The Good Doctor

So where was I . . .

The second play in the summer of 1985 was The Good Doctor by Neil Simon.

It is a series of about ten short vignettes based on the stories of Anton Chekhov.

For this production I would serve as the scenic designer and technical director.

For a play to be produced in August I began working on it six months earlier.

Because of the many scenes I had to work out how we could build and fit all the scenery on the stage and did many sketches most of which I still have.

The Audition

I had planned for platforms to in and out from upstage, both stage right and stage left and diagonally from upstage right and upstage left.

These platforms would have fixed castors and roll in mostly straight lines guided by tracks that we cut into the floor.

Well it did not work as well as I had hoped.

The Sneeze

This was back in time when we still used canvas flats and because I designed many of the walls in forced perspective; most of the walls were custom made.

The play was lots of work but I think it looked good when it was done.

I have many more drawing then I have posted here but cannot find any show photos at this time and will update my Blog if I can find them.

We had an outside lighting designer for this production and as is often the case I was not happy with the lighting of my set.

I like it when I can design both the sets and lights for a show, but it is not always possible or my choice.

As a lighting designer I hope that the many scenic designers I have worked with over the years feel that I have done their set designs justice and have not hated my work.

I always try my best but know that I have had a few duds along the way.

By my third summer in Brockport I felt comfortable and really in charge and that most of the students were “my” students and working along with  and for me and not talking always talking about how it was done before I got there.

We did not get to work on the fireworks show that summer but still had a good time.

This was the last year that we did two summer shows but there was still plenty of work in the years ahead.

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