I'm curious

Does anyone read this? Lisa is the only one who comments. Hrm, maybe a contest is in order. Painting for comments or something...I'll think about it.

Monday news

Not really what one hopes to hear when one gets up on Monday...

for one talks fell through on the Local 1 Stagehands strike.

and then this: Student dies at Yale Rep.
Update article.

Theatrical accidents are never good, but do bring to light many sketchy things that we do. How many of us have done something risky and nowhere near OSHA approved thinking "oh I'll be fine." I have a friend who broke his back falling from a ladder while hanging lights. Too many times a cavalier attitude is taken towards safety. We've all done it, some sporatically, some with frightening consistency. I use to get mocked for wearing my respirator, and scoffed at when I told others (mainly carpenters) to put on theirs. I'm forever yelling at love to put his on. I don't know where this attitude comes from....well I know where mine comes from. I'm ashamed to say much of mine comes from the fact that I'm a 5'2" petite female in a male dominated business. For some reason toughness and lack of safety sense have been linked and I was sucked into that mindset while fighting to prove myself. Thankfully I've learned (for the most part) since then. Robb's accident really shook me up, as did meeting and learning from Monona Rossol (who totally rocks by the way). Pregnancy is a huge wake up call. I can tell you that I don't plan on losing another baby by doing something irresponsible and stupid to prove how tough I am; or how hard core old school I am either. It's not worth it.

Ok enough of my early morning soap box rant. Happy Monday.

Loading in

Wednesday we started load in, which involves loading all the scenery from the shop into a truck (usually in multiple trips) and taking it to the theatre to assemble on stage. This process also involves a lot of coffee, ibuprofen and swearing.

Here's a few pictures of the process...





It has been fun, tiring and some time frustrating. I've done work that I've not done in years. Most places the scenic doesn't do load in. On the last show I was still painting much of the set. I told the guys flat out that I'd do what I could but I couldn't guarantee that I would know what I was doing. I think I impressed the pants off of some of them with how hard I worked (and my gutter mind). Friday ended with issues regarding the scrim foliage for the tree and a rendering that defies all laws of physics. Tomorrow will be interesting.

Oak, Lots o' Oak

Before we started load in this week I was painting furniture like crazy. Tons of Oak. Here's some pictures of the process.








This desk started out painted flat black, blue and grey. I forgot to get a picture of the before. I'm rather proud of how it turned out.






I know some of the pictures are quite blurry. I just can't seem to take non-blurry ones with this camera lately.
To save space backstage we're using this desk as three different pieces. To change the look we have inserts for the panels:



and a wrap-around facing:

Out out damn spot...

Macbeth is done and is being struck as I write. But here it is:



Remember the rendering I was given little over a month ago? I'm not sure the branches ever made it up. That is a topic I'd rather avoid discussing. There is always one thing in a show that is irksome and laborious. Those damn branches were it on this one. I have more detailed pictures but they are quite blurry. Love is going to take a few shots before strike today.

Here is the head, the rake and some of the cloud boxes:


Load in looked like this after the first night. We got the tiles on the rake and I sealed them. The eye was hung and the drippy blood installed. I'm still painting the clock. That's the blue blob on the floor.


This after the second night. The clock, the arch and the head were installed. The clock is still missing it's numbers and hands in this shot.


Here's a picture of the stage right proscenium flats. This is the first time that we have wrapped them to the side walls. The wood paneling there is quite a curse but I refuse to paint it black as has been suggested at times. As I point out, such a thing is easy to paint but a pain in the ass to un-paint as no doubt would be requested.


This is one of my favorite parts of the set...the drippy blood over the front edge of the stage. The stairs were designed to be all red. I felt that looked horrible once I laid in the primer coat. I suggested to the designer that we continue the drippy blood look and she agreed. I think it works quite well


I'm glad it is done. I'll be painting Macbeth for the University later this season so it seems I can never escape the show. Fitting though. I was in Macbeth when I decided to switch my major from art to theatre.

More Clapboards

For those of you who thought my clapboard hell ended with the pretty wall never fear...
these are the side walls.



I actually finished these a few weeks ago.



I've actually finished a bunch of other things not worth taking pictures of and I'm waiting for them to finish building the last piece. So I've been bored...incredibly bored.