Pirates! This Blog is now a Pirate Ship!

Hello All!

Right off the bat you should know this is not your regular Blogger-ette. I decided to give Eliza a break. My name is Chris and I’M TAKING THINGS OVER (for a post).

Who am I?!?

I’m an actor with the festival. This season I’m playing Laertes in Hamlet, Viola (Eliza’s) twin, Sebastian, in Twelfth Night,

Who is who?

and Peter in our non-Shakespeare show, Peter and the Starcatcher. 

Meet Peter

(Click on this)

Someone doesn't like the dark...

That show is what I want to talk about today. I’ve had such a good time following Eliza’s posts about all the goings on of the festival, both the folks who are on stage and those that work the real magic behind the scenes. Now I want to share some of the craziness of the 2-hour rollercoaster that is Peter and the Starcatcher.

SO, quick overview: Peter and the Starcatcher is an prequel to Peter Pan. It follows a young boy as he discovers who he is and where his place is in the world, a young girl as she fights to have her voice heard and become the respected adult she’s always wanted to be, and a pirate captain searching for a true hero so he can finally fulfill his dream of becoming a ruthless villain. Along the way we encounter a crocodile who grows to a gigantic girth, a tiny yellow bird who lights up a room, boys who can’t seem to find their way and Smee, a trusty "right-hand man", there for you when you need one.

So how do we do it?

Well it starts with a cast of 11 men and one fierce little lady.

 

You talkin' about me?

We all play multiple parts, running around onstage and off, quickly changing costumes to fill out ships full of sailors, armies of islanders and some creatures that may not even exist in real life.

Add to that 2 musicians covering 51 instruments, providing live accompaniment and foley for the show. 

Boys with Toys

The play takes place at several locations including the docks at Portsmouth, 2 different ships at sea and a tropical island. How do we get all that on stage? Well we gotta get creative!

What is this? A ship for ants?

Smee-sus Take the Wheel!

Along with the different locales the show makes a lot of use of "found objects". These are things that we ask you to suspend your disbelief and imagine being something else. We make fabric into water, ribbons into whips and feather dusters into little birds.

Peter makes a friend

That's really kinda the most important thing about this play. We ask the audience to come along with us and use their imaginations, just like we are using ours'. As Shakespeare said in the prologue to Henry V: 

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!

                   But pardon, and gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?

So we ask everyone to imagine that this Manor Theater can make room for a mountain.  Imagine it can harbor the high seas. Imagine it can furnish a forest.

We believe it. If you believe it too maybe, just maybe, by the end you'll believe that a boy can fly. 

You might even meet a mermaid too...

 

Music Oft Hath Such a Charm, To Make Bad Good and Good Provoke to Harm

Hello Everyone,

Sorry it has been so long since I posted - the past two weeks have been crazy busy and as a result, we are finally open!! I was very fortunate to be able to ask Kieran, our Sound Designer, some questions about the three very distinct soundscapes from the Festival this year. Kieran even shared some sound clips with us - although to hear the live music in Twelfth Night, you will just have to come see the show! 

ES: Do you have a consistent design process or is it different for every show?

KP: The way I start the design process is fairly consistent.  I like to first read the script and then talk to the director about their vision for the show before I start thinking about my part.  Unless a director has a specific desire to have live vs recorded music and sound effects, I let the script dictate my design choices.  From there I am influenced by watching rehearsals, other areas of the production design, and keeping an eye on the original intent of the playwright; designing in the best interest of the show.

ES: Where did you draw your inspiration from for Twelfth Night?

KP: The music for Twelfth Night was inspired by listening to the youtube channels of contemporary musicians.  I found so many beautiful love songs on guitar and piano that worked perfectly for our show.  Once I had a solid starting point, composing was easy.

ES: Where did you draw your inspiration from for Hamlet?

KP: I used no direct inspiration for the Hamlet sound design.  We were setting the designs in a non-specific time period and straying away from using any music at all.  That left me with a need to create a sound effects collection that complimented the text and action without drawing any focus.  Singing bowls, water phones, and atmospheric noises created the sound palette.

ES: Where did you draw your inspiration from for Peter and the Starcatcher?

KP: As the sound engineer on a semi-musical production my role was reinforcement.  Balancing the sound levels of the musicians and actors.  My inspiration came from working on QGents in the 2015 ISF season which was a show that used a concert rig to mic the actors and amplify the DJ.  This helped me understand how Ewing handles microphones and speakers and the relationship of the deck and above playing spaces.  Finding that balance in Peter has been tough.  Adding monitoring to the system for the actors use often times over powered, causing a lack of clarity in vocals and text.  It has been a good experience trying to figure out how to make that relationship work between the band location and action of the play.

ES: Hamlet and Peter have some non-live sound elements - did you create these or find these?

KP: The sound design elements in Peter were created or warped for the most part.  There were a couple animal sounds like a panther and owl that were stock sound effects, but the crocodile sounds were recorded and warped to create a scary monster effect.

ES: What went into creating the scary crocodile sound?

KP: A direct example of how I recorded the crocodile sound was a trick I learned from watching a documentary on The Lord of the Rings sound engineering team.  In order to create the Balrog sound they recorded a cement block being dragged across a wooden floor.  I did a similar technique using different surfaces to achieve a variety of sounds.  After that I put various EQ and reverb effects depending on what the moment called for in the script.

CLICK HERE for Sound Clips from Peter and Hamlet



ES: (Wow, it is so effective! That sound was terrifying!) What is your favorite part of your job?

KP: Working directly with actors.  Whether I am a music director or a sound designer, I really appreciate collaborating with actors to make the best production experience possible.  My work effects them and vise-versa and I believe that if we understand each other a little better, the production can only benefit from our experiences.

ES: What is the biggest challenge about designing sound? 

KP: The speaker system design.  Whether you need a special location for a speaker or just generally, the abilities of the sound system dictate how effective your design will be.  You need the right speakers in the right locations first, and then you have to make sure your sound effects and music sound exactly how they were intended too when you made your design choices in the first place.

ES: When was your first Design meeting for the Festival this year and when did you start communicating with Directors about the shows?

KP: I started working on the festival in February.  I had my first phone meetings with all the directors the day before the preliminary designs.  Coming late into the process gave me a solid idea on the direction the shows were headed already.

ES: What is Sound's relationship with Electrics - do you work hand in hand to set cues?

KP: A sound designer is only as good as their engineer.  We do work hand in hand to setup the system, test speakers and ensure all playback is working correctly.

ES: For Twelfth Night and Peter and the Starcatcher, there is a lot of live actor/musician sound - how do you approach a show like that?

KP: First you have to find out the abilities of the musicians.  After that you can compose or teach music that they are able to play.  If you compose/teach music that is really complicated but have musicians that are at a beginner level on their instrument, you will never achieve a great sound.

ES: Is there anything else you would like to add or tell us about?

KP: In my opinion a good sound design never diverts attention.  It should always compliment the action and only pull focus should the script call for it.  This is why I attend so many rehearsals and interact with everyone.  They have a rhythm and pattern to their actions, and a great sound design will reinforce that.

I have to say that I am so impressed that Kieran composed so much of the music and created so many of the sounds from scratch - the music in Twelfth Night always moves me, no matter how many times I have heard it and the sound in Hamlet always makes my hair stand on end because it is so effectively terrifying. 

Light, Seeking Light, Doth Light of Light Beguile

Hello all,

One of the most important elements of the festival is lighting - without it, the show couldn't be seen once the sun goes down! Because Electrics does most of their work at the Ewing Theatre at night (when the world is dark) I was unable to visit them, but I did get tot take some day-time pictures of our lovely Spotlight Operators at work and Marley Wooster, Festival Lighting Designer, was kind enough to grant me a Q and A session via email!

Twelfth Night

ES: Hi Marley! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions!

MW: These are great questions. I hope what I have written is interesting and useful to you.

ES: Do you have a design process or is it different for every show?

MW: It is a little different for each show, because different material leads you down a different path, but typically the steps are the same. I read the play, do a little research about the play and the playwright, read the play again this time taking notes about lighting moments and my first reactions about locations, time of day, emotions, etc, then I start looking for imagery that captures those emotions and if I'm lucky locations and time of day. 

I usually gather 4 or 5 times as much imagery as I need. I often pull from the art period of the play or of the time period the play is set in. I organize that imagery into a collage called an image board that I share with the rest of the productions team and especially the director. After that meeting I read the play again. This time deciding lighting for specific moments. 

I usually choose between 5 and 10 of those moments and create renderings, using an early sketch of the drawing to show the rest of the team some of hte angles, colors and textures I'm thinking about. Then after I create a color key. A color key is a chart that lays out the colors, angles, and textures I'd like for a show. I use the color key to create the light plot which is essentially a map for where the lights will be hung, how they'll be controlled and what kind of color and texture they'll have.

ES: When was your first Design meeting for the Festival this year?

MW: Our first design meeting was in December of 2015.

A view from the Booth

ES: Where did you draw your inspiration from for Twelfth Night?

MW: The lighting color palette of Twelfth Night is drawn largely from Art Nouveau Artists.

ES: Where did you draw your inspiration from for Hamlet?

MW: I looked at a lot of modern sculpture and ancient architecture for Hamlet.

ES: Where did you draw your inspiration from for Peter and the Starcatcher?

MW: I looked at a lot of modern impressionism paintings of islands and lots of artsy photographs of ships for Peter and the Starcatcher.

ES: How long does it take to hang all the lights?

MW: It only takes about 3 days to hang all of the lights, it takes a full work week before that to clean them, prelace all of their rusty parts from last summer, and get them in good working order for this summer.

 Hamlet

ES: What types of instruments does ISF have - how are they secured?

MW: We use combination of ETC Source Fours, ETC Source Four PARS, and PAR 64s. They are each secured to our catwalk or other positions with a c-clamp and bolt and then each instrument also has a safety chain in case the bolt fails.

Ryan (Light Board Operator) at the Board

ES: Do the gels (which determine the color of the light) get changed manually for each show? Or do they get changed within a single show? 

MW: The gels and gobos (the pieces of steel that make the lights have a texture like trees or sail ropes for Peter) are changed manually by the electrics crew for each show. They do changeover after the show each night, so they can check to make sure each light is correct before they head home and come back the next day for the show. The spotlights color is changed manually during the show by the spot light operators who are all members of the electrics crew.

ES: Do we have any of the fancy self-changing instruments? Or anything else fun that you want to share with our readers?

MW: We aren't using any automated lights this summer, but we are using a fog machine which always creates a cool effect. We also collaborated with the costume crafts area on a a magic light-up accessory you'll have to come to Peter and the Starcatcher to see!

Morgan (Sound Board Operator) in the Booth 

ES: Speaking of the Fog Machine, it plays quite a role in some of our shows this year -is this included in the lighting design or the set design? Can you talk about how the fog diffuses/changes the light quality?

MW: Fog is controlled by the light board, so atmospherics (fog, haze, smoke) are typically designed and controlled by the lighting designer and setup by the electrics staff. Putting particles in the air makes it so you can see the beams of light coming out of the theatrical fixtures.

Hamlet

ES: What is your favorite part of your job?

MW: I love that I get to work with lots of other people to tell stories. I like how flexible light is and how it can move and flow with the actors telling the story. I like how lighting can be about location and time of day but it can also be about emotion, mood and feeling and when it's done really well, it can subconciously tell an audience member where to look, what they're looking at, and how to feel about it and then in the next breath change all of that and no one really notices.

Emily is having fun!

ES: What is the biggest challenge about designing lights for three shows?

MW: It's hard to create a light plot that works with three sets, but we work around that by having basic systems we use for every show and adding what we call specials usually between 10 and 15 for each show. We add specials to light actors on stairs in different locaitons, to light actors on different levels in different sets and to light different scenery. We also add specials for special moments in each show.

Twelfth Night

ES: How far off the ground is our catwalk? Are all of the lights hung there - does that mean the crew doesn't use ladders to reach anything?

MW: The catwalk is approximately 28' above the deck of the theatre. Most of the lights are hung there, but there are some hung on pipes attached to the walls of the theatre and some in the upstage structure of the theatre that the crew uses ladders to get to .

Entrance to the Catwalk

Views from the Catwalk! (too high for my taste)

ES: Can you talk about the use of spotlights at the Festival?

MW: Each show has 2 or 3 dedicated spot light operators. Just in case some people don't know, a follow spot is a light that moves during the show to follow an actor on the stage. It's manually operated by an operator. As a designer, I use follow spots to help pull focus to particular characters and to help make poignant moments feel more intimate.

Two of our lovely Spot-Ops, Emily...

and Bailey!

ES: Is there anything else you would like to add or tell us about?

MW: Designing for an outdoor festival is interesting  because there's a giant changing light source in the sky that I as the lighting designer have no control over. It's something I'm careful to remind directors of early in the process, but besides knowing that some days the first few dark and cold scenes of Hamlet will be playhed in the sunlights, it's out of our control. So we control what we can. We're using fog to indicate that it's hard to see. I still light night scenes in blue and still isolate to actors because on cloudy nights, or later in the run, when the sun sets earlier, the lighting will be visible. It's an ever-changing element that I like working with. It makes me appreciate lighting that much more in Act 2.

ES: Marley, thank you so much for speaking iwth me - it is fascinating to get more insight into the lighting design process!

Conceal Me What I Am

Hello all!

I had the pleasure of visiting the Craft Shop this past week and they were working on some of my favorite things in the whole world: MERMAIDS! One of the really cool things about the craft shop is that there is a lot of creative autonomy - it seems supremely fun to figure out how to build mermaid tales and make armor.
Laura and Adam are hard at work on one of the mermaid tails for Peter and the Starcatcher - they are using a Button Stitch to sew the Sequin Fabric to the frame.

The shape of the fin has been created by millinery wire (often used in hat-making) - the shape of the fin is molded out of wire and then the wire is zig-zagged to give the shape integrity. Then the wire is attached to the gray foam. This mermaid fin will have more structure than many of the others (you will see why when you come see the show!) as it has to be able to move on command! (I actually had a very similiar mermaid costume for Halloween when I was five - my Mom and and my Aunt Kay made the frame out of a coat hanger!) 

 This is the back of the fin - you can see the sequin fabric is pinned until it is permanently attached.

Here is the fabric - to give you an idea of how fabulous and scale-like this mermaid tail will be!

Brooke is building the head-dress for the Walk-On Mermaid Role in Peter and the Starcatcher for our Impresario Donor (http://illinoisshakes.com/giving/).

Isn't it beautiful?

I love this fabric - it is a very sheer nylon with a chenille-like stripe running throughout!

As you can imagine, there is a lot of overlap between the Costume Shop and the Craft Shop - I happened to see Anita again working on more Hamlet costumes. Anytime heavy-duty fabrics like leather, pleather, or vinyl are being used, the Industrial Sewing Machine is needed (and it happens to live in the craft room)!

This is an in-process wig for Olivia in Twelfth Night - look at all those curls! Wig styling is such an art - and takes all of the time and technique that styling real hair does.

Curls, curls and more curls.

And now to a different set of curls....

This hilarious wig is for Mrs. Bumbrake in Peter and the Starcatcher - just looking at it makes me giggle. Especially when I picture Jon wearing it.

 

And now...mermaid wigs. 

They start out like this - many are multi-colored or ombre-dyed.

Each one is different - they are styled differently and then bedazzled with sequins and have bows.

And this wig is the most different of all - I want this in my life!!! This is a black wig with blue streaks in it - sequins, ribbons and shells adorn the hair!

Here is a detail shot of the headdress - Shells that have been layered and had pearls adhered to them. All on top of a net with little shells attached.

The shells have been bedazzled, edged with beaded trim and even the sea foliage has some sequins attached to it - it is so beautiful!!!

Side View!

  

And here is a pirate wig! Perhaps Blackstache?

 WIGS!!!

Now let's switch over to Hamlet - look at this fabulous armor (sans belt). 

The base of the armor was already there - the rivets were created and then the whole thing was dry-brushed with gold paint to accentuate the texture.

This is the Gravedigger belt for Hamlet - I love the spade and the keys.

Plus it looks super cool on this distressed mannequin.

I found this so beautiful - this is the millinery work table. See all the different head shapes and sizes?

Here is some pasta jewelry for the Mollusks in Peter and the Starcatcher - brings me back to Grade School Art class!

Shells, pearls, beads...mermaid shelf!

This is Ophelia's wig - I love the windblown curls and the flowers.

And here is the wig for the Player Queen in Hamlet (that's me!) I love this red wig and the fabulous crown! It is very Elizabeth I.

I also wanted to show you some of the finished items that we saw in-process from the Costume Shop - here is Ophelia's skirt that was being dotted for the Cartridge Pleats.

Look at those pleats!

That's all for now - next up, Electrics!