Week 4:
1st Stage Theatre

January 8, 2014

It’s hard to believe that I am already halfway through my internship! This last week, we’ve completely disassembled the set (also known as “striking the set”) and tonight was the first read-through of the next play, Souvenir. The rest of this week will be a build week while we assemble Souvenir‘s set. Souvenir  is a play based on the performance life of  Florence Foster Jenkins, a lady who was convinced that she was great at singing. At the first read, everyone involved gets to meet the cast and whole crew of designers for the show.

Whereas Noises Off had a 9 person cast, and was full of slapstick comedy–involving upper and lower levels and many slamming doors, Souvenir has a two-person cast with a mostly stationary set. The play somewhat resembles a concert, so the most important part of the set is the Grand Piano. To focus on that, our scenic designer has emphasized minimalism in all the other aspects.

Even though it sometimes feels like I don’t have a lot of responsibility because I am not in charge of anything, I accomplished a lot this past week. I should say “I helped accomplish a lot.” I wielded a drill and took apart a bunch of different parts of the set—stairs, platforms, casters, doors, carpeting, etc. I also organized all the props for the Props-Mistress so that she could make sure to return anything borrowed. I also organized a large chunk of costuming and undecorated our large, lovely Christmas tree.

In this industry, it’s very important to always be cognizant of what is going on in other local theatres. I’ve already been to see two shows and there are two more plays that my boss, Mark, has promised to get me tickets for. I’ve seen Elf at the Kennedy Center and Gypsy at Signature Theatre. It’s interesting to see their setup and the way they organize everything. I paid particular attention to the ushers and the way the Front Desk was set up, since those are my areas of interest. Every theatre is set up differently, and a lot of it depends on the physical set up of the space. The Kennedy Center has many different theatres and only one box office. Since their purpose is different from ours, the setup is quite different. Signature Theatre has a beautiful staircase up to the theatre. Like the Kennedy Center, they have multiple theatres performing different works at the same time, so their box office setup is very different from 1^st Stage. I also intentionally had conversations with the workers at each theatre. Everyone at the Kennedy Center is paid, while Signature Theatre relies on the help of volunteers to seat people. Both of these theatres also have assigned seating while 1^st Stage uses general seating.

And watching the shows is also a lot of fun. I got to see Gypsy at Signature Theatre on New Year’s Day. It’s a show about the mother of Gypsy Rose Lee, who pushes her girls to “be stars” in Vaudeville, but when Vaudeville starts to die during the depression and because of the “talkies,” the younger daughter gets into Burlesque in order to support her mother and ends up becoming really famous. It was very well done.

The week before that, on the day after Christmas, I went to see Elf at the Kennedy Center. The musical itself is really, really cheesy…cheesier than the movie if that’s possible to believe. However, the talent and the precision of the dances and the way the sets changed throughout had to be awe-inspiring to any theatregoer.

Over the past month, I have built connections with all the members of the board, and have begun speaking to the members about the things that I can take to have as my own little project. Judy and Gene are both on the board, and they both think that the next step for me is for Gene and me to sit down and dig through Altru with Gene Bacher, head of development. There are several problems with the software that the board hasn’t quite figured out, and my job for the rest of my time here will be to find ways to make sure we’re maximizing the utility of our software.