Theater: Stage

Our second summer production was Godspell, which performed outside on campus. I hadn't known about stagecraft beforehand so assembling staircases and dressing the set was a lot of hard work but great fun!

It's hard to see, but the center stage has two levels, so the band pit is in the center behind the performing area. The catwalk was the connect the stage to the AV equipment off to the far right. The towers are these amazing pieces of sound equipment.

I wasn't needed for additional deck duties in Godspell, but as props master I helped out more in the preliminary set up. You can see a bit of the lighting used in the show above.

Here are also some more set photos from Hello Dolly. Researching and pulling together (a stylized version) period setting was a great experience.

Top: Rich man Vandergelder's feed store. I dressed the shelves behind the counter.

Middle: The trick cake and pheasants in action!

Bottom: A New York hat shop. I helped put together the table set up.

Sewing Basics

Along with my technical theater summer program, I took an introductory course in sewing. Pictured below is my final project, which was to create a top with sleeves.

I purchased the original pattern from a local fabric store, then added my own hood and altered the front to make a open-flap cloak with a fish-eye enclosure. The fabric is cotton broadcloth and the pattern includes gathering (where larger piece of fabric is tucked into a smaller piece to create volumetric folds) and pockets.

The most challenging part of sewing for me was figuring out how to sew pieces together "inside-out" while also treating the edges of the cloth for more durability and neatness (like overlocking or topstitching). Some simple pouches and pillow cases explained the beginning of the inside-out process.

After the pillow came the messenger bag, which introduced lining and interfacing as well as internal pockets. The striped cloth is made of canvas.

Further along in the course, I learned to cut cloth to my size and how to make an elastic waistband in our pajama pants project. The cloth is fleece and the pants include pockets.

I applied some of the techniques I learned for simple theater props, like table cloths and signal flags. I also finally ventured into tailoring my old clothes (and now have some exciting new shorts!)