Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

 The last play of my second year at Brockport was Tennessee William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Like the previous play the set was large and had many challenges to add extra fun.
To start with the hydraulic stage lift in the front of the stage broke.
Because of a hydraulic fluid leak or other mechanical malfunction the lift was stuck just above house level and I was force to build platforms that would come up to the stage level before I could then start building the real set for the show.
Most of the set was taken up with the bedroom of the house with a little side room visible on Stage Left and wrap around veranda that came all the across the back of the set and down on Stage Right.
The main platform of course had to be raked (slanted) was about 16’-0” x 30’-0”.


Being young, foolish and over eager I over-designed the sub-structure and built an entire open wooden frame with the required angled legs first and then we put the stock platforms in place and attached them.
After the play was over I thought it would be good to save time and materials in the future and had the 4’-0” x 16’-0” frames covered with plywood and added them to our stock.
They would be used many times over the coming years and student would often bitch about moving them especially when they had to carry them up the stairwell when the stage lift was not available.
They got used many times and most are now gone after being altered many times to fit a current show’s needs but I think I may still have one at the bottom of our platform pile in the basement.


As much work as the platform was, the walls took even more time and effort to get done.
At this time, 1984, we were still using traditional 1x3 canvas covered flats and the scene designer had me remove all of the fabric from the frames.
The walls, 20’-0” high, were then covered with numerous 1’ slats of ¼” plywood that had been ripped down.
Again this was at a time before we used lauan plywood which would have been a lot lighter and easier to use.
I also had to make about eight to ten tall columns with 1x2 pine board strips to mirror the slats on the walls of the set.
Some of the columns were still in the basement until a few years ago when they were stripped down and the wood recycled into a new show.
Windows and doors were also made just for this set.


I also used some stock doors on the set that the scene designer had me cut slots into the door panels and I was a bit shocked when he took a hammer and smashed out some the pieces.
We also hung two ceiling fans over the main room with longer blades that we made so that would better fit the scale of the set.
But wait there’s more!
Behind the Cyc there was a lighted moon box that would be raised up a little bit at a time as the play progressed.
The moon box was attached to our then new Genie lift, a hand cranked Genie.
When it first came everyone thought it was great and it made things easier, well at first that is.
To rise up you would have to just use you two hands and crank yourself up.
Easy, no problem; well the first time at least.
Each time you needed to move first you had to crank down, be moved, then crank back up and then repeat and repeat.
After a few times you arms would numb and you could not use it anymore.
After a month or so the gear works got gunked up and it was even harder to use.
When it was replaced some time later with an electrical model it was a welcome addition.


To dress the set the scene designer went out along the Erie Canal and cut some bushes and brought them back and dressed the columns on the veranda of the set.
This was nothing new for him to do but what it unique for this production it that over the course of the production the plants continued to grow and both leaves and flowers bloomed but most had dies by the time of the last performance.
Just before the show opened the scene designer glued pieces of tissue paper behind the slats on the set that caught the light as it came through.
He told me that it was his gift to the lighting designer who of course did not like it but I think it made the set look great.
Most people who knew the scene designer at that time might tell you he was a bit wacky, odd or whatever, but this was one of his better sets that I worked on.

So if that wasn’t enough there is yet even more ! ! !

In the space upstage of the set and in front of the Cyc some special effects were used.
The lighting designer hung down from a pipe several electrical wires that had little homemade firework bundles attached that were fired off during the play.
They were made with model rocket launcher squibs, flash paper and a small amount of real firework “fixings”.
They looked great, but of course were a fire hazard and I had to seal in the back of the platforms after seeing sparks come under the set at the first set.
Somehow we did not burn down the theatre and everyone survived the play.

The production was well received and of course it looked great too.
It was a ton of work, crazy most of the time but lots of fun.
Note that the cast parties were numerous and fun.

Soon after the play was over the lighting designer got a letter telling him that he did not get tenure.
Needles to say he was crushed and the next year would be hard for him as it would be his last.
I did not know it at the time but things would soon change for me in ways I did not plan or see coming.




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Saturday, November 26, 2011

The Threepenny Opera

The spring of 1984 brought two large productions.
The first was The Threepenny Opera by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill.
The actors enjoyed being in show, especially those paying the thieves and whores as it gave everyone a chance to let go and have fun.
I had worked on it just three years before at Theatre Three on Long Island and although it was a nice production the Brockport production was on a much larger stage and had a more complex set.
The Threepenny Opera, 1984

It was the first show that I worked on at Brockport to use the lighting bridge as part of the set.
The lighting bridge is a moving catwalk that spans forty feet across the stage just upstage of the proscenium and holds the first and second electrics.
I needed to build tall staircases up to the bridge from each side of the stage so that the actors could go up and cross over it as needed.
It would be used twenty years later as part of the set for the summer musical Cabaret.
The set had lots of moving parts; set units that rolled on, flew in or were carried on.
I was excited on opening night as a friend from college came out from Buffalo to see the show.
The Threepenny Opera, 1984

Everything was ready and set to go so I felt comfortable that I could go out to dinner before the show and sit with my friend in the audience.
Big Mistake.
Unbeknownst to me, at sometime in the afternoon the set designer (Richard) decided to dress the set and added many items from the prop room on to the wood beams that were flown in as part of Peachum’s shop.
Richard had poorly wired tons of junk on to the set and during the black out for the scene change I heard a big bang as the beams smashed into the floor and then several crashes as pieces fell of the set.
He did not tell anyone that he added the items nor did he re-weight the pipe that the beams were on.
I jumped out of my seat and ran backstage to see what had happened.
This is one of the big reasons that I do not like to sit in the house during performances.
We were lucky as no one was hurt as anything broken but it could have been worse.
I know that I cannot be everyplace that there might be a problem, but locked in a seat makes me feel trapped and it makes hard to run backstage or to the lighting booth to fix whatever problem that might arise.
Although made up mostly students, there were several college staff and community members who helped fill out the cast.
The role of Jenny (a prostitute) was played by the faculty costume designer and I seem to remember that some of the scenes with the student actors were a bit awkward.
As I think back to this show I recall that it had small double swing cafĂ© doors similar to ones I need to hang ones on my current production’s set tomorrow.
After forty years in Theatre I find that things do repeat more and more often, but there are still many challenging and interesting problems that come up with each new production and that is what keeps me going.


 


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Friday, November 18, 2011

The Next Play

When I started my Blog I thought I would write at least once a week, and then I fell back to twice a month at best.
I still have plenty of stories to share and will have more time to get back into my Blog after the next play opens on December 2nd.
The current play: Carlo Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters.
A few construction photos of "The Current Play":
The Sevant of Two Masters





For those who work in Theatre it is always the current play, meetings, construction and lighting focus calls, rehearsals and performances that takes our full attention.
We always think that we will have more time once the current play opens.
I do have at least six weeks off and plan to play more with my new scanner to add many more photos before I have to get to work on "The Next Play".
 
Oh, the next play: Coyote on a Fence by Bruce Graham in February.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

New Scanner

Just a short update today.
I bought a new slide scanner and I am able to scan old slides that I have not seen in a long time and I will add them to my into my older blog posts.
I will let my readers know after I have added them.

I do not have a lot to say today so I thought I would add some Technical Theatre related covers that I like and find interesting and they are over 100 years old.









After reading the stats for my Blog I still find it amazing on the number of international readers that I have and I hope that you still find what I have to say interesting.

The lastest play that I worked on had just closed; dark play or stories for boys.
Follw the link to see picyures of the production:

Next up for me A Servant of Two Masters that will open in December.





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Friday, October 14, 2011

Androcles and the Lion

Our second production in the fall of 1983 was Androcles and the Lion directed our new faculty member Richard St. George.
A Children’s Theatre play would not have been his first choice but he had been assigned it and did a nice job.
I do not remember why but the set was designed by our Costume Designer Susan Tucker.
To add to the fun the play was to tour to local schools in addition to several performances at the college.
The design was fairly simple why a raked platform that had poles on each side with a cable running across so that curtains with different painted scenes could be used.

Actors would hide behind the backdrops and jump out from time to time during the play.
There were also several trap doors in the platform that were used to hide props and a few foam cutout scenery/props were used.
The platform is still in our basement storage area and it was used for at least one other play.
I kept it because of the method used to build it was a variation of the old parallel platform frames and it is very different from the standard 2x4 platforms that we use most of the time.

Adam Lazzare was teaching a large section on Introduction to Theatre with close to 200 students and being the nice guy I am, I offered to help grade some of the critiques.
Okay, so Adam was still the Dean back then and I thought it would be good for me to be helpful.
Anyway one of us, and I do not remember who, found a critique that was not like the others.
Yes from time-to-time we would find people who copied each other’s work but this one was unique.
The student had copied a 1946 New York Times review of the play for his critique.
His defense when confronted was: “You told us to do some research
I do not remember what happened to the student but I am sure he was not expelled for cheating.

Adam was a very popular teacher here at Brockport when I came in 1982.
Often on the first day of class he would walk into the large lecture hall in sun glasses and a trench coat, fire off a blank gun and run off.
He said that he wanted to expose the student to a “Theatrical Moment”.
Not something that would go over well today.

He was the Dean for a few years and then stepped down and was our department chair for a few more years and retired in 1991.
I invited me to his house for Thanksgiving one year after hearing me talking with his secretary that I did not have any plans and was not going back home to Long Island.
Being young and not knowing any better I brought some cheap wine as a gift.
He was not insulted but chose to open a 100 year old bottle of Madeira he was saving for a special occasion after dinner instead of the Gallo swill that I had brought.

The tree planted in his horror after his last production at Brockport still stands in front of the Tower Fine Arts Center and is now taller than the building.












Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The Diary of Anne Frank

The summer plays, working on the fireworks and having fun with my friends was a nice cap to the end of my first full year in Brockport.
My younger brother Mark, then 20, drove up to visit during the summer and I gave him the grand tour and we had a few beers with my friends and some fun along the way.
I was eager to begin my second year at Brockport.
My first year was exciting and I felt I had learned a lot and had a new confidence in myself and my skills.

I was no longer the new guy; I had a good working relationship with the older students and had a good crop of freshmen and transfer students to work with.
Our first play in the fall of 1983 was The Diary of Anne Frank.

It was a large set with three levels that started 11 feet below the stage with stairs and platforms coming up from the orchestra pit to the stage level.
There were two side rooms that were raised platforms and an attic level above the kitchen area upstage.
Above the set was a large roof section resting on a long ridge beam hanging from cable from the grid.
It was a large and complex set but somehow we got it done with the time we had.
When we set our production season today I try for us to avoid large productions in the first slot in the fall because of the short period of time we have to get it ready.
I had 19 students in my Stagecraft class plus at least 5 or 6 work study students working together to get the set done.


The play had a good cast and the production was well received.
I remember that the strike lasted late into the night and it was one of the last where we had beer onstage when it was over.
I recently posted some of the photos seen here on my Facebook page and got many positive responses from the students who had worked on the show.
One of the actors reminded me of the cat we used in the play and how it infested the set and actors with fleas.

I remember waiting at someone’s house for a the cast to come for a party when the photo call was completed after of the performances and they were all late and pissed because it took longer than the play itself.
The director wanted pictures of ever moment and I remember seeing photos of scenes that I never saw during the play as she most have reposed things just for the photo call.
It was a good start to my second year and the next play was all together different, but fun, always fun.


Sunday, September 18, 2011

My 1st Year at Brockport Done

In addition to four department plays and two summer arts productions I had plenty of other events to keep me busy my first year at Brockport.

Harlequins, the student Theatre group, produced two plays and there were at least six senior project productions that year.
My first year at Brockport was also the last year of the Music Department and I helped on a number of their large concerts and several senior recitals.
My level of involvement varied on these events but I often choose to do more than I was required to.
I was happy to design the lighting for one senior project because it had been over a year since my last design and helped build the set for another play.
Over time I learned to let student do more for themselves, but have always tried to be there help when needed and to prevent problems when possible.
There would be plenty of changes over the years.
Of course the student population is always changing with students coming and going; some stay just a semester and others never seem to leave.

There would also be many changes in the staff over the past 30 years.
One of the Theatre professors left at the end of my first year to become a Dean at another college and we hired Dick St. George to take his place for the next year.
As I started my second year at Brockport it was nice that I was no longer the new guy.
I was eager to take what I had learned during my first year, make some changes and hopefully do a better job the next year.

The productions during my second year were bigger and offered many more challenges than those of my first year.
The plays for the 1983-84 season were: Androcles and The Lion, The Diary of Anne Frank, Threepenny Opera and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  
Stories to follow.



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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

9/11 - Ten Years Later

On a sunny Tuesday morning ten years ago I was watching the Today Show as I was getting ready for work and saw the first reports of a fire at the World Trade Center.

Just a few minutes into the report I saw a plane hit the second Tower live on TV and like most others watching that day I knew that the World as we knew it had just changed forever.
Things happened fast that day and by the time I got to work the Towers had fallen, the Pentagon had been hit and Flight 93 had crashed in Pennsylvania.
Just before noon we got word that the State was closing down the College and all State Buildings and everyone was sent home.
Like most people I watched the TV reports for the rest of the day and tried to figure out what had happened and what was next.
* * *

Too many people were lost that day and I found out a few years later that I had once met one of those heroes thirty-five years ago while I was still in college.
He was the twin brother of one of my friends and I enjoyed a few beers and some laughs with him during a visit to Buffalo. 
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Please take a minute to remember him and all of those who we lost on 9/11.



Geoffrey E. Guja

Age: 47

Hometown: Lindenhurst, N.Y., USA

Occupation: Firefighter, New York Fire Department

Location: Ground, World Trade Center


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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Cars and Chick Peas

All through college and while working in NYC I never had or needed a car, but when I got the job at Brockport I needed to borrow my folk’s box van to move up from Long Island.
It was fun to have the van and I even used it to pick up lumber for the first play I worked on at Brockport, but soon my parents wanted it back and drove up and exchanged it for their Ford Pinto, a wonderful little car complete with an 8-Track player!
This is the infamous car that got Ford in trouble when it was alleged that they decided it was cheaper to pay off a few lawsuits then fix the problem with the gas tanks that made the cars explode in accidents.
Ford Pinto
It was one of the first hatch-backs and was not quite as ugly as the AMC Pacer and just five years later I would buy a new Ford Escort GT, the car that replaced to Pinto.
It was to be my parents’ only trip up to Brockport and I gave them the full 50-cent tour.

My younger readers may not understand why I find the next story so funny.
While out with my parents for dinner my father looks down at his salad it says loudly:
 “What’s this in my salad?”
“Mmm, it’s a chick pea Dad, you know a garbanzo bean.”
While common today’s salads, back in 1982 my Dad was still expecting the basic 1950’s salad: lettuce, tomato and maybe an onion slice, but chick peas, olives or sunflower seeds were just too new for him at that time.
For those of us a bit older it is amazing how much food has changed over the years and that younger people think that we always had microwaves and that chichen has always been boneless.

When I drove the Pinto home at Christmas I found that my parents had bought me my own car; a green 1972 AMC Javelin.

It cost $500!
AMC Javelin
The car may have had the look of a classic muscle car, but with only about 100 hp it seemed to have less power than my John Deere mower.
AMC did make the AMX model that was sexy, powerful and had a cult following, but my base model Javelin had little power and died less than two years late, but through the kindness and help of a few friendly auto parts dealers and car mechanics I did learn a lot working on that car.
I learned how to replace gas and oil pumps, the starter motor and assorted filters, fuses and belts and I was even taught how to “Hot Wire” the car with just a screw driver.
As much "Fun" (Read: lots of work, pain in the butt) as the Javelin was I had arranged to buy my sister's 1977 Camaro Rally Sport soon after she gave birth to her first son and needed a family car.

It was one of the last years that cars had real crome bumpers.
Camaro Rally Sport

Just a few days before I was to go to Long Island pick up the Camaro the Javelin blew its transmission.
Even with just the base V-8, my Camaro still had tons of power and because it was the LT model it had AC and power everything.
I enjoyed driving it for the next few years and managed to get only one speeding ticket.

Although fun to drive it was not at all a practical car and soon after turning 30 I thought it was time to get my first brand new  and “Adult” car, but for a few years I felt cool zipping about in my Camaro.
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I start my 30th year teaching at Brockport on Monday look forward to new challenges and adventures.





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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Bus Stop and One Year Complete


The second production of the summer of 1983 was Bus Stop and I got to design both the sets and lighting for the play.
It was going to be first my first real full designs at Brockport and I wanted them to come off well.
Bus Stop Set Rendering, 1983

We only had 6 days between the end of Show Boat and the opening of Bus Stop so we had to work fast.
The construction started right after Show Boat opened, as we worked in the shop by day and ran the musical at night.
It made for long days but everyone seemed to enjoy it and took pride in getting it all done and often we would stop at Barbers or The Rox for a beer before heading home.


 
Although it was hard work it was not as long and crazy as the summer I spent at Gateway Playhouse when we did four big shows plus several children’s production, but it was still a lot to get done in a short time with our small crew.
We used a lot of stock canvas flats and a few custom-built triangular ones for the ceiling and side return flats.
I was very happy with the results and the play went well.
The play takes place during a snow storm and we had a little effects projector that looked OK but I think it died soon after the play opened and we had no snow effect for most of the performances.



At that time the Department would to hold the second show over and perform it one weekend right at the start of school in September.
This is why I had worked on Sherlock Holmes the first day I got to Brockport almost a year before.
I had a new place to live, one of my colleagues sublet me his house while he was away on sabbatical, and I let two of the cast members stay with me the week of the hold over performances.
Because they had just graduated and moved to Boston but came back for the shows I thought the least I could do is save them some money and have them stay in my extra room.

The first year went well but was not without incident.
I already mentioned that Ralph dislocated his shoulder during Show Boat but he also cut his elbow open at strike.
He got back from the hospital in time to take another student who had stepped on a nail to the ER.
While putting up some final decoration for the play a student came in during the afternoon and he was warned that some of the stage battens were down and we were working with them.
Well he just kept walking bent down and ducked under the first pipe but came up hitting the second one and knocked himself out cold.
He came to quickly, and although a bit Woozy, he performed that night.

Back in February there was a major incident on The Tangled Yarn just a day or two before it opened when one of the actors, who was also a bit off, went completely nuts and caused some problems and was thrown out of the show.
Of course he was pissed, made lots of noise, smashed a few things on the way out and disappeared.
He was arrested few days later when he attached a girl on campus and we never saw him again.
The actor who took over, Ralph, did a much better job even with a script in hand. 

As I went back and read through the programs from my first year at Brockport I found that about sixteen former students and six other people I met that first year are current Facebook friends with me.
Like most summers I have had  a few visits from former students and I always enjoy when they come by, regardless of whichever “generation” they are from, the 1980’s, 1990’s, 2000’s and even ones who just graduated in May.
I like to hear their stories and hope that time at Brockport had helped them along their life’s journey in some way.

I did not know back then how much the experiences and people from that first year had built a foundation from which my life would grow.
With the first year of school and productions and with a few weeks off but I was eager to start my second year and see what adventures were still ahead.




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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Show Boat and Fireworks

My first year at Brockport was very exciting, challenging and lots of fun and it felt good to be in a real Theatre job.
Being a Technical Director was not the job that I had trained for but three years later when I would also become the Lighting Designer things got closer to what I had hoped to be doing back in school.
Even then I did not know that I would still be at Brockport about to begin my 30th year.


It has always been the unknown challenges of each new production that has excited me and has kept me coming back for more.
To that point in time no design faculty had ever been given tenure at Brockport and even though that first year in Brockport was good I kept an eye out for other jobs.
I was not sure what I was looking for but it is just the nature of Theatre that while we are working on one show we are always planning for the next one and that is the way I saw my job.
As I posted in a previous blog entry, I would keep looking for another job for the next fifteen years before I felt comfortable enough to call Brockport my home.
Next up was my first summer at Brockport and two productions; Showboat and Bus Stop.


My first few summers at Brockport the department produced two shows, then cut back to one and now we have no summer show.
The production staff was all regular department personnel and student workers.
Over the years there would be more outsiders involved in the production, but back then it was just like another regular department show.
Showboat was what is often called a Town and Gown show where most of the cast were students, faculty and college staff members with a few local actors mixed in.


None of the actors were paid back then and my student shop staff made very little.
I remember one of my first fights with the Chairman/Producer was about paying the student workers.
I think they made about $1000 working on two plays over 10 weeks with few days off.
He thought that they should only get $100 each, and I told him was crazy, full of shit and that we would not have any workers if he tried to cut their pay.


The set for Showboat was a large river boat made up of three large two-story rolling sections that were moved in various positions to be both the inside and outside of the boat.
A few other smaller set pieces were also used for some of the scenes.
I was very impressed on how hard the crew worked to build and run the show.

 One night during the show one of the actors, who was also an assistant stage manager, was tripped by a platform coming by, fell and dislocated his shoulder.
Evidently this had happened to Ralph before, and although in pain told me to follow him into the scene shop.
Holding on to the very heavy table saw with his good arm Ralph had me pull on his other arm and “Pop” it back in place.
He then ran back into the Theatre and went back on stage.
The Show Must Go On.


We did party from time to time and even worked on the 4th of July.
Working in Show Biz seems like it is all fun to those on the outside but it is often lots of long hard hours.
We did take time off those first two summers for the town fireworks, not to see them but to run them!
The then lighting designer, Mike, was trained in pyrotechnics and fireworks and ran the show.
I think back now and cringe a bit to think that all of the fireworks were stored in several boxes in what is now my office and Mike would label and organize all of the shells.



In the afternoon of the day of the show we would go over to the field and dig holes for the pipes that would be used as the mortars that would launch the shells.
We would also set up the single-use cardboard tubes for the shells that were used as part of the Grand Finale.
It was July and of course it was very hot but we still had to wear long sleeves and hats to stop the falling burning embers from the firework shells.
It is hard to describe the experience without saying it was a BLAST!


During the show I was assigned two mortars to load with the firework shells that were stored 50 feet away in a covered box.
I would run back and forth between the mortars and boxes, stopping to clean out the mortar between shots, careful not to look in or have your head over the end on the pipe.
One of the years we did have a shell that went up and came back in the same field near us, the firemen quickly put it out and we had no other problems.
During the show I was so busy I did not get to watch and enjoy much of it as I was so focused on the job at end.
At the end of the half hour show I was drenched with sweat, exhausted but very pumped up and went out with the crew for some celebratory beers.
The second year was just as much fun but I remember to wear ear plugs.


I still had one more show to design and build before the end of my first full year at Brockport.





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Monday, August 8, 2011

Plays, Parties and Beer

The forth play of my first year at Brockport was The Country Wife.
It was the biggest and most complex set of the year and it offered some challenges and I enjoyed working it.
It was a big unit set with some smaller set piece that rolled or flew in to change the scenes.
The Country Wife, 1983

One item I built myself was a large 4 x 8 window that came out well, looked good onstage and became a frequently used item in our scenery stock.
Almost 30 years later we still have the window and it was most recently used this past year in the set for Black Comedy.
The Country Wife window re-used in 2011

Also a part of the set were three signs cut out of ¼” ply that represented various shops that were supposed to be on the stage.
Two of the signs, a shoe and beer mug, were mounted on the scene shop wall until the recent renovations and I saved them and hope to put them back up along with a few other pieces from the past.
Images of the signs will fellow soon.

There were plenty of other that kept me busy that first year; teaching classes, music events and numerous student productions.
Harlequins, the Student Theatre group, did a production of Happy Birthday Wanda June by Kurt Vonnegut.
Like too many other student shows over the coming years, they used too much scenery and platforms that were too high for the Lab Theatre.
I have tried time and again to advise the student designers about what will work in the Lab, but most of the time they want to do it themselves and do not want to listen to experience.
Over the years there have been a few very nice student sets that worked well and fit nicely in the Lab Theatre, but not too many.

When I was first hired I was just the Technical Director so I jumped at a chance to design the lighting for one of the senior projects and helped on many others as well.
I did not mind working on the music events except when a concert was planned for the afternoon right after the night we struck a big set.
It was a bit tuff working until 2:00 AM or later, having a strike party and then coming in early the next day to set up for a music concert. 

My first year at Brockport the drinking age was still 18 and drinking was an important part of all cast and strike parties.
Within a year or two the drinking age was moved up to 21 and we no longer could have a cooler of beer onstage for when the strike was over.
It was always a celebration of another production coming to an end, not about people getting drunk.
Strike parties have a long tradition in Theatre but things change and we could no longer have alcohol on campus.
Yes, drinking still goes on at student parties but I have not gone to one in a long time.

Unlike K-12 teachers, most college professors do not take any classes in how to teach.
So that first year I had to figure it many things out fast; how and what to teach, how to run college crews and probably the hardest thing - What was going to be my relationship with the students?
Boss? Friend? Big Brother? Teacher?
It is different today when I am almost 30 years older than most of my students, but back then when I was just a few years older than most of the students and often would run into them at local bars or at parties.
Because there was no rule book I had to figure out my own rules and guidelines but I knew enough that I would not date any of my students.
I know that I made a few mistakes, but that never stopped me from flirting and having fun.
But nothing would be wrong with dating a student who graduated before I came to Brockport or was a Theatre major at another college.
It was good that I did have some non-Theatre friends (the Deadheads and others) as it was impossible to live in town and not run into some of my students.
I did not try to hide from my students and often would have a good time hanging out with them but there always was that little thing in the back of my head that kept reminding that me that I was now an adult and was expected to make the right choice.

Being an adult, oh well.






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Thursday, July 14, 2011

First four Plays at Brockport

Most years the Theatre Department at Brockport produces four major productions with faculty or guest directors.
A few times have we done only three because of scheduling problems but we have done five plays on a couple occasions.
My first year we did four plays: An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen, The ABC’s by Beth Linnerson, The Tangled Yarn by Stephen Levi and The Country Wife by William Wycherley.
I have already covered what most of what happened with An Enemy of the People and having survived that first production and was ready to jump right into the next show.


The second production was a Children’s Theatre piece.
Children’s Theatre has always been big at Brockport and when I first came here it was a major part of our production program.
When I interviewed for my job in NYC one of the faculty asked me what I thought about Children’s Theatre and not knowing that she ran the program I opened my big mouth and told just what I thought.
My only real exposure to Children’s Theatre had been during Summer Stock six years at Gateway Playhouse.

At Gateway they used whatever set was on the mainstage at the time and produced their play in front of it the afternoons before the evening musicals for adults.
Most of the actors were from the pool of sixteen year old girls who were “studying” acting at Gateway and they wrote their own scripts based what they knew about the basic story lines of the classic children’s stories.
A few of the adult actors were used to help run the shows and we made a few small set pieces and props in the shop to make the shows work.
When they did Puss and Boots on the Candide set it looked pretty good, but I do not think it worked quite as well when it was performed in front of the Gay Bath House set of The Ritz a few weeks later.
I was not impressed by the results the plays.

Build it fast, build it cheap and then pack the Theatre with hundreds of screaming kids on hot summer afternoons.
Of course they would sell them candy and get them all sugared up before the show.

So I told the woman who ran the Brockport Arts for Children Program about this and that I saw Children’s Theatre as a bit of a rip off and I felt that they often talked down to the kids.
I heard later she was upset at my answer, but if you do not want know what I think then do not ask me.
In any case I did get the job and now I was ready to do a “proper” Children’s Theatre production, The ABC’s.

The target audience was three and four year olds, so you know this was going to rival Shakespeare.
About eight actors in pajamas running about the stage play with six large blocks with letters painted on them
The smallest cube was one by one foot and they got bigger and bigger with the last one being four by four feet.
The largest one set in the corner of the basement and I just got rid of it two years ago at the start of the building renovations.
“Hi kids, A is for Apple, B is for Banana and C is for what a pile of Crap!”
OK maybe I was being a bit of a Theatre snob, but it was not my favorite play and we would do much better Children’s plays in the coming years.
Maybe the play was not really all that bad and it would have worked better in a small Theatre or room, but it was lost on the big stage especially with the kids sitting down in the auditorium seats far away from the actors up on the stage.

I thought getting back to working on an adult play for the third play would be better but I was wrong.
The Tangled Yarn was an original play by a playwright somebody found and had brought in.



I do not know if he was someone’s friend or what, but I was not impressed by the script, I would tell you the plot but I never figured it out.
It was memory play about the main character’s mother, growing up with repressed sexual emotions, blah, blah, blah.
The set was an big open black void, a few acting cubes, a simple table and a big spider web of jute twine over the stage,
The Tangled Yarn,
      get it,
         do you need me to explain it,
               I will,
                     you see . . . . .

The forth play of the year, The Counrty Wife, was much better and there were also many other productions to keep me busy that first year, senior projects, student plays, music events and more.


I will try to figure out the rest of my first year at Brockport and tell you more next time.



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