Tango!

Natasha Davison, our choreographer, met with our featured dancers to work on the tango sequence on the stage. Art and Justine play Mario and Marguerita, the tango dancers at the charity concert. (Click to enlarge).




Ruthie Tutterow, our director, watches a replay with the choreographer.

Followspot Towers Go Up

We began assembly of the two 20 foot tall towers made of rented scaffolding. These sit on the sides of the stage and hold the followspot operators as well as the projection screen.

Here, our fearless parent volunteer, Mr. Pusch, climbs up a tower as he assembles it piece-by-piece. The towers sit at the outer edges of the orchestra pit, just outside the proscenium arch.

Opening the Pit!

We opened the cover on the orchestra pit today. Since the hydraulic elevator designed for this pit has not been installed yet, the temporary aluminum legs and wooden lid have to be disassembled when we do musicals. Here, two maintenance workers remove the individual panels that make up the decking. (All photos will enlarge when clicked).


After the aluminum legs have been taken down, we have to add wooden platforming to raise the orchestra up two feet. If we had the hydraulic lift, this could be done at the touch of a button, of course.


Next we attach the safety netting to the apron of the stage. It clips onto a series of heavy-duty eye bolts that are anchored into the cement lip of the stage.


The safety netting was custom fit to the shape of our pit opening. Here, my Stagecraft class pulls the net so that it reaches the steel railings on the audience side of the pit.


These special straps secure the net to the railings.


And finally, our parent volunteer, Kevin Pusch, falls into the orchestra pit to test the safety netting. DO NOT TRY THIS. This is not "Tumblebees" kiddie gym!

Installing the Translucent Trap Doors!

In addition to the up-lights in the platforms, I also wanted the two trap doors to include spotlights from below. So my Stagecraft class installed 750 watt Source4 spotlights under the stage. Here Kerne mounts the light straight up on a short boom stand. Notice my creative use of an old brake disc from a car as an improvised stage-weight for this boom. (Click to enlarge).


The light shoots through a 3/4" thick disc of Lucite plastic. The disc is well supported on the steel truss that makes up the standard trap filler plug.


The class focuses the spotlight straight up to the hole in the stage. There is plenty of distance for safe heat dispersion. (By the way, until this building is completed, we have no costume shop, so the costumes have to be stored in this damp basement).


The 19 degree lens on the Source4 spot shoots right up through the gap in the steel I-beams. The actor simply stands there...like the "transporter pad" on Star Trek!!!


So here is a test of the final effect that I want. Kerne stands on the Lucite disc as we hit him from below. Surprizingly, there is no heat on the disc at all. (Click to enlarge photo).

Eva Peron's Microphones

Using found items, I constructed a simple press-conference-style rack of vintage microphones. These are just scraps of random metal parts like lighting fixtures, motive candle holders, and tin can lids. The first row of the audience is 40 feet away, so I am counting on distance and imagination to smooth out any imperfections. (Click to enlarge).


After this first test, I decided to trim 6 inches off the height of the microphone stands to compensate for the steep sight-line from the front row of the audience up to Eva on the 10 foot high balcony. In other words, the mics were blocking her face! By the way, Katie, our second Evita, is sitting there watching and waiting to run the scene herself. (We double-cast the title role).

Testing Evita's Revoling Door

I constructed a very simple turntable on a rolling wagon. Anna, one of our two Evitas, practices with the door for the first time.


The 3 boys playing Che will be in charge of manually rotating the door. Here, Anna laughs as they whip her around really fast.



Then, as various men exit her room, the door is opened part-way.

Testing the Facia

We have a "Parent Blitz Day" coming up where I will need lots of good crafts projects for parents to help out with. I want them to apply the facia to the scaffolding.

We are not allowed to paint the rented scaffolding, so I devised a plan to cover the pipes with temporary scenic elements. The fronts of the pipes facing the audience will be covered with gaffer's tape, which will come off very easily during strike. Then I will hide the ugly joints in the scaffolding with a variety of "found objects". At the 4-way joints in the pipes, I want to apply "drink cup holders" from fast-food restaurants! Once painted, and at a distance of 40 feet, these elements will look just like real architectural "rosettes" - like the European-influenced design features of the Argentine buildings in Evita. Believe me...they will!

Below, Alan Tutterow helps me apply a "sample area" of this "shabby chic" applique.


The fact that the first row of the audience is 40 feet away will help this effect a great deal. Once painted, (and splashed with my various colors of lighting), all this stuff will magically merge into a 1930's and 40's street-scape with European-influence flair. Of course, there are not solid walls here, so it will be just a representational setting in a minimalist theatrical style.

So anyway, if you take a closer look at this photo, in addition to the 3" wide gaffer's tape and the Wendy's drink cup holders, I'm also using some plastic garden edging with a nice wrought iron look, and some lengths of black PVC irrigation pipe, plus some cardboard packing pieces from laptop computers, below. (Click to enlarge).


I know you think I'm crazy, but Wendy's makes the best cup holders. Because, as you can see in this photo, there are shapes that look like the clubs in a deck of cards. And these things could make cheap and easy rosettes for the corners of doorways on any period set. (Click to enlarge).

Accent Lights

As discussed in my previous posts, I have mounted 750 watt "up-lights" under the Plexi-glass platforms. But the stage-left platform requires a large staircase that rolls in and out. This creates a challenge. When the step unit is retracted in the "stowed" position, it makes it impossible to turn on the large spotlights under there. So I had to come up with supplemental "up-lights" for those instances when the steps are stowed.

So I had my Stagecraft class mount 6 low-powered "pin spots" under the Plexi-glass along the lip of the stage-left platform. These are 50 volt, 40 watt spotlights that are intended to shoot at a mirrorball in a nightclub. The produce very little heat and are safe to use in close proximity to the Plexi-glass. They will only be used a few times for short periods.

On the Set

Here is a view of the stage from the top row of the balcony. The actors are taking the stage to rehearse Evita. Ninety percent of the set is complete. The only difference between my scale model and this picture are the two followspot towers at the proscenium arch. They will go up in a few days.


The actors are growing accustomed to working on the scaffolding now. The side platforms are five feet high and the center bridge is ten feet off the floor. (Click photos to enlarge).

Hanging the Show Curtain

We are not using our red velour Grand Drape for this production. It doesn't fit the style of this show. But we are using an unpainted muslin backdrop instead. This will allow us to do pre-show projections as well as the shadow of the movie theater announcement of Eva Peron's death.

Here, my Stagecraft class is hanging the 26 foot tall white drop on Line One, where it will share the batten with our 8 foot tall Valance border. (Click pics to enlarge).


The 25 pound curtain is held on by shoelace-style tie lines every foot on the 56 foot long top webbing. These may seem like small strings to hold such weight, but the weight is distributed very evenly.


Next, I had the crew insert pipe at the bottom of the drop to keep it taught. I use galvanized pipe that is intended for supporting chain-link fence. It is very cheap and comes in 10 foot lengths. Plus it has very handy couplers at each end that join together like tent poles, see photo:


The pipes are slid into the chain pocket at the bottom of the backdrop. And I put a piece of gaffer's tape at each joint so that the pipes don't separate inside the pocket as we pull them out during strike.


Finally, I always trim off the excess pipe with a metal-cutting saw. You don't want extra pipe sticking out of a drop because an actor standing in the wrong place could get disemboweled as the pipe flies out, (something us Tech Directors always need to be mindful of). The pipe is now exactly the same length as the drop, so the sharp ends are not poking out.


Now the drop is ready to test! We hung a 500 watt fresnel spotlight behind the drop to test the sequence in the opening scene where the "movie" is stopped for the announcement of Evita's death.

Powering Up the Up-Lights

My Stagecraft class mounted and focused the lights underneath the Plexi-glass platforms today. They removed the C-clamps that are normally used to hang the lights, and mounted the fixtures on flat bases. Then the bases were screwed to the floor.


Then they aimed the lights up through the openings in the floor. Here you can see a spotlight between my feet.


Then we brought power to the lights from the various backstage dimmer locations. But since we have to be able to roll that large bedroom door wagon off stage, we couldn't run cables on the floor. So the crew strung up the cables using a 10 foot tall lighting boom, seen on the right of this photo.


Power! This is what it looks like under the scaffolding with all the 750 watt ParNel spotlights turned on.


And this is what it looks like when we toast the actors with up-light! I took this photo from Eva's balcony above, looking down at the stage-right platform. Three crew members are lit from below in a very dramatic effect.

Eva's Revolving Bedroom Door....

Central to the drama about "Evita" is the way the poor, young lady "sleeps her way to the top" of the Argentine power structure. This is depicted figuratively and literally by a revolving door set-piece.

First, I built a simple turntable with tiny casters on a "stock" rolling wagon. Then we mounted two stock Hollywood-style flats on either side. The crew will revolve it manually from behind as a string of "lovers" exit Eva's doorway.


Here, scene painter Dale Johnson puts a muddy wash on the hotel wall as director Ruthie Tutterow watches.


This is the only wagon and only wall of flats used in this production. The rest of the set is a wide-open unit set, as illustrated here. (Click photos to enlarge).


To create the faux crown molding on the top of the hotel wall, I cut out some trim from an old carpet tube. I enjoy using found objects as scenery...besides, it's free!


Then I attached the slice of carpet tubing to the top of the wall unit. After a little creative painting, this will give a realistic effect to my fragmentary "wall". (And then once the show is over, this cardboard tubing goes into the recycling bin!)

"Kid Proofing" the Set

Well, not "kid proofing", but "actor proofing".

I'm big believer in the "Murphy's Law of Theatre", which states, "Anything that CAN go wrong WILL go wrong" during a performance. And that includes any protruding point or jagged edge that can catch on a costume or trip an actor.

Since our rented scaffolding is rough and ugly, (and intended for burly construction workers not actors in period dresses), it has to given some special attention. The edges of all the steps on this scaffolding are especially uneven, with tabs and pins sticking out. So I had Hayden and Kenny cover the edges with remnants of rubber dance floor material.


Then I had them apply some strips of "non-slip" sandpaper tape along all the leading edges of the rubber. Also notice the sharp pins that hold the railing joints together...all of these protrusions will be covered in foam and gaffers tape as well.

Prepping Eva's Casket

In keeping with a mysterious theater tradition, the right stuff falls in our laps just when we need it. I call it "design serendipity".

We needed a coffin for Eva Peron --> We had our annual haunted house in our black box studio theatre ---> The Forbis & Dick Funeral Home donated a damaged coffin to Mr. Pusch for the haunted house ---> He let us borrow it for Evita! So we can check off another prop from the list. Zero cost, free delivery! Can't beat that!

All I had to do was mount it on a wheeled cart. But rather than build one from scratch, I took my dangerous DeWalt cordless reciprocating saw and cut my rolling workbench in half! Diagonally! I can always build a new workbench someday.

In the photo below, you can see where I cut my tool cart at a 30 degree slant, so that the audience will be able to see Eva's body in the coffin. (The cart said "Timbuktu" on it because it appeared in a children's musical last year as a shipping crate!)


BUT, it wasn't as simple as that.

On closer inspection, I discovered that the coffin was stuffed with excelsior!!! Lots of it! Argh! This is thin wood shavings that was used as packing materials before the invention of styrofoam, (recall the scene with the infamous "ladies leg table lamp" in the movie "A Christmas Story"). Well anyway, as any Boy Scout can tell you, wood shavings are HIGHLY combustible!!! And this violates my theater fire codes, so it had to go.

So I had Kris and Madison pull all the excelsior out of the coffin. It was kind of creepy, by the way. (Click photos to enlarge).


In fact, this rather typical casket had enough excelsior inside it to fill two 55 gallon trash bags! This wood fiber will be saved for use on campfires and backpacking trips.


We then filled the void left in the coffin with old backdrops that had been thoroughly sprayed with a flame retardant. The ugly dolly under the casket will be hidden by fancy fabric and flowers.