do Blondes have more fun? onstage, this time, they did!

I rather abruptly left off my last post after the synopsis. My apologies… the story is complicated enough and the tech has been busy enough that I’ve had little time to sit and write.

(I should note that I'm FINALLY getting around to posting this... 2 weeks AFTER the show has closed.)

Moving forward…

I feel there needs to be a bit of a disclaimer here… The process of this design was…. a little…out of the ordinary, shall we say. I started working on it in late March, after I had accepted the new teaching position here at Ithaca College. So, I was starting this design a little blind… not really knowing the people, or the space, or much about the show. I was also doing it long-distance… while we did have one face-to-face meeting (while I was out visiting looking for a place to rent), the rest of the initial process happened over phone/e-mail. This is (I feel, regrettably) becoming more common in this biz, and regularly has to be worked around. 

This is also a BIG show. I’ve regularly done musicals, and they’re something I really do enjoy working on from time to time, however, this one is particularly challenging. It has 23 locations, spread out over 28 scenes. And there are some songs that move to multiple locations WITHIN the song, meaning that the transitions between locations have very specific timings that have to be taken into account. This show also has two parade sequences, and 4 scenes that require having dogs onstage….. actual live dogs…. Yes…. I know… Kinda crazy, eh? There’s also a cast of 30, and somewhere near 130 costumes.  Logistically it’s very challenging, and in some ways, I feel like we’ve been designing for the transitions as much as for the actual SCENES, which feels so antithetical to what design is really about as a reaction to the needs of the moment and to finding an aesthetic gesture to support the story.

Anyhow, to the design…

THE DESIGN

The director was very keen to point out that the WAY in which the story is told has a great deal of broad comedy, but the TRUTH of the story is grounded in reality… a girl get dumped, wants to win her ex back, and in-so-doing, finds her path to success. There’s a very earnest “life-path” story here, and it has to be honored, but that doesn’t mean that we have can’t have a tongue-in-cheek angle from which to view this story. Because of the practical concern of getting scenery on and offstage, we decided to use a “wing and drop” method of scenery to allow for quick paths for actors and stuff to enter and exit. A “wing and drop” is typically a series of arches or legs, the ones most downstage are larger and they get smaller as they move upstage to allow a perspective to be used. This method was popularized in the late middle ages to give the illusion of greater depth, and because it allowed them to faux paint elements and therefore make scenery as cheap as can be.

In thinking about what these arches could LOOK like for Blonde. I looked at a lot of research about fashion (as it’s an aspect of Elle’s character) and thought about what could be iconic and also have an edge or comedic bend. In a early research image there was a model holding a Louis Vuitton bag… and that kinda stuck with me. It’s a pattern that’s primarily brown, with a tight, off-set pattern of flowers and diamonds with Louis’ initials scattered within. This pattern is rather iconic, and so we appropriated ti (excising the LV and replacing it with an EW – for Elle Woods), and instead of the typical brown circle at the center of the diamonds in the pattern, we put small lightbulbs that could light in sequence. The floor is an ombre (a fancy word meaning a color fade) from brown (upstage) to a medium grayed pink (downstage).  The amalgamation of brown arches and a pink floor was a bit dicey, but fortunately the Lighting Designer (Clay Harding) did a really lovely job of choosing colors for the lights that worked quite beautifully with the scheme.

the classroom

with two of the arches lit up, for the finale

The rest of the set amounts to pieces that slide or fly in (sometimes both at the same time). These sliding WAGONS held everything from a restaurant table and chairs, to Elle’s daybed to a hair and nail salon to the trailer where Paulette’s ex-boyfriend lives with their dog, Rufus. All in all there are 25 scenes, and 21 locations. As previously stated, we had to be careful in choreographing the moving pieces in time with the music, but safely, to allow the 32 cast members, and 10 backstage crew to maneuver, make costume, scenic and prop changes.

full-stage with the salon

(note that this pic was taken partway thru tech, a TON of carpentry and set 

dressing happened to this unit afterwards)

close up of salon

graduation scene at the end of the show

I think my personal favorite look was right at the top of the show. The first scene takes place in the Delta Nu Sorority at UCLA. It’s a bright white, medium lavender, and pink confection with a Marilyn Monroe quote scrawled across it, “Give a girl the right pair of shoes, and she can conquer the world”. For me this was, both crazily appropriate for this fashion-conscious group of girls, but prescient for what happens in the third scene where Elle gets dumped by Warner, telling her he needs “someone serious/ less of a Marilyn, more of a Jackie”. I doubt many in the audience caught the irony of the gesture, but I enjoy finding ways to layer ideas together, even if in subtle ways.

the sorority unit

And now for some(where) completely different....

LEGALLY BLONDE the MUSICAL

by Lawrence O'Keefe, Nell Benjamin, and Heather Hach
based on the original book by Amanda Brown and the 2001 film.

Ithaca College Theatre

Directed by Greg Bostwick
Choreography by Roy Lightner

Scenic Design by yours truly
Costumes Design by Greg Robbins
Lighting Design by Clay Harding
Sound Design by Ian


THE STORY
follows the film rather closely....

Elle Woods, the president of her UCLA Sorority, is convinced that longtime boyfriend (eastcoast blueblood Warner Huntington III) is about to pop the "question". Her sorority sisters are thrilled and preparing a celebration (Omigod You Guys), and go to meet her at the dress shop where she's shopping for the perfect "getting engaged" dress (in her signature color, pink). After finding the perfect dress, she meets Warner at a restaurant where he talks about his life plans (Serious). It turns out he's dumping her saying she's "more of a Marilyn, less of a Jackie", and that if his lifeplan (Harvard Law, US Senate by the time he's 30, essentially a 21st century JFK) is to happen he needs to find a serious partner, thus the dumping. Elle's sorority sisters try to console her with her favorite magazines, but a pic of Warner's brother's wedding give Elle a "totally brilliant idea" (What You Want). She'll follow him to Harvard Law, impress him with her brain, not just her other assets, and he'll fall back in love with him, they'll marry and have the life he wants. Simple, right? Her sorority sis (and academic task-master), Kate, warns her that this means she'll have to buckle down and study rather than party her way through her senior year (What You Want/Jamaican Party). But Elle succeeds and gets the LSAT minimum for Harvard.

Meanwhile, at the Harvard Admissions Office, they are about to throw her application out on a  technicality, but she shows up (in a pink, sparkly majorette uniform, of course) backed up by UCLA cheerleaders to deliver her "personal essay". The Admissions Officers give in. The first day, on Harvard Yard, Elle meets fellow classmates including older classman, Emmet Forrest (Harvard Variations), and rushes off to her first class with the inimitable Prof. Callahan, who espouses his shark-ish philosophy (Blood in the Water), before booting Elle from class for not being prepared. Dejected she mopes about Harvard Yard only to encounter classmate, Vivienne, who happens to be Warner's new girlfriend. This news causes a psychic shock to Elle, who starts seeing visions of a greek chorus "because this is definitely a tragedy", this chorus bears an uncanny resemblance to her sorority sisters from California. The chorus suggests that she needs to keep up her spirits (Positive). Elle then decides that to APPEAR more serious she should become a brunette and seeks out a salon.

At the Hair Affair Salon, Elle is talked out of the color change by owner Paulette, who sees the parallel between Elle's story and her own sad lovelife. Paulette dreams of meeting a strong man of her own (Ireland). Vivienne comes into the shop to buy something, and Elle overhears plans for a party that evening, Viv telling her it's a costume party. At the sedate, "adult" party, Elle appears as a very pink, very sexy Playboy bunny, and causes a stir. Again dejected, she's moping around Harvard yard, when she runs into Emmet, and they share their stories of hardship (Chip on Your Shoulder), and Emmet escorts her back to her very pink  dorm room, where he begins to help Elle get her head on straight, helping her study and realizing that Warner isn't the problem, Elle's attitude is.

In class a few months later, Warner has an apparent victory taken out of his hands by a resurgent Elle, impressing Callahan, in advance of his announcement of his new interns. Meanwhile, Elle helps Paulette get her dog back from her ex-boyfriend using a legitimate legal stance. This second victory empowers Elle. She heads back to school, where Callahan is posting the students who will be interns, Vivienne and Warner are two of them, Warner's so overcome with excitement that he proposes to Vivienne on the spot, depressing Elle, only to have her shocked to learn that she's one of the interns! (My Name Up on that List), ending the act on a high note, literally.

Act 2 begins with the internship in full swing as the team is trying to defend an accused homicidal fitness guru, Brooke Wyndham (Whipped Into Shape), who is accused of murdering her wealthy older husband. Callahan send the interns to get her alibi, which she won't give. Brooke confides in Elle her alibi. Callahan and the others try to pry it out of Elle, but she refuses to rat out her sorority sister.
To help Emmet feel better at being chewed out by Callahan, Elle takes him shopping for a new suit (Take It Like a Man). At the salon the next day, the hunky new UPS guy flirts with Paulette who doesn't have the confidence to talk with him which leads her to start seeing Elle's greek chorus too (Bend and Snap). Her confidence restored, Kyle comes back to find his stylus, and is knocked unconscious, by Paulette's Bend and Snap.

At the trial, the prosecution puts on the poolboy who says that Brooke was having an affair with him. Elle smells a rat, and tries to use the Bend and Snap on him realizing he doesn't react. She tells the team that she thinks he might be gay (Gay or European), and Emmet's cross-examination proves that the affair story was a lie, Both Emmet and Elle are heros of the day. Celebrating at the Law Office, Callahan makes a pass at Elle (which Warner witnesses and assumes that Elle slept her way into the internship). Callahan fires Elle. Dejected yet again, Elle decides to leave Harvard and return to California but stops at the salon to say goodbye to Paulette. Vivienne happens to be there and overhears Elle's plan. Knowing that Elle is telling the truth about Callahan, Vivienne backs up her now-former rival, saying that they should stick together and that Elle can't give up.

Re-empowered, Elle parades back to the Courtroom where Brooke fires Callahan on the spot and leaves her fate in Elle's hands. Brooke's grown former step-daughter (the person who reportedly came downstairs to find her over her husband's body) is on the witness stand, and Elle realizes that Chutney is the culprit but has to find a way to trap her in her lies. Elle suggests that the court adjourn to the scene of the crime... the Wyndham mansion bathroom, where Elle exposes Chutney's lie using her reported perm as evidence. The judge immediately dismisses the charges, Elle has won!

Warner, freshly rejected by Vivienne, tries to propose to Elle, only to be rejected himself, Elle has found her own way and realizes that she doesn't need Warner to be fulfilled.

We jump forward three years to the Harvard Law graduation, where Elle is the valedictorian, and Paulette married... to Kyle... and pregnant again, lets us know "where are they now". Emmet has become successful in his own right, and is there with Elle, and the show ends with Elle proposing to Emmet and being cheered on by their friends (Omigod, redux).

OK... here are a couple pic from the EARLY part of tech... I'll write more tomorrow from the next day of tech....

from audience right near the orchestra pit. you see the arches (the major element of the set), and the Harvard flywall (which comes in and out over several scenes) and the costume designer, Greg Robbins in the corner.

same scene under lighting.. including one of our scenic tricks... lightbulbs all over the arches.

this is offstage left... it's the computer-driven winch system that operates several of the scenic palettes that slide scenery on and offstage... more on those tomorrow.

Thank You and Good Night, Chicago

I’ve been wondering quite how to start this one off… I thought about going musical-esque with “Kiss Today Goodbye, Point Me Toward Tomorrow” which for those of you NOT of the musical theatre ilk is a quote from A CHORUS LINE. I also briefly considered “Give me your hands if we be friends” from Puck’s epilogue of Shakespeare’s MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, but that seemed too obvious, and a little self-aggrandizing…. Asking for applause?!!? That’s something a designer never does… well… at least, I wouldn’t do that.

I’ve also been trying to think of a way of summarizing the past 12 years (my tenure here in Chicago), and that too is proving a touch challenging. A career (especially in theatre) is an amorphous entity. It ebbs and flows in strange and often unexpected ways, and I can say, in all honesty, that when Janna and I moved here in April of 2000, I could never have anticipated the journey that I have been on. Our plan was to stay through graduate school (3 years) and maybe one or two more, if we were enjoying it and if I could find enough work to keep me busy…. But here we are… 9 years after I finished my MFA, and having had a career I would never have imagined.

During my time in Chicago, I’ve had my share of ups and downs… shows that worked, shows that didn’t -- experiences that were amazingly positive that didn’t’ go anywhere (and some that did), and horrible experiences that led to amazing ones (and some to nowhere). There’s little rhyme of reason to a career in theatre, and as I repeatedly tell my students it’s not a business of what you know but of WHO you know.

If I were to start writing about the individuals that have shaped my career, I’d be writing a 40-page dissertation, and it would sound vaguely like a vapid and incredibly long-winded award-acceptance speech, and there’s not time for that at the moment.

But what I WILL say is that I have been incredibly lucky. I’ve gotten to work with amazing people, and even luckier that some amazing people have wanted to continue working with me. I try to remind myself of this, but at times it’s hard, the ebb of the business can be rough. About a year ago, I was a little down on where I felt my career was moving…. I had a string of interviews where I’d lost out to the same younger, sexier, hipper designers, and after a few times… that can really sting. The thing that brought me back around, ironically, was the putting together my materials to apply for teaching jobs. Having to list out my accomplishments, the shows and companies and directors I’ve worked for, it put it all back into perspective. And coincidentally, realizing that I was once the younger/hipper designer that pushed around other (truly incredible) designers that I really look up to…. Let’s just say, life-lesson learned.

Yes, there are designers of my own “generation” whose careers have far outpaced/eclipsed my own. That’s typical. We can’t all be “the wunderkind”, and what’s important is to find your own path, and for me. to concentrate on MY OWN work.

In putting things together, what I realized is that in 12 years, I’ve designed 117 shows, 103 of which were designed for Chicago companies. Through those 103, I’ve worked with 23 different theatre/opera companies in 28 venues around town… and I should add here that for the first 3 years of those 12, I was in grad school (and only free to take on projects during the summer), and that for the past 7, I’ve been teaching full-time at University of Chicago. I’ve designed 9 shows that have been nominated for Best Production at the Jeff Awards, and 4 times, my own work has been nominated. I’ve had shows move from the non-profit sector to for-profit commercial runs, and I’ve even had a show move to New York,  off-Broadway.

While there is part of me that certainly yearns for more, bigger, better, brighter professional jobs, I have to take the time to accept that what I’ve had has been special and what I HAVE accomplished here is significant, if to no one else, than certainly to me. Part of me has been moping, worried about what this change is going to mean to my capital C, CAREER, and yes, it’s going to change, and yes, sometimes that change is scary, but it will also allow life to take a more balanced form, and there’s incredible opportunity in that balance.

I’ve also been thinking about what this life change means in reference to this blog. Out of simple necessity, I won’t be designing nearly as many shows as I’ve been able to take on in Chicago, in part because there simply are nowhere near as many theatre companies in Ithaca. I will also be slightly more involved in the day-to-day world of Ithaca College than I have been at UChicago. So my options are to alter the purpose of this blog or find new ways to explore the topics I find of interest. I’m supposing that I’ll do a little of both. I’m very seriously considering writing more about the education side of what I do, as well as include posting about shows where I’m the mentor and NOT the designer, proper. We’ll have to see how this shift will play out. I hope you’ll continue to find it of interest, and please get in touch if you find things worthwhile.

I’m often asked, “what the show you’re most proud of?” and my answer (as self-serving as it may sound) is always… “whatever I’m working on next”. Moving forward is the only positive direction in this business. You can’t simply rest on what you’ve done, for if you do, you stop growing. And dammit, I still have too much to learn.

So… getting back to where I began this post… the title of this one comes from perhaps the classiest sign-off of all time. That of Johnny Carson on his last taping of The Tonight Show. The NBC execs had wanted him to do a big 2 hour prime-time blow out, but he demurred, stating that he wanted to go out the way he came in, doing the show he loved. So, I leave Chicago similarly. So fortunate to have had what I’ve had. No one can take that away from me. I’m now ready for this next step, whatever it may mean.

The Things We Leave Behind......

It turns out that I lied... I thought my next post would be my farewell to Chicago. However, I realized that there's something more that I have to say as this life-and-career transition begins.

As we have now been packing (for what seems like ages), I had no choice but to look back through tons of old drawings/draftings, and decide what to keep and what to toss -- a process that ended up being MUCH easier than I initially thought. A veritable TON of old drafting is not making the move, and sketches so old and tentative (artistically speaking) that I literally CRINGED when thinking about how proud I was then... and how choices and decisions I made then seem so naive to me now by comparison. What really caught my emotionally close though, was getting rid of old models...

As shows opened and models came back home to me, I took many of them into school (at University of Chicago) to use as teaching tools -- and also because I had a big-honking closet off of my office in the Reynolds Club. it was dusty, but dry, but over my 7 years here they piled up. When time came for the move to the Logan Center for the Arts, I realized it was time to downsize and keep only the ones that were especially nice, or especially well built, and in this personally gut-wrenching decision process, I had no choice but to walk down Memory Lane a touch...

This was a grad school project I did for Naomi Iizuka's 36 VIEWS, a play that I really adore, in part for it's indictment of trafficking in ancient art,a s much for it's personality of a mystery wrapped in a kimono. I've never seen this play produced, though it's a show I'd KILL to work on.

This is the model for the adaptation of Dorothy Sayer's STRONG POISON that I did at Lifeline Theatre... gosh... probably 2005 or maybe 2006. The walls were all overflowing Victorian filing cabinets. I received my first After Dark Award for this design. Throwing this one away hurt, because of how much I dearly love Lifeline as a company.

These are from the first abridgement that I did at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. This was David Bell's adaptation of COMEDY OF ERRORS (2005), that toured to regional schools. When it was performed at CSTit had to fit on top of the set for MEASURE FOR MEASURE, who's set was designed by Neil Patel. Our COMEDY was a 1920's set WPA-style theatre troupe and the conceit was that only part of the troupe had made it to the theatre in time to perform, and that COMEDY was the only show they had the right people for. It was 75-minutes of laugh-riot and heart ache... I never understood how David was able to turn this play into such a cathartic reunion at the end.... during tech I openly wept at the brother's reunion, it was so touching. This was also one of the shows I did while Lucy was a baby and Janna was back at work at the Goodman. Lucy came to tech with me, and even started to take some tentative steps holding onto my fingers on the rugs that made up the floor of the set. Lucy is now 8 years old.... my God, how time flies!

Pegasus Player's production of Sondheim's THE FROGS... yes, that's an Olympic sized swimming pool... yes it was insane... yes it was a lot of fun. Audience was seated around the perimeter of the pool (which you can see better in the bottom pic), and the cast performed on a floating platform that bobbed in the middle of the stage...er...pool. The band was located under the gallery upstage. And the cast frolicked, swam, danced, dove, scampered about all around. The craziest thing about this one was that the set had to break apart into pieces because a college swim team met there during the day.... ah, the madness of Chicago storefront theatre....

William Inge's THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS

at American Theatre Company, Damon Kiely, director (2008, I think)

It was an odd abstraction of space, and it looks a little awkward in the model, but I thought it fit into the theatre rather nicely. 

THE BOYS ARE COMING HOME a new musical loosely based on Much Ado About Nothing

directed by Gary Griffin for the American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University

It was SUCH a beautiful show, and it's had such an unfortunate tenure since. The plot of Much Ado is front and center, but it's set at the end of the second world war, and the music fit right along that beautiful and gorgeous big-band line of broad, bluesy and wholly Americana. the design is based on USO clubs and factory architecture from the period. After our production it received a workshop in New York, and was optioned by the Goodman, who was set to rework the piece, but the music writer/lyricist and the new book-writer didn't get along and the project (very sadly) fell apart.

That brouhaha, oddly enough led to.....

Brett Neveu's GAS FOR LESS at the Goodman Theatre, Dexter Bullard, director

When BOYS ARE COMING HOME was cut from the Goodman season, they moved a Second-stage production of AINT MISBEHAVING into their MainStage season, thus creating a hole in their second stage (the Owen), that they quickly filled with GAS FOR LESS. As I had just designed a show for the Horton Foote Festival, they knew I was around town and available and they offered me this show... the caveat being that I only had 2 weeks to complete a design.. that's how far behind their schedule had gotten. It was set at a very specific gas station only 10 blocks from our apartment in Lincoln Square, and getting to do first-hand research at that station was AMAZING. we recreated (and made some artistic adjustments) it pretty much wholesale. It's one of my designs of which I'm most proud.

All of these models are no more, but the sadness of leaving them behind is tempered with the gratification and excitement of what I've accomplished here in Chicago.

There is one other project that I'll be leaving behind... the fall production of David Auburn's PROOF that will be the inaugural event of the grand opening of the LOGAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS.  I've designed the set (and even painted parts of it), but I will be ensconced in Ithaca when it gets loaded in, teched and opened. While part of me would love to be here, there's something RIGHT about the newbies here taking it on and moving forward... here's some of the drawings/bits for it....

groundplan

quick sketch

computer-doctored sketch

Returning to the Scene of the Crime

Keith Huff’s A STEADY RAIN

Chicago Commercial Collective at Chicago Dramatists

Directed by Russ Tutterow

Scenic design by yours truly

Costume Design by Samantha Jones

Lighting Design by Jeff Pines

Sound Design by Mike Tutaj

THE STORY

Denny and Joey are lifelong friends. They grew up together on Chicago’s near-northside, Denny often beating up the more tag-along Joey. They went into the Chicago police force together, and have been partners ever since. Denny’s got a wife, kids, -- the American dream, -- while Joey has had a rougher personal stretch, playing out a lot of life inside a bottle. They are typical beat-cops who never seem to be able to make it to “detective” rank, and are steamed about it, but whatcha-gonna-do, eh?

Denny, as befits his personality, steps a little astride the law sometimes, and doesn’t necessarily follow “the rulebook”, but you still like the guy… more or less.  One day he smacks around a local druggie, who retaliates by firing a gun thru the front window of Denny’s house, severely injuring Denny’s youngest son. This sends Denny on a downward spiral of retribution and payback that bring Joey -- and Denny’s family -- along with him. He obsesses about getting the druggie back, to the exclusion of everything around him… his severely injured son, his grieving wife, his partner who is trying to pull him back from the brink.  He’s so focused on revenge, that one day… out on the beat, his actions cause them to misunderstand a domestic disturbance, and inadvertently turn a victim over to his (eventual) serial killer. This mucked call brings down the weight of the Chicago Police and media down onto them in the worst way, at the worst possible time, and they are both forced off the Force.  It seems the only way for one of them to escape is for one of them to take the fall. Joey offers to to do that since Denny has a family, but Denny’s pride make that plan impossible to bear. This seeming injustice, breaks Denny further away from reality, and Denny heads out after the druggie only to accidentally kill the druggie’s little brother, and in the moment when he’s about to be arrested, turns the gun on the druggie, in sight of other officers and kills him, point blank. Joey, now the more mentally stable, is trying to hold it all together for Denny and Denny’s family, but Denny’s wife is pulling away because she knows that Denny is in the midst of something bad, and she falls into Joey’s arms seeking safety. Denny bursts into their home, knowing that the Force is on the hunt for him, and begs Joey to take care of his family when he’s gone, and to get them out of the house.

Denny then commits suicide, and the epilogue speaks of how Joey and Denny’s now-widow begin to build a life for themselves, and how Joey realizes how and why Denny would do anything… anything for his family.

The play is structured as interlocking monologues with just 2 actors on a (mostly bare) set.  Denny and Joey each tell their sides of the story… presumably in an interrogation room at their regular precinct… interrupting each other, and occasionally moving into dialogue scenes between them… it’s VERY fluid as a piece of writing, and the challenge in staging it, is letting the story flow cleanly, but keeping the point of view clear to the audience. It’s 90 minutes long, and has to move briskly.

OUR PRODUCTION

Wow! What a show to close out my tenure as a Chicago-based designer! For so many reasons…. First it’s a quintessential CHICAGO story and writer…but even moreso… it’s a show I’ve already designed! Thought he play had a previous workshop production, I designed the original Chicago production of the show back in 2007 for Chicago Dramatists.. the very venue where THIS production is being mounted. Chicago Commercial Collective reassembled the original team (everyone save the stage manager and the costume designer), including the two actors who started it all.

The 2007 production was a run-away success. Breaking all records for Chicago Dramatists (and its’ small 60 seat theatre), and garnering TONS of good press. SO much so that commercial producers in New York heard about it, and came to town to scout it out.  They were so enthralled with it that they then took the show, wholesale, and moved it to a small commercial run at the Royal George (a presenting house here in Chicago) in a theatre space that doubled it’s occupancy. That run lasted for nearly 6 months. There was talk of taking our production to New York, but in the meantime, one of the New York producers leant the script to a big name Hollywood star, who became enamored of it as a personal vehicle, that thus was the end of the Chicago production moving to NYC. It was mounted in 2009 on Broadway starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig (that’s right… Wolverine and the current James Bond), two non-Chicago, and in fact- non-American actors. It broke all pre-sale box-office records on Broadway for a straight play, but the play itself was critically dismissed as yet another cop procedural in the vein of Law and Order. The reviews focused on the two actors more than the play, and the visual sleight-of-hand that the Broadway production became. C’est la vie! There are many around Chicago, who think that had our production moved, the play itself would have received better notices. The other major outcome of all of this was that the writer, Keith Huff, became a big-time writer/commodity, spending a season or two writing for the TV show MAD MEN (I believe he even won, or was nominated for an Emmy). The play, A STEADY RAIN has go on to more than 30 productions world-wide, and is currently running in 7 different countries. Keith is now living a much higher-profile career than the mild-mannered gentlemen I met in 2007. Deservedly so. While I can’t say that the play is my absolute favorite. I have to give him credit for creating beautifully written characters who really FEEL like Chicago.

As to the set…. This production was desired to be pretty much a recreation of our original, which I based on research from an actual Chicago precinct interrogation room. It could be done simply on a blank stage with a table and two chairs, but we put in a little more effort than that. On the set there is a backwall with double-bolted windows covered in expanded steel, and a door presumably off to the rest of the precinct house. The floor is a real linoleum tile, in the basic colors of those in the interrogation room I went to.. The table is at center and there are chairs for Denny and Joey and hanging low overhead are two “warehouse” lights to help frame the vertical space of the room. These are high enough o be out of the way, but low enough to be intrusive into the space… packing the two men into the room in a way that (I hope) makes them feel even more hemmed in.

It’s a simple design, but man, has it paid off in spades…. Not only did I get paid for the original production, but I got paid again for the commercial remount(in 2008), and a weekly fee for each week that that commercial run ran. As this production now is another COMMERCIAL run, I’m drawing a base contract and a weekly fee for every week that it runs… it’s supposed to close in early September, but the hope is to take the whole thing out on tour… the longer it runs, the more money I make… I’m not going to argue that point.

From my perspective, it’s a nice-looking set, and given that the PLAY (and it’s success both with and without me) is a source of pride, I’m rather happy that it’s my  swansong here. 

Beware… the… (gasp)… PLANT!!!!!!

Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

Alpine Theatre Project, Whitefish, MT

Directed by Betsi Morrison

Scenic design by yours truly

Costume Design by Kerry Bechtel

Lighting Design by Rachel Naber-Burke

Sound Design by Keith Caggiano

THE STORY

Mushnik’s Skid Row Florist has certainly seen better days. So much so that the last ditch effort to turn things around hinges on the strange and unusual plant that Seymour (the resident schlub) has been nursing. It’s strange, unusual, and simply placing it in the window appears to bring in customers. However, Seymour comes to realize that the only way to keep the new cash-cow alive is to feed it …(horrors!) blood… As Mushnik and Seymour’s fortunes turn around, the plant becomes hungrier and hungrier, enticing Seymour to feed it bigger and bloodier things, including the local sadistic dentist, Orin Crivello, DDS, who has been dating/beating up Audrey, the flower shop girl whom Seymour adores (not so) secretly.

As Mushnik sees Seymour move in on the now-abandoned Audrey, he begins piecing together that Seymour must be at fault. Realizing this, and knowing that the plant is hungry, Seymour lures Mushnik into the waiting, ravenous jaws of the plant. Seymour’s plant (known as Audrey2) has caused such a big stir that attention is growing, nation-wise, and Seymour plans to capitalize on the media coverage and escaping with his ladylove, Audrey, to the beautifully manicured “suburbs”, but is thwarted when the plant lures Audrey into its jaws and kills her. Seymour, having started with nothing, begun to see his dreams come true, and then watch it all go down the gullet of a cannibalistic plant from outer-space, decides to take a machete to the plant, but succumbs himself. What could be more normal?!?!?!

It’s really a lovely doo-wop-filled musical comedy, by the team that ultimately penned, Disney’s Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Though, even through the comedy, there’s certainly a mild indictment of American’s consumer/media culture of hero-worship, and the pitfalls of a slippery moral slope, and it’s all based on an old black-and-white “shocker” movie, called, coincidentally, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.

OUR PRODUCTION

This was my first time working with the Montana-based ALPINE THEATRE PROJECT. And it was a bit of an … odd process -- in part because I was designing this one “blind”. From the beginning we all knew that the first time I would be IN the actual theatre would be after most of the set was built and the show well into rehearsals. This can be a challenge as there are often things about how the space works that a designer gleans from actually BEING in the space. While I can be given every legitimate drawing and many pictures of the space, there’s something about walking around it and asking questions, and seeing how the space actually EXISTS that is useful. This is especially true when working on a show that has many moving and interconnected parts... like most musicals are.

The design conversations about this one were EXTREMELY fun, as the show is set in the late 50/early 60’s --a REALLY neat visual era, in my humble estimation ---and the director really wanted to focus on the mytihica skid-row of New York in that time frame,. We took as our visual cue the movie/monster movies of the period… Attack of the 50’ Tall Woman, The BLOB, Plan 9 from Outer Space…and from the pulpy teen comics that came about from that era. She really wanted us to play-up the  comic-book feel, and I was glad to go there, as it’s a style that I haven’t played in a lot recently.

here's some of the research we started with.....

Thy physical world of the play is (primarily) the interior of Mushnik’s shop, and outside of the shop there along SKID ROW. One of the physical challenges is that the shop has to close and open repeatedly throughout the show since the interior of the shop has to change several times, more often than not in order to get the various AUDREY 2 plant puppets on and off stage. 

the interior of the shop, Seymour with AUFREY plant #1 in hand

a little later in act 1 (that's the AUDREY #3 plant with a puppeteer inside it)

The fun thing about THE PLANT is that there are actually 4 of them. A small potted one that comes out in the first scene, a slightly larger potted one that’s worn as part of a jacket that Seymour wears during the number “YOU NEVER KNOW”. There’s then a body-puppet (big enough for a grown man/puppeteer) to be inside and manipulate, that closes out the first act. The final plant is a behemoth, much larger than plant #3, in that it has to accommodate the puppeteer, as well as the action of the PLANT needing to, onstage, EAT three actors. Honestly, the engineering of the plant is a marvel, as this last one has to be manipulate-able by a single puppeteer, (who is coordinated with an offstage singer who sings/speaks all of the plants lines) and then the jaw has to open wide enough to allow the actors playing Mushnik, Audrey and then Seymour to grapple with/enter into the plant and be eaten, in full view of the audience

here's a link with some footage from the show, all 4 AUDREY plants have a little stage time here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XImFhWxIjVU&feature=relmfu

Our set consisted of a series of forced-perspective buildings--that simulate a dense urban SKID ROW, in comic-like grays and blues. These building surround and dwarf Mushnik’s shop, which I rendered in warmer corals, beiges and lighter blues.

SKID ROW

the FINALE -- Don't Feed the Plants!!!

There were a number of challenges with this production, and rather than go into those, I’d rather focus on the visual fun of the show. While there were some financial and time-related challenges that were impossible to foresee when we started, I do think it ultimately looked fun onstage, and the audience opening night was certainly having a ball.

Rough Model pictures....

Filling a Different Pair of Shoes: LOGAN part 2

My, how fast 7 weeks can fly! I’d mentally planned this installment to closely follow the last, but, as often happens, life intervened. Surgeries, a trip to Montana to do a show… the beginning of THE MOVE… other things required more direct attention.

But I’m finally back to take a quick swing through the LOGAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS performing arts spaces. There’s likely be a little overlap with the last post, but so much the better… it really is a COOL building…

It may be best to start in the basement and work our way up. I won’t bore you with storage rooms, but I do think it’s worth a couple shots of the costume shop. It won’t mean a lot to many, but having a dedicated and purpose-built space for this part of this program is HUGE, especially given that the costume shop, when I started here 7 years ago, was half of a break-room of a defunct State Farm Insurance building.

pic thru the hallway window looking into the shop

The new Costume shop has an office for a Shop Manager (a position that has ben promised, but has yet to be budgetarily approved), fitting and laundry rooms, a lovely large storage area and a well-organized and spacious room for the building of costumes and pieces.

scary how nice, clean, and.... new it looks, eh?

Moving up to the first floor, we hit the Scene Shop. It’s an odd duck in that it has to serve two separate constituencies… it serves as our Scene Shop as well as the Build Shop for DOVA (Department of Visual Arts). So the tools and some of the space is shared… strange, I know.  But given that the build floor, including the tool area used to be the 2-bay garage of the aforementioned State Farm Building, what we have now, is swanky in comparison. There’s now a large dedicated build floor for us, as well as an attached, but separate paint deck with SINKS and SHELVES, and ROOM TO WORK!!!! ….pardon my excitement in writing such things.

looking from the NE corner of the room toward SW, my (now former) office is the set of window nearest the center of the picture

same location, but showing the stretch into the paint deck

from the build floor, looking toward the  DOVA-dedicated area

looking from the SW to NE, notice the gallery window above

... and the SKYLIGHTS!!!!

The flow of the shops is another thing that I’m particularly pleased and impressed with. Materials go straight from the loading dock into the backdoor of the material storage rooms, then through the inside doors into the cutting area, and from the cutting area to the build floor and from there to the paint deck. It’s a very open, manageable and intelligent layout.

pic from the gallery above looking down into the shop. those platforms you see in the foreground is part of the set for the production of PROOF that will be mounted as part of the grand opening. I've designed the show, but alas will not be here to see it.

And moving on from the paint deck there are a set of large double doors that lead to a hallway and then directly into the first of our two theatre spaces.

THEATRE WEST – is a flexible space (commonly called a black box, in theatre parlance) that can seat between 150-200 audience members. What is flexible about it is the seating. We can place it around the space in different configurations thus allowing the team working on a show more flexibility in deciding what the physical relationship is between the stage and the audience. It has a mezzanine that can be used for audience, or for action, and a lighting grid overhead with easy access to lighting storage areas and the control booth (from which a show is typically run). In each of the room’s corners there are access vaults that allow actors (or audience) in and out, while sound-and air-locked from the lobby areas surrounding it.

 view from one of the mezzanine entrances

looking down into the stage space. there's a lunch event going on in there at the moment, but you get the idea. this set-up is called a 3/4 THRUST because there are audience on three sides. it's one of a myriad audience-set-ups that could be chosen from.

the floor is painted for our last-quarter production of LION IN WINTER, 

but I think this give you a good idea of what that relationship is between stage and audience. This is a very audience-friendly space

Just around the corner from THEATRE WEST is…

THEATRE EAST – a 100-seat proscenium theatre space with mechanized lighting battens and flies that allow for easy access to things overhead. What’s lovely about this space is the comfort level of the audience-to-stage relationship. The audience enters at the same level as the stage, and then moves to seats that are offset lower or higher than that level. It’s not a huge stage, but that’s part of its’ charm, and how it fits into this academic program. At the base of the stage are two towers (one at either side of the stage) that allows direct access from the stage floor to the grid and control booth. These could also be used an ancillary staging spaces (which we did during AN ACTOR PREPARES (see my posting of May 11, 2012).

the seats... yeah... we didn't get to pick the upholstery.

the stage as seen from the audience

the booth! I know it doesn't really seem impressive, but considering the hinky platform-and-window we were using in our OLD spaces...

The challenge of the moment… the very one that we began to realize this past academic quarter of our initial residence in this building and these wonderful new facilities, is that the level of technology is so much higher than what we had available in our makeshift spaces in the Reynolds Club. Lighting and Sound capabilities are top-of-the-line, and frankly, we’re not that sophisticated… yet.

With new staff and a better understanding of what we WANT to accomplish, the program will be able to start growing into these spaces and using them more effectively. I’m sad that I won’t be here to witness this growth and shift, because its’ been so amazing to witness where the past 7 years have gotten us all…. to this amazing facility and wonderful spaces where art can grow.