It was a beautiful day Saturday, which worked out well since it was the day for our first work party to start building the set for High School Musical.
Yesterday I told you about Amy, our wonderful Choreographer / Assistant Director, and today I'm going to brag on the guy in charge of set construction - Jack Welch.
Jack and I sat down a few weeks ago and came up with a rough design for the set. It's a lot of fun kicking around ideas with a guy as creative as Jack - he's a veteran of several shows and knows what will work on stage and what won't work.
Now the real fun begins - he'll spend the next several weeks taking those rough drawings and turning them into the real thing.
Luckily, he doesn't have to do it all by himself - all the cast members are required to help out, and their parents are welcome as well. We had a small but hard-working crew on Saturday - five teens and four adults, and we got quite a bit accomplished.
One of the toughest jobs was disassembling the lockers donated by the Cabell County School System - we got about 15 old lockers from Cammack Elementary School (which is in the process of being partly demolished). Thankfully, the construction workers loaded them out of the school and onto our trailer - those things are really heavy!
For our set, we have to take the doors off the lockers so we can attach them to a mobile platform. It was a tough job, especially with the temperature climbing, but a team of several teens and one parent got the job done.
We also had a team of painters laying down the base coat on a huge backdrop that we'll be using. One way First Stage manages to put on these expensive shows is by reusing and modifying existing set pieces, so the huge flats painted to look like brick walls for Les Miserables: The School Edition will have an entirely different (and more modern look for HSM.
Of course, this is just the beginning - but we're off to a great start!
2 comments:
In related news, we are finishing up the sets for Hello, Dolly! this week. It has been a huge undertaking with this being our 8th and final week of construction. I won't go in to great detail but this set is huge and beautiful. Danny has done a great job designing these sets.
Also, the cast of Hello, Dolly! will be marching in the Pumpkin Festival parade this Sunday at 3pm.
And yes, Jack is a great asset to have on any team. I've worked with him a few times, and he's second to none.
Stephen, Danny's sets are always awesome - I'm really looking forward to seeing what he has cooked up for "Dolly."
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