Divergences: LOGAN part 1

Divergences: LOGAN part 1

I apologize in advance for my next few postings… I fear I’m going to get a little maudlin and nostalgic, as my (and my family’s) time in Chicago draws to a close. We’re now at 9 weeks and counting until…

 Burch Migration 2012 : FINGER LAKES BEWARE!

On July 31, 2012, I will leave my position at University of Chicago, precisely 7 years after I started. Thinking about where I was then as a designer, artist, husband, father, educator, human being (etcetera) is slightly overwhelming. For me it brings up the questions of both personal and academic evolution. And stemming from that is one of the slowest, and perhaps most tangential projects I’ve ever been (a VERY small) part of… that being the evolution of a building.

Even before I started here at UChicago, the planning was underway for an Arts Center that would house all of the academic fine art programs/departments on campus. Feasibility studies were already complete, initial conceptual plans from architecture firms were underway, and I came into a program who knew it was, and was going to continue to be in flux. It was clear that a tonal shift would happen as we moved from our scrappy and make-shift digs in a century-old student union building into a purpose-built, hi-tech, high-profile location. how could it not?

Over the course of my first couple of years here, there were an endless series of meetings, many of which I didn’t participate in (that honor fell to my boss, Heidi Coleman), but as things developed--- the  architecture firm of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien was hired, as were Shuler Shook (Theatre Planners) and Kirkegaard Associates (Sound/Acousticians), I started to be a part of the discussions about the building, how it might be used, and got the chance to respond to material choices and ideas. But even more fascinating to me were the inner-departmental conversations we had about wishes, desires and how the building would change the structure of the program, as well as how the programs needs needed to be infused into our conversations with the architects and planners.

No fewer than three times we were asked to “cut x percent” out of our overall footprint in order to cut costs, so we suggested certain rooms become smaller, or sometimes eliminated. A seemingly endless series of plan variations were sent our way for comments and recommendations. The initial groundbreaking ceremony arrived near my 5^th anniversary working here, and the plan was for it to be up and running by Spring 2012… a date that seemed both ridiculously far away, and tantalizingly close. I have to admit that I was most skeptical about the building being ready, but I gladly admit that I was also wrong. We indeed moved in when they said we would, even if workers were still traipsing about the building in hardhats, pouring concrete and creating all kinds of noise and dust.

The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts (LOGAN) located on the south end of campus, at the juncture of 60^th street, in between Drexel and Ingleside. It’s south of the MIDWAY PLAISANCE, a historic and somewhat peculiar boulevard that separates the south end of campus from the rest of campus. LOGAN is adjacent to the LAREDO TAFT HOUSE AND STUDIO, which is where DOVA (the Department Of Visual Art) has been housed for the better part of the past century.

Here’s a link to the official site for the building… http://arts.uchicago.edu/logan/

This building houses the following academic entities: DOVA, Music, Film and Media Studies, and TAPS (Theatre and Performance Studies). and consists of three major visual shapes (these are MY delineations, not the architects, mind you...) the BASE the TOWER and the COURTYARD. 

this is an early model of the proposed center

and here's a model of what was actually BUILT. 

the changes are fascinating, even on just a visual level.

You'll notice the BASE, (above in the model) its' distinguishing feature is that serrated top which is made of of series of sky-lights letting natural light into the 2nd floor of the building. there are pockets where this light is filtered further into the depths in really interesting ways. The first floor of the BASE contains a really nice gallery space for DOVA, as well as classrooms and studios for them. It also houses the main level of both theatre spaces for TAPS, and a performance hall which will be used primarily for the Music Dept. directly adjacent is the COURTYARD (which you can't see in the model pic above, but pix will follow, promise), which is an open area that is surrounded on three sides by the LOGAN Center, and directly adjacent to MIDWAY STUDIOS aka the Laredo Taft House. 

the COURTYARD as viewed thru the first floor hallway in the BASE, view looking SE

looking down into the COURTYARD from the 2nd floor BASE hallway, view looking NE

note the "bridge"

the "bridge" connects the top level of the performance hall to the tower, traversing the COURTYARD. note that the backsides of the sky-light serrated edges are covered in solar panels, and that the roof is planted in greenery.

 The second floor of the BASE houses departmental offices, art studio spaces, the second levels of TAPS' two theatres, including BEAUTIFUL new control booths. There is also a basement level to the BASE which holds storage, dressing rooms for the theatres and performance hall, the costume shop and a digital media lab and classroom. 

view from the SW corner of the building

view of the tower from NE of the building

the porch you see on the right side is part of MIDWAY STUDIOS

view of the BASE room, and all those skylights from the 7th

floor of the tower

in, what seems to ME  to be an odd, but unique choice, many of the

interior walls are covered in a felted material, decorated in a variety of

patterns and shapes

the main lobby. the frosted glass you see throughout reaches up past the roofs

in order to act as ersatz light wells that continue vertically through the building to bring 

some natural light into even the basement... cool, eh?

The TOWER consists of 11 floors, the first floor of which will be a cafe, eventually, the remaining ten floors will house classrooms, music rehearsal rooms and studios, a film screening room, two TAPS classroom/studios, and performance space on the covered rooftop deck.

one of the TAPS classrooms in the TOWER

second view of same classroom

view out the window in said classroom

We’ve now been in the building for almost 10 weeks, and there are still workers about, though much fewer, and there are elements that won’t be complete for weeks to come. The building “soft” opened on April 21^st, 2012, and there is a gala celebration planned for this coming October, when the remaining parts of the building are complete (notably a cafe on the first floor and the film screening room/theater in the tower).

The catchphrases that I kept hearing throughout the process were…

“supporting inter-disciplinary cooperation and collaboration”

“the building should be a beacon, beaconing the northside of campus to stretch out and come to us.”  and “a beacon to the community, asking them to join us in a community conversation about togetherness”

“a beehive of creativity, that lit up even into the night, showing artist at work”.

and in many ways, the tower feels a bit like a beacon…and it IS a beehive of activity. I have to admit that. The one place where it seems a little lacking yet is the “inter-disciplinary cooperation/collaboration”, and in all fairness, those kind of connections take time. Just because we are all now sharing a building doesn’t mean that we’re all willing to ‘play along’. Those kind of relationships take time, and people willing to span the divide of programming and insularity that academic departments are famous for. I’m hopeful to that end. I really am.

But sadly, that bridging of mistrusts and inner-departmental shift will be happening without me. July 31 looms.

Up next: Our theatre spaces here at LOGAN

Wearing multiple hats can cause an irritated scalp

Stanislavsky’s AN ACTOR PREPARES

Adapted by Mickle Maher

University of Chicago Theatre and Performance Studies Program

Theatre East, Logan Center for the Arts

Directed by Devon de Mayo

Scenic AND Lighting Design by Yours Truly

Costume Design by Nathan Rohr

Sound Design/Composition by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen

THE STORY

Constantin Stanislavsky was a great acting instructor in Moscow in the early days of the 20^th century, made famous for creating a system of acting that brought about a revolution of a more naturalistic style. This was manifested in his great book, AN ACTOR PREPARES, which virtually every actor reads at some point in his/her training. His personal life was fraught with trying to stay on the ‘good side’ of Stalin and the rise of Communism in his homeland.

Our play is, in essence an adaptation of the book, which takes the form of a journal of a young actor beginning his formal training. All of the characters have aspects of Stanislavsky’s personality in them, making it somewhat strangely autobiographical.

In it, the young student KOSTYA begins exploring the different aspects of how to “live through a role” the central conceit of Stanislavsky’s “System”. At the beginning of the play, Stanislavsky talks to the audience, about how he wants to present each chapter to them, but is interrupted by another actor dressed identically, who identifies himself as Stanislavsky… These two are joining by a third, fourth, all the way up to eight

OUR PRODUCTION

Not sure how to begin writing about this one… it’s special on many fronts.

Firstly it is the inaugural production in the brand spankin’ new Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts here at University of Chicago.  So… we moved into the building a mere 4 weeks before we went into tech, and were constantly challenged by the fact the contractors were (and even now AFTER the show) continuing the work to finish the building and the full functionality of all its’ spaces. In the coming couple of weeks I’ll write a post about the building itself, as its’ fascinating on many levels and having been party to the creative process that birthed the building itself, I have a soft spot for this place now. I think I always will, but more on that later, back to the show….

Secondly, this was the first piece that was truly commissioned by the academic program here. And the process was LONG and fascinating. Mickle Maher, the writer/adapter is known about Chicago for his challenging, erudite, quirky and endlessly inventive creative works… whether juxtaposing Camus’ The Stranger with the Bush/Kerry debates from ’04 in THE STRANGERER, to the bizarre and fascinating opera HUNCHBACK VARIATIONS in which Beethoven and Hugo’s Hunchback try to create a sound effect for Chekov’s CHERRY ORCHARD… You can’t argue with the power of intellect here.  You CAN argue with the fact that the design process had to take a backseat to a text that was undergoing radical revisions up until first rehearsal. And even beyond. So… you do it… try designing set and lights for a show that is in flux, in a building and space that’s also in flux as to its’ availability, and it’s physical preparedness for a show. Let’s just say I have a few new gray hairs following this project…. Having said that, I’m really quite proud with how it turned out. The actors were STUNNING, , the arc of Stanislavski’s journey of continuous re-self-discovery (literally) became truly alive onstage, in a way that was hard to comprehend on the page. I have to give huge kudos to Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen, the composers/sound designers on the show, as well as the director, Devon, for sculpting the play with sound, and underscoring, in a way that I didn’t think was truly possible. Exacting selections of Shostakovich and newly composed pieces dovetailed with the emotional journey of facing the horrors of Communism on the psyche of a consummate artist of the human.

Marya's apartment

the arrival of Stanislavski-5, aka Meyerhold

The killing of Stan's nephew, Mika (Stanislavski-6)

As to my contribution… I took on two separate areas this time around, and I’m both glad that I did, and more-than-mildly exhausted from the effort. The set consisted of a series of draperies in the spirit of an old slightly-unused theatre (the play is nominally set in the theatre that Stan erected in his residence, called Onegin Hall. It’s where he taught students, rehearsed and performed many great works), these curtains tabbed up, slid on slider tracks, and generally whizzed around the space to sculpt the individual moments of the play. Upstage was a set of old-forgotten-looking theatrical walls (called ‘flats’ in the biz), scattered about, that without moving, were transformed by light and usage into the many nominal locations that Stan’s mind moved to in process of embodying the story of Kostya and his mates and their teacher Tortsov.

As a scenic designer, I’m so very used, in tech, to be sitting there… paying attention, ready to help, but generally sitting on my @ss, as I can’t actually DO much during tech aside from take notes on things that need to be altered, painted, reworked in some way…. It’s one of the reasons I started this blog… I’m often bored to near tears during tech, because there isn’t much for a scenic designer to do aside from be supportive….and surf the web.

BUT THIS TIME… I was the one trying to figure out what lights were where, and trying to decide in the moment, how to sculpt the visual space with light to help support the tone of the differing moments in the story. I had to be ON, for two straight days during tech, and I have to say, I found myself a little lacking. Those mental muscles are enough out of shape that I really ought to reengage with lighting or sound in the future, and flex them. I created a set of “basic looks”, a warm inviting  world whenever we were in the classroom, something bluer/colder for whenever MEYERHOLD came into the storytelling frame, to augment the sense of doom that really followed Meyerhold during Stanislavskis’ writing of  AN ACTOR PREPARES.

Beyond that, I worked some lighting textures (called gobos) into the lighting palette, in order to soften the harsh lines of all the vertical curtains that dominated the set. And the upstage I used a couple Constructivist-style gobos to stand in for Stalin and the politics of the world (Constructivism being a visual art movement popularized in the 1910s/1920s in Russia that used lots of geometric shapes to create robot-esque worlds that pointed to man’s futility in a machine-like society. This movement softened somewhat (or was co-opted) into the more fluid Art Deco Movement of the following years.

note the thread-like patterns at the bottom, and the red abstract shapes behind them.

But my favorite gobo-set was a series of silky languorous clouds (that we colored yellow) that streaked diagonally across the upstage flats. I LOVED the shadows that they created, especially when the muslin walls were backlit so that you could see the STRUCTURE of the theatrical flats. Ultimately I didn’t’ get to use them as much as I would have liked, but they gave an eerie and unsettling tone to the scene near the end where Stanislavski is forced to accept (and view, if only in his head) Meyerhold’s execution.

Ultimately, I have to admit that I was pleased with how the show visually turned out, and even with my own misgivings about my abilities as a lighting designer, I feel confident in saying that I supported the story, and that it looked pretty damned nice… if I do say so myself…. But now… I need some rest….

Meyerhold's Execution

Short Attention Span Theatre!!!

THE HUMANA 10s

THE DUNGEONS AND THE DRAGONS by  Kyle John Schmidt directed by KJ Sanchez

HERO DAD by Laura Jacqmin directed by Sarah Rasmussen

THE BALLAD OF 423 AND 424 by Nicholas Pappas directed by Sarah Rasmussen

Actors Theatre of Louisville

Humana Festival of New American Plays 2012

Scenic Design by yours truly

Costume Design by Lindsay Chamberlain

Lighting Design by Nick Dent

Sound Design/Composition by Peter Doyle

THE PLAY

 This time there are three!

D&D is a really funny and heartfelt look at a group of outcast teens who bond by playing Dungeons and Dragons. It speaks to the relevance of fantasy as a means to bond and find a way through adversity… even puberty.

HERO DAD  takes a dramatic look at three different men and their relationships to women other than the mothers of their kids. Being a father in the 21^st century isn’t easy, especially if you have joint custody.

BALLAD is a heartwarming look at a reclusive writer who learns that opening his door to his neighbor can lead to beautiful relationship, but that taking that first step across the threshold can be difficult.

OUR PRODUCTION

These are always a lot of fun at Humana… at least they were when I was on staff here in the late 90s. The challenge is keeping the professionally produced, while simultaneously making them fit together AND not stress out the already-exhausted staff… AND it has to fit on top of the mainstage Humana festival sets, easy as pie, eh?

The set for D&D has to blur the line between fantasy and reality., and KJ (the director) and I went through a whole mess of different ideas. Because we NEED the fantasy to be visually  “real”, while at the same time, we also need reality to fade in and out. We were lucky in that the upstage wall. Is a scrim…. So what we ended up with was having “reality” be represented by the basement playroom they are playing in. it’s upstage of the scrim, and so when we need to bleed into reality, we simply make it appear in degrees, always incrementally. The fantasy world is all black and it anchored by a dungeonmaster’s stone-slab throne. Originally we wre going to have it glow in the dark, but we cut the idea when the lighting designer came up with an easier-to-effect fantasy world.

the dungeonmaster's throne

postscript - at the end of the first day of tech we CUT the upstage "basement playroom" set. because of sightlines to some extreme seats, the playwright was concerned that if EVERYONE didn't see it in it's totality, that it'd be confusing. SO we cut it from the show. I can't say I fully agree, but one of the aspects of being a designer is that you need to take into account the directors (and in the case of HUMANA festival, playwrights) wishes. I was sad to see it go, but I understand the concern that was raised.. c'est la vie!

For HERO DAD, we tried a couple ideas, but it really is a play that doesn’t need any visual support, and its only needful thing is a chair that looks like it belongs in a medical waiting room.

HERO DAD

BALLAD is far more exacting in its’ needs. It takes place in the hallway of an urban walk-up apartment building. We see the doorways to two apartments (423 and 424, respectively). And these doors are CONSTANTLY being opened and shut, slammed and creaked open. Over the span of 10 minutes, we see 9 months of hallway interactions between the two quirky neighbors. Sarah and I talked about what city it was, what kind of building it was/is. It’s level of deterioration, and such things. It was a really fun conversation. In placing it onstage in the Pamela Brown Auditorium,

we had to adjust to allow for the extreme sightlines that space has (see my postings on SENSE AND SENSIBILITY last fall….) 

BALLAD OF 423 AND 424

Leanring frmo yoru msitakes [sic]

OH GASTRONOMY!

By Michael Golamco, Carson Kreitzer, Steve Moulds Matt Schatz, and Tanya Saracho

Based on a concept by Amy Attaway and Sarah Lunnie

Actors Theatre of Louisville

Humana Festival of New American Plays 2012

Directed by Amy Attaway

Scenic Design by yours truly

Costume Design by Lindsay Chamberlain

Lighting Design by Brian Lillienthal

Sound Design/Composition by Peter Doyle

THE PLAY

 Well… it’s hard to describe, as it’s more of a series of theatrical sketches and songs, rather than an actual STORY, however, there are several stories that play out over multiple scenes. It’s all knit together based around the conceit of FOOD… how it’s grown, harvested, manipulated and the community that creates it and how we respond to it in different ways. The cast is the acting apprentice company… so it’s 25/26 20-something young actors. The project exists as a showcase for them during the big “professionals weekends” of the festival, when directors from all over the country come to see shows. There are a lot of really neat, and lovely pieces within this… Matt Schatz’ musical bits are hilarious and poignant, especially his TASTES LIKE HOME song. Tanya Saracho’s IN THE LINE is a powerful piece on the economics of privilege. Michael Golamco’s ORDERING series is ridiculously funny, especially the second scene with a waiter who explains in EXACTING DETAIL where the food comes from (“Your ribs come from a cow named Betsy who had wide set brown eyes that trusted deeply….”) Steven Mould’s FAMILY FEAST two-parter is a lovely summation on family, food and forgiveness. And Kreitzer’s TOMATOES juxtaposes a family farmer, a suburban backyard farmer and a city-dwelling roof-top gardener, and speaks beautifully to the spiritual aspects of growing food.

OUR PRODUCTION

I was fortunate in that I got to attend a workshop for the show back in December at Actors. It was a FASCINATING experience to be around the table with the actors and all the writers, while they were still writing and rewriting the show. That’s typically not the case. I rarely get that kind of time with the writers. And it was really useful to understand their own aesthetics and how to find a way to bridge their different voices and ideas.

Due to what this is (a showcase for the actors) and because there are a lot of practical and technical and budgetary limitations, it took some figuring out. The limitations were that the show performs REALLY late nights (11pm) after the evening’s primary Humana Festival shows. The set has to strike/load-in in a very tight timeframe (less than 45 minutes), and has to fit the TONE of the show without necessarily being the “perfect thing” for any one of the 30+ pieces. It’s also in the Bingham Theatre at Actors, which is an arena theatre… so there’s really only a FLOOR to deal with… which is both good and a challenge….

 shot showing the theatre and the stage pretty nicely.

We went through a lot of ideas for the floor… different graphics, different color patterns and schemes…. Trying to figure out what would support the WHOLE show the best. We wanted something that spoke to the overarching theme, but nothing that would be so graphically exact as to be visually distracting in a space where the floor is such a STRONG visual element.  Because of the notions of eco-friendli-ness, I kept being drawn to sage-y natural subtle green colors, and  wanted the content of the image to be suggestive without being OBVIOUS. So what I did was take a photograph of a flatware set (specifically a knife, fork, and spoon) and cropped and manipulated it in Photoshop, so that it had a much more subtle presentation. Apparently the cast, after loading the set in for the first time, had no idea what it was from standing on it… but as soon as they went up the audience aisles and looked back, they understood it. I kinda like that.

Having said that, there’s one major issue I have with what I created….

When we started working on it, we knew that it had to sit on top of one of the main Humana Bingham shows, and at the time we only had information on two of the three shows. EAT YOUR HEART OUT (of which the floor of the set was a series of brown carpet tiles) and HOW WE GOT ON (which is asset of concrete-looking floortiles  with various other textures stretching into the voms. The other Humana Bingham show, THE VERIZON PLAY, was still in a great deal of flux as to what it was going to need. OF the two options before us, HEART made the most sense.. it was to be brown carpet tiles, with a slight pattern framing the space… but overall, nice and neutral. Since we couldn’t get RID of the brown, my thought was to have our set/floor simply sit on TOP of this, and let the brown act as a frame. So we went with HEART as our base. However, right before the set was going into the shop to be built, the TD (technical director) realized that due to fire egress laws, we had to cut the overall size of the floor by a couple feet along the length. This made practical sense at the time… however, when loaded in, there was more of the carpeting visible, and more of the variants of the carpet pattern were more visible than I realized it would be. I really hate that. I SHOULD have realized that would be the case, and it’s a point that I simply missed. The fault of this one lies firmly in my camp, and that annoys the bejeezus out of me.  What I wish I’d done, is instead of CUTTING it back, EXTENDING the two sides all the way to the north and south audience platform lines. It would have solved the fire-egress issue, while giving the set-floor more room to expand, and keep the awkward level change out of play. oh we.. live and learn.

  the ice cream foodtruck - I love that the playwright 

decided to call it "The Sophisticated Guernsey"

 the last scene. the two sisters seeing each other from across the room

the communal gathering

from sketch to model to the stage

todays' the last day of regular tech. We'll end the evening with an "invited dress rehearsal", which is theatre-ese for a dress rehearsal where there'll be some audience, invited from the friends/family of the company. We have these to allow the cast a chance to get used to how an audience will react. It's particularly important with comedies as audiences laughing can throw actors off their timing.
tomorrow night, we'll have the first PREVIEW performance. During previews, the cast (and often tech staff) will continue to work the show in rehearsals during the day, and perform to a paying audience at night. Preview tickets are often cheaper than regular seats. These performance ALSO give the cast and team a chance to gauge an audience reaction, and allows them some time to adjust things. This is particularly useful if it's a new play or musical. Here at Northlight, a show previews for about a week before the official opening. after which everything is SET and no further changes are made to the show.

thought I'd share some of the process work on this show, now that I've already shared the research...

ACT 1 - THE EXTERIOR

rough sketch

model

onstage

ACT 2 - THE INTERIOR

sketch

the model

onstage

It's kinda strange that the overall design changed so little, it's rare for that to be the case.

from research to stage

As promised, first-hand research of the team's trip to Ten Chimneys (the estate) to work on Ten Chimneys (the play)

the stone retaining walls that dot the pathways of the estate

the flagstone terrace stairs and fence near the pool

the exterior of the acting studio

the poolhouse... note the flagstones and the furniture

two pictures of the exterior of the set

The stonework walls, the flagstone floor, the stairs, the beam-log construct of the studio... all come directly from the first-hand research.

fireplace inside the MAIN house, not the studio

the plate collection on the north wall of the studio

our docent and part of the interior of the studio. note the balcony, its' railings and ladder, and even the wall sconce on the left. take note of the bit of the chandelier  with the bells you can see in the top of the picture. 

close-up of the interior of the studio (act 2). note the chandelier, fireplace, plates balcony items, etc...

there were three big aesthetic alterations we were forced to make... the first is the fireplace... the fireplace in the actual studio is rather large and stucco-ed. we didn't have room given stage shape and audience layout to use the actual one, so I adapted one of the fireplaces from inside the main house that could be made to fit the extremely tight space we had available for it. the second concession was the floor. because the set is on the turntable (so that we can go from exterior to interior), and we needed more interior space than could fit ON the turntable, we had to let the floor be the same both interior and exterior, which meant the flagstones... we also altered the color... you'll note from the research that the flagstones are all gray,  but we needed more warmth... so we changed the flagstone colors to dappled browns. the last concession was the shape of the studio itself. you'll note in the research that it's a square building, on the set it's trapezoidal. this was done so that we could open up the interior more so that more of the audience could see INTO the room. 

It's been a real challenge to deal with both the practicalities of the play and the oddities of this particular theatre space -- as well as keep the LOOK as close to that of the real place. I'm VERY curious to see how the audience reacts to it all!