Candide and Shadow of a Gunman

The Theatre at Seton Hall University was the only truly Theatre-in-the-round that I have ever worked in.
I had recently worked in the Guggenheim Museum, and although the building is round, the Theatre was set up in a normal proscenium style and when you were in it you did not sense that the building was round.
In college we had gone over designing in the round as part of my scene design classes, but Seton Hall’s Theatre was a real challenge.

I knew what to do in theory, but made sure that I talked with the directors who had already worked the space for their advice and insights before I started my designs.
The acting space was of course round, sunken down below that seat level about 18 inches and maybe 20 to 24 feet across, with entrances that went under the seats at the twelve and six o’clock positions.

Ground Plan for Candide

For the musical Candide I used three platforms, a center unit with two side ones at the 4 and 10 O’clock positions.
There were also to small platform/steps units that came in from the house level down to the floor level at the 2 and 8 O’clock positions.

Set and Lighting Design - CANDIDE 1981

There was very little other scenery; simple stools, boxes, props and a few cutouts.
The lighting was as colorful as I could make it.
The play is fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Problems?
Oh course.

On the day we were to open the play I was told that the Theatre was going to be used as part of freshmen orientation.
I went to yell at the Dean, who as it turned out was a priest.
For a moment I had forgotten that Seton Hall was a Catholic University.

The second play of the summer was Shadow of a Gunman by Sean O’Casey, an Irish play set during “the Troubles.”
It is not one of his best of his plays, but the cast did a good job with it.
The simple set required only a single room in a city tenement apartment.

I first designed what I thought that the room would look like without regard to the fact that we were in the round.
It seemed that walls would not really be an option, but I figured out a way to use them anyway.
I used painted Styrofoam panels about 4 inches thick that followed the outline of the ground plan and they were cut in an irregular line ranging in height from 12 to 24 inches.
I made working doors that were cut just above the door knobs.
For the window I made a real double hung window but the top half was just a 1 x 2 without all of the trim and molding and some of the audience would view the show through.

We only used one of the stage’s entrances and I had the actors come in and walk a quarter of the way around the edge of the Theatre before they came to the apartment door.
The director added business for the actors to do as they came and went from the apartment that added to the understanding of the character’s motivations and actions.
Not one my favorite plays, but I was happy with the results.

One afternoon one of the actors in the play stopped by the Theatre and I got to take a ride in his classic Model T Ford.
Although in the Model T, a few of us did take a couple of other road trips that summer.
My assistant and I went to visit my friend Randy from college who was working in a nearby Theatre and another time some of us decided to go into Manhattan for one last late night drink because the bars in New Jersey closed too early for our taste.
It seemed like a good idea at the time, but because we never found the bar that one of us was looking for it really was a waste of time as we settled for a quick drink in some random dive.

As at most Theatres that I have worked; people at Seton Hall liked to work hard and play hard too.
It is most enjoyable when you like the people you are working with and can have a good time together whether you are working or having a drink after a show.