Next to Normal

Our current production, Next to Normal, is by far my favorite of the season! A fairly recent musical, N2N tells the story of a family who works their way through mental problems displayed by one family member, and how that issue affects the entire family. It does an incredible job of addressing what modern medical and therapy practices can do and also explores the fears that many people have about loss, grief, middle-class living, familial relationships, and traumatic events. Andrea Burns stars in this moving production directed by Tracy Brigden.

The Hangar's N2N is slightly different than the original, with a fascinating new scenic design by Anne Mundell that fits the height constraints of our space nicely.

Lighting Design: Matt Richards

I really enjoyed building and watching this show. Check out my previous post for more information about the build process and load-in for Next to Normal. Ticket information, calendar, and more can be found at the Hangar website.

Photo Credit: Rachel Philipson, Hangar website

 

Photo Credit: Rachel Philipson, Hangar website

Building Next to Normal

The past few weeks have been busy at the Hangar Theater! We opened Full Gallop, a one-woman show about Diana Vreeland (founder of Vogue magazine) on August 3rd and it ran for just over a week. Dee Hoty kept audiences riveted with Vreeland's funny and interesting revelations.

The set for Full Gallop was relatively simple for us. The entire show took place in an upscale apartment, which the designer Michael Krass chose to represent with a giant swoop of red set paper instead of walls, as well as with furniture and elaborate dressings and rugs. The real challenge was for stage management, who had to strike the set for the children's show every week.

While Full Gallop was performing, we started building for Next to Normal. This was another large production with a workload similar to Lend Me A Tenor or Titanic, but it combined woodworking and steel. We have all been excited about this show since it is very new and also the initial design drawings looked amazing. Anne Mundell designed the world of Next to Normal with a series of platforms and stairs flanked by three houses of various sizes, hanging upside down. The entire set is encased in drops and flats of clouds.

Parts of the set during load-in

We had a lot to build in a shorter time than usual (since Full Gallop had a shorter run of performances than the other mainstage productions). We started with the houses, since they are unusually shaped flats and paints needed plenty of time to work on them. I cut out all of the lauan facing one afternoon, which was a fun project. Framing the pieces with 1x3 was less fun, since the houses are such strange shapes and need to be supported unusually for how they are hung, but we got it done.

Other projects included steel platforms and supports, steel staircases and finished lids for each stair (I worked on those for a long time), hanging the cloud drop and masking flats. During this changeover, I got moved to electrics, so I worked on a set of double-decker trunions for the ground row of lights in preparation.A carp-elecs swing position is my ideal anyway, so this change wasn't unhappy for me.

Stair lids: 3/4"plywood with masonite facing

Trunions-- the black pieces on either side supporting the long strip of lights

This was a different changeover than usual for me. Having worked primarily in electrics and stage management before, I was ready for the challenge of switching departments and found I could make myself very useful to our young ME and electrics crew. It was a pleasure working with Matt Richards, the lighting designer, and Felicia Hall, the lighting design fellowship and Matt's assistant on Next to Normal. The changeover/tech week presented plenty of challenges, however, and I learned a lot about management and preparation, and infectious attitudes.

Some load-in photos: 

Nia & Cecilia installing the stair lids

Boom pipe and masking flats off SL...this pipe was later repositioned elsewhere.

Hanging the first house!

Focusing lights

I will post more photos and my review of the show soon! Thank you for reading!

creative writing #2

Lightning strikes all around me, picking off names I almost know. Who will be next? Where is the reason? Just out of sight, just out of reach

their silence echoes down hallways, in rooms and halls and stalls and houses, through trees down sidewalks under bridges until it fills the sky, asking

why?

Titanic the Musical at the Hangar Theater

Ithaca's Hangar Theater is currently producing an adaptation of Titanic the musical, a touching rendition of the historical event that looks especially at the relationships onboard and how lives were affected by the disaster. The story focuses on 4 couples from different classes, the leadership aboard the ship, and the hopes and aspirations of various passengers. Our production is carefully downsized from the original version, featuring just 20 actors and actresses playing multiple roles.

Building the set for Titanic was a big challenge because it is almost exclusively made of steel. Designed by Jo Winiarski, the scenery is an imaginative combination of steel framework and platforms, quite reminiscent of a ship, complete with railings and a swing-down, climb-able mast. Everyone in the scene shop worked overtime and learned much about metalwork during this process.

The main part of the set: a leaning frame wall & inset platform

The obstacles we faced building this show were more than the welding, cleaning, grinding, and treating of the steel materials, however. We received our order of steel 3 days late into the build, which is a big delay because it put us behind schedule and the paint crew, who paints the set as we finish it, was also affected. Transporting the huge wall frame and heavy platforming onto the stage was hard work as well, and the platforms had to be bolted and welded in the space during our changeover time. Other departments faced challenges as well, sometimes holding us up, but like any theater company learns, sharing space and time is an important balance and requires patience and communication. Luckily, we have a pretty solid team in the shop this summer.

The mast, also tilted, swings down to allow an actor to climb up it.

The final large component of the set: platforms over the entrances in the audience. Here is us at load-in installing one of them.

Other events at the Hangar these past few weeks have included more Wedge shows in our experimental series (Happy Days, This is Our Youth) that we have built and loaded in to the local high school's black box theater, and Kidstuff shows (Little Mermaid, Dish and the Spoon, Pirates) that are built to perform on top of the Mainstage sets. Currently, we are waiting on designer plans for the next mainstage-- Full Gallop, a one-woman show about the founder of Vogue magazine-- which opens next week. Hopefully that process will be moving along soon!

Thank you for reading, and as always visit the Hangar Theater's website for more information about the shows we produce.

I spent an afternoon welding on the main bridge platform!

creative writing #1

a moment

perhaps sitting at the back of a classroom, admiring the angle of the late afternoon sun on a dusty chemistry lab.

or walking with someone, stopping mid-sentence and mid-stride. You don’t know why or where your mind went, but there was a sudden realization.

I opened the door to props storage, and the familiar musty smell washed over me. Dozens of chairs and odd bits of furniture make a familiar path toward the cacophony of teacups, glass bottles, old magazines, half-eaten toys from the 80’s, antique telephones, and battered suitcases. Halfway through the building, a foot in both worlds, the hair on the back of my neck rose and I knew I would die.

It’s the moment I heard a faroff bass thumping, lying in bed naked, that I remembered: I sold my soul two nights ago to a dark clown in a dream, and now there is no going back.

Opening Night: Lend Me A Tenor

Last night, our first show of the season opened to a lively and receptive audience. Lend Me A Tenor is a side-splitting farce that involves an Italian opera singer, his passionate wife, an angry boss in Cleveland, a hapless and nervous assistant, and three lovely ladies who will do whatever it takes to get what they want! The Hangar's LMAT, directed by Peter Flynn and starring Daniel Berlingeri, Lindsay Clemmons, Michael McCormick, Christopher Shyer, Janet Dacal, Eddie Vona, Emily Skinner, and Judy Levitt, was a delight.

Attending the performance was an interesting experience. When I imagine the set, I think of the space we worked in, both the backstage supports and the visual concerns in the front. Entering the house with the rest of the audience and seeing only the front of the set, lit beautifully and not scattered with tools, was very cool. I did not attend technical or dress rehearsals-- once the set was done, we started working on the kid's show (Little Mermaid) and the first experimental show of the season (Macbeth). Being an audience member with the rest of the Hangar staff was fun as well. It was very rewarding to see our hard work in action!

LMAT set in progress. Scenic designer: Ken Goldstein

Stage left of the complete set (photo by Meg Hurley)

As I mentioned, we've been working on the children's show and experimental productions as well. Young designers and directors get the chance to work on these, and the TD and paint interns get to take leadership roles as well, so we work with a variety of people. Little Mermaid has to fit into the mainstage space: we have some boat flats and seaweed covers that will go in.

Macbeth will be in the local high school black box theater, a nice space. We built a tabletop and rigged it to hang upside down over the stage-- complete with plates, glasses, silverware, chairs, and a chandelier. It took a long time and a lot of planning to set this table!

Hanging it was fun. We also cleaned and reorganized the high school scene shop, which would have been a drag except it's a very nice space, very well-equipped. Now, we are ahead of schedule, and have today and possibly tomorrow off before our Titanic steel comes in on Monday to start welding!

More updates soon!

Working at the Hangar Theater

It's week 2 in Ithaca for me, and I am really loving it here so far! Ithaca is a lot like Burlington: lakeside college city with some beautiful downtown walking streets, lots of hippies and local companies, with some wealth present as well. I've gotten somewhat used to the one-way streets and the detours (due to construction now, while the college kids are gone) and been able to explore a little.

As a member of the production crew, I am housed at Ithaca College for most of the summer, and our apartments are really nice-- we have a great view of the lake and sunset, a spiral staircase, and a cute little porch. My roommates and I get along well: I am in a double with Becca, a scene shop intern, and we share the apartment with Megan, the paint intern, and Sam, a costume shop intern. We've done some shopping together and are settling into some routines to make this summer work, and have already had some bonding experiences too.

The people at Hangar seem great so far. Departments work together, attitude is overall good, despite the fact that we share a fairly small space with a VERY large amount of people.  The shop is small but well-equipped, with a high ceiling to accommodate scenery and storage. I'm enjoying the work so far. Lend Me A Tenor is the first show we're doing, and it's very repetitive with lots of walls and platforms to build/repair/treat, but it's a great way to kick off the season and get everyone accustomed to how this shop works. Outside of the theater it is nice to have this group of people to go out with or watch movies with every now and then.

The schedule is going to get pretty intense soon, however. Hangar has a lot of programs, including kids shows, experimental theater, educational programs, and the 5 mainstages...all of which we'll be building. I'm hoping to apply for non-summer jobs soon, since I don't know what my days will look like when everything kicks off more!

For more info on the Hangar theater and this season's productions, visit http://www.hangartheatre.org