They decided to go with something more edgy.  1984

It's all out of my hands but I'm feeling pretty negative about things.  Forgive me if this is just blowing off steam, I'm sure I'll have more productive things to say at a later time.

 

Why I'm doing it? 

- the opportunity to direct drama

- work with a new group of people in a town that needs a boost when it comes to the theater arts

- I'm a glutton for punishment.

 

Obstacles:

- They don't have much of a theater fan group in their town and they're doing a drama, I can hear the crickets chirping now.

- The theater is 100 years old.  Absolutely beautiful, a real treat to perform in, but don't touch anything! 

- There are no curtains nor can the wings be blocked from view, the audience can see everything backstage.

- There are no flats, we have to make and paint everything at a seperate location and nothing can be screwed into the floor.

- Everything is from scratch.  The production group they used in the past a couple of times is no longer in existance, which means no resources for props, costumes or set pieces. 

- We cannot cover the windows.  There are only shades and we are not allowed to block them (I don't know why, they are very negative with the "can we...?" No.)  So the matinee will have it's own source of lighting. 

- There is a $1400 budget.  25 scripts for $6 a piece, rights for 3 performances at about $65 each.  I have no idea why we need 25 scripts, but that was the Producer's and commission's decision, I don't have a say in that part.

- I am not convinced the Producer understands the creative influence a director has over all aspects of the production. 

 

 

I should have suggested a Reader's Theater at my first meeting.  All I see at night when I close my eyes is a list of things to fix.  I need to make this super minimalistic, and I don't think my efforts will be enough.  And all of this is before auditions, we meet Sunday to discuss a calendar, etc etc. 

 

oi. 

 

Minimalist definately sounds like the way to go. Best of luck and try to find the positive aspects (no matter how small they may seem) to get you through.

Not being able to screw into the floor is pretty common, unfortunately.

Our group often uses a church hall with big windows (probably not as big as yours) and I build panels to go over the windows. It works out fine except that we don't get very deep blackouts.

 

When doing minimalist, a cyc with a ground row of cyc lights will go a very long way toward making a pretty picture, and you can silhouette things against it.

 

What is a "cyc"?  We do have the old fashioned foot lights, the rest of the lighting comes from above the stage and is pretty pathetic.  No spots.   The lighting system looks like Frankenstein's lair. 

 

 There is no fly system, I'm hoping to hang some works of art over the stage and one of those lamps that people use for workbenches and such.   

 

I really need to relax, I'm already expecting the worst.  I don't usually have this negative an outlook, it's unlike me when it comes to a play. 

It is a big light blue or white sheet (typically at least 20' high and 45' wide. A ground row is a set of lights that are designed for lighting a cyc.

 

If the lighting controls look like Frankenstein's lair, they may well be old resistance plates (or autotransformers if you are lucky). The bad news is that resistance plates have to be loaded to their full load rating. IE: a 3000 watt dimmer needs to have something close to 3000 watts.

 

I'm assuming that the overhead lights are strip lights (if there are no spots).  If you find that there are dimmer handles that don't do anything, there may be extra circuits for Olivette's (big flood lights). If that is the case you could connect some lights to those circuits. The sockets will probably be rectangular holes in a metal box mounted to the walls backstage or recessed in pockets in the floor. These are called stage plugs. We've pretty much given up on those connectors, but the motion picture business hung on to them a little longer.

 

Your best bet would be to survey the theater with an old tech guy to see what might be possible.

 

Where are you located?

What is the name of the theater?

 

 

Thanks for the tips I'll write that down and go ask. 

 

I don't have a cyc.  They have a black backdrop, and I don't want to bother changing it, when I have bigger problems to tackle.  There is some hung curtain-like set pieces that cannot be moved, they are greenery, not really 1984 ish either, but at least I can take down the ones on the sides of the stage. 

YOU CAN DO IT!! It's not as hard as you think, if you've got some people helping you. I'm assuming lights aren't a problem as you didn't mention it?

Originally posted by chel Obstacles:   - There are no curtains nor can the wings be blocked from view, the audience can see everything backstage.

Build some walls out of flats to create hidden space.

Originally posted by chel - There are no flats, we have to make and paint everything at a seperate location and nothing can be screwed into the floor.

Flats aren't that hard to build. We have to build and paint everything at a separate location and can't screw into the floor.  It can be done. We build full box sets with nothing attached to the floor.

Originally posted by chel - Everything is from scratch.  The production group they used in the past a couple of times is no longer in existance, which means no resources for props, costumes or set pieces.

You can pull it together from scratch. Looks like you have a big enough budget. What kind of technical requirements do you have? It would be fairly contemporary costume requirements wouldn't it? You can pull that together pretty cheap.

 

Originally posted by chel - There is a $1400 budget.  25 scripts for $6 a piece, rights for 3 performances at about $65 each.  I have no idea why we need 25 scripts, but that was the Producer's and commission's decision, I don't have a say in that part.

If you don't have to pay for theater rental out of that, that's a do-able budget.

Originally posted by chel - I am not convinced the Producer understands the creative influence a director has over all aspects of the production.

 
Then let the producer build the set!

 
Seriously, you can get it done. I've done just what you're describing a number of times with only a few people helping me and I didn't know what I was doing. Still don't!

 

To me $1400 can be gone through like water.  I live on the East Coast, USA so things are pretty expensive here.  I know people do it for less, I'm impressed when they figure that out.

 

Do you know where I can find pictures of how to build these box sets?  (I sketch, not construct) In addition to directing my background is in acting and props.  Actually, I won't be doing any of this myself because the theater is a long drive from my house.  I think the commission is happy to have their locals do this.  I guess I would like to go into the production meeting, when we finally have official people for these things, with several ideas.  To sketch out only a box set might be limiting. 

 

About half of our budget is going towards publicity, but I think she's trying to cut that down.  I haven't worked on a budget end of theater so I'm not sure if that's normal.

 

I'm getting more optimistic.  The last meeting I had with the Producer and her partner she was beyond well organized, so I felt like I could focus more on the creative aspects and the technical will have to fall where they will, that seems to be out of my hands.  Any other directors find that to be a relief and yet so scary at the same time?