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.