UW Whitewater Theatre/Dance Department

Second day of tech, and this is the hand of our light board op, Ashley, as she practices running the board for the show. It’s an ETC Smartfade, for which I have developed a deep and abiding hatred. Since we have 24 dimmers, we can’t run it as a straightforward 2 scene preset, which would have made life much, much easier, and actually recording a cue means creating and playing back pages and stacks, which means once something is recorded (and the manual is by no means clear on how to do this) it becomes very complicated to make any adjustments. There is a way to use it as a one scene ‘preset,’ setting up a cue with all 24 faders, hitting “Next”, setting up the next cue, and then fading into it with the crossfaders. However, there are times it mysteriously hangs onto levels, and if you try to do a manual fade within an established look, the board gets confused and things track forward and there’s no easy way to get back to where you want to be without screwing with the live look on stage as you try to back out of it. I hate this board. Hate it, hate it, hate it, and would prefer it if ETC went back to making the old MicroVision. That board would have been dandy for this space, equipment, and show.

Here’s production manager Bo Johnson working on getting the sound equipment set up.

We are performing on a hillside overlooking the river on the near north side of Milwaukee. Here’s the view slightly east, looking toward the Lake. As it gets darker, the lights come on, and it is quite lovely — though it has been rather cold these past few nights, and everyone at the tech table (myself included) have been bundling up under blankets to run the show.

Yesterday was our first rehearsal on the stage for the Optimists’ “The Winter’s Tale,” their offering for Milwaukee’s free Shakespeare in the Park.

Here’s the space, with the set loaded in. We finished up focus, or rather what passed for focus in full daylight. Later on, after sunset, many discoveries were made and either exploited or corrected.

We’ve got four 6 dimmer Leprecon packs, with 1.2 k dimmers. Most of the ERS’s we borrowed are 750 watt. Which means careful balancing of loads as we cue. I had originally planned to use the front of house units to break the stage up side, center, and side, but since I couldn’t play them at more than 40% without popping breakers, I realized that since one unit comfortably covered the whole stage, I could turn them into tonality units — each got its own color. I might not be able to pull focus, but at least I have a wider variety of atmospheres.

With the sprinkler running all day to water the newly laid sod, it got rather muddy. Here’s artistic director, scenic designer, and actor Ron laying a spare platform over the mud pit in the stage right vom, as director ML looks on.

Here some of the actors work with the fabric they will use to create the storm.

And when it’s a young company mounting only their second outdoor show, it pays to come prepared. I hadn’t heard anyone talk about a tech table, so I brought my own.

With the drawings for “Deathtrap” done, I’ve begun working up the rendering for the second UW Whitewater Summeround show, “Muskie Love.”

This is the black box space at Wisconsin Lutheran College, where the Optimists have been rehearsing “The Winter’s Tale.” That’s Claire, one of the stage managers, at the table on the right. It’s a small, tall space.

While watching rehearsal last night (which was the second full run through) I started putting together the plot — shades of La Musica Lirica, though at least this time around I know ahead of time how many units and how many dimmers I have to play with. We’ll have 24 1.2k dimmers (4 Leprecon packs with 6 dimmers apiece), but since power is limited, nothing can really play at full. The place we’re borrowing units from had all the radial Altman 6x’s you could hope for, but they were all lamped at 750 watts. They were also filthy, so an afternoon last week was spent cleaning mud out of lens trains.

One of the other challenges of the show will be where to put units. There’s no grid, though there is some 2×2 square steels structure that supports the plastic canopies. They’ve cantilevered two pipes out over the front of the structure to create locations for some steep front light (and I hope the curve of the canopies won’t get in the way of getting light upstage) and I built two floor mount horses that I will place out in the tiers of seating for downstage front light. Everything on the ground will have to get struck each night, and reset before each performance. . .

A reminder of the what the performance venue looks like.

French doors!

Our TD, Steve, and the students have been getting the stage of the Barnett ready for “Deathtrap” rehearsals. Since work is being done in both the black box and the house of the Barnett, we’re doing it in the round, on the stage. The playing space is really small — 9 feet by 20. The risers are in place, they’ve hung the rep plot, and are starting in on the corner stair structure.

And I’m working on paint elevations this week, since I won’t be around much to supervise this work. Here’s the floor treatment, pinned to the hallway bulletin board outside the shop.

This is the finished rendering, also on the bulletin board outside the shop.

And here is a plate of wall elevations, looking very paint by numbers.

Step by step, the “Deathtrap” rendering gets closer and closer.

First the outline. . .

. . . and then color by numbers.

Today’s project is working up a rendering of “Deathtrap” for tonight’s first rehearsal. Having started out way back in high school with mechanical drafting, my drawing has always had a rather schematic look to it.

And, my other Callas book arrived in the mail today. More preparation for this August’s “Master Class” at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.

“Deathtrap” is on the drafting table. Since we’re doing it in the round, the staircase needs to be placed in one of the voms, so I’m working up the configuration.

The semester’s over. I’m trying to cut back a little this summer in order to have a little down time, so I’m only going to be working on four shows. First, I’ve signed on to do lighting for the Optimists’ production of “The Winter’s Tale,” which is their Shakespeare in the Park offering in Milwaukee this summer, and will open the second week in June. This is the pavilion in which we will play:

As befits the pavilion, the director has chosen to go with a somewhat “Star Trek” informed aesthetic. Since it won’t be dark until halfway through the show, and we’ll have maybe 24 dimmer tops, lighting will be — well, minimal yet inventive. We’ve been discussing handheld LEDs and solar powered actor manipulated sources.

I’m still working on the two UW-Whitewater Summeround shows, though I’m designing and then handing them off to our TD. Here’s the groundplan for “Muskie Love,” hot off the drafting table.

The last project of the summer will be lighting “Master Class” for Milwaukee Chamber Theatre in August. So a little reading up is in order: