Final Week on Dr Angelus

: A Lesson in gold leafing and wood graining

As you can see from my choice of title we are in our last week of production time on Dr Angelus. Our deadline for completion of the set is midnight on Saturday and thus, we are very busy.

I am often asked what my job entails and how we go about creating the paint effects so I thought I would describe to you the processes we have applied to this set as an example of a typical show.

There are three major elements to this design. The first is the raked stage which will be painted to look like mahogany floor boards. Aside from being a lot of work for the carpenters it presents a nice challenge for us painters as it is to be painted in perspective. This is something that I have certainly never done before so am learning as I work. This is one of the things I love about being a scenic artist, every set is different and you will often come across something that you have never done before. Painting the floor has been a lovely thing to do but I would be lying if I said it was not quite time consuming. For example our process has been: the holes created by the screws and nails were filled, we primed it twice with a base coat, next we put on a gloss glaze to make it slippery which is necessary for wood graining on top of. We then mark out each plank and mask them off. After this we grained it, lined it in and then finally we glazed it again to protect it.

The floor has not been the only item that has involved multiple processes; both the cornicing and gold objects have several layers. The cornicing is made of vac form plastic so we have to cover it in a product to make the paint stick before we even start the paint effect. In this case there are then another four processes on top. We all have a favourite piece of the gold vac form as they are all different shapes though the giant horse would top most people’s list. We have been considering turning it into a huge game of Buckaroo. As is often the case in the theatre if we just painted something with one plain gold it would look dull and flat on stage. This means that we undercoat everything in Burnt Sienna paint, which keeps the gold nice and rich looking, then we use two different shades of gold dry brushed over the top of each other to give it more life. Finally we highlight elements of it in gold leaf, only imitation gold leaf! It may sound like a lot of work but it is most definitely worth it!

I hope that this has given you some idea of what our job can involve and how much work goes into even the simplest looking things on stage. This has been a particularly lovely set to work on and I hope that our enjoyment while working on it is obvious to you when you sit in the auditorium.

Enjoy the show!

Allie

Tales from the darkness...

Hi everyone,

My name's Ruth and I'm the Company Manager at PFT.  This means that amongst other things I'm responsible for making sure that all the actors, furniture and props arrive on stage happy(ish!), at the right time and in the right place. I head up the Stage Management department, whose overall job is to ensure that each production is recreated exactly as directed and designed every time it's performed. 

I've been asked to write a few words for the theatre blog about what we do day-to-day, which is a lot more than just scuttling about in the dark (although that does make up a fair amount of our work)...

We are currently recovering from opening the wonderful Privates on Parade last week, which we are all very proud of.  It's a terrific production with outstanding performances, and looks just fabulous, but it has entailed a huge amount of work for everyone involved.  Elaine, our Stage Manager for the show, has a props setting list which runs to six pages of A4 - this must be meticulously checked before each performance to make sure everything is exactly where the actors need it to be during the show.  A lot of our setting up pre-performance is done pretty much in the dark while the electricians are focussing the lights, which is an extra challenge (need to eat more carrots!).

In addition to working on the five productions currently in our daily repertoire and keeping everything looking as good as on opening night, this week we have also gone into rehearsals for Dr. Angelus, which opens on 17th August.  The first read through on Monday went really well - it's a great script, and Alan Steele makes a fantastic Dr. Angelus.. just wait till you see him!  One of our Deputy Stage Managers, Maggi, will be in the rehearsal room throughout the next four weeks, letting all the production departments know exactly what will be required when we get to the production week - this can be anything from the type of food required onstage (and whether it's actually eaten, or if it can be fake) to which costumes need to be quick-changed.  The rest of the Stage Management team - Elaine, Cassie, Sam and Beth - are busy making, borrowing and finding all the props and furniture for Dr. Angelus - they will liaise closely with Charles the designer and all the other production departments to ensure that the production looks perfect and runs smoothly when it opens.

I've also been looking ahead to our revival of Whisky Galore! A Musical which will be our first ever autumn repertory production - it will bring its own challenges, opening as it does just a few days after the end of the current summer season.  We are nearly fully cast now, and very excited about going back to the islands again - look forward to seeing you there!

Blast from the Cast!

My deepest and most heart felt apologies for abandoning you for the past couple of weeks. I would love to pretend it’s because I’ve been so ferociously busy securing lines, moves and drum parts, but frankly, I’ve been holding off on this instalment of the blog for the soul purpose of being able to write this:

“It’s the final count down! Na-Na-Naaa Naaa Na-Na-Na-Na Naaa!!”

Yes, that’s right you bunch of blog reading theatre-goers! We have reached the technical week for My Fair Lady! With us all now being able to do the parts in our sleep (seriously, I’ve been caught air drumming in a deep slumber) we are going to take the Pitlochry festival Theatre’s 60^th season by storm! We have but three days to polish those dance moves, focus the spotlights and put the finishing touches on Adrian Rees’ outstanding set and costumes before bursting onto the stage with all the energy, excitement and nerves that only a first night can bring.

But whoa there Nelly! How about I give you an idea of actually what a tech week involves. We’re starting off in the theatre with a band call, which will include the extra trumpeter and cellist who will join us for the run. This gives us a chance to rehearse all the numbers in the correct setting so we can flag up any potential problems regarding sound and sightlines to our magnificent musical director, Jon Beales. We then begin working through the show very slowly…bit by bit…lighting cue by lighting cue…set change by set change, often repeating them many times, until everyone involved is entirely happy with it. During these days more often than not madness sets in. You begin to wonder if daylight - or indeed life outside the theatre -continues to exist, in a kind of ‘If I shut my eyes does the world stop?’ mentality. At the other end of the technical rehearsals you are faced with at least two, possibly three dress rehearsals and finally after a very long, hard week you have the opening night. By this point pretty much everyone is surviving on adrenaline.

So to those of you who have managed to get those golden tickets for the opening night, after you have settled into the comfort of the PFT’s seats and before you are whisked back in time on a fantastic journey to early twentieth century London, spare the briefest of thoughts for everyone who has worked tirelessly in getting the show ready for you good people to enjoy and cor blimey guvner, I’m sure you will!

S.B x

My Fair Lady Set Gains Momentum

Hi everyone and welcome to my take on all things scenic at PFT.

First of all perhaps I should introduce myself. I’m Allie and I am a production artist for PFT. For those of you who don’t know what that is, don’t feel bad I didn’t either to begin with! It means I am one of the people who paint all the scenery for our productions.

Having already completed the sets for Trelawny of the Wells, Henceforward and See How They Run this past 3 weeks we have been working very hard to get My Fair Lady ready to go over to the stage for it’s fit up and technical week. I have to confess with the weather having been so nice concentration has occasionally wandered and we have tried hard to get it outside to work on, need to top up that tan for opening night after all. My Fair Lady is a beautiful design but a bit of an unusual set for us painters, in that there is hardly any paint involved! Instead we are pasting thousands of pieces of text and posters to it. It has been really enjoyable but when we get the workshop back to normal, and not looking like the Andrex puppies have gone berserk with the loo roll it will be great. There is one thing I am certain of after this process and that is that I will never have wallpaper in my own home, far too much mess, it will be paint all the way.

Last weekend for me was one of the best parts of the process. The fit up, where the carpenters put the set together on stage. It is always really exciting for us as we finally get to see it out of the workshop and in context. It also means we get a chance to work on stage with everyone else which is nice - though they are fond of jumping out of the wings in the dark on a certain unsuspecting scenic. I have to admit that the set looked big in the workshop, nothing to how it looks on stage! We have just managed to get the floor painter, a simple design  of a black satin finish but the size of the stage here makes it take a couple of hours and roughly 30 litres of paint per coat!

Nearly done but just in case you are worried we have been very well behaved with the text on the My Fair Lady set. We've kept it clean, tempting though was it to make the odd stray sentence  appear. We have also resisted putting in chunks of the script, in case any of the cast forget their lines, though I am sure they wouldn’t mind if we did that. There is still time though for us to sneak in something which you will have to keep an eye out for.

So until next time all the best.

Allie 

Blast from the Cast!

Egad! Zoons! Hurrah! I believe our old pal the sun is threatening to break from its eight month slumber! The whole of Pitlochry is bathed in its glorious wonder! Shorts have been donned, the Pimm’s have been poured and the acrid smells of burned barbeques are drifting across the town. The only place that is escaping this mid April heat wave is the Pitlochry Festival Theatre stage, where we are hard at work exploring nineteenth century London in Trelawney of The Wells.

                        We are in the theatre today for one of our “On Stage” days which is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. Instead of miming going through an invisible door with only some green electrical tape on the floor as a guide, we have an actual door. You can’t imagine the excitement this causes. The fun doesn’t stop there folks, we even have furniture, most of the set and if you’ve been a very good actor you may be permitted to wear a little of your costume. My hysterical sarcasm aside, these days are utterly invaluable and something I’ve not come across in other theatres. It gives one a chance to try out all the moves that you have assumed are going to work and instead of having to change them a few days before the show goes up, you’ve got time to return to the drawing board armed with a clearer idea of what is possible.

            Saying all that, I do find it amazing the way these days seem to coax the sun from behind the comfort of the clouds. I’ve already placed a bet on the weather forecast for the days running up to the 13^th of May. Blimey, that’s not far away!

Blast from the Cast!

Greetings!

My ramblings today are about an integral part of the whole rehearsal process. Line learning. More specifically a pastime that I have found goes almost hand in hand with it and I believe is scientifically known as “work displacement activity”. For those of you who are not familiar with WDA, cast your mind back to when you were in school sitting your final year exams. In particular, try to remember the cleanliness of your bedroom. I would bet my seasons wage that your room was the cleanest it had ever been and ever will be during that period of study. A time where you would rather do anything than sit down and contemplate the fall of Bismarck or work out if Hamlet is actually mad.

    This is the situation that I find myself in at the moment. I have in front of me the Trelawney of the Wells script. I have a good sized part, some beautifully written dialogue and nothing really that should be that hard to solidify. All the same, this morning I have already cleaned out the fridge, taken out the bins, phoned long lost friends, re arranged my DVDs, loaded, put on and emptied the dishwasher and made mayonnaise. Made mayonnaise for crying out loud! All of this to prevent myself from doing something I really enjoy! Even as I write this blog, I am trying to kid myself that because this has something to do with the theatre it could be considered work and therefore its ok that it takes the place of the bitty speech in Act 1 that I simply cannot learn.

    Now that I’ve finished this instalment, surely there is nothing else left for me to do apart from crack on with the script and cram it into my brain before the stagger through tomorrow? Just looked outside, what a superb day! I really must go for a run.

S.B x

P.s The Mayonnaise wasn’t even nice.

Blast from the Cast!

Hi Folks,

Back again to give you the inside scoop on the life of thesps.

Things are accelerating rather swiftly, we’ve broken the back of most of the big numbers in My Fair Lady, the moves in Trelawney have all been blocked and the casts of Henceforward and See How They Run tell me they are going well too! I’m currently blogging to you from behind a barricade of percussion, I am playing the drums in My Fair Lady and we are in the middle of “Get Me To The Church On Time”. This requires all sorts of entertaining noises, hence the great wall of wood blocks, cow bells, ratchets, triangles, mark trees, glockenspiels, bell horns and kazoos dividing me and the rest of the room. One of the most challenging aspects of rehearsing an actor/musician show is...well…just rehearsing. That may sound a little ridiculous and exactly why we’re here-so-stop-complaining-and-get-on-with-it, but at one end of the room I am doing my best ‘Animal’ from The Muppets impression and Chris Stuart-Wilson, our esteemed choreographer, is trying to put together a complicated routine. I’m sure you can imagine how amusing everyone finds this after an eleven hour day. I’ll report back soon, unless I am found lying in the Tummel with a tambourine rammed down my throat.

S.B x