The Citizen, 1989-08-09, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1989. PAGE 5.
New facilities help stage magic
High kicking show
Kerry Dorey and Melissa Bell (foreground) perform a dance number from the spectacular Blyth
Festival Musical “The Dreamland’ ’. The show, with a cast of 33, couldn’t have been staged without
the Festival’s new facilities, staff members say.
BY KEITH ROULSTON
The reviews for “The Dream
land’’, the Blyth Festival’s newest
production have been never less
than mixed (The Globe and Mail)
and often ecstatic: The Toronto
Star called it one of the best
Canadian musicals ever presented.
The reception for the production
can only help enhance the reputa
tion of the Festival across the
country, yet it’s the kind of show
that couldn’t have been undertaken
by the Festival before the first
phase of its $1.8 million expansion
program was completed (well al
most) this spring. Without the
facilities in the new “garage’’
complex of the Festival on Dinsley
Street East, the Festival wouldn’t
have been able to pull off its
bigjgest ever effort.
Plenty of space
New surroundings
Jeff Henderson, associate production manager repairs lighting equipment in the new carpentry shop
at the Festival’s Dinsley Street shops. The shop is large enough an entire set can be erected inside.
Sherri Milburn, seamstress in the Festival’s wardrobe
department, repairs a costume in the Festival’s bright new
shop in Dinsley Street. With more than 90 costumes in “The
Dreamland" thespace in the newshop was essential for getting
the big show ready on time.
It’s a huge production by any
standard. With 33 actors on stage
and a five-piece backstage and a
set so large two rows of seats had to
be removed from the auditorium
(this is a production that would test
any theatre). It has a cast larger
than “Les Miserables”, the British
musical now at the Royal Alex in
Toronto. The huge production ex
bits dramatically just what the
Festival officials were talking about
this time last year when they began
their emergency fundraising cam
paign to raise half of its $620,000
private fundraising goal in order to
convince government agencies to
commit their money to the project.
Since then the federal government
has given the Festival $450,000
while the provincial government
has committed $900,000. The Fes
tival is still carrying on its own
fundraising programs. And, of
course, the expansion program has
barely got started as the largest
part of the plans, the expansion of
Memorial Hall, won’t get under
way until this fall.
Still, putting on “The Dream
land” would have been a night
mare without the new shops in the
new Dinsley St. facility. “We
couldn’t have built the set without
a lot of grief,” says Jeff Henderson
as he repairs some lighting equip
ment in the now empty carpentry
shop where carpenters work to
make the magic of the theatre set
come true.
If the huge set for the show
(there were 33 sheets of plywood
alone used in the set) had been
built in the old shops above the
Blyth municipal office, Ray Salver-
da said in the calm of the week
after the big show opened, it would
have had to be built in sections and
no one would know if the sections
fit together until they all arrived on
stage. The new carpentry shop,
however is about the size of alocal
public school gymnasium and the
entire set can be built and put
together in the shop, cutting out
the headaches of finding out some
thing doesn’t fit when the set is put
on stage for the first time.
Also speeding the process are
the new compressed-air powered
tools the carpenters can use in the
new shop. At one point, Ray
Salverda says, because of late
designs and the delays in having
the new building ready for use, the
set builders were about two weeks
behind. But with air tools instead of
hammers and screw drivers, they
were able to accomplish 14 days of
work in six days.
The new shops have eliminated,
too, the sight of set painters
painting chunks of the set in front
of the Dinsley St. garage. Now they
have their own paint shop, about
half the size of the carpentry shop
and joined to it by large overhead
doors. The entire set can be erected
in the paint shop for the painters to
do their work. This can save
problems, Mr. Salverda says, be
cause sometimes if different parts
of the set are painted at different
times, the colours can vary slightly
and the painters then have to go to
work to try to match things more
closely.
All this preliminary work helps
save time for parts of the produc
tion team who don’t even touch the
show until it gets on stage, Mr.
Salverda says. When the set has
been pre-fitted in the shops it
means less time is wasted when it
comes time to erect the set for the
first time in Memorial Hall. When
the set goes up quickly, it gives the
electricians more time to hang and
focus the lights needed for the
show. Since the crew has only from
the time one set is removed after a
Saturday night performance, until
the dress rehearsal on Monday
evening to give the show its
professional look, every hour gain
ed is crucial.
Preparing the costumes for a big
production is nothing new at the
Festival but “The Dreamland”
topped even the big shows of the
past and again, the new Dinsley
Street shops helped the job get
done. The wardrobe department
under Jim Westheuser has had a
taste of the “before and after” of
the new building this summer.
Because of construction delays in
the new building, the wardrobe
department couldn’t move from the
old upper-floor sweat shop until
July 1 and had to do costumes for
the first three shows of the year in
the claustrophobic old facility. “I
don’t think we could have done it,”
says Sherri Milburn, seamstress, of
trying to create the more thanz90
1930’s-era costumes for “The
“Dreamland” under the old condi
tions.
Today she is sitting at one of the
sewing machines in the bright, cool
and spacious new costume depart
ment. To get the show ready on
time several volunteers including
designers Shawn Kerwin and Pat
Flood who came up from Stratford
lent a hand in the wardrobe
department. There wasn’t room for
more than a couple of people at a
time to work in the old costume
shop, she says.
Right next door to the costume
shop is a kitchen with facilities for
dyeing the costumes. That used to
be a job that had to be done in the
Memorial Hall kitchen at times that
didn’t conflict with mealtimes and
of course had to be done so as not
to leave any mess. Today there still
aren’t enough sewing machines to
really make use of the new ward
robe department’s space but more
may come in future.
Costume storage in the old shop
was like an Imedla Marcos dream
turned nightmare. Each year more
space was created for storage by
adding another bit of mezzanine
under the high ceilings of the shop.
Plans now call for a costume
storage area downstairs from the
wardrobe shop but there are pro
blems because the basement that
was supposed to be dry, flooded
during a June rainstorm and nego
tiations are ongoing with the
contractor.
Over at the Memorial Hall itself,
“The Dreamland” continues to
show the problems the lack of
space in the theatre’s backstage
area causes. The first time “The
Dreamland’s” big set had to be
taken down for another show to be
put up it took the changeover crew
four hours of hectic work. Normally
a changeover might take one to two
hours.
Storage space backstage is at
such a premium, however, that
before the big set for “The
Dreamland” can be put backstage,
the set for the show that’s to be put
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