Pride sign turned out pretty decently (althought I just noticed I missed part of the M’s outline and will have to fix that today):

And I got close to finishing the last of the bee flats:

And the decorative bees for the false proscenium are now done:

Some more shop pics from yesterday afternoon!

Here, Technical Director Ruth discusses a construction matter with TA and assistant technical director Katie:

And here, TA Lilliana works with Intro to Tech student Kat on framing for the proscenium of the stage within a stage:

And then move onto skinning it:

In the Barnett, students start legging up the platforming for the stage within a stage:

I spent the afternoon on paint projects. First, painting and spattering the lower portion of the exterior hall walls:

And then attending to the bee flats:

And then while parts of those dry, lining the tile for the locker room walls:

And then returning to the bee flats. I think they turned out rather adorable. Here are two of them, completed:

Some more pics from yesterday’s shop session!

Two of the Intro to Tech students creating a jig in order to cut long angles in order to splice 1x into super long pieces for the very tall walls:

Painting the championship boards Puma Purple!

Intro to Tech students Megan and Kolten legging up the judge’s platform:

Me, making progress a Bee Flat!

TA Katie working with Natalie on one of those extra-long pieces of 1x:

This past Friday I got very close to finishing the floor for “Putnam County.” This afternoon, I will finish the last few lines and free throw marks, and we can go ahead and seal it.

Yesterday, as more flats got built and primed in the shop, I forged ahead on planking out the gym floor for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” He’s a pic of it near the end of the day:

On Thursday, I plan to lay out and paint the basketball court lines, and then on Friday seal the whole thing.

Meanwhile, a box arrived in mail containing my complementary copies of the book Tracey and I wrote last year!

Shop stuff is happening! Here are some slightly blurry photos of ‘Putnam County’ construction activity!

Here, TA Katie works with Peyton and Grace on covering flats with muslin:

While two other students build flats:

Here’s Katie showing one of the Intro students how to use the band saw:

And Kolten and Peyton priming flats:

While this was happening, I was in the theatre spattering and then lining the floor:

This past Friday, student Mariah and I worked on basing the floor for “Putnam County.” We got much further than I expected, considering we had only an hour and a half. This afternoon, I expect to begin doing some lining, though I need to leave early to hit the trophy stores before they all close. . . .

Classes have resumed, though the shops don’t officially open until Monday. On the other hand, “Putnam County” has been in rehearsal for about two weeks already and I’m heading down to start painting the floor this afternoon.

Here is a photo of the paint elevation for one of the walls:

“Animal Farm” is also in rehearsals, since there is a semester long seminar attached to the production. I’m working up the groundplan this week, as well. Here’s a Sketchup model that roughs in all the basic spatial relationships:

And then a shot of the drafting table with the half-completed groundplan and preliminary sketch:

Our finals for Period Decor and Styles and Introduction to Theatrical Design were scheduled for the tail end of the final exam period (thank you university scheduling). So, the past two days have been spent working through all the projects and evaluating them in order to get the grades in by Friday afternoon.

For Period Decor, the students were assigned a scene from a play with a strong period requirement and expected to design the room required by the play. It wasn’t about design, but rather the application of research, and all of their choices were to be backed up with images and notes in an accompanying binder (since drawing skills varied widely). Here is a shot of most of the set renderings and models (they were given a choice depending on which they felt more comfortable with), pinned to one of the hallway bulletin boards:

For Intro to Design, their final project is also their final lighting design project. They were to present their design metaphor, explain how they developed design elements from the metaphor, present a central metaphor image, lighting visual research images, a charcoal sketch story board of the whole play, a cue synopsis for the whole play, and then develop two color sketches from two of the storyboard looks, create magic sheets to develop those color sketches, and then distill the magic sheets into purpose lists. Here are some pictures of their projects, also hanging on the corridor bulletin boards.

Twelve projects, and each one takes about forty minutes to go through and evaluate fully.

In the quiet between final exams and grading the final exams, finding time to work on paint elevations for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”