Our next show at Marquette University is If You Take a Mouse to School, also known as the kid show. The build for this show started recently and we have been building and rehearsing like crazy. The kid show every year only has a few weeks to be built and rehearsed and then we all go on Christmas break. Two weeks before Christmas break is over, the cast and crew come back to school to perform the kid show for multiple elementary schools around Milwaukee. It is really a neat experience. Each show has a talk back were the kids can ask the actors questions about the play. It is theatre for young audiences and it really is a special thing to see.
We will be having tech and dress rehearsals this weekend. Once the show has cues, everyone will go home for Christmas break and then come back early to perform.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
KCACTF - Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival
As I have mentioned before, Holy Days, the play that Marquette University is producing as we speak, has completely been designed by students. This aspect of our production makes these performances extremely unique. The scenic design team consists of: Lex Gernon, Raquel Garces, and myself (Carissa Saia), the costume design team consists of: Adriana Saia, Andrea Schoening, and Maddy Yee, the light design was designed by Nic Trapani, and the sound design was designed by Jack Tarnow. It has been an amazing experience.
America has a festival every year called, KCACTF or The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. The festival recognizes actors, designers, technicians, stage managers, and directors. There are many events, awards, and performances that take place at this festival. Every year, Marquette University’s Theatre Department enters a show to compete at the theatre festival. This year, Holy Days was the play that our department decided to sign up for the competition. Because of the uniqueness of this play, we think that we have a great chance of taking our performance on the road.
What happens when a school chooses one of their shows to present to KCACTF, is that two representatives of the festival’s board comes to the performance, gives the actors, director, and designers feedback, and judges the performance. The festival is split up into regions and the festivals are done by those regions. The judges from each region get together at the beginning of December and they choose so many schools to go on to perform at the festival. This weekend, Sunday, two representatives of our region came to see Holy Days. The design teams took them out to eat before the matinee to get to know them and to explain to them why our production is so unique. It was a great opportunity to talk to people who love theatre and have been doing it for so many years.
After lunch, they went to see the show and I think that they were very impressed. They gave us constructive criticism and told us what they liked and didn’t like about all aspects of the performance. We all have high hopes for our show to go on to the festival. We are very proud of our production and we want to share that with KCACTF.
America has a festival every year called, KCACTF or The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. The festival recognizes actors, designers, technicians, stage managers, and directors. There are many events, awards, and performances that take place at this festival. Every year, Marquette University’s Theatre Department enters a show to compete at the theatre festival. This year, Holy Days was the play that our department decided to sign up for the competition. Because of the uniqueness of this play, we think that we have a great chance of taking our performance on the road.
What happens when a school chooses one of their shows to present to KCACTF, is that two representatives of the festival’s board comes to the performance, gives the actors, director, and designers feedback, and judges the performance. The festival is split up into regions and the festivals are done by those regions. The judges from each region get together at the beginning of December and they choose so many schools to go on to perform at the festival. This weekend, Sunday, two representatives of our region came to see Holy Days. The design teams took them out to eat before the matinee to get to know them and to explain to them why our production is so unique. It was a great opportunity to talk to people who love theatre and have been doing it for so many years.
After lunch, they went to see the show and I think that they were very impressed. They gave us constructive criticism and told us what they liked and didn’t like about all aspects of the performance. We all have high hopes for our show to go on to the festival. We are very proud of our production and we want to share that with KCACTF.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Helfaer Theatre Scene Shop
As a technical theatre student, I work in the scene shop at the theatre. It is a great job but it is a lot of hard work. The scene shop is in charge of building the sets for each and every theatre production. We construct, paint, mend, build, and find scenery. As a scenic emphasis, I am learning more and more about how to do things correctly in order to get the job done correct. Being a junior, I get a lot of authority in the shop. My boss, the technical director, puts a lot of trust in me to make progress while he is away.
As we are currently working on Holy Days, it has been exciting to have designed the show and now I am building it. There are five main scenic elements in this show. They include: the kitchen of a house, a 25’x85’ back drop, a floor that looks like dry cracked earth with a lot of dirt on it, and two mounds of sand made out of foam. The design concept for this play was to make it look like a sepia photograph. That was done through the paint and texture. We also wanted to make our theatre space look very expansive. The expanse is show through a large backdrop that I, along with my scenic team, took the first week of our Holy Day build, to paint and perfect it. That was a challenge due to the fact that we do not have any space to our availability with the span of 25’x85’. We had to paint the drop in three parts. The house was made to look like a skeleton of a house. With a lot of time and research, we found old time photos of houses and recreated that look with a slightly fractured view. The family in the play was falling a part and the house shows that. The slated walls were built with 1x6. The mounds were very tricky. It took us a while to figure out how we were going to construct these. We decided to buy sheets of foam, glue them together, and carve them with hand saws and distressing tools in order to give them an organic yet realistic shape. We then painted them to look like sand. The ground was fun to recreate. we took pieces of flat material called homasote, drew cracked looking lines on them, then took a jigsaw to them in order to create the cracks. We then painted them to give them an earthy feel. What made the ground get its finished look was adding man made dirt to it. We threw different materials together to give us the right look, crunch and shape.
It is just as exciting to build the set as it is to design it. They are two totally different jobs and they are both exciting. There are still some tweaks that we are adding to the show, but once it opens, it will be a success. The process of a theatre production is extremely rewarding.
As we are currently working on Holy Days, it has been exciting to have designed the show and now I am building it. There are five main scenic elements in this show. They include: the kitchen of a house, a 25’x85’ back drop, a floor that looks like dry cracked earth with a lot of dirt on it, and two mounds of sand made out of foam. The design concept for this play was to make it look like a sepia photograph. That was done through the paint and texture. We also wanted to make our theatre space look very expansive. The expanse is show through a large backdrop that I, along with my scenic team, took the first week of our Holy Day build, to paint and perfect it. That was a challenge due to the fact that we do not have any space to our availability with the span of 25’x85’. We had to paint the drop in three parts. The house was made to look like a skeleton of a house. With a lot of time and research, we found old time photos of houses and recreated that look with a slightly fractured view. The family in the play was falling a part and the house shows that. The slated walls were built with 1x6. The mounds were very tricky. It took us a while to figure out how we were going to construct these. We decided to buy sheets of foam, glue them together, and carve them with hand saws and distressing tools in order to give them an organic yet realistic shape. We then painted them to look like sand. The ground was fun to recreate. we took pieces of flat material called homasote, drew cracked looking lines on them, then took a jigsaw to them in order to create the cracks. We then painted them to give them an earthy feel. What made the ground get its finished look was adding man made dirt to it. We threw different materials together to give us the right look, crunch and shape.
It is just as exciting to build the set as it is to design it. They are two totally different jobs and they are both exciting. There are still some tweaks that we are adding to the show, but once it opens, it will be a success. The process of a theatre production is extremely rewarding.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Holy Days - Tech Week
Holy Days is the show I have been working on and set designing for. The show is about a family's life during the Dustbowl in the 1930s. The family shows how hard of a time they had trying to make food, find jobs, and live normal lives.
Our theatre department is doing great work trying to make the world of the Dustbowl come to life on stage with set, props, costumes, lights, and sound. We go into to tech week starting Friday. Tech week is always a long process for theatre students because this is the week when the show gets perfected, criticized, and complimented. It is very exciting but there is also a lot of pressure to get things done on time.
Holy Days opens on Thursday, November 10th at 7:30. Come see it, it really is a wonderfully put together production and it is completely designed by Marquette students. It really is a sight to see.
Our theatre department is doing great work trying to make the world of the Dustbowl come to life on stage with set, props, costumes, lights, and sound. We go into to tech week starting Friday. Tech week is always a long process for theatre students because this is the week when the show gets perfected, criticized, and complimented. It is very exciting but there is also a lot of pressure to get things done on time.
Holy Days opens on Thursday, November 10th at 7:30. Come see it, it really is a wonderfully put together production and it is completely designed by Marquette students. It really is a sight to see.
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