Theater Sets: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella

In the summer of 2023 I was Scenic Designer for the Sitka Fine Arts Camp’s 3-week Musical Theater Camp production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. The small scale of the program meant that I also built and decorated the set, but it was a joy to work with such an amazing crew:

CINDERELLA MOMENT — Musical Theater Camp students run through a dress rehearsal of “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” Wednesday night at the Performing Arts Center. The show, which features elaborate costumes, set and lighting as well as a live pit orchestra, opens 7 p.m. Friday. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

Again this year we had technical theater students as part of the production: Aren Buchheit and JT Gurney were Assistant Stage Manager, Lee Orozco was Light Board Operator, Hawlet Cohen, Kade Kompkoff and Zoe Lessard operated cameras, and all were ace scenic builders and artists. The front of the castle platform was done in marble, completely done by our teen-age scenic crew.

The rest of the technical crew included the amazing Claire Shea Duncan on costumes. Look that those costumes. She built from scratch multiple “Transformation” dresses that magically before your eyes transformed from rags to a ball gown fit for a princess! She had assistants Amelia Pillifant and Rita Christianson. Lighting design was by J. D. Hopper. It was such a pleasure to be able to work with J.D. and Claire, who just graduated from the Carnegie Mellon University, and the choreographer and music director to make Magic. Technical Director was lovely Joe Burck, with Hannah Anderson-Brownlee a phenomenal Assistant TD. There is nothing she can’t do! Stage Manager was Alicia Jeffrey, the best. Drew Sherman worked with Joe Burck on Sound Design and tech, and Audio Assistant and all-around booster and supporter was Shannon Haugland, props were lovingly crafted by Anja Brooks-Schmidt, and the gorgeous and inspiring poster art was by Angie Kang. (Check out her work here, you will be glad you did!) We also could not have done it without the scenic painting and screw gun talents of Lucy Poulson and Linda Mae Kristofik. Thank you!

Documenting the Magic in his magical way: photographer Alex Hamm @alex._.hamm.

On stage, the Director was Zeke Blackwell, incredible amazing outstanding Music Director was Katy Green, and wow just wow Erin Coffey’s choreography. Vocal coaches were Rhiannon Guevin, Mina Brooks-Schmidt, and Benhur Mosazghi. Jordan Phillips was Acting Coach and Lucy Poulson was the Dance Coach.

Susan Reed and Jake Berran were the rehearsal pianists, and played keyboards in the Full Pit Orchestra! who also included Dorothy Orbison, Claire Brazeau, Julia Klein, JJ Sechan, Amy Sanchez, Abigail Webster, Brian Neal, Drew Larson, Rogher Schmidt, Dristen Klehr, Paul Cox, Franz Felkl, Elena Levi, Katie Avery, Richard Reed, Rebecca Osborn, Annika Krafcik, and Drew Dembowski.

It was fun.

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Cinderella’s Cottage, Linda Mae and Lucy

The Coach

The other side of the Coach, a garden and well

Columns on the other side of Trees

Priceless China actually made of paper plates

Making Trees

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Theater Sets 2022

In the summer of 2022 I was Scenic Designer for the Sitka Fine Arts Camp 3-week Musical Theater Camp production of Mamma Mia. The small scale of the program meant that I was also Scenic Charge, Master Carpenter, and, along with the other six technical theater adults, an instructor for the seven Fine Arts Camp Technical Theater-track students.

Mamma Mia set designed (and built, and decorated) by Rebecca Poulson

This year that expanded staff meant I did not have to put in so many hours working alone! and, the students had the benefit of a one-to-one ratio of instructors to students. That was really fun, seeing the students just eat it up, the excitement of getting to do real things, in a beautifully-equipped theater.

For me, also, it was glorious to have a lighting designer as artistic and skilled as Terry Eikleberry. Elle Campbell, the Technical Director, is an incredible teacher, creating a space where students are valued and can grow as they get real skills. The Videographer and Audio Tech, Andrew Rutledge and Joe Burke, are also skilled and willing carpenters and a joy to work with. Sharon Morgan, our Costume Designer (and, being a tiny program, also the creator of the costumes) is absolutely phenomenal. She not only nailed each character and the era (1990s, y’all) but created beautiful compositions of color and form. The technical crew is rounded out with Lauren Petrocelli, our Sound Designer.

On stage, the incredibly talented Josh Euten, who also is a mean set dresser, was Stage Manager, Zeke Blackwell Director, Chris Coffey was Music Director, and Erin Coffey the Choreographer for a cast of 23 young performers. The technical theater students, Amelia DeSentis is a natural at carpentry and a joy to work with, Campbell Pillifant operated the light board, Hal Sufrin helped with sound, Kade Kompkoff, Lee Orozco, Téa Neilson and Aren Bucheit did it all but specialized in scenic painting, with a shout out to Téa for finishing the courtyard “rocks” and washing a lot of brushes! I really enjoyed working with these young people, seeing them grow, and enjoyed their spark and willingness to interact. For decorating the stage deck, I gave them paint and tools and techniques and had them try it out, they chose the treatment they wanted, and they did it, going up to the balcony as they worked to see what they liked. I helped with the “Beach” because it was a trickier technique, but that was it. They and a community volunteer painted the dock, beautifully, again all I did was show them some techniques and give them the paints.

More crew: Susan Reed and Misaki Saito rehearsal pianists, Shannon Haugland Audio Assistant, Haley Aronow was Props Master (and Master of Bougainvillea!), Rhiannon Guevin Vocal Coach, Jordan Phillips Acting Coach, Diane Cervelli Assistant Choreographer, and volunteers Reese Gasque, Noatak Post, Julien Riviere, Linda Mae Kristofik and Christina Van Den Hoogen helped out the scenic crew (and that was fun too, seeing these folks stretch), and Isla Morgan, Carole Knuth and Lisa Moore were Costume Assistants. In the Pit Band in addition to Susan and Mikaski, Alicia Jeffrey and a young man from Anchorage were on keyboards, Chris Coffey played drums, Abe Landa and Austin Patterson were on Guitar, Julien Riviere played Bass and Ethan Zawodny did the Percussion.

Building the set

A lighting lesson

Tables I designed and crew built

A vanity I designed and built in a day, the Director’s idea to have “mirror” empty

Photo by Alex Hamm

A moment Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

The streetlamp, involving a tin can, tape, foam and wood Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Donna’s bedroom Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Photo by Alex Hamm

Earlier this year I volunteered to design and build sets for the Sitka Community Theater production of Clue and the Young Performers Theater (an after school theater program run by the Sitka Fine Arts Camp) production of Matilda the Musical. It is really fun to design sets and utter bliss to work with and collaborate with other people, tho tbh next year we need more volunteers in the program! In this post-pandemic year we are still figuring out how to get the word out!

Those doors got a work out! So many rooms! It was very fun, the actors really did it up. I designed and built and decorated the set (all those doors . . . ) with assistance from the students in the after-school Young Performers Theater technical theater class and community volunteers, Shannon Haugland produced, Sotera Perez directed, Elle Campbell did lights and was Technical Director, and the YPT tech students did tech! We also had a gajillion really cool props by Jack Peterson.

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Matilda the Musical was the play done by the high school students in the Young Performers Theater program in April 2022, directed by Zeke Blackwell. I volunteered to design and build and decorate the set, with assistance from parents, Technical Director Elle Campbell, and the technical theater students in the after school Young Performers Theater program! Elle Campbell did the lights, we had a pit orchestra which sounded amazing, with Music Director Hannah Cummiskey conducting, and Choreography was by Melissa Hantke. Since it was such a small workforce (and cast), I combined the students’ desks with the alphabet cubes they use for one of the songs, the set consists of just three platforms and four mobile flats, three of which reverse to show a corridor of “Chokeys.” I didn’t get a picture of one of the flats, that had Matilda’s bedroom on one side and Miss Honey’s shed interior on the other.

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High School Fine Arts Camp 2021

I hadn’t taught the high school camp for years, and it was incredible how fast they caught on and were just so hungry to learn. It was very rewarding, intense, and heartbreaking to understand that even in normal times, they are not getting what they need, as far as being seen, being able to make things and respond to the world – and how much they have lost, the past couple years now, how mature they seemed, they have had to grow up fast.

We all need to support our young people, give them space and permission to be young people.

At Sitka Fine Arts Camp you don’t have to have ever done any art. In Alaska and probably other places art classes, if they have any in school in the first place, don’t teach drawing from observation. Fine Arts Camp classes are basically college classes, except in an hour a day for a couple weeks! these kids worked so hard.

Drawing and Watercolor

We worked outdoors, from the model, drew still lifes, and copied master watercolor landscape paintings as we learned the conventions of landscape and how to manipulate watercolor.

We had some very challenging exercises, like drawing a model, in a landscape, using water media or marker.

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Printmaking

We did drypoint etchings, rubber cuts, wood cut, stencils and monoprints, and even wood engraving:

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Set Design

For Sitka Fine Arts Camp Musical Theater Camp 2021, I got to design and build a set! Went for texture in the organic sculpted scenery, and atmospherics with recycled fishing nets (from Nets And More of Louisiana). Rapunzel’s tower, stage left, accessed from the front by the witch.

Costumes Sharon Morgan, Lighting Elle Campbell, Directed Zeke Blackwell, Musical Direction Chris Coffey, Choreography Erin Coffey, Stage Manager (and so much more!) Josh Euten, Pianists Susan Reed and Chris Staknys, Vocal Coach Rhiannon Guevin, Assistant TD Emily Harris, Sound Drew Sherman with Bryan Lovett, Props Abby Taper, Deck Boss Sotera Perez, Mic’ing Shannon Haugland, Costume Assistant Sonia Lewis, Makeup Micah Wayman, Sound Assistant Hal Sufrin, Lighting Assistant Campbell Pillifant, with Téa Neilson (these last four were our Technical Theater students and did all kinds of things), Poster Artwork by Nate Olson. It would not have been possible without help building the set by Emily Harris and volunteers Noatak Post and Julien Riviere.

We had a full-on, pure and exquisite performance by a professional pit orchestra: Susan Reed, Chris Staknys, Dorothy Orbison, Colin Roshak, JJ Sechan, Amy Sanchez, Taylor Young, Brian Neal, Roger Schmidt, Franz Felkl, Noatak Post, Kelly Dylla, Julien Riviere, Annika Krafcik, Drew Dembowski and Paul Cox.

Actors: Zia Allen, Paige Antrobus, Anja Brooks-Schmidt, Mina Brooks-Schmidt, Bronwyn Embree, Claire Evans, Aitana Gluth, Noah Gosnell, Miko Hare, Winston Katoanga, Spencer LeFebvre, Felix Lewis, Sagan McLaughlin, Kadence Patton, Virginia Pearson, Helena Provencio, Chase Randall, Caleb Rapanut, Max Reynolds, Kate Springsteen, Zoe Springsteen, Emerson Tuggey, Kevin Viña, and Alona Whisenhunt.

All of the young people – the actors, and four back stage – are in high school or just started college. Best of luck to all of you. Wonderful work here.

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Watercolor Painting by 5th Graders

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In 2018 I got to teach at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp Elementary School session. The camp groups students by age and rotates four sections of each age group through four different classes, in music, theater, visual art, and dance.

This year I had the 5th grade group, kids going into 6th grade, who came in for I think around 50 minutes each. Each group had around a dozen kids, and we had to set up, work, and clean up in that time before the next group came in. The camp was one week, so five mornings total.

The cleaning up is an important part of the process – young people actually like knowing what’s going on and they actually like cleaning up, especially sponging off the tables.

The first day I gave them watercolors, and had them try various techniques, with nice watercolor paints (they are Cotman travel sets, and over the years we have replaced the paint as it was used up with Daniel Smith watercolors) on 80# drawing paper. First we looked at some slides of the work of Helen Frankenthaler and Vasili Kandinsky, and told a little about those artists and periods.

Tuesday, we did observational drawing, of a wooden stool, doing fast draw, blind contour, then a longer drawing, then, if they had time, a smaller object of their choice. In this one I showed them basic drawing tricks, using angles, proportions, overlap, scale, and the trick of using the back ground, and the angles of the box the stool was on, to give their drawing depth.

Wednesday we drew the counselor, with the same drawing instruction, with the addition of learning to show the model respect.

Thursday we drew a still life of at least two objects, on the table near them. We didn’t do any warmups, but instead sketched on newsprint, then drew with pencil and outlined with pen or drew with a pen, then watercolor, on 80# drawing paper, using the various watercolor techniques from Monday.

On Friday, I set up lights and pushed the tables together, with the lights at one end, and kids sitting on the long sides of the tables. They did a quick draw then shaded (modeled) drawing of white styrofoam balls. Then, had them gather all their art, and put their favorite piece on top, and we did a little art walk, where each said something they liked about (someone else’s) picture.

One more thing was to have each kid at the end of each session put his or her work in a stack. I didn’t have any drying racks, so we arranged the stacks of pictures all around the edges of the room on the floor.

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2014 Sitka Fine Arts Camp – Natural History Drawing and Watercolor

I had the chance this year to teach two classes at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp Middle School session: Printmaking, and Natural History Drawing and Watercolor. This is an outstanding camp in every way, with some of the best instructors in the country – practicing artists who have also figured out how to bring young people on that ride. The students are also remarkable, in how they support each other. It was fun to get students to the next level in their art work, but just as neat to see them making connections with each other.

These are some pictures, from the final show, from the Natural History Drawing and Watercolor class. I had 18 middle school students – which is a big group, but they were a good group, and all worked hard.

The first day we did drawing exercises, to get into drawing what you see. Some very effective exercises including blind contour drawing (not looking at your paper) and very fast, timed sketches.

Some drawings from the first day

Then, next day, shading:

with the idea of using light and shadow to do what they wanted it to. All this was from observation, I set up clamp lights for the shading exercises. First we did strips of various kinds of shading.

The idea I had was to show how to make art starting from observation – but with the idea of making a picture.

Our last exercise session was to copy a watercolor landscape, The Blue Boat, by Winslow Homer, in watercolor. I helped them with color mixing, and pointed out the techniques used to create the illusion of space and depth. In this first photo (these are all taken at the final show, looking down at a table), you can see the picture we were copying.

So this was an experiment but it worked really well. You can talk all day but it’s much better to just do it. I had them try mixing three different greens.

Next was drawing the landscape from observation, and another instructor had mentioned starting with the horizon. Drawing in the horizon is magic. Check these out:

As they were drawing, I also helped them see how how close things are to the horizon tells you how far away they are, and some linear perspective for the students drawing buildings or pavement –

We went outside two more times, once drawing in pen, trying to convey some sense of writing pieces we’d been given by the Writing and the Visual Arts class. The last time, we painted our own landscape in watercolor. That was where I was really impressed with the students. I think most of us would be a bit intimidated by the task but they went for it.

watercolor painting the landscape

Also by this point, the last day of a 2-week camp, they were exhausted.

In one class we drew and painted objects we brought in from outside, as well as still life things in the room, in various sizes, and one day we drew some live 5-week-old chickens I brought from home. The chickens seemed to enjoy it as much as the students. Chickens are curious creatures and seem to like outings.

Did I mention Dr. Who was popular at camp.

At the end, we made tiny books, with hard covers covered with paper they’d decorated, and pockets to hold the tiny pieces of art they’d made.

And – poetry. We loaned tiny paintings to the Writing and The Visual Arts class, who wrote poems, on tiny papers that fit in our books. Here are some of the pairings – well, actually, all of them:

 

Anyway, good work, guys! The one thing is I wish I’d taken the time to look at our work. It went so fast, and everyone was gone, I was in serious, serious withdrawal the next day. It’s intense, and I really enjoyed all the kids – bright and just plain interesting to talk to. So the next day, when I saw some of the students downtown, I was asking them how they liked camp, though – being a shy person – one girl I ran into but was too shy to talk to. I’m still kicking myself. Because she did really well, I really enjoyed her,  and I never got to tell her so. Well ok Amelia you rock. There now!

I’d love to teach again, maybe just landscape, or people – in a landscape – and I have an idea for drawing a graphic novel. I did that with elementary school kids last fall, I think it would be really cool.

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Color inspired by Kandinsky for 3rd through 6th graders

In June I taught at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp mini camp elementary school session. Sixty children rotated through in groups of 15. The kids I had were going into third through 6th grades. This is what we did on day one – we had under an hour, and some ace parent helpers – we had no running water, so used five-gallon buckets.

The first day I showed them some slides of Kandkinsky. We worked on color complements – the colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. When you put them next to each other, each makes the other look more intense. We didn’t have time for all the kids, but we had different children tell what they liked about the picture in the slide, or find where complementary colors were next to each other. I demonstrated color mixing, mainly to show how you rinse and blot the brush between dipping into colors.

Kandinsky’s Improvisation 31, 1913, National Gallery of Art

The kids were instructed to mix at least one new color, and encouraged, as they went along, to try color complements.

We used big paper, and each kid got a palette with primary colors and white, two brushes (large and small), and water and folded paper towels for blotting. They got a second paper plate for mixing.

A trick for cutting a lot of (institutional) paper towels off a roll: use a utility knife to cut the roll on opposite sides.

This went really well. It also helps to have the kids get their brushes, apron, and paper as they come in the door.

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