It's Tech - Part 2

Tonight I got see the dress rehearsal for Part I! Of course I'm supposed to be biased, but honestly - it was still the most fun I have had at the theatre in a long time. Previews for Part I start tonight. Production photos will be right here tomorrow, so be sure to come back and check them out. Today, however, we've got even more Tech! Because Tech is such a long journey, there are lots of photos, so here we go!

Dede Corvinus takes a turn as Mrs. Crummles.

While Tom and stage manager Chuck Bayang discuss logistics with Weston Blakesly, Matt Murphy and Alice Whitley practice a few steps.

How will Allison Altman descend from this high platform? David Adamson and Jimmy Kieffer to the rescue!

Joy Jones, Marianne Miller and Alice Whitley wait to resume rehearsal after a cue break. 

Justin Adams as Nicholas Nickleby

The grand entrance of the Infant Phenomenon

Wardrobe Supervisor Amy Fortenberry discusses quick changes with several actors backstage, during a break. Where they have to go to change; what they're changing into. If you've seen the chart, you know this is a complicated process.

The Crummles Company

This is the "tech" table. Stage Manager Sarah Smiley, along with designers run the show from here during rehearsals. 

Tom has a note for Joy Jones as Miss Snevellicci

36 Hours, 25 Actors, 100+ Crew - It's Tech! Part 1

Previews begin Wednesday and that means - Tech! Also known in the theatre world as Hell Week and with good reason. Tech refers to the stage of rehearsal when the company moves into the actual theatre for the first time. This is first time anyone has acted on the finished (almost) set; light cues are developed now that the actors on stage and sound cues are run in real time. This is a grueling process - painfully slow - sometimes even going line by line, while the tech crew and the designers add all of their cues. Around here, Tech usually starts the Friday before previews and runs through Sunday night. All total, the NicNic cast and crew were in the building for upwards of 36 hours over the weekend. 

Another PlayMakers tradition is Sundown Supper. This is a dinner provided for the cast and crew by volunteers and PRC administrative staff. It always takes place on the Sunday of tech, because let's face it - everybody's too tired to go scrounge up dinner in the short break that they get. Because there are two parts to NicNic, there are two Tech weekends and two Sundown Suppers. The first, which took place on Sunday, had an English theme. A Shepherd's Pie cook-off to be exact. Below you'll see pictures from both the dinner and Sunday's tech. 

These are our Sundown Supper volunteers. These guys not only cook, they serve the cast & crew and help with set-up & breakdown. Our Suppers wouldn't be possible without them!

Co-directors Joe Haj & Tom Quaintance and assistant director Mike Donahue work out some staging logistics while the actors are still on dinner break. 

If you've been following the blog at all, you've seen McKay Coble's set develop from a rough sketch to finished sketch to model. Here's the real thing! It always amazes me how much it looks like the model! 

Even after 30 hours of rehearsal in two and a half days, actors' spirits seem to be high. Above we see Jeff Meanza relaxing with his iPod as he waits for the evening session to begin. 

Flor De Liz Perez and Jeffrey Blair Cornell

David Adamson and Matthew Murphy

Tom Q. is often on stage during this Tech process, to talk to actors, designers and stage managers about what's going on. 

Costume designer Jan Chambers takes advantage of a break in the action to make some adjustments to Jeff Cornell's costume. 

Joe H. discusses a transition with actors Jimmy Kieffer and Lenore Field. 

Check back tomorrow for more pictures from tech! Coming later in the week, a new post from Rachel Pollock!

Dreaming of Nickleby

A few days before Tech (Halloween to be exact), stage manager Sarah Smiley sent me a blog post describing how Nicholas Nickleby was affecting her dreams. I absolutely love it and have to share it with you below. One of the characters in this dream you've already met - Sarah's dog Tug. After attending only part of the third day of Tech on Sunday, I wonder what her dreams are like now. 

Check back in the coming days for more info about Tech, including photos, but now... onto Sarah's dreams...

Eight a.m. Five minutes, please. Have to get up and walk the dog. Five…minutes… please. No…have to get up and walk the dog. Five…Week four and I fall asleep in North Yorkshire and I’m waking up in London.  Where is that letter from Fanny to Ralph…isn’t it letter #8 or maybe #9 or #10? I thought I put it on the prop table… or maybe I mailed it? Or maybe, it’s in someone’s coat pocket…they can’t do this scene without the letter…Am I looking for Noggs’ copy of the letter, or the one Allison brings onstage or is it Ralph’s? He reads one, too. Ray needs a letter, too!! Which letter ends up in his coat pocket? Who presets his coat…I have to find his dresser…Ralph. Ralph Nickleby. I will learn that name by heart. Ralph’s office is cold as fresh coal…Ralph’s office is the angular platform, it moves up and downstage with the effortless push of a button. Who is pushing the button? Stand by Button Pusher…Button Pusher…GO! Button Pusher, I hear a noise...it’s not the platform making that noise, is it? Do we need to stop?  I form an “h” with my mouth, intending to finish the familiar stage manager’s refrain I’ve begun, “Hold…please!” No sound moves my tongue but I hear the whisper of a biting wind. I hear the falling snow and see a young, lost lad with a spoon. I listen harder, wonder where I am and keep looking at the boy, trying to pick up my cue…is it coming from backstage? No, it sounds like the melodic honking of geese making their way south, flying over Devon? Geese in Devon? Why am I in Devon…how did I get to Devon? No…it sounds like…like…Line? “I’ve never done...” “I’ve never done anything like this before!”  I shout from the top of my lungs, standing center stage and staring out at the house…it’s empty…all around, it’s empty. I must be having one of those anxiety dreams...I’m not an actor, I think, I think to myself in the dream-theatre. But backstage, and I can hear it clearly, I hear a humming, many voices becoming one…one story, two parts, two directors, two rooms and one cast. All in London, damn ‘em.  Eight o’nine a.m.  and the geese are humming…wait a minute, geese don’t hum, they honk…as I begin to walk toward upstage center, trying to find the prop I misplaced, the humming begins to sound like a truck backing up but I know there are no trucks in Victorian London. What about geese? I turn towards stage right and I reach out to pick up a piece of paper that I think is the missing letter! I still have time to finish the preset…rehearsal doesn’t start until one o’clock! Who calls? Who calls so loud??? Instead, my hand slaps the alarm clock and then I’m staring with blurry eyes at the ceiling.  It was a dream. I have to get up and walk the dog. It’s week four and it’s time to get up and go to the theatre. I have to prepare for rehearsal.

I shake the ague from my consciousness and try to focus on the sunlight that slices though my window. It reminds me of the afternoon sun in the rehearsal hall, the way it warms the floor and creeps from here to there as we move through the day. I’ve been dreaming about what I do. Sometimes, I am afforded an epiphany about the process. But, as my dream-self remarked, I’ve never done anything like this before. 25 years in theatre and never have I been so awed and humbled by a process or the people who are making it happen. There are many props to preset and much paperwork to update and meetings to attend and people to talk to and furniture to move and there is coffee to make. Lots of coffee. 25 actors drink a lot of coffee. I need a cup of coffee…I roll out of bed and dress, call the dog and we go outside and take in the morning breeze. It’s October, and the geese are flying south for the winter.

–Sarah Smiley, Stage Manager

 

 

Another Day... Another Fitting

As promised, I made it to another costume fitting. This one was just as much fun as Jeff Meanza's. This time up - company member Jimmy Kieffer. 

Jimmy is a second-year MFA candidate in the Professional Actor Training Program here at UNC. During his time at PlayMakers, Jimmy has been seen as the lead fisherman and a bawd in Pericles; the dubious Wickham in Pride and Prejudice and most recently, as the affable Karl in Opus. In Nicholas Nickleby, Jimmy will be taking on a whole host of characters. Below you'll get to see several different looks for them. 

Up first though is long-time company favorite, Jeffrey Blair Cornell. I arrived at Jimmy's fitting a little early and got these shots of Jeff's last costume in his fitting. Sometimes early is a really good thing because this costume is fantastic!

Costume grad, Amy A. Page, Designer Jan Chambers and Crafts artisan Rachel Pollock attend to some final details. 

And now onto Jimmy's fitting...

Jimmy shows off his dance moves happy to be reunited with these pants from Pride and Prejudice. Well maybe happy isn't the word, but he made the best of it.

 

Associate costume designer Jade Bettin checks this vest for alterations.

 

Maybe it was a little tight. Pretty sure she did not stick him with a pin. 

 

These brand new boots were special-ordered for Jimmy. You'll notice hooks in each of his hands. They hook into the loops at the top of the boots to help pull them on. To get them off, a boot jack is typically employed, but it couldn't be found on this day. I hope they find it soon...

because I'm not sure this method is going to allow for quick changes. It made for a light moment or ten in the fitting room though.

This hat was special-ordered for Jimmy too.

Too bad it doesn't quite fit...

Crafts artisan Rachel Pollock is brought in to make some necessary alterations to the wildly oversized hat. 

Different character... different hat

Wait - it goes on like this

Watchman at your service...

Of course, a velvet robe is more like it...

But it will need some TLC before it's ready to go on stage. Costume grad Samantha Coles takes a look. 

This costume fitting journey has been a lot of fun. Check back soon for images from tech weekend Part I. It starts today! The entire company moves out of the rehearsal hall and onto the stage! 

The Vision Series - The Blog in Live Action!

Are you enjoying the behind-the-scenes picture you're getting from this blog? If so, you can see a live-action version tonight at PlayMakers! Join us for the Vision Series as directors Tom Quaintance and Joseph Haj answer you questions and give you the scoop on what's going on in the rehearsal hall. You can also get a sneak peek at the set, as this conversation takes place in the Paul Green Theatre!

This event is sponsored by our wonderful friends at Counter Culture Coffee and Whole Foods Market of Chapel Hill. Together, they will be providing complimentary coffee, wine and delicious snacks. Don't miss it!

Tonight! Wednesday, Nov. 4 

Coffee, Wine & Snacks - 6:30pm

Directors in Conversation - 7:00pm

Bespoke Millinery, Part Two

Before we get to Rachel Pollock's newest post - I need to make a correction to a previous post. Randy Handley's notes (as mentioned in the last photo of this post) are actually kept using the award-winning system he designed, CAPS (Computer Aided Paperwork System). Co Star is the system that catalogues the PlayMakers/DDA vintage costume collection. Sorry Randy!

And now on to Rachel...

Remember Miss LaCreevy's scalloped hat from back in September? If not, you can read the first part of the production process in this prior post.

 

When last we left off, we saw how the hat developed from designer Jan Chambers' costume rendering of the character of Miss LaCreevey, through research images and millinery magazine articles to a first mockup, made from cheap wire and craft lace. Essentially, the hat had left the page, but wasn't nearly ready for the stage yet!

 

We fit the mockup on the performer who will play Miss LaCreevey, DeDe Corvinus. We looked at the hat with the costume and talked about visual issues like the scale of the brim compared to the scale of the dress and how it looked on Ms Corvinus--adjustments were made in the shape of the cap and the height of the scalloped brim, so that the hat would be more in-tune with the aesthetic intent of Jan's design concept for the character. We also discussed fit and stability--was the crown too large or too small for Ms. Corvinus' head, and what would help stabilize it for the show? Once i had all these answers and adjustments to make, it was time to do the "real thing"!

 

The entire hat is built on a wire foundation, from a special kind of wire called millinery wire--18 gauge steel wrapped in cotton or rayon fiber. The joins are secured with a cotton-covered tie wire (florists use this too) and then cemented over with Super Glue for maximum stability. 

Here's the base foundation clamped in a jeweler's support while the adhesive on the wire wrappings dries. While waiting, i also shaped the scalloped brim support in the same wire.

The finished base with the edges bound in silk bias, which will make a nicer finish for securing the fabric elements of the hat to the foundation.

Next, i attached the lace to the scalloped wire foundation, added some pleated ribbon edging, and whipped the whole brim onto the front of the base foundation.

This picture shows a second cap-shape mockup from muslin.

 

Jan wanted to change the shape of the crown after the first fitting, and i wanted us to look at it in inexpensive muslin to make certain it was correct before cutting into the silk taffeta of the final fabric. This shape was enthusiastically approved, so i forged ahead!

Here's a back view of the hat before the silk cap is installed. You can see the tulle ruffles attached to the frame to give the cap loft (or in layman's terms, "poofiness").

 

Then, i had only to attach the silk cap, put in a mesh support for pinning it to Ms. Corvinus' hair, line it, and voila! Thus a hat comes into being!

Just for fun, let's compare, page to stage...

Here's a closeup of Jan's design, showing Miss LaCreevey's sweet scalloped hat:

...and here's the finished product, ready for opening night:

Hope you have enjoyed reading about the production process of one of our many, many hats for this show, as much as i have enjoyed making it!

–Rachel Pollock, Costume Crafts Artisan

Just for Fun Friday

It's a quiet Friday morning, so I thought I would post some "just for fun" pictures from around the building. An abbreviated tour, if you will...

First up... co-director Tom Quaintance in the wee hours, three weeks into rehearsal. This was taken from a Skype conversation he was having with friends back home. Tom actually sent this to me; I did not invade his privacy for the sake of the blog! (This time.)

Here is the first thing I see everyday - the "yellow brick road" - a path through backstage that is painted yellow. It helps guest artists find their way around this maze of a building. 

This is what the Nickleby set looks like so far, from backstage. Very little work goes on in the morning because most of the crew is either teaching or attending classes.

This is the stairwell that leads from the dressing rooms down to the stage. This season, some of the bigger sports fans in the building hung this inspirational sign a la football field houses. 

The hallway leading to my office... On the other side of this wall lies the costume shop and here are some examples of projects that are routinely displayed. These particular dresses are from the "Period Pattern" projects by several costume graduate students. 

Just around the corner, is our rehearsal hall. Stage manager Sarah Smiley preps for today's rehearsal. 

Stage Manager Chuck Bayang tries to keep it light.

A rare moment (and only a moment) of down-time for the Stage Mangers as they prepare for today's rehearsal.  I think Chuck and Sarah are the two busiest people in this building. It's their job to corral 2 rehearsal rooms, 2 directors, and 25 actors while trying to schedule rehearsals around costume fittings,  PR events, classes, production meetings, union rules, the flu, and dozens of other obstacles.  Then of course, they have to manage rehearsals! They are often the first ones in the building and always the last ones to leave. I am in awe of these two and the fact that they can still stand up.

And last but not least - Tug! This is Sarah Smiley's bulldog. He has become an important member of the PlayMakers family over the last 3 years and can often be seen carefully watching over rehearsals. His office is directly across the hall from mine and "Tug days" are always good days here. He even has his own couch in the rehearsal hall!

"Ladies and Gentlemen...it is one o'clock"

As one might imagine, if one has been following us on our journey to bring this play to fruition, there are many idiosyncrasies to this process we’ve undertaken. So it seems a bit redundant to say something like “this is unlike any other production I’ve been a part of.” Not only redundant, it can’t begin to capture the excitement, fatigue, magic, fear, anxiety and joy that has infected all of us inside the rehearsal hall (and out). We are now entering our fourth week of rehearsals having staged more than 300 pages of play in roughly 9 days. We have been working 6 days a week from 1pm – 10:30pm. All of us, as members of the company, share our responsibilities in the rehearsal hall with our other selves (professor, graduate student, PRC staff), and the horizon has no relief in sight. And while the grueling schedule can take its toll, there is something incredible going on within the walls of the Center for Dramatic Art.

Each day when rehearsals begin, one of our awesome stage managers (Chuck and Sarah) announces the start of rehearsal with, “Good afternoon ladies and gentleman, it is one o’clock.” This is met with – and I kid you not – a rallying cry of 25 actors sounding like something more akin to a football team’s pre-game war cry before charging onto the field. And, while I won’t bore you with a tired sports analogy here, the parallels are many.

Joe and Tom have often called this production “an exercise in company” – taking on the thing that an organization isn’t sure it can handle, but challenging itself to take it on nonetheless. We are rehearsing in a way that is unconventional. We have two directors. Two rehearsal halls. We have been staging roughly 40 pages a day. We are in constant motion from room to room and scene to scene. We move at a lightening pace, and we don’t have time to spend rehearsing in the traditional, methodical fashion of a conventional process. This means that every moment that we’re not “on stage” we’re grabbing our scene partners to work notes given to us from one or both of the directors, and continuing that work on our own when we get home at night. This requires an incredible amount of focus, but more importantly it requires trust. The feeling in the room is not only enthusiastic but incredibly supportive. We rely on each other to make sure that everyone is on the same page (quite literally), and that we are approaching the work with the moment to moment presence that is required for work of this kind. We drop in and out of characters constantly, we switch in and out of dialects, we marvel in the work of our colleagues, and we celebrate the creativity of all involved.

One little anecdote – this past week we were doing our evening run of everything we had staged earlier in the day (we were, by this point, well into Part 2 of the play). The story is spending much of its time following Nicholas as his stories come to resolution. We were heading toward the final scene in Dotheboys Hall in Yorkshire where the once enslaved boys have started taking over the school in something reminiscent of The Lord of the Flies. At the start of the scene the stage manager called out, “Thank you ladies and gentlemen – it’s 10:30,” announcing the end of our rehearsal day. And a collective groan of disappointment was shared by the entire company ‑ “Awwwwwwwwww!” – like children being told to turn off the TV and head to bed. Now that’s something you don’t find too often. I say again, something special is happening within these walls. And everyone is excited to share it with our community.

–Jeffrey Meanza, Cast Member

And the Costumes Just Keep Coming

Nevermind that I've worked in this building for nearly a decade. I'm not sure that I've ever gone to a costume fitting here. I have definitely been missing out! Today I went to a couple, and they were a ton of fun. Of course all I had to do was take pictures. Because this show is so enormous, costume fittings have become their own show. Lots and lots of people involved, and a lot of hard work for our amazing costume shop. I can't wait to go back!

Below are some of the photos from cast member Jeff Meanza's fitting - one of MANY he will have. Jeff is not only a member of the Nickleby cast, he is also PlayMakers' Director of Education and Outreach and a graduate of the Professional Actor Training Program here at UNC. He was most recently seen in Amadeus and Well, and during his term as an MFA student here, he appeared in The Man Who Came to Dinner, A Prayer for Owen Meany, King Lear and Luminosity, just to name a few. In Nicholas Nickleby, Jeff is playing half a dozen characters and these photos only show fraction of those. 

Jeff's fitting has to begin with the putting on of the "fat suit" as most of his characters are much heavier than he is. Above we see him being assisted by Associate Costume Designer Jade Bettin and costume graduate student Kaitlin Fara.

It's important to find just the right combination of coat and vest for this character, so many options are tried out. Again we see Jade Bettin, Kaitlin Fara and Costume Designer Jan Chambers deciding this outer coat just isn't right. 

Jan ponders and then decides they've got something with this combo. 

Jade takes a last measurement to make sure the fit is perfect. 

Above we see Jan consulting the now-famous "chart" that indicates which actors have to become which characters, and at what point, to make sure Jeff can get in and out of costume in time to get back on stage fully transformed. 

Another combination of jacket and vest to get it just right for this next character. 

Hmm. This one doesn't quite work either. 

Another vest. Will this be the one? We'll worry about pants another time.

Aha - finally a combo that works!

 And now for young Wackford Squeers - the brat everyone loves to hate. Of course only blue velvet will do!

I think we've got it!

Not only does a fitting require the designers (Jan & Jade) and the costumer who makes all the adjustments (Kaitlin). Randy Handley, a third year costume graduate, who has served as assistant designer on numerous PRC shows, keeps track of important details in the Co-Star system about which pieces have been approved for which character, which alterations need to be made and which pieces are still needed. 

In upcoming posts, hear from Jeff Meanza about what goes on "in the room," more character analyses from dramaturg Anthony Fichera, and photos from a fitting with company member Jimmy Kieffer, recently seen as the dubious Wickham in Pride and Prejudice and the affable Karl in Opus. We'll also have another piece from blog favorite, Rachel Pollock, as she returns to bonnet making in part two of her fascinating series "Bespoke Millinery." Stay tuned!

"...But oh, let us dye with life about us!"

As PlayMakers' resident crafts artisan, in addition to all the millinery, another of my responsibilities is to function as the company dyer, assisting the costume designer in careful control of the color palette of the show by making adjustments in fabric hues.

 

Because we share space with the facilities for UNC's nationally-known Costume Production MFA program, I have access to a state-of-the-art theatrical dye shop which features a full range of four different classes of dyes and related auxilliary chemicals, two industrial dye vats with fume exhausts, a yardage steamer (called the "silver bullet," no relation to Coors!), and both dye mixing and spray boxes. I have worked in a lot of costume shops, from LORT theatres to Broadway to international opera and ballet, and I have to admit--the dyeshop facilities here really impressed me when I interviewed for the job. It's so rare for a regional theatre like PlayMakers to have these kinds of options when it comes to equipment and supplies for surface design of fabrics and costumes. (And, it's such an exciting luxury for me, to have these resources at my disposal when it comes to doing my job!)

Silver bullet--we can steam-set a whole bolt of dyed fabric in this!

The average PRC show involves around 25 custom dye jobs--from dyeing fabric yardage before it is made into costumes, to matching a trim or lining to a chosen fabric, to turning a finished garment a whole new color. (For the curious, the current record-holder for number of dye jobs for a single show is 2008's Pericles with 63! Second place goes to Glass Menagerie with 47, closely followed by Amadeus with 45 and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye with 43.) So far, Nickleby is right on track with 25 completed so far, and nearly a month to go til opening. If we had an office pool running on it, I'd bet on a total of 75 by the time we open, with a lot of those coming in after we start seeing things onstage. Sometimes a costume designer needs to see everything together with the set and props under the lights to realize that, hey, that guy's pants are really bright compared to everybody else up there...

 

Mixing tickets for Nickleby dye jobs in-progress

Here are some examples of the dye requests for Nicholas Nickleby which have been processed so far:

 

- a whole bolt of cotton fabric for men's period shirts tea-dyed off-white

- a yard of antique lace trim dyed leaf green for the Rich Daughter's bonnet decoration

- an industrial metal zipper for the back of a quick-change dress, dyed half one color and half another to better blend into different skirt and bodice fabrics

 

For each dye request, I keep accurate records on the precise process developed--what type of dye and auxilliaries used to dye what fiber fabric, how much and for whom, how quickly it's needed. Sometimes I have a week or two to turn it around (like in the case of the two-tone zipper, which will go into the costume toward the very end of its construction) and sometimes I only have a few hours (such as collar fabric that needs to be cut and sewn onto a shirt in time for a fitting that afternoon).

 

All this dyeing has to feed into my workload for making the hats and altering shoes and various other accessories as well--it's a time-management juggling feat, that's for sure!

Dyer Rachel Pollock works on the perfect shade of peach for Mrs. Mantalini's dress fabric