Renovations of 1995

The main goal of the renovation of Tower Fine Arts Mainstage Theatre in 1995 was to remove and replace the drop ceiling over the seats which contain tons of asbestos.

Also done at that time was the instillation of a new lighting catwalk and two access ladders up to the cove.

The original fire curtain, also full of asbestos, was replaced.

During the renovation all of the seats were removed and the original purple fabric was updated to a nice boring grey.

Now almost twenty-five years later it might be time to replace the seating fabric.

Scaffold in the Mainstage over the frames for the seats.

One day during the renovation work several of my tech students working in the shop practicing their welding skills.

One of the construction workers who was passing through the space stopped to see what the students were doing.

He gave them an impromptu ten minute master class in welding; showing how to adjust the welder, hold the MIG gun and what sound to listen for when making a good weld.

Frying eggs.

In just a short time the students learned more than I could have ever taught them as welding is not one of my strongest skills.

The students thanked the man and continued practicing and making much better welds.

When we got the Mainstage back in January of 1996 we had to explore the space and see what changes were made and to see what we had to do to get ready for another semester of plays and music concerts..

The first thing we found is that the stage floor was ruined.

During the asbestos removal they had built a clean-up shower right in the middle of the stage and a good deal of water had leaked out.

The original stage floor was covered with ¾ inch particle board and the water had swelled the floor panels so much that it was almost 18 inches off the sub-floor in spots.

The worst panels had to be removed and replaced but still much of the rest of the floor was in bad shape.

Somehow and someplace money was found and we replaced the whole stage floor during one of the next free summers.

Soon we all had to see the new lighting catwalk and found that the floor was steel diamond plate with raised texture bumps.

Not good on the knees when working on the lights.

New Catwalk

It did not take too long for us to find and put as much scrap carpet as we could to cover the floor.

My students worked hard to replace the lights to the cove and learn how to work with the new lighting catwalk and the extra pipe added to allow the lights to be focused on the stage.  

    

The first event of 1996 was a music concert at the end of the second week of classes which did not take too much effort but the real test would be the first play a few weeks later.  

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‘Twas the Night before Christmas, 1995

Because the planned renovations to the Tower Theatre Mainstage was behind schedule we changed our Christmas show from A Christmas Carol to a children’s version of ‘Twas the Night before Christmas and moved the show to the Dance Theatre in Hartwell Hall.

The set had several restrictions put on it in order for it to be able to be used in the Dance Theatre.

It had to be small enough to build in Tower and ship over to Hartwell and be easy to be set up and taken down each day so dance classes could be held between rehearsals.

Because the dance theatre has a Marley floor we could not nail or screw anything to the floor.

In addition all of the set pieces all had carpet pieces attached to their bottoms as not to damage the floor.

The set was fairly simple with a few pieces of furniture, a door way, a large fireplace and of course a Christmas tree.

The one big special effect was a plywood cut-out of a silhouette of Santa in his sleigh with reindeer that flew across the sky.

The cut-out was about 18 inches to two feet long and rode on some cables from one side of the stage to the other powered by a stagehand turning a drum with cable that pulled the Santa through the sky.

The kids loved it and it was a big monument in the play but not as big as at the end of the play “Santa” came off the stage and met with the kids and passed out mini candy canes.

The actor who played “Santa” seemed to have candy canes in his pockets for months after the play.

We moved the set and costumes over to the dance Theatre at the end of November on a day when we got hit with an early Artic Blast.

It was only about 14 degrees plus wind, ice and snow.

A simple job of unloading the truck took three times as long as everyone’s fingers were numb.

I do not recall the same problem when we brought the set back to Tower a few weeks later.

Cast onstage

It was not the greatest piece of literature ever written but the sixteen students in it and the many backstage all did a good job and had fun doing it.

Again we had student lighting and sound designers for this show.

The spring of 1996 was up next and a return to the Mainstage Theatre after six months of renovations.

* * *

The Voice of the Prairie, Fall 1995

The summer of 1995 we had no show at the college for the second year in a row.

I spent my time trying to make sure the renovations of the Mainstage Theatre were going well.

I met several times trying to ensure that the new lighting catwalk’s problems could be overcome.

I addition to the many issues of the building renovations there were going to be big staff changes in the fall of 1995.

In addition to the sudden loss of the scene designer we also lost our production manager/shop foreman who left to take a new job at Ithaca College.

A temporary scene designer was found and a search for a full time replacement would soon begin with me has the chair of the search committee.

The choice of The Voice of the Prairie by John Olive worked well for our first fall production in the Black Box theatre.

Note student working up on the Old Grid.

There were only four actors in the cast and the scene design used a unit set with several moving pieces to change the look of the space.

I remember that all of the students did a good job both on and off stage.

The scenic design was mostly a large barn-like wall with a large sliding door and a smaller door that had to fly in and out in a space without a fly system.

I worked with several of my advanced students to make the several scenic challenges, including the flying door, work smoothly.

The show had both  student lighting and sound designers who did a good job.

We had used the Black Box Theatre for three “Mainstage” productions my first few years at Brockport but it had been a while since we had used it.

After our more recent renovations forced us to use the Black Box Theatre again,  one director found that he liked it and has used it several times even after the renovation were done.

Some productions work much better in the intimate Black Box Theatre than on the larger Mainstage.

The building renovations along with other issues made it was a difficult time for the department.

Because the Arts for Children faculty were made into their own area for a few years, our department was down to just four full time faculty, several adjuncts, a guest designer and myself.

We could have had more issues with unhappy students because of the loss of a popular teacher and other staff losses, but our low number of majors at the time and the fact many others had graduated left few hold overs who might be unhappy but they all stepped up and help keep things going.

A Disturbance in the Force

The shows in the spring of 1995 should have been more eventful to me but there was several distractions going on at that time.

One of our teachers was up for tenure at the time but he seemed to have several some personal troubles at the time and choose to leave Brockport.

This of course became a Disturbance in the Force of our department as we figured out what was going on and what we would do to continue on.

At the same time planning for the long awaited renovations to the theatre were underway.

This first renovation was to remove the dropped ceiling over the main seating area because it contained lots of asbestos.

A metal lighting catwalk and laddered up to it were to be installed.

The original plan called for the work to be done over the summer but it was expanded into the fall semester.

I remember that a year or two earlier some “suit” with a clipboard and tape measure showed up one day and was looking around the theatre so I asked him what he was doing and if he need some help.

He talked about some upcoming renovations that no one else had heard of yet and I forgot about until a few years later when it came to pass.

As more information about the renovation became clear I had to fight with the college to make some changes to the planned new catwalk as the one designed would not be usable.

The new metal catwalk would be very safe as it ran across the lighting cove opening but the problem was they was no place to hang the lights.

There was to be safety rail every six inches from the bottom to the top.

They suggested adding a pipe outside the railing to hang the lights but when I asked how we would get them there they said that they would get back to me.

Not waiting for their answer I went to the University at Buffalo and took photos of the lighting catwalks in their new theatre to show what was needed.

As changes were made but a second problem came up.

The planned new drop ceiling would extend out so far from the lighting catwalk as to block the stage lights from being able to be focused on the stage.

Instead of cutting back the ceiling their solution was to weld another pipe a foot outside of the catwalk forcing my students to lean out of the catwalk to focus the lights.

So much for safety.

I would finally get the college to cut back the lip of the drop ceiling 20 years during another round of renovations.

To accommodate the renovations we had to make changes to our productions as we could not use the mainstage theatre and moved the first production in the fall to the Black Box Theatre.

The selected season included another production of A Christmas Carol but that could not be done in the Black Box.

The department arranged to do our second show in the dance theatre but A Christmas Carol was too big for that stage and so we change the show to Twas the Night Before Christmas a children’s show.

Through some negotiations we ended up producing the play in the dance theatre in Hartwell Hall.

After we chose our season of plays I had a ”Vision” for a concept for the design for the poster for one of the plays.

Being a stamp collector I happened to see a set of Australian stamps that honored the golden days of radio of radio.

I worked the concept into designs for the other three plays and submitted my rough designs to the college design team that produced the final posters.

The posters were already finished by the time we had to change the Christmas play and a new design and poster was made.

The 1995-96 season would start with the Mainstage theatre under construction, a new scenic designer and some other unforeseen challenges.

So for Brockport nothing new.