First major piece, ready for paint...

Our set for "Atomic" consists of two major playing areas, the bar area, and the ROOM.  The ROOM is a fairly generic, 1930's era room with the ceiling defined by the floating beams and dish lights.

The ROOM serves as locations for almost the whole show and varies as a college classroom, a lab, Leo and Trude's home, and some location for a wedding/funeral.  So, it has to be a bit timeless and really speak to the era and not a specific place. Separating the ROOM from the band is the wall with 2 big windows and a door.

Last weekend, Kate, Melanie and I got the framing for the wall figured out and built.  When finished, it is over 9 feet tall and about 15 feet long...a BIG wall on a small stage.    This wall free-stands in the middle of the stage with no platforms or theater walls to brace it to.  AND it has an operable door, so it mustn't wobble or shake when the door is opened and closed.

I began with a full-height 2x8 at each end with a 12" full-height return, turning upstage toward the band.  Then off of the return, a 3-foot high wing wall to help act as a band muffle, which also gives us a bit if a diagonal brace support when it is screwed to the floor.

Across the head, we tied it together with a 12' long by 5-1/2" high luan covered "flat" which provides a continuous support.  A 3' high x 8' long luan "flat" is under the windows with another narrow "flat" between the windows.

At the end of the windows is a 3rd 2x8 that goes from the floor to the underside of the head flat at the top.  This gives me a 2x8 vertical on each side of the door frame.  I made two triangular kicker braces to anchor between the windows and between the window and door frames.  These tied to the floor should brace the wall unit in the middle, allowing it to free-stand.

The two wing walls are capped with a 1x4 sill, then a continuous chair rail runs under the caps, under the window sills.  6" ogee base finishes off the carpentry.

Colors

So, in the 1930's and 40's, popular tastes rebelled from the tradition of dark stained and varnished woodwork in buildings.  This dark woodwork was associated with heavy, old-fashioned Victorian styles.  In old buildings, most of this varnish had aged over the years so that it was so deep red/brown that it appeared black and very heavy.  People began painting over this old woodwork. Often the trim was painted white and the walls a color.  The effect of this treatment was that the rooms lightened up immensely and became brighter and more pleasant.

 For our paint scheme in the ROOM, I am keeping with this concept.  The ceiling beams, baseboard, chair rail, and window and door frames are all painted creamy white.  It was not uncommon for the door leafs to remain dark, stained and varnished wood.  Ours will remain that way.

The color pallet in the 1940's shifted away from busy wall paper patterns in the 20's and 30's, a carry-over from Victorian.  The colors were bright and saturated...baby blue, ochre yellow, burnt red, and the quintessential lime green.  Almost everyone of my generation when to school in or had a grandparent with rooms painted this lime green color.  It was the HOT color during WWII.  So... I HAVE to use that as our wall color.  It just so perfectly typifies 1940.

Last week, Sharon put a fresh coat of white on the windows and door frames. Last night, Kate and Melanie put a first coat on the trim.  Tomorrow, I'll have Sharon paint the green.

Then this weekend, we can knock it down into components that can be transported and we will begin the bar...a very different aesthetic.

R

It's been a big few weeks!

It has been a busy and BIG last couple of months.

In March, we had "American Idiot" onstage at New Line Theatre which ran to sold out houses for EVERY SINGLE PERFORMANCE!!!!

The reviews were wonderful and the show really rocked...literally!

I provided scenic design and fabrication for the show.

Following that, we ran "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" at Stray Dog Theatre.  For this production too, the houses were packed. Michael Baird turned in a stellar performance as Hedwig and Justin Been extracted something really special from this show.

For this show as well, I did scenic design and fabrication, including 10 fake speakers...looked like a Grateful Dead concert!

Again, the reviews and audience reactions were amazing!


Last weekend, while we struck Hedwig, we had "Disney's The Little Mermaid" onstage at Whitfield School.  I designed the set and lighting and Gary painted the whole thing.  It really dazzled...



In addition, on March 21, I attended the St. Louis Theater Circle Awards with Kathleen, Melanie Kozak, and Kate Wilkerson.   I had 3 nominations in the Outstanding Scenic Design for a Musical category; "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" and "Dogfight" at Stray Dog Theatre and "Heathers" at New Line Theatre.  While I didn't win any of them, it got a chuckle out of the audience when they got to my category.

On the amateur side,  last fall Kathleen directed a production of "The Elephant Man" at Looking Glass Playhouse.  It was nominated for NINE AFL Theater Mask Awards, including myself for Best Lighting of a Play, Melanie for Best Supporting Actress, Kathleen for Best Director, and the Best Drama award.  We managed to take home 3 awards that night,  Mitch Ellis-Yapp for Best Actor, Cathy Symonds for Best Costumes, and the Best Drama.  It was a GREAT night!



Thursday night, Kathleen, Melanie, Kate and I attended the St. Louis Post Dispatch GO Magazine List Awards party at the Missouri History Museum.

I was chosen by the readers as the Best St. Louis Scenic Designer.  I have never won a popularity contest before, so there's a first for everything.

Hey, at least it was a free party, with drinks and snacks. :)

So, now on to what's next.

In February, I was hired at Thomas Jefferson School as a fill-in replacement for the arts teacher who taught scenic design and theater tech. This position also has the responsibility for overseeing the design, fabrication and installation of the set as well as the lighting for the spring eighth grade play.  This year's show is "Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None"... where have I done that before???  So, we have a set designed and are in the process of fabricating it.  This happens mostly in class time and during the school day with the kids, so while it is yet something else on my plate, it doesn't necessarily cut into my other professional theater work. TJS's show loads into the gym on Friday, May 13 and is on stage Thursday, May 26 and Friday May 27 at 2PM.  Then we strike that show and put everything away following the final performance.

In the mean time...  we are in fabrication in the shop for "Atomic", the third show of the season at New Line Theatre.  It loads into the theater on Saturday, May 14...yes the day after the show at TJS.  Fortunately, we have a good jump on fabrication, so it shouldn't be TOO big of a scramble to finish things in time for a trailer or two to make their way toe the Marcelle that Saturday by 10AM.

For "Atomic" I am also doing the lighting, so as soon as we get the show loaded in, I have to get my head into lighting.  We hang and focus on Saturday May 21 with cue-to-cue the following Saturday, May 28...again, yes, the day after we strike "And Then There Were None" at TJS.

"Atomic is on stage from June 2 - June 25. On Sunday, June 26, we strike the show. At 6AM on Monday, June 27 Kathleen and I get on a plane for 2 weeks in Europe followed by 4 days in NYC.    I NEED THIS BREAK!!!!!

I just have to get thru June...  of course, I have to load two shows within a week of returning in mid July. So, the month of June will find me designing and building like a fiend so that I'm not dying or letting people down at the end of July.

OH, and Thursday afternoon, I got a panicked call from a long time friend who is directing a production of "Fiddler on the Roof" at Looking Glass Playhouse. His lighting designer had to back out at the last minute and he was desperate. So, next Friday evening and Saturday, I have to whip together a quick design, focus and program cues for him...he goes into tech next Sunday afternoon...

Thus is the life of (to quote Scott Miller) the busiest guy in St. Louis show business.
R

The design is about wrapped up

Last Monday evening, Atomic rehearsals kicked off with a meeting of the production staff. So, I had to scramble to get the ideas all down on paper for the design.

In the last post, I described all of the components and showed some examples. I posted a floor plan of the set.

I even posted a few images of some things that I had already purchased.  So, I want to talk about each of the pieces and show a bit of detail for them.

THE "MAIN ROOM"

First off, I want to clarify that this show takes place in a LOT of locations and it would be nearly impossible on our budget, in our theater, with its resources, to create a full and detailed set for each location.  The story follows Leo Szilard as he make his first realizations about the nature of the atom, through the formation of and his joining the Manhattan Project, his being fired from the project, to it's ultimate "success".  The script jumps from the 1950's back to the 40's and back to the 50's again, several times.

Because of this, I decided that instead of trying to create a new space for each scene, that we needed to create an environment that was visually consistent with the 1940's when most of the story takes place.  It is within reason that when scenes are taking place in the 50's, the spaces have not changed all that much from the 40's.

Over the past several years, I have accumulated a good number of scenic components; windows, doors, furnishings, etc.  I have made these pieces in a fairly modular way and took a fair amount of care in fabricating them.  My thought was that they could be repainted, maybe a bit of trim changed out, and then reused in a new configuration to become another place.  None of the theaters that I work for have a budget to sustain making all new and custom pieces for every show. So, I share these components between theaters and they are generic-enough in character that no one feels that they are being short-changed or given something that was just on the other's stage.  For each show, I build a new something or another to add to the collection and that allows each subsequent show to be more varied than the last.  So far, no one has complained... 

For the "main room", I am pulling the door unit that I first built for "Night of the Living Dead" at New Line 3 years ago and coupling it with two large, fixed windows that I built for "God of Carnage" at Stray Dog Theatre a little over a year ago.

These components will form the wall that screens the band from the playing space.  The openness of the windows will allow the conductor to see the actors and yet create a room.  I will raise the head of the windows up to 9' off the floor and then add a transom window above the door (very period for the 1940's).

In the last post, I described the ceiling beams element that I created for "The Elephant Man" last fall. With that floated in front of the wall of windows and doors and the practicals suspended, we get a convincing room from the 1940's that is abstract enough that it can play as the many locations we move to and yet keep us firmly in the 1940's.

The idea is not to build every wall and every detail of the space, but instead introduce realistic elements that form the planes and define the edges of our "room".

THE BAR

There is one place that we return to a few times in the show that Scott and I decided we wanted it to have it's own physicality; the bar.  In a previous post, I talked about the concept that the bar was probably actually from the 1930's and so would look just a bit older and more weathered.  Yet, this element, too can help keep us firmly rooted in our period.  I had posted a pic early on of some 1930's style bars with their big, dark wood back bar, mirror, bottle and glasses, etc.  Our bar will have many of the same components.

As it is designed, it will be an 8-foot long back bar that is 9-feet high at the peak of the mirror.  The mirror is flanked by two pedestals for our decorative, Art Deco lamps.  Then a vertical shelf unit outside of that with glasses below.

These two shelf units get to be pretty tall and reaching glasses would be difficult that high.  So, on eBay, I found a couple reproductions of old tin liquor signs that will fit perfectly in the top shelf bay.

The base of the back bar is fashioned to look like cabinets with closed doors. These won't open and become downplayed.  It is necessary to have them however. Because of the seating plan, the audience has to walk past the bar to get to their seats.  So, the bar must be fully developed and detailed.

The front bar is 42" tall and detailed similarly to the lower portion of the back bar except I am introducing the details from the two pedestals in the face of it to tie the two components together visually.  The bar top will be painted to look like black granite and all of the wood painted like old, dark mahogany, not unlike the door in the pic above.  I will probably add a few gold accents here and there.

Finally, the three chrome stools with black leather seats in front.

With the mirror, lamps,  signs, glasses and bottles, it should be quite a beautiful anchor at the end of the stage, creating another "wall" to our "room.

This week, we will begin pulling the pieces out of the loft, repairing and cleaning them up, then make the structure for the wall.

As we start building, I'll make a few progress posts with lots of pictures.  This is a fun one, probably my favorite of the year...
I cannot wait to get into it!!!!
R