Hanging the Lights

The spotlights are going up!

Mr. Lowell wears many hats. For the past two weeks he has had to take breaks from being the Set Designer in order to find time to be the Lighting Designer as well. Since the set is rather sparse for "The King and I", Mr. Lowell has had to put extra color into the lighting design in order to "paint the stage" and illuminate the wonderful costumes.

This show will use 105 of the 750 watt Source4 Elipsoidal Spotlights for front light, color washes, and special pools. Then 12 750 watt Parnels and 24 500 watt Fresnels for backlight, 17 1000 watt floodlights called scoops for lighting the 7 backdrops, plus our 21 1000 watt cyc lights will be moved to the orchestra pit to act as footlights. All totalled, we will use 150,000 watts of light, plus our 2 new 1600 watt Xenon Super Trouper Followspots.
James Lewis, Mr. Lowell's Technical Assistant, helps hang and focus some of the spotlights on the "first electric" position at the front of the stage.

1 1/2 weeks to go

As we get closer and closer to opening night, there is so much to be done. Crew Rehearsals start on Nov. 1, 2007

Here is a quick list of the rehearsals that ALL crew members need to be at:
Halloween (OFF!)
Thursday Nov. 1 (6:30-9) run show- crew watch
Friday Nov. 2 (6:30-9) run show- crew move sets (add headsets & Super Troupers)
Saturday Nov. 3 (1-5) Load In - crew only - A cue-to-cue "dry tech".
Sunday Nov 4. (1-8) TECHNICAL REHEARSAL
Monday Nov. 5 (6- until) Dress Rehearsal (add 21 piece orchestra)
Tuesday Nov. 6 (6- until) Dress Rehearsal
Wed Nov. 7 (6-until) Final Dress
Thursday Nov. 8 (call 6:30/ curtain 7:30) OPENING NIGHT
Friday Nov. 9- Saturday Nov. 10 (call 6:30/ curtain 7:30)
Sunday Nov. 11 (call 1/ curtain 2) Final Performance/strike afterwards - "After Party!"

Another Day of Rehearsal...

Andy warms up the chorus before the start of rehearsal.

Mrs. Tutterow instructs the "king's children" during the schoolroom scene.

Claire, our Stage Manager, follows along on book.

Orchestra & Sound Test Day

Today we had a special rehearsal so that the orchestra could rehearse for the first time in the pit and the singers could hear the full orchestra for the first time. This was also an opportunity for the sound crew to deal with the eleven body mikes and the actors to practice wearing them. We just ran the musical numbers, and everything sounds great together!

David Oertel, our conductor, and 16 of the 21 orchestra members were here today. They will return a week from Monday for the dress rehearsals.

William and Sarah sing using their Countryman wireless earset microphones.

Zach moved the mixer from the booth to the balcony railing.

Wood got a chance to tweek the mike levels and see some of the show as well.

2nd Parent Blitz

On Saturday we held another "mini-Parent Blitz" day so volunteers could help finish up some more props and scenery.
Two dads base coat the king's bookshelf.

Katie preps more coke bottles for the palace platforms.

Crew Stress Relief!

It's about two weeks out from opening night, and the lengthy "to-do list" is getting stressful for the crew, and especially for Mr. Lowell, who has been putting in 15 hour days, plus weekends. So on Tuesday the crew seniors, Zach, Seth, Ian and Nick, dragged Mr. Lowell out of the his lair in the windowless theatre to see some daylight. These guys are big "Ultimate Frisbie" fanatics, and this was a fun way to blow of steam. Besides, it was the first rainy day in two months...ahhh, relief!
Mr. Lowell's one condition for letting the crew outside was that assistant stage manager Katie and our title role player Edwin would play in the game of Ultimate too. They did. And they both ended up loving it!

Shirts and skins. The mad dash for the Frisbie.

Wood, our sound board operator, hams it up.

Mid-air action. A split second later they collided! (In the background of this picture you can see the 6 story fly loft for the Sloan Theatre in our Davison Center for the Arts building).

Freshmen set builders William and Clark enjoy the fresh air from the sidelines.

Make-Up and Hair Test Day

The cast turned the Bell Studio Theatre into a gigantic make-up room Sunday in order to practice applying their character make-up and test how it all looks under the bright lights of the Sloan Theatre.

Ashley, our Make-Up Designer, applies mutton chops and character make-up to Max for the "Port of Siam" scene.

The girls make use of the dance mirror in the Studio to apply their make-up.

Emily, one of our dressers, applies bronzing liquid to Nathan.

Anna helps prepare hair for spraying black.

Testing under 20,000 watts of light! (Click on pictures to enlarge them):

Young love. Sarah as Tuptim, and William as Lun Tha, pose on the main stage for the staff.

Anne plays Lady Thiang. After the costume parade on stage, this particular wig was rejected in favor of another.

Marian does a statuesque pose as Anna while Mrs. Tutterow takes a look at her make-up and hair from the vantage point of the audience.

Costume Parade!

Many of our simpler musicals in the past did not require a dedicated Costume Parade day. But considering the complex nature of The King and I, Mrs. Tutterow and Mrs. McCarty decided it would be fruitful to commit the entire Sunday rehearsal to doing an inventory of what we have and don't have. Keep in mind that every costume shown here is still a work in progress in one way or another. Everything will come together over the next two weeks...it always does! (Click on the pictures to enlarge them).

The wives pose in their colorful costumes.

An elegant couple. Tuptim and Lun Tha.

These dancers will need to concentrate on good posture!

Colorful dancers.

The girls display their dresses for the "hoop skirt scene".

The ship's crew and some royal guards on the setting for Act I, Scene 1.

It's "Parents Blitz" Time!

A popular tradition at Greensboro Day School is a special day set aside for parents and siblings to come and help with set constuction, painting and prop making. Saturday was a beautiful day for some fun projects. A bunch of helpful moms set up shop in our sunny lobby to sew costume accessories and hot-glue headwear. Meanwhile, Mr. Lowell opened all the roll-up doors in the Sloan theatre to let in fresh air as the dads did carpentry and painting on stage. Another crew built handprops in the Bell Studio Theatre. More than 30 people pitched in during the course of the day. A fun time was had by all!

Below are photos showing a variety of projects underway throughout the day. (You can click on pictures to enlarge them).

Gobs of gold trim!

Mrs. Lowell checks the head pieces for the royal guards.

Mrs. Zanowski sews golden sashes for the costumes.

Mrs. Fontaine assembles three regal headdresses for the ballet.

"Blitz" Props

Simran glues heads to tall staffs so they can be carried in the parade scene.

Carys and Katie cut 1/2" wide sheets of foam insulation to create the "clouds" and the "sun" for the "Uncle Tom's Cabin Ballet".
Claire helps build 50 giant "leatherbound books" for the king's study by covering 3" wide blue insulation styrofoam with muslin and watery "Sculpt-or-Coat" glue. Lee and Claire's mom also got their hands into this fun glue goo.

Our favorite retired art teacher, Mrs. Seagraves, paints one of the two "map of the world" backdrops for the "palace schoolroom" scene.

"Blitz" Carpentry

Mr. Brennan cuts railings for the escape steps on the upstage platforming.

Seth really gets into his work! He and his father construct giant vertical columns for the king's palace. These will sit at the proscenium arch and rotate backwards so they will not be seen during the "Port of Siam" scene in Act I.

James Lewis, Mr. Lowell's assistant, and Mr. McCarty attach the shelves for the stylized bookcase that goes in the king's study.

Carpenter dads. Mr. McCarty and Mr. Wetzbarger attach railings to the "gangway" ramp. The ramp will be all that the audience sees of Anna's ship as it docks at the port of Siam.

As seen from the theatre catwalk, the "ship's gangway" is coming together quickly.

Mr. Shannin paints what will be the off-stage escape platform for the gangway. Even this off-stage portion has to be painted just in case the house-left audience members get a glimpse of it in the wings.

Tris tests the gangway for us. We made it wide enough for dock workers to carry Anna's furniture down it from the stage-left wings.

"Blitz" Hoop Skirts

Max flails the 1/2" PVC tubing that we are going to use to build the hoop skirts for nine dancers.
The thin PVC tubing was sewn into the bottom of white slips. A simple tubing connector was developed by Mr. Lowell involving two headless nails inside and then some spike tape outside.

The director's daughter models one of the slips with a hoop tube sewn in the hem. The dancers will wear this special hoop slip under their dresses.

During our costume parade Sunday, the dancers practiced flipping up their hoop skirts like they will during the play. A few more refinements and the hoop skirts will work as scripted. (You can click on the photo to enlarge it).

"Blitz" Bottles!

We continued our old "Parent Blitz Day" tradition of treating the families to pizza and snacks out of the show budget. It's the least we could do to thank them for all the awesome work and creativity!

The gang was encouraged to drink lots of soda in order to free up more empty 2-liter bottles for the set! The bottoms were cut off the bottles and spray painted gold. The remainder of each bottle was put in the recycling bin, by the way. (And we heard that drama teachers as far away as Australia read this blog, so please note that "Cheerwine" is a Southern cherry cola, not a wine!)

The the facia of the platforming was prepared. First we stapled some very regal-looking maroon velour fabric to the front. The fabric has a highly reflective bias in the weave that looks shiny from different angles. (One of the world's leading theatrical drape manufacturers is right here in Greensboro, so each year Mr. Lowell runs and gets truckloads of free scraps and remnants of fine velour curtains!)

Next, gold colored hardward was fastened across the leading edge to secure the velour against tread wear during the show. To the folks at Home Depot, this trim is expensive sheetrock wall edging, but to Mr. Lowell, these funky trapizoid contours will look like fine palace detailing from the audience's point of view.

Finally, the golden "rosettes" are secured in place using one 3" drywall screw right through the middle. Since we had a shortage of the 2-liter bottles, we spaced them 3 feet apart, with two smaller water bottles in between. Each level of platforming will have a different layout of these rosettes for more interesting variety in design. Later this week the flooring of these platforms will get painted in bold palace colors and designs.