While writing my Prague blog (www.tomburchinprague.blogspot.com), last month at the Prague Quadrennial 2011. I realized that I enjoyed writing, and figured that during tech rehearsals is a perfect time to put some thoughts on ‘paper’. As a scenic designer during tech, I’m often sitting in the relatively empty audience, watching the slow progression though the play, as we integrate lights, sound, costumes, props, and acting. And during this, I’m typically bored enough that I end up eating… and eating… and snacking in between bouts of eating, so I’m hoping that perhaps by WRITING, I might snack a little less. As to purpose, my intention is to write about the design process, the business of being a working professional designer, and tech issues, including images of the various projects that I’m in tech for… in some ways it’s like an e-design journal. As such, postings will likely be sporadic as I am, fortunately, NOT in tech every week… though it often seems like I might be, especially to my wife.
So as to the basics of THIS first production on the blog…
Title: ROCKLAND, the opera
By: Jukka Linkola -- composer, Jussi Tapola – librettist
Producer: Pine Mountain Music Festival in Houghton, MI
This is the American premiere of this work.
Director: Jussi Tapola (yep, the Finnish librettist)
Scenic Design : yours truly
Lighting Design: Helena Kuuka
Costume Design: Suzanne Young
Story: ROCKLAND is based on a first-hand account of a labor dispute at a copper mine near Houghton, MI in 1906. Following a mining accident that took several lives, a group of Finnish miners discuss going on strike for better wages and safer working conditions. The sentiment of the small town lies with the “more American” mine owners (Methodists) over the immigrant, mainly- Finnish, miners (Lutheran). Pekka, an ardently drunk miner, uses this event to begin to turn his life around, becoming the leader of the strike movement, having watched a close friend die in the accident. His loyal wife, Johanna is being subtly wooed by Pekka’s brother, William, a foreman at the mine. He wants to try working with the mine owners to better conditions. The mine owners move to evict the widow of a recently killed miner from the company housing. This outrages Pekka and after giving a passionate argument at the temperance hall, the miners decide to strike. His brother goes to the mine owners to attempt to broker a peace, only to be strong-armed with the promise of a promotion. The mine owners ask him to name names, and he gives up his brother as a ring-leader. As the strike nears, the two preachers give fervent sermons that further inflame their own parishoners’ points of view. At the strike, the police, nominally there to safeguard the ‘scab miners’, actually fire into the crowd, killing two, including Pekka. Following his funeral, William tries to convince Johanna to marry him, but Johanna has decided to return with her two children to the Old Country, saying that there is too much memory of pain here for her to stay.
More to come tomorrow about the set itself and our thought process in the design.
