Set design is something I am completely new to. Theatre is something I'm completely new to.  It has been so inspiring for me, as a visual artist, to work alongside actors who these things are so basic to.  The directors and staff of Annie have been so gracious to welcome in some of my ideas while teaching me through example what makes for a quality set.  I have to also point out that the cast of Annie has been hugely helpful in set design decisions.  On our set build day a bunch of the kids made set sketches for what they thought the shop windows should look like.  Details such as shop window sale signs that include the support strings attached to the top of them is something that seemed so obvious once it was put into the sketches.  

As always with the creation process, some things just don't work out and new plans are born out of that.  The above sketch of the city sky line is something that the cast brought to fruition in a large painting.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to use the painting because the surface we were working on warped which made it impossible to erect them the original way we planned.  We decided to instead focus on the shop windows, that had such solid brainstorming from the cast, and attach them to some easels that fully support the board on which they were painted.

Here are two of the three shop windows

 I am so grateful to work in an arts center where I get the opportunity to cross pollinate with the vast opportunities the arts have.  Thank you so much to all of the staff, cast, and family members who helped with this process, it has been a great experience. If you are coming to see Annie this week, be sure to check out more of the set design sketches we have hanging in the hallway as well as the third window panel that is not shown here.

When I was in college I studied music.  About a month into my senior year, the tech director for Dever Stage (an on campus theatre) approached me to see if I would be interested in doing an internship with him.  I took a minute to think about it;  I was a music major with a concentration in performance.  Why would I want to do a technical theatre internship?

I said yes anyways.  It was 12 credits to spend time with friends in a theatre I basically lived in, the internship just meant I had to be there and that I got keys.  Keys that meant responsibility and responsibility that meant adulthood.  So with adulthood looming just two semesters away I figured I better get started.

I learned something hugely valuable with that internship.  It wasn't about music, or theatre, or even how to use the recording equipment (which I did learn, even though it terrified me).  What I learned was that you can't make yourself versatile enough.

It isn't enough to have our students be involved with the acting on stage in our productions.  If that is where they are comfortable that is fine, but so many of our students are like me: they don't even know that they would love being involved in a myriad of other aspects of the production too.  Our students have the great opportunity to paint, create, and learn from a team of professionals that include teachers, directors, musicians, artists, and performers.

Today we had a chance to work with the actors involved in our upcoming production of Annie Jr. on how to paint a stage- something that to me has become commonplace and simple task, but after the first child "boxed them self in" with paint I realized just how much they had to be taught! Along with those kids on the stage, we also had a team in the house working on costumes and set design.  They learned about how we organize our costumes on racks and how we select who wears what.  They even helped to design the back drops for our windows with Beth!  She worked with them on how to design the "window scenes" that will changed depending on the setting.

 

 All in all it was an awesome set build and a fun day.  We only left with a few socks painted black and a lot of smiles.