Monday, May 11, 2015

Three Penny load in

What an exhausting weekend...

I keep saying that I am getting too old for this crap, but I keep doing it anyway.

Friday evening
I got the enclosed trailer loaded with all of the small items that are fragile or that I was afraid would not travel well exposed to the wind. Stopped at Home Depot for another gallon of black paint, just in case.

Saturday
I got to the shop about 7:30 on Saturday morning and spent a few minutes getting tools together. Gary arrived at 7:45 and we started loading the open trailer.  By the time that Patrick arrived at 8, we had it packed and ready for tie-downs.  

We even had extra room so the three of us went into the loft and pulled down old furniture to use as "junk" on stage.  Managed to get everything that we needed into the open trailer, so that means that I don't have to make a second trip later this week with furniture.

Pulled in at the theater a few minutes after 9 and began unloading.  Not long after, help began arriving.

All in all, we had four from the cast show up; Kent, Zany, Luke, and Todd all lent very able expertise on construction.  I put each on a team, and then added Patrick, Melanie, Kate, Paul Troyke and Kathleen along with Kee and two other of Kathleen's students.

The set is basically three structures.  I set a team to each structure and spent my time bouncing between teams, explaining how things went together and sorting out pieces.

Left, Kee and Kathleen put legs on the platform that becomes the dock.



Kathleen's two students help Todd put legs on the platform that becomes the jail while Zany and Kate brace Peachum's shop in the background











The stable was put together by Kent and Patrick.

In the photo, right, the platform is set in place, braced into the wing, and the skins are on the legs and face of the platform. After these were in place, fake diagonal braces were fit between the legs, the upper gable flats installed and the ship's ladder connected.


Meanwhile, Paul and Melanie constructed the "bridge" linking the top of the jail with the top of Peachum's shop, giving access to the gallows platform.

Luke blacked out all incidental wood that was added during installation including safety rails and braces.

After all platforms were up, skins applied that made them look like heavy timbers, and the upper level flats put on, We pulled out the "junk".












Finally, patrick, Luke and I hung the moon up and right of the gallows and threw a noose over the one light bar, just to have a sense of the composition.






Most everyone was done and gone by 2PM and Patrick, Luke and I started to clean up.  Scott came by around 3PM and climbed around, officially dubbing it our "Tudor jungle gym"!


I like it...





Sunday 
I went back into the shop, wired the special effects for the three gas lights. I purchased a strand of 6 Luminara candles that they sell to put on a Christmas tree.  I cut 3 off of the strand.  Since they are wired in parallel, each will operate on its own 5VDC AC adapter.  Tonight, I will fit each lamp post with one so that they flicker like gas lights but can be turned off and on from a non-dim channel of the lighting system.

I made the pieces for the two arches and put together the roller mechanism for the pull-down map of London that I printed on the large format printer at the office.



This afternoon, I am headed back to the theater to install the pieces that I made yesterday, add some black fabric maskings, touch up some paint and make the gas lights glow...
R







Friday, May 8, 2015

One last pre load update

OK, so I lied.... I decided to have one last pre-load in update.

Since my last post, Kate and I finished a few final built pieces, Kathleen and Kee came by Wednesday and we base painted all of the rest with black.  Then Thursday, Gary and Sharon got all of the finish painting done on them while I spent my afternoon giving Scott and Judy Newmark a tour of the Marcelle. I got the better deal in that one!

This photo is a pile of of the fake beams and columns for the stable.

Standing in the foreground are 3 "timbers" that will be single steps up on to platforms.
Stacked together are panels with wood and foam appliques. The front ones are skirts for the 3' tall platform by the jail, behind that are the two upper gable ends for the stable and for Peachum's shop.










A mound of furniture and platform legs.  Black masking flats to the right and in the foreground are 3 foam beams for the attic above the jail...











Laying across the sawhorses are the "posts" for the beams in the jail attic, the platform facing for the stable and the lamp post for the stage right gas light in the vom.











Finally, the skirting for the gallows platform laying on its side.  Already loaded into the trailer are all of the beams, posts and infill pieces for Peachum's shop.

I think that we got everything made now except for two smaller, but important pieces.  There is a short bridge that spans between the top of the jail and the top of Peachum's shop. It is the only way to get up there and up to the gallows, so it is kind of important.  The other is a non-structural arch that spans between the top of the stable and the gallows and forms the up stage right cast entryway.  These are important elements, so why did I procrastinate on making them?

Well, there is one small but enduring lesson that I have learned by pre-building and installing probably 30 sets over the years.  For most of my 100+ sets, I have had the good fortune of building to fit and things almost always work because I make the parts on site.  When you fabricate in the shop, even working from some of the most detailed drawings, some things just don't go together they way that you expect. OR, there turns out to be some piece of the facility that is in the way, so you have to adjust.

Everytime I do a set that is built off site and loaded in, there are pieces that can be site adjusted to accommodate those unexpected conditions.  For 3PO, the adjustable pieces are these two archways.  The plan is to get the three platform areas installed and braced on Saturday.  Then I will take measurements and make the pieces on Sunday morning in the shop.  Neither piece is very large and both will easily fit in my car with the back seat folded down.  (I HATE USING MY VOLVO AS A FREAKIN' TRUCK, but it is what I have and I love it...)

Now, I am sure that most normal people have normal fun Friday evenings planned.  Well, I'm anything but normal.  Last Friday, I had a whole collection of people here doing many different tasks.  I provided beer and pizza and we made it a set party.  Tonight, I am by myself.  I have a few platform legs to make yet for the shorter platforms.  I could have someone do that on site tomorrow during installation, but if I have the time, I might as well get them done.  I also have all of the parts now for the gas light practicals for the set.  So, tonight is going to be assembling those and getting them flickering.

Tomorrow morning at 8AM, Gary, Kathleen, Kee, and Patrick are meeting me at the shop.  We will load my trailer and Larry's trailer with as much as we can realistically tie down and be on our way toward the theater by 8:30.... Hopefully, we have a good crowd of cast and friends waiting for us.

There is a lot to do tomorrow!!!  R


Monday, May 4, 2015

Almost done making...

This week, and specifically this weekend has been a flurry of fabricating.  As I mentioned last week, the concept for this set means that it is made of a bunch of small pieces instead of a few large and more complex ones.

Friday night, I had quite the collection of help.  Patrick and his girlfriend, Shelly, Kate and Kee were all in the shop.  Shelly and Kee painted black and more black.  Everything must be base painted black for this set and then gone over the top of with wood graining.  Meanwhile, Patrick and Kate tackled building furniture.  Most designers (me included) would just as soon buy, beg, borrrow or steal furniture rather than make it.  Sometimes, though, there are things that are so special or so awkward to use on stage, that it makes more sense to fabricate it.  For Bonnnie and Clyde, I made a 24" square table for the hideout scene.  It needed to be light and durable and easy to set and strike for scene changes.  Almost 30 years ago, my father came up with a pattern for making tables, stools and benches that looks good and is light weight and cheap to make, using 2x2s and plywood tops.  This same pattern is one that I turn to when I need a utility piece.  For 3PO, Scott needs a banquet table.  But we have no place to store a big table and they take time to set and strike. So I suggested that we assemble the long table from several smaller ones, all dressed identically. Adding to the one from B&C, we made a second one identical to the B&C table and the third is 24 x 42. (above)  Put together, they are 7-1/2 feet long and should have a reasonable presence on stage.

Beds on stage are always a pain in the arse.  They are big and clunky.  You do not want to move a mattress at home, so moving one on stage is not even an option.  Plus, beds are not meant to move around and they rely on gravity to stay together.  Picking one up, it is highly possible that it will come apart in your hands.  Plus, even a twin bed is bigger than you really need on stage for most applications.  For this show, I started with a 3' wide headboard that I had made for Diary of Anne Frank last year.  We then made a frame not unlike the tables and benches than I have made before. But, it needs to to look like an old-fashioned bed.  So, instead of a plywood top, we drilled holes every 4" around the perimeter and will string it with a criss-crossing web of rope. Then we will fabricate a "feather mattress out of a flat sheet folded in half and sewn like a giagantic pillow stuffed with newspaper. That way, it will  be lumpy and rustly like an old feather mattress.



Saturday, it was just Patrick and I. We tackled the trim-out pieces for the stable.  The legs and braces for the platform will be sheathed in luan boxes, just like Peachum's shop. and above the platform, a back flat is made to look like the timbers of an old barn, complete with a closed hayloft door.







Sunday, Kate and I worked on miscellaneous odds and ends. Underneath the jail and the stable, we need black flats to mask the upstage legs and provide racking support. Scott wanted a low black flat behind Peachum's at the bands' feet to help control the sound.







We made a 4' diameter luan disc that Gary painted like a moon and will be hung upstage of the gallows. And I reassembled an old post light that I found in the storage loft and wired it to be one of our gas lights.  It will be in the vom stage right, along side the steps that serve the audience left section.  I purchased a second one on a more decorative pole that will be set just inside the theater when the audience comes in.





There are still a few things to be made...signs, one last flat, and a couple of details. But the bulk is made.  I am going to pre-purpose some timber beams that I made for Diary of Anne Frank last year as the attic above the jail. (right) I need to make the flat that these attach to.






Monday and Tuesday evenings are painting nights. I want to get everything base painted black and perhaps the first layer of wood graining so that Gary can work some magic on all of it at once before we load in next Saturday morning...

Next time I write, it will be pictures from load-in.  (Unless I do another Marcelle update this week sometime.)
R

PS...Gary working magic on a few pieces already today...