HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2005-06-29, Page 6PAGE 6, BLYTH FESTIVAL SALUTE, JUNE 29/30, 2005
Robin Sanders, technical director, (left) Ian Chappell, head
carpenter and production assistant Nick Faye discuss progress
on a door being built for The Ginkgo Tree set.
Backstage
magicians
A whole team of craftspeople make
the magical world on stage come to
life from the playwright’s notes
By Keith Roulston
Citizen Staff
As the audience waits for the play
to begin, the first thing they see, even
before the actors enter, is the set.
What they don’t see are the
magicians who made it all come
together.
From the designers of the sets and
costumes to the carpenters, painters
and props makers, to the lighting
designers, there’s a whole team of
artistic professionals who have
worked for weeks or months to make
the onstage world, described in a few
lines at the beginning of the
playwright’s script, into something
real and tangible.
The team is under the leadership
of production manager Lauren Snell,
a veteran of stage managing both at
the Festival (Outdoor Donnellys)
and Stratford Festival.
What impressed her in working on
the Donnellys, she says, was the
extraordinary way that the whole
Festival company, from cast to.crew
to administration and box office
staff, pulled together as a team.
“There’s a tremendous sense of
ownership,” she says which makes it
a good place for young people to
learn their trade. This year’s crew
has a nice mix of Festival veterans
and people working here for the first
time, she says.
Snell first saw designer Shawn
Kerwin’s preliminary set design for
The Ginkgo Tree in mid-April.
Kerwin had been meeting with
director Eric Coates to co-ordinate
their ideas of what the set and
costumes would look like for the
show which is set in a gardening
store. She could show Snell a model
of the set but ..didn’t have finished
floor-plan drawings yet. She
sketched out the floor plan on a sheet
of graph paper so Snell could start
costing out the show.
At that point none of the summer
crew was yet in Bly th. They were
scattered across the province
working in the theatres that give
them winter employment. Technical
director Robin Sanders, a local guy
who began working at the Festival as
a teenager, was working in Ottawa
and he and Snell started preliminary
costing by telephone.
Cost is a major challenge in a
theatre with a tight budget. A room
that would cost many thousands of
dollars to construct in real life, must
be created for a few thousand.
What’s more, given that the Festival
runs a repertory season in which you
can see one play on a Thursday
matinee and a totally different one at
8 p.m. the same evening, those solid
looking walls need to be built so they
can be dismantled in a matter of
minutes so another set, with equally
substantial-looking walls, can be put
in its place.
As well, since there will be as
many as four shows running at the
same time, the sets have to break
down into small enough units that
they can be packed backstage
between performances. The large
wing spaces on both sides of the
stage (added in two additions in
1980 and 1990) do help a lot, says
head carpenter Ian Chappell, who is
also head carpenter at Toronto’s
prestigious Tarragon Theatre, and is
returning to Blyth for the first time
in seven years after earlier serving as
a production assistant, stage
carpenter and finally head carpenter.
One of the expensive parts of a
stage that goes almost unnoticed is
the floor, says Snell. Each set may
need a different-looking floor which
means a floor that has to be taken up
or down with each set change.
This season, both Ginkgo Tree and
the second show. Powers and Gloria,
are to have oak floors, an
opportunity to save some money.
The problem is that the oak floor in
Ginkgo Tree is in an old store and
must look worn by the feet of
thousands of customers. Powers and
Gloria is set in the library of a
Victorian mansion and should be
immaculately finished. A
strategically placed rug will help
carry off this sleight-of-hand but
there's still the matter of getting the
designers of the two shows to find a
compromise colour that will fit the
colour scheme for each of the sets.
After arriving for the summer on
May 9, the carpentry crew had some
preparation to get the shop ready foi
the season but began building the
Ginkgo set about May 16. They met
with Kerwin when her final
drawings were delivered going over
fine details, as Snell says, about
things such as the tin-ceiling,
cornice moulding around the room.
After research into how to build
that floor mentioned earlier, they
decided to use linoleum so the floor
can easily be taken up or put down.
What you’ll see on stage, however, is
actually the back of the linoleum,
painted to look like the oak
Continued on page 7
Scenic painter Penny
Schledewitz begins painting
The Ginkgo Tree set.
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
£
Kitchen, Bath, Home Accessories, Gifts
Large selection of Snowbabies,
candles, barware, prints,
lamps and more
32 The Square
Goderich, ON N7A 1M4
Phone/Fax (519) 524-4181
HURON EAST
(Best Wishes to the
Blyth Festival on
31 Seasons
of great entertainment
from tfte
(MunicijpaCity of Q-Curon (East
527-0160 Joe SeiCi ~ ‘Mayor
*
3
3
3
33
3
3
3
3
3
• LISTOWEL CAR CITY • LISTOWEL CAR CITY •
High efficiency
air conditioners
JO year
warranty
on parts
iJYORK
It's Time to Get Comfortable"'
ENERGY
CENTRE
262 Bayfield Rd., Clinton 482-7062
Air Conditioning - Heating - Plumbing - Electrical
Chti IBnsiniM i& fault an SCWUtKiZ
£
o
Oi
<
O
£
o
<
o
LISTOWEL
O
>
TO
O
3
FIVE STAR
O O O O O
1 Sales
Service
Parts
DODGE • JEEP
754 Main St., E., Listowel
(519) 291-4350
or 1-800-820-2725
www.listowelchrysler.com Jeep
O
>
TO
O
3
• LISTOWEL CAR CITY • LISTOWEL CAR CITY •