New Scanner

Just a short update today.
I bought a new slide scanner and I am able to scan old slides that I have not seen in a long time and I will add them to my into my older blog posts.
I will let my readers know after I have added them.

I do not have a lot to say today so I thought I would add some Technical Theatre related covers that I like and find interesting and they are over 100 years old.

After reading the stats for my Blog I still find it amazing on the number of international readers that I have and I hope that you still find what I have to say interesting.

The lastest play that I worked on had just closed; dark play or stories for boys.

Follw the link to see picyures of the production:

http://www.brockport.edu/theatre/DarkPlay.html

Next up for me A Servant of Two Masters that will open in December.

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Androcles and the Lion

Our second production in the fall of 1983 was Androcles and the Lion directed our new faculty member Richard St. George.

A Children’s Theatre play would not have been his first choice but he had been assigned it and did a nice job.

I do not remember why but the set was designed by our Costume Designer Susan Tucker.

To add to the fun the play was to tour to local schools in addition to several performances at the college.

The design was fairly simple why a raked platform that had poles on each side with a cable running across so that curtains with different painted scenes could be used.

Actors would hide behind the backdrops and jump out from time to time during the play.

There were also several trap doors in the platform that were used to hide props and a few foam cutout scenery/props were used.

The platform is still in our basement storage area and it was used for at least one other play.

I kept it because of the method used to build it was a variation of the old parallel platform frames and it is very different from the standard 2x4 platforms that we use most of the time.

Adam Lazzare was teaching a large section on Introduction to Theatre with close to 200 students and being the nice guy I am, I offered to help grade some of the critiques.

Okay, so Adam was still the Dean back then and I thought it would be good for me to be helpful.

Anyway one of us, and I do not remember who, found a critique that was not like the others.

Yes from time-to-time we would find people who copied each other’s work but this one was unique.

The student had copied a 1946 New York Times review of the play for his critique.

His defense when confronted was: “You told us to do some research”

I do not remember what happened to the student but I am sure he was not expelled for cheating.

Adam was a very popular teacher here at Brockport when I came in 1982.

Often on the first day of class he would walk into the large lecture hall in sun glasses and a trench coat, fire off a blank gun and run off.

He said that he wanted to expose the student to a “Theatrical Moment”.

Not something that would go over well today.

He was the Dean for a few years and then stepped down and was our department chair for a few more years and retired in 1991.

I invited me to his house for Thanksgiving one year after hearing me talking with his secretary that I did not have any plans and was not going back home to Long Island.

Being young and not knowing any better I brought some cheap wine as a gift.

He was not insulted but chose to open a 100 year old bottle of Madeira he was saving for a special occasion after dinner instead of the Gallo swill that I had brought.

The tree planted in his horror after his last production at Brockport still stands in front of the Tower Fine Arts Center and is now taller than the building.

The Diary of Anne Frank

The summer plays, working on the fireworks and having fun with my friends was a nice cap to the end of my first full year in Brockport.

My younger brother Mark, then 20, drove up to visit during the summer and I gave him the grand tour and we had a few beers with my friends and some fun along the way.

I was eager to begin my second year at Brockport.

My first year was exciting and I felt I had learned a lot and had a new confidence in myself and my skills.

I was no longer the new guy; I had a good working relationship with the older students and had a good crop of freshmen and transfer students to work with.

Our first play in the fall of 1983 was The Diary of Anne Frank.

It was a large set with three levels that started 11 feet below the stage with stairs and platforms coming up from the orchestra pit to the stage level.

There were two side rooms that were raised platforms and an attic level above the kitchen area upstage.

Above the set was a large roof section resting on a long ridge beam hanging from cable from the grid.

It was a large and complex set but somehow we got it done with the time we had.

When we set our production season today I try for us to avoid large productions in the first slot in the fall because of the short period of time we have to get it ready.

I had 19 students in my Stagecraft class plus at least 5 or 6 work study students working together to get the set done.

The play had a good cast and the production was well received.

I remember that the strike lasted late into the night and it was one of the last where we had beer onstage when it was over.

I recently posted some of the photos seen here on my Facebook page and got many positive responses from the students who had worked on the show.

One of the actors reminded me of the cat we used in the play and how it infested the set and actors with fleas.

I remember waiting at someone’s house for a the cast to come for a party when the photo call was completed after of the performances and they were all late and pissed because it took longer than the play itself.

The director wanted pictures of ever moment and I remember seeing photos of scenes that I never saw during the play as she most have reposed things just for the photo call.

It was a good start to my second year and the next play was all together different, but fun, always fun.