Carpentry
Scenic Painting
The Sound of Music
The set for The Sound of Music was one of our more ambitious projects when considering the timeline we had. There were many elements of this set that required attention to detail such as the curved staircase, the stained glass, and the variety of elements that were cut out using our CNC machine.
Eurydice
So far Eurydice holds the title of my favorite set so far. The first thing we knew we wanted for this production was the turntable. I took that unit plus some inspiration from Greek ruins to make the Greek theatre look of the set. Notable technical elements include the turntable itself, the pariactoi in the back, the folding curtain, and the practical rain effect.
Annie Jr.
Annie Jr. was a relatively simple set all things considered. I experimented with two sided wagons to help alleviate the struggles that come with the many location changes. If I were to do this show again I would have made Warbucks mansion green instead of red.
Chicago
Chicago holds the distinction that this is the first set I have designed and seen through from sketch paper to stage. Some of the notable elements of this set include the footlights on the edge of the stage, the dead hung Chicago sign, and the hydraulic lift that we built into the pit for this production.
Lost Girl
Lost Girl provided two challenges to overcome. The Director wanted the set to be tall with distinct levels and the window needed to fly in and out despite the lack of a flight system. Both of these challenges were compounded by the Black box setting. The director and I found a middle ground for a safe set height and the window was successfully flown with a block and tackle setup.
Mary Poppins Jr
Mary Poppins Jr marks my second production as ATD for Huntley HS and with it came more opportunities to learn. The most notable learning experience came in the form of trying my hand at paper mache with a questionable degree of success.
Little Women
Little Women was my first production as Assistant Technical Director at Huntley High School which meant plenty of other firsts came with it. This would be my first production where I not only had to figure out how to make everything work within our budget, but also having to communicate the specifics of how everything needed to be built to a crew that had varying experiences with scenic practices.
WagonWheel
I'm just going to combine all of my experiences at WagonWheel Center for the Arts into one because of how much went on during that season. It was my first time building sets truly in the round, I got a full appreciation for how intense and demanding theatre can be, and I got to expand my knowledge of the many techniques and thought processes going into the work that we do.
Grease
With Grease being my last show in undergrad it only makes sense that it had the most opportunities of growth. On top of my regular carpentry responsibilities, I was offered the challenge of assisting my TD by drafting part of the set and leading certain aspects of build and strike. Though my favorite part of this production was assisting with the installment of the pneumatic system on Greased Lightning.
Salome
Salome was mainly a challenge of consistency and accuracy. The set was in a very intimate black box venue so there was very little room for error. This show was also my first time painting marble for an actual production rather than for a class.
Charlie Brown
My main responsibility for Charlie Brown aside from carpentry was designing and fabricating the practical effect for when Snoopy's dog house gets shot down. To achieve this I attached a series of plugs to an activation string and added another activation string attached to a small smoke grenade.
25th Spelling Bee
Spelling Bee was a simple set to build in the fact that it mainly consisted of one single behemoth of a wall. However, there were still a variety of challenges mostly surrounding the assembly and installment of that wall. This experience gave me a better understanding of how to strike the balance between structural strength and meeting the needs of the set.
The Producers
The Producers offered the challenges of scale and mobility. Each Scenic unit would take up most or all of the stage and most had to be built in a manner that they could be two separate units that would line up in the middle.