The Tour Life

You will never find harder working people than those who are on a traveling show. Last summer I worked at Durham Performing Arts Center which is a show house. (FYI- show house means they have traveling shows come in and show them; they do not produce their own work. Production houses produce their own shows.) Over the summer I worked with the traveling crews of the Julianne and Derek Hough tour, the American Idol tour, Ringo Starr and his All-Starr band, and many others.

The schedule is crazy. You get to the theatre at 6 in the morning just as the brigade of trucks is pulling in. A big Broadway show on tour has 20 plus 18 wheel trucks, the small (in comparison) tours that I worked on were only 2-4 big trucks. There is a system to the way you unload them, and an order to the way that they come in. God forbid you mess up the order or the system. Once the trucks are unloaded the in house production staff join the crew in setting up the stage and backstage. You will never see so many feet of cable or expensive lights anywhere else. These traveling crews have setting up down to a science and they’re done with everything in about 4 or 5 hours. Then you hang out until sound-check, wait a little while, then run the show. A moto of theatre is “hurry up and wait”.

The second the show is over and the bows are done, you are backstage tearing things down. These tours have a schedule to keep and they will keep it come hell or high water. Often the show takes less time to come down then to go up. They pack it all up and are on their way again to do it all again! After a 6am to midnight day, you appreciate that you don’t have to do it again the next day. I learned so much about how tours work, and it’s helping me this coming week when we are taking HPU’s production of The Servant of Two Masters on tour!

Theatre, Theatre Everywhere

There is theatre everywhere. In every town, city, state, country, there is theatre. You don’t have to be living in NYC to get access to a show. Local theatre is booming. It’s wonderful to expose people to this. It doesn’t matter if you see a show at a local high school, a community theatre, or a local college. So many people produce shows all over the world.

There are touring shows, and if you live in a moderately sized city, or near one, chances are that you’ll have a venue where touring shows come too. More often than not, the touring shows will be just as high a caliber as the original Broadway show-often for a lower cost.

Speaking of local theatre, there’s theatre happening right here on campus. Come and see The Servant of Two Masters starting on April 8th though April 19th!

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Life On Broadway

Nearly every actor and actress dreams of being on Broadway. In the theatre world, there is no higher goal then performing on the Great White Way. I love seeing shows on Broadway. They’re magical. It’s truly the highest caliber of performance that you can see.

The things that the audience don’t see is the amount of work that gets put into the performing in a Broadway show. You have a show every day of the week, and sometimes (depending on the show) you have two shows on Sunday and Wednesday. It’s exhausting. Yet it’s still the dream.

In the technical side of this, you have some awesome technology, and people who really know what they’re doing. If you have a good producer or benefactor, you have the money for an awesome, spectacular show. That is, after all what the original Broadway shows were. They were supposed to be spectacles. The more flash that you have, the better it will be. Nowadays, there are shows on Broadway that aren’t just spectacle, and have substance. It all depends on the show.

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In my opinion, everyone should see a Broadway show in their lifetime.

Wigs and Costumes

Wigs and costumes are another very exciting part of the show. Like with anything, some shows will have every character with a wig, and the majority of shows have no one in a wig. You can never be attached to your real hair, because sometimes directors will have you cut or dye it to fit a part. Costumes can be big and extravagant or they can be street clothes. It all depends on the show that you’re producing.

Wigs can be a big part of a show or not so much. For a silly show, wigs can add to the costume and the character, but most of the time, wigs are just easier then dyeing hair. For actors, wigs can help them get into character. They feel like they are the character because they don’t look like their normal selves. Wigs could be hair, but they could also be head pieces or different colors. You can make them or buy them. The art of wig making is just that-an art. It’s hard to do and to make it look good and like it belongs on someones head.

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Costumes can range from a ball gown to jeans and a tee. Just like with the props, you can make, buy, or rent costumes from nearly anywhere. You can alter things to make them into what you need. Typically for big show, a lot of the costume pieces are made, while for smaller shows and smaller costumes in big shows, pieces can be bought or rented.

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The costumes and wigs can be as crazy as you can imagine for any show. It all depends on what the director and production teams have in mind for the show.

Props and Make-up

This week we’re going to look in depth at the process that goes behind makeup and the props that are used during a show. Props can be anything from a chair to a piece of food. Meanwhile make-up can go from full blown animal makeup to a normal street look. The crazier that show, the wackier the make-up!

First, the props. You can make them, you could buy them, or you could rent them. Props are flexible in the sense that you can get most things, and then alter them to be exactly what you need. Where props get difficult is when you’re doing a period piece and you need a specific thing from that time period. In that case, you would go to the magical world of the Internet, and research, research, research. Most likely, there is someone out in the world who has the thing that you’re looking for.

Fake food on a prop table http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Theatrical_props_from_%22Oliver%22.jpg

Making props is also a lot of fun. You can make lots of things out of foam or wood even. Foam is especially good if something is supposed to be heavy, and looks heavy, but doesn’t actually have to be heavy. Props is a big job. You spend a lot of time driving around going to different places to get the perfect piece. Directors are normally very particular about what they want.Food is another fun prop to deal with. Fake food is fine, but if the actor actually has to eat on stage, you need real food. There are ways to make fake food look very real though.

Makeup is a whole other ball game. You have to be very talented to do the crazy makeup, and to make it look good. You would be surprised by how much makeup you actually have to wear on stage. The lights in a theatre are so hot and bright, that actors use specific thick makeup so they don’t get washed out by the lights. Normal street makeup isn’t enough underneath the bight lights. Everyone wears makeup, guys and girls. Special makeup is fun, because you get to create the character on their face. The shows like Cats and The Lion King have amazing makeup because they’re all animals! There’s also old-age makeup, and injury makeup. One of the funnest things I’ve done was make fake wounds and give someone grotesque injuries.

The Lion King makeup https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/20/d5/20/20d52070ace61ec016b8de3b2dfb84b2.jpg

Makeup from CATS http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack/ND%200407%20WED%20Cats%201.jpg

Without props and makeup, the show would be significantly less then what it is with it!

Going to USITT

This week’s post is about a theatre conference run by an organization called the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. This organization puts on a four day conference every year, where members have the chance to meet and network with profession in the technical theatre world. While at HPU, myself and a group of other theatre students have gone to the conference. I’ve gone to the conference for the past two years, and am going again at the end of March. We all have a blast and learn so much about companies that we could potentially work for. Last year it was held in Fort Worth Texas, and this year it’s held in Cincinnati, Ohio.

While at this conference, we get to participate in the Tech Olympics. During these Oylmpics, we compete with other colleges from all over the country in multiple events. These events range from hanging and focusing a light to clearing and resetting a table with props. There’s also the quick change event where you’re timed on how quickly you can undress and redress a person. Last year myself and another girl from HPU placed 3rd in the props event, which was very exciting for us!

Doing the quick change during Tech Oylmpics

Doing the quick change in the tech olympics

The props table set up

There’s also the floor expo, which for theatre students is like Christmas morning. You walk in and you just stand there in awe for a minute or two because there are so many lights and noises to take in. Then you make your plan of attack to talk to all of the companies that give out free things. Once you’ve gotten all of the free things possible, you go back to all of the companies that you’re interested in, and give them your resume, etc for jobs and such.

While we’re there, we also go to seminars and classes on various topics. I’ve been to classes on how to costume an entire show from a thrift store and the class on resumes which was very helpful. They’re all very interesting and they help you a lot. I love this conference, and we always have so much fun and learn a lot when we attend.

Life in the Rehearsal Process/Tech Week

For technicians, one of the most daunting phrases in our vocabulary is tech week, also affectionately known as ‘Hell Week’. This week starts four or five days before the show opens, and boy is it a doozy. However, I’ll start at the beginning of the entire rehearsal process.

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Once you’ve been cast in a show, you have begun the rehearsal process. Typically the first thing you do is ‘table work’. Table work is reading the script, getting to know the characters, talking about the background of the show, and having productive discussions on themes of the show. This is the ‘getting to know you’ phase. The actor’s primary job is to start establishing their character and memorizing their lines.

Soon, rehearsals get moving. The actors begin to get on the stage, and start blocking. Blocking is the term we use for the movement of the characters throughout a scene. By this point, the actors don’t have to know their lines, so they’re still holding their scripts. For musicals, this phase is all for the big choreographed dance numbers that depending on their scale, take a long time to perfect.

Next, actors need to be ‘off book’. Off book is having all of your lines memorized. You’re still allowed to call “Line!” where the line is given to you by a stage manager or an assistant stage manager.

Finally, the rehearsal process is almost over. You’ve been rehearsing anywhere from weeks to months to perfect this show. Costumes start coming in, rehearsal props start being used, and actors are off book.

Now comes the fun part, Hell Week. This is when all of the technical aspects come into play. You have load in, where the set is now in the space, you have a light hang and focus, so the lights are where they need to be, and you have a cue to cue. Cue to cue is the most arduous process of the whole process. (Cues are when something happens, for instance anytime the lights change, a sound happens, or a set piece moves, you have a cue) You go through the show literally from cue to cue. Some shows that I’ve been apart of have over 600 cues. Bigger Broadway shows could potentially have thousands.

You have cue to cue, then dress rehearsals with costumes, makeup, pros, mic pacs, the whole shebang. Before you know it, it’s opening night!

The Design Process

This week on Life in a Technical Theatre World, we’re looking at the design process, and all of the programs that help designers with the process.

Typically, the process will start months and months before any opening night or before a show has even been cast! The first thing that a company or a panel of directors will do is pick the show. Then the script will get analyzed very carefully by everyone involved. The director is looking for character choices, beat changes, and the overall theme of the show among many other things. The costume designer is taking his/her cues from the director, and trying to get an idea of time period or location. If you have a play set in a specific time period, then the costumes will have to fit that time period. The set designer reads the script, and if the playwright has given a specific setting, they go off of that. Some playwrights will give you paragraph and paragraphs of background, and others will give you nothing.

Specifically in the set design world, the first step is too figure out how you want it too look. Then you start to draw it out on paper, sketches of a sort. Once those have been approved by the director, the next step is to lay it all out in a program called Auto-CAD. The CAD stands for Computer Automated Design. This program is very difficult to learn, but once you do learn, you feel very proud of yourself. This program makes it easy for you to print out a plan for something like a wall with dimensions, so you can hand it to a carpenter to build. Once the set is laid out in Auto-CAD, it get’s transferred over to a program called SketchUp, which is a 3D modeling program so you can see the set as it will look when you build it. The designs are constantly changing because a myriad of problems can arise. One problem could be that you can’t build the set that is wanted on budget. Another could be that it’s just not possible in the time constraints. There are many things that have to be considered when building a set. You also have to make sure it’s structurally sound, so no actors are harmed.

Both of these programs are what we use here at HPU, I’m sure there are more programs out there that other theatres use as well.

The groundplan of the set below made in Auto-CAD

Potential set design made in SketchUp

Both of the pictures were made by me in my design class freshman year!

Check back next week for another post!

Life as a Playwright

Life as a playwright is not as glamorous as one might think. Last semester I took a class on play writing, with the chair of out theatre department Ed Simpson (who is also a published playwright). The class was very interesting and by the end we had written a one-act play. I enjoyed the class, although having our plays acted out in the final was a little scary!

The struggle of being a playwright is the need to come up with both a good idea and compelling characters. If you don’t have a solid base, then it will all come crashing down. The first step is to come up with an idea. You will have hundreds, some will be absolutely terrible, some will be okay, but one will be perfect. The perfect one is the one that you expand on.

Then you create the characters. The goal is to create a compelling character who people will identify with. Hopefully, you have a picture of what they look like in your head so you can write a character description. Some playwrights have a very specific idea of what the character is supposed to look like, and will give you paragraphs of character description. Others (such as Shakespeare) give you nothing. Sometimes all you get is “CHARACTER NAME enters” (again, Shakespeare). It’s nice for directors to have some guidance, but not so much that it’s impossible to cast.

Now comes the hard part, the writing. You have to sit down and bring these characters and this story to life. You will do rewrites. SO many rewrites. You will be rewriting up until opening night sometimes. Often, playwrights will write the play, then take it to a group of actors who do a read through, and then get feedback from the actors and the audience. This could potentially go on for months. Then if you’re lucky, someone will want to produce your play, so production starts.

Again during the rehearsal process you will be making new discoveries, and rewriting parts as you go along. Eventually the play does open, and hopefully it’s a success. HPU is currently helping a playwright through this developmental process right now. John Cariani (he wrote the show Almost Maine) is currently workshopping one of his plays at HPU, and our department is premiering it as one of our shows next semester.

Currently in the HPU Theatre Department, we are working on our third show of the year aptly named Night Of The Originals. It’s a night of plays written by previous and current students. It opens this week March 19th! Get your tickets from the box office in Hayworth Fine Arts!

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