Just an Odd Update

Odd Update

I have been updating some old Blogs posts that I had left unfinished and just updated Dracula from 1992.

I also stopped to look at my Blog's stats.

Here is where people are from that read my Blog.

Gee I didn't know I'm big in Russia.

Got to work on Brazil.

United States	12218
Russia	2599
Germany	1135
United Kingdom	820
France	680
Ukraine	611
Canada	334
Poland	328
Brazil	294
Netherlands	267

A Christmas Carol, 1993

I have worked on A Christmas Carol four times over the years and the production we did in December 1993 is my favorite.

The production was big.

The cast was thirty-two plus a choir of eleven.

The set was huge with lots of extras.

We made money with the production two years before and thought new would do the show every two years and spend extra money to make a set we could use over and over.

Three years later we would do the show again but with a different director and designer and we did not reuse the set, but just pieces of it.

The show had every trick we could come up with: Fog, snow, an elevator up through the floor, Scrooge’s front door flew in and out, Marley’s image was projected and more.

There were moving platforms every place plus two large ones that had smaller ones that slid out when onstage.

We had a great staff and students at the time and most important I was still only thirty-seven and had the energy to work long days and late into the night.

Without a doubt the best part of the show was the ghost of Christmas Future.

As designed the Ghost was part of Scrooge’s bed curtains.

The actor/puppet moved away from the bed, his long arms stretched out and then his head popped up.

The student designers even made a long arm with a hand at the end that had fingers that moved so it could point to Scrooge’s grave.

The Ghost always shocked the audiences and on opening night someone loudly said “Oh Shit” as it came alive.

This was one of the best reactions I have ever seen working in Theatre.

I am happy to report the two students who worked on the play went on to successful careers working in Las Vegas and their work can often be seen at Comic Con.

With the show’s success doing A Christmas Carol every two years did not seem like a bad idea but of course things did not work out as planned.

Two years later we would not be able to use our mainstage Theatre because of asbestos removal and did a smaller Christmas show over in the Dance theatre.

Changes in the number of students, staff and money issues (read budget cuts) would make us decide not to continue doing A Christmas Carol on a regular basis.

I do not miss doing it.

Our Town, October 1993

Our Town by Thornton Wilder is a popular play and often produced by schools because it has a larger cast and simple technical requirements.

In the Great Brockport Tradition we found a way to make it harder.

The cast of twenty-four was made up students and several faculty and had a small choir that was needed to appear by magic in front of the stage.

We built a complex series of platforms and steps that allowed the choir to come up from the orchestra pit and appear waist high at the front of the stage.

I am not sure it was worth the time effort and cost.

We had a new student play the part of Emily and everyone was pleased with her performance and of course she transferred to another college.

Forty years ago while in college in Buffalo, I traveled with some friends to see the previous production of Our Town at Brockport.

It was a nice play and we stayed in town after the show and partied with several cast members that we knew.

Neither production was extra special but both were well done and the audiences enjoyed both shows.

* * * 

Back in the present we just opened our in season with Deathtrap and it turned out very well.

"Deathtrap" 2017, Technical Director/Lighting Designer

As it turned out I had worked on another production of Deathtrap thirty-eight years ago.

I wrote the following in a previous Blog post:

I also worked the load-in and load-out for the tour of the play Deathtrap.

The most interesting part of that show was that the road boxes that held the various weapon displays, an important part of the play, that were lifted up and fitted directly into the walls of the set. 

The lockable cover could be taken off as needed and easily put back on and locked up after the show.

There were many knives, swords, axes, guns and other fun props that they wanted to keep safe and away from curious hands and stop them from walking away.

I will write more about this production in the future.