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.
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| 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.
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| 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 café 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.
