Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht was the last
production designed by Richard Montgomery who did not receive tenure and would
be leaving Brockport at the end of
the school year.
The set that Richard designed was functional and typical of
his work and offered me few challenges.
The key set piece was Mother Courage’s wagon.
I had to figure how to build a medium sized covered wagon
that could be pulled easily by an almost 70 year old woman.
Gisela Fritzsching was, and still is, a tough woman and I am
happy to report still going strong at 93 and just came to see our last music concert
a few weeks ago.
It goes without saying that Gisela had no trouble pulling
the cart.
We had a student lighting designer so I was free to take
care of the sound design.
I have no idea what I did for the show.
There was a small band and I do not remember if I had to mic
them or just add in a few sound effects.
Sometimes the details of some shows I have worked on are
gone and other times I can remember even the smallest details.
On the back of the program is a listed of the projected
season for the next year.
We did only one of the plays and changed to the musical version
of another.
I do not know why we switched but I think we did a better
season because of it.
In the fall of 1989 we would have a new scene design teacher
and over the next few years we would see several other staff changes.
Gisela Fritzsching would be forced to retire in the spring
of 1990 as she reached her 70th birthday and it really pissed her
off.
The state would repeal the rule the next year.
We would also go through a few costume design teachers as
well and details of all the comings and goings will follow.
Updated 5/29/2014
