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
🎭 🇺🇸
