I should

I should be finishing a paper right now. But instead I'll write here.

Oklahoma! technical rehearsals are in full swing now after two 16 hour calls over the weekend. Tonight we had tech yet again. What is tech? Well tech stands for technical rehearsals, and the first night of tech (in this case, Saturday morning) is usually the first time the performers ever get to integrate all the work they've been doing in the rehearsal studio into the set and lighting of the actual stage. It usually begins with a spacing rehearsal, where they skip to all the dance numbers and run things to get spacing on the new stage correct. After that, we go through the entire show bit by bit. We run things over and over and over again, trying out different ways of doing things and being very picky. Its time when lighting can program their cues, and when the scenery crew can work out issues onstage. We joke that 15 minuets in the show can take hours (I'd say around 3) to get through, and its true. Tech rehearsals are tedious. But for the scenery run crew, that means ALOT of waiting. There are hours that go by where the actors are going through a scene and we don't have any shifts. So we pass the time by doing homework, talking to each other, or playing games. We (the scenery crew) stay downstairs in a room with some couches and a table, and are able to be on out laptops and work on homework and stuff. Its funny though, because homework here can't just be done studying. There's a wig-and-makeup freshman on our crew who's working on a wig, there are a few of us working on computer-drafting, and some others of us drawing and painting.

So all in all, its pretty low stress and quite fun. The experience has been great so far, but its only day three. We have over a week until opening still and a lot of water will go under the bridge prior to then.

While working on this show I'm becoming really humbled by how awesome the production really is. Looking at pictures or film from the original production is awesome because it looks almost exactly like our set. The dances are perfectly identical to what our dancers are doing. Its a strange link in time to be apart of the show. The one thing I'm thankful is not faithful to the original production is the crew uniforms. During the research, a photo was found of the crew for the 1943 production. They were all dressed in tuxedos--vest and all. The standard show blacks are fine with me.

Some stuff

The white-haired leaders of this journey standing on a very large piece of painted fabric that is now hanging on the stage.

This is Gemze de Lappe. She is 85. She was in the first Broadway, US National Tour,  European Premiere, and Australian Premiere of Oklahoma. She is choreographing the show. No big deal. 

Catch-Up

Since my posting abilities over the last term were not to swell, I'll recap with some photos from my phone:

Color & Design: Facial Improvisations

Drafting: Shading on a Drop-Point Perspective made from a groundplan. Fun stuff...

My in-progress "spiritual dwelling place".

This was my life during 1776, checking meters. Adams and Hancock, you can be heard.

1776 finale, the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

"Cool Considerate Men"

My nest during the show, just to the right of the sound desk (the rectangle with the flashythings on it)

Not the greatest photograph, I know, but sort of shows from above how the orchestra (left) was behind the set (right)

Final Drafting project!

Wireless microphones use a LOT of batteries. What to do with them when they're dead? Create action heros of course!!!

At the end of last term, I got discounted tickets (because Cirque wants all of us to work for them) to see Cirque du Solei's Totem in Charlotte!

Oklahoma!

I realize I haven't posted a thing since the beginning of winter term. Things got a bit busy.

Things are perhaps busier now. We'll see.

This term I am completing my shop rotation by moving to the scene shop. This means that I will be assigned to a show to build the scener for and then actually "run" the show. Being that the run-crew for the all-school musical Oklahoma! has ten freshman, and seeing that our class has only thirteen people, it is no surprise that I am assigned to Oklahoma! Since the start of this term, I have had crew every weekday, from either 2-6 or 7-11 PM. For the first two weeks we worked exclusively in the shop building what remained to be finished for the production. Because of the size and importance of this show, all of the production elements have been in construction all year. So while little of the set remained to be built, there was still a few last minuet things to take care of.

Beginning last weekend we began the process of moving the scenery into the space. The scene shop is on campus and the venue--the Stevens Center--is five minuets away downtown, so everything built has to be packed away in a truck and transported. As of right now, a good chunk of the scenery is loaded-in downtown, including all of the painted drops, the floor, four large portals that surround the stage, and a miscellany of flying farm houses, kitchens, barns, and other stuff. There is still a tremendous amount to do, but everything so far is on schedule.

Starting after next week, we will enter the technical rehearsal period. This is the time in theatre where the two worlds- production and performers collide and we try and make something of it. This is where all problems are squashed, things are tweaked, and when the performers get a chance to practice on the actual stage and set they'll be performing on. After dress rehearsals, we will open for a few weeks run.

So what makes this production so special? Its by far the largest and most complicated production the school produces, the "all school musical". Its a tradition that the school has carried since the founding of the school-every four or five years or so where the entire school collaborates on a single production. In Super-Bowl halftime style, each production attempts to out-do the previous, as you can imagine. 2007's all-school musical was a 50th anniversary production of West Side Story directed by the original assistant director. This time around, we are staging Oklahoma! as it was originally staged in 1943. So everything-the sets, the costumes, the props and [to the best you can really do...] the lighting is original to the production. [Side note- its hard to recreate a lighting design from mostly black-and-white photographs. Also, lighting technology and knowledge has progressed light years (pun intended) since the 1940s and using original lighting equipment would be about as easy as resurrecting the original cast. Nevertheless, its funny to see automated (computer-controlled) lighting hanging above the stage.]  The choreographer for the show played the role of Dream Laury in the original Broadway and subsequent national touring company.

Point in case, its a big deal. The school is spending alot on the production. In return, the profits from the show all go to scholarship funds for the four participating schools (Dance, Drama, Design&Production, Music. Film? They uhh... they make movies.) The size of the production allows us in D&P to work on a show that is really of Broadway proportions. The budget certainly isn't of Spiderman proportions, but its definitely much larger than most of our shows, which are produced with a "its not the tools, its the carpenter" sort of attitude.

Here is the school website for the production:
Featured Performance: Oklahoma!

More entertaining is this web series of videos that the Kenan Foundation is producing:
Oklahoma! Webisodes

Here are some articles from the interwebz on the production:
TheatreMania.com
Playbill.com

Well hello

Well hello there.

Its been quite some time since I have posted here, partially due to the fact that I have been excruciatingly busy for the past two-three weeks. At the top of this term I was assigned as a follow spot operator on the winter opera, Cosi Fan Tutte. The opera took place at the Stevens Center, which is in downtown. Its an old movie/vaudeville house that the school was gifted and renovated in the '80s. So in addition to being a followspot operator, I was also called just about every other time to help load in equipment, run cable, and focus lights. The show ran for only three performances on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday of last week. Its right at about three hours long and it being an opera, isn't the most exciting thing to stay focused all the way through.

Anyway, I've got some bad pictures I took with my phone and some pictures I stole from Facebook for you to see. As a preference, I should say that this opera was set in the 1960s, though it was written by Mozart in the 18th Century. The costumes and scenery and lighting are very "mod", post modern, and the whole show sort of takes place in an abstracted sort of world. It was very neat and visually stunning.

From Facebook:

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In the "Conservatory"

Wedding

Pre-show. Note the two white circular objects (they are actually beds) downstage. Inside is a really complicated system that allows them to spin and move around on stage remotely. So essentially giant R/C cars! Super cool effect. 

My Photos from the projection booth:

On the left is my followspot. 

Above the stage is a narrow projection screen that displays "super titles" of the libretto in English so everyone who doesn't speak Italian knows what the deal is.

Cosi Fan Tutte translates to "They are all the same", which in context with the opera means "All women are unfaithful and will cheat on their husbands." Mozart was quite a charmer.

Before the show.

About four hours in to strike.

Backstage:

Lighting ladders offstage left. Notice the amount of cable.

Looking towards stage right. From behind you can see the set is constructed almost entirely of steel with wood cladding.

The show was very fun to work on, though time consuming. It led to me getting behind in my classes and a few late nights. But thats the normal these days.

Up next in the short month of February: The musical 1776, the plays A Soldier's Play and Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, and 'Winter Dance' at the Stevens Center.