Stage Designs

Here's a shot of The Meadow Amphitheatre, 

a stage I designed and built for The Shakespeareans of Tamanend Park 

a troupe I formed and we briefly started to grow, 

before vandals kept damaging the stage 

and we had to discontinue operations. 

We also did Cinema Under the Stars there it was cool.

Now onto The sets for the Gnomes: 

As I have said, I am setting up the shop, most particularly the wood and metal working areas. Part of that deals with storage and spacial design. I have made mention of this before, but in the wood working area, where the sets will be (in large part) constructed, I have a working area that matches the turntable on the stage in The Bucks County Playhouse. Initially the show was designed using The Mitchell Performing Arts Centre as a model stage, But those two stages are quite different.

MPAC has a working stage area of 40'x 24', while BCP (assuming the use of the turntable for set changes) has an approximate working stage area of 29'x 19. Those areas are upstage of the proscenium without a thrust.  Other theatres around the country are basically in-between those dimensions. I will need to be gathering stage specifications before I determine the actual size of the sets to be constructed. As it stands now, my studio can accomodate constructing the show for a 20'x 16' stage. If I design the components to be independent from oneanother, then positioning can take up the slack. I figure the drops can have wings to take them upo to the 40' dimension if necessary, or we can (as I had planned) have the legs serve as those extensions and taper them out toward downstage.

My point here is that I need to gather a list of theatres where we will take this show to after we mount it. I need to have the dimensions before we construct the sets, unless I assume that the show needs to be flexible enough to set up on any stage that falls between those two working areas. That's probably the best approach, but I'll be doing the research and invite any theatre owners or producers who may be interested to contact me. I do intend to construct this show as a rental, meaning that the show we mount in the studio will be available for rental to any producer wishing to put up a presentation and the basic cadre of supplies, sets, costumes, props, libretto and score (including MIDI or live recordings) will be rented out as a package deal.

I'm also building the parade float to work out at 20'x8' which will be used to promote any location the show goes up, including festivals.

So all of this is open for discussion. Start that discussion via email, or come over to the studio in Southampton.

That's all for now.  AG

Here's a set I designed and built for "Anne Frank"

AG 

🎭 🇺🇸

Status Report

I'm posting an image of the DVD, however, I have discovered that the file sizes may be too big for a DVD. It may be that one or more PowerPoint presentations will fit on one DVD. I hope so, but we'll see. I'm posting this image because I want to encourage industry professionals to consider becoming involved. I've mentioned this before, but I am seeking representation and licensing opportunities. I need a break and feel like, under the right circumstances, certain ancillary markets could easily advance. In terms of First Class Legit Theatre and First Run Cinema Production, I'd rather have other organizations take the ball. I'm not savvoy to producing in a union environment, not to say I couldn't do it, but I've been busy with other work and I'm not up to speed in that arena.

I'm tired, I need to take a break to attend to other matters, while building my cars and the Parade Float. I'm happy to focus on Little Theatre (non-union) and building my studio capabilities; scene shop, design studio, fabrication, filmmaking, art department , animation, animatronic puppetry, etc. So the larger union based production needs to be jobbed out.

Publishing

Well, as I have said, I have been busy redesigning the layout. I realized that the way I had the layout designed, making corrections or adding material was very diffult and time consuming. In addition to that, I have been working on two separate products; the published books and the e-Storybook. Well, the layout was such that I needed to make adjustments for each of those products, which was becoming not only tiresome, but a waste of time. So I concluded to redesign the basic layout, which worked quite well to create the product lines, but created numerous issues that were causing serious logistical problems and were the root of many delays and redundancy.

After having spent countless hours, amounting to years worth of effort, crafting the series of books and developing a digital environment, as the means to implement this project, it became clear that, having fully identified the scope of the project, a new core design was required to implement many aspects of this in the most efficient manner possible. So I set out to make changes by separating the components into new categories that were more effectively linked together and were able to provide the ultimate of flexibility within the parameters of each arena that will avail itself of the Core Creative Material.

In addition to providing greater flexibility, separating the GFX from the Narrative Content in a different fashion then used previously, has reduced file size significantly. As I mentioned before, I have had serious problems with file storage and files becoming corrupted, which has forced me to do (essentially) the same work over again and again. That has been very frustrating. It was especially distressing to have storage device failures that have caused me to loose a great deal of work. This is one reason for restructuring the files. I have, in fact, separated the components, so that any future failures of storage will not destroy anything but the most recent revisions, which contain only minor adjustments. The truth is that I am now working on Rev 220, a number that represents a bit less than that, because I skipped some groups for delineation purposes. But the number of revisions absolutely exceeds 150.

So the biggest immediate advantage I gained by redesigning the layout, is that I increased the size of the primary image area for the HDTV e-Storybook, while changing the scale to match both HDTV and the capacity of the printing press. Previously, I had designed the layout for the printing press and adjusted that layout for HDTV, but I did not take a few factors into consideration. That was basically causing me to do two layouts, which meant I had to implement changes or adjustments in both layouts. Now the entire series has turned out to be 741 pages, so you can imagine the complexity. I've massively simplified my process by, changing key elements in the layout and making it possible to add security measures, in terms of protecting the project both internally and externally. The new layout addresses the addition of new art in both illustration panels and animation in a much more efficient manner.

On the subject of animation; my intention is to add animation by replacing select illustration panels one at a time and to tie those animations together in a string, effectively creating an animated film step by step. As I said elsewhere, those animations will be available through the e-Storybook subscription page. Once that is set up, and the new layout design takes that into account, then the subscribers will be able to watch the project grow step by step, as we add new animations and music.

There is much more to talk about, but I'll save that for later.

AG 🎭

Theatre Notes

I was reading about the theatres opening up again and it got me thinking about the theatre aspect of "The Gnomes of New Hope". The Libretto has been done for some time. It's fully re fined as a foundation for the show, with many technical notes included. Of course, the text includes dialogue, lyrics, blocking, and operational notes, but it also has design notes. The Score, however, needs to be completed. I have drafts of each song in various forms. There are Leadsheets for the melody lines on most songs. Only those that have not been arranged have not been printed out. Only a few songs have the full orchestral arrangement printed out. My effort was to secure Lead Sheets for the singers,with Piano adaptations, without worrying about the orchestrations.

When we wrote the music, our process was like this; I would write the lyrics, in the context of the storyline, then I would conceptualize a melody line for delivery of those lyrics, then I would present the lyrics and melody line during our worksessions. Shawn would then write that melody line down (using Digital Performer) while I conceptualized the delivery and the timing, in the context of what is taking place onstage. That includes anticipating the blocking, set changes, and technical transitions. An important aspect was the tempo required to maintain the overall beat of the show, but it is a fine line between keeping the pace up and making the lyrics deliverable. It's one thing to think it out and quite another to delivery the words descernably to the audience at the back wall. 

I discovered a flaw in our method. When we first started working with Digital Performer, we had to learn the program while trying to write at the same time. Any of you familiar with DP will know what a monumental task that is. DP is unbelievable. It a complex program, especially for a neophite. Well anyway, we were excited to experiment with arranging, so we moved forward to arrange the first song. We spent an inordinate amount of time getting that right. I won't go into that, but it forged a modus operandi, that looking back, it think was a mistake. Now Shawn is a pianist. So his desire was not to use the piano, because he wanted to break out of that genera. I wasn't entirely onboard with that but I agreed. So all the music was crafted without the piano and there was no piano in the arrangements. I fought for piano arrangements, but it was a point of contention. In fact, the piano and scoring lead to us stopping working. I insisted I needed piano arrangements for both pitching the music and training the singers. He refused to engage in scoring until the entire show was arranged. But here's the problem; the arrangements were made based on the melody lines. Well that absolutely is the correct thing to be doing, except that while I was writing, Shawn was arranging. We did it together, working in the same space on two different computers. We collaborated on every note, but there was a big disagreement on one important issue. I asked that Shawn preserve the melody line that we created by duplicating that basic melody line in a separate track. He flat out refused and took pieces of the melody line and moved them to different instruments to create the arrangements. Effectively that hurried the melody line in the arrangements and assigned that melody to multiple instruments, making the melody, in some instances, nearly impossible to distinguish. That combined with the scoring issue caused us to argue enough that we ended up discontinuing our work. There are still fifteen or so songs that need to be arranged.

I shifted my work over to the Storybook, because publishing the entire story, both the current time line and the backstory, in a narrative format was an overwhelmingly huge task. It has taken me nearly fifteen years to get this story ready for publishing. But it is literally days, weeks at most away from being finished. Not done done mind you. But the publishing layout will be totally finished in terms of being "ready-for-press" sans the remaining illustrations, which need to be created and inserted.

 So with the completion of this stage of the Storybook, knowing that it will be presentable as The Industry Review product, I anticipate getting back to the scoring. I need to recover the melody lines from the arrangements, create piano adaptations, and do the divisi, starting with the duets and working my way up to the choral numbers. I've spoken to Shawn about that and he is open to continuing the work. I have upgraded our workstation and need to get DP9 and Mach Five installed one operating. We used Reason for our voices and I want a tone generator that integrates better with DP, so I bought MachFive, but I have to learn it. Especially before I invite Shawn back into the studio.

That's all for now, more later. AG 🎭

Most Recent Activity

Well, as I have said, the Storybook, beginning with Volume Three and working backwards has been being conformed to a new background page. This process has gone back and forth about the three times, in order to check and adjust the page numbers. The discovery of new material and installing that into the layout has extended that time and the effort required to do that, but also, I discovered sections of text that were somehow missing and needed to correct that.

One element here is that; where there is no artwork (because it hasn't been created yet) the space for the artwork has been estimated and a description panel inserted. I am somewhat concerned that when the artwork is created the area on the page will need to be larger than anticipated. That will change the page layout, numbering and the length of the book. That would be fine for the e-Storybook, because changes and updates can easily occur, but in terms of the hard copy books, that might present a diffculty. Luckily, Volume One is finished and Volume Two is only missing a few illusrations. The larger part of the missing illustrations are in Volume Three and publishing that can be delayed if necessary.

As I write this, I wonder if it would be possible to select an image and enlarge it. Of course, that could only happen if the e-Storybook is viewed on a computer. I may integrate that function into the Storybook. I will be inserting animation, so maybe that zoom function will be integrated throughout the book.

The most recent activity has been to conform Volume One to the new background. Although Volume One has been published, it needs to match the rest of the series. The changes in the background include adjustments to the text and the color balance and density of the page, as well as creating a different method of layering the components, so as to reduce the working file size. The new methodology give more freedom to integrate active elements and a wider latitude for make corrections and additions.

So Volume One is almost finished being confirmed to Volumes Two and Three. Overall there seems to be 743 pages, not including prefaces and appendixes. I am looking forward to binding the prototypes if the Three Volume Set. As I said before, the Gnome-sized books will be issued as a seven book set, while the Big People books will be issued as a Three Volume Set. The e-Storybook will be initially released as a subscription page, until all the animations for the entire series are complete, at which time the collection will be sold as "Gnomes in a Gnutshell".

So there is the status of thing so far. I will be, and am, looking for a Theatrical Agent to manage some of the external business of the project and although I am publishing this in-house, I am looking to contract out distribution and publishing management. I am simply too busy with other studio work to do an effective job of saturating the market. Do contact me if you have interest, abilities and resources to engage at the appropriate level. AG 🎭🇺🇸

Slowly but Surely...

So, you can read about the progress and the delays that. I am experiencing in the effort to complete the Storybooks. It is unbelievable the way I make discoveries along the way. On Saturday I decided to work on the books, instead of my usual work on my vehicles or the shop maintenance. Ok, and what did I discover? More pages missing... 39 pages were missing from Scene Eight. How does this happen? It's a good thing I decided to redo the background for Volume Two also, otherwise I would not have found those missing pages until I was trying to print the books, and that would have wasted time and money, for more than just me. The bummer here is that those missing pages in Scene Eight mean I have to renumber Volume Three... AGAIN!  Well, these are the challenges that must be surmounted.

I began this endeavor in 1997. We're looking at twenty-three years. But it's not just a book, it's a full stage musical and a dozen ancillary markets that have also been developed, in addition to the support arenas of puppetry and the developing parade and little theatre arenas. So all this takes time to design, built, and present. But the other significant factor is setting up the studio to service those activities, so I can't really complain, but it is frustrating to have a strong vision but limited resources with which to implement that plan. Oh well, that's just the way it is. AG 🎭