Light Hang for Cloud 9

Today is the light hang for Cloud 9. Mark Parrott has designed for show using nearly 80 instruments that master electrician Thomas White is now in the Bertha Martin Theatre hanging with the help of seven volunteers in addition to his assigned electrics crew single member, Jason. I was pleased to see that he has a crew larger than one, as we depend almost entirely on volunteers in this area. Years ago, an electrics crew for a show was made up of students from our first year student introductory course. However, due to budget cuts and curriculum reorganization, that assignment was cut from the first year student experience and placed instead in the possible Practicum assignments. Because a number of other crew positions are also staffed from the Practicum pool, there are rarely enough people assigned to an electrics crew. Fortunately, electrics seems to be an area in which it is not as difficult to find volunteers. I would help myself if I wasn't scared to death of heights.

Hang will continue tomorrow and focus will begin next weekend, when light hang for A Midsummer Night's Dream begins in the Strayer-Wood Theatre.

Tomorrow afternoon we will have the first design meeting for our April production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. This is extraordinarily early for a design meeting under normal circumstances but Salesman is our celebratory production in honor of the Strayer-Wood Theatre's 30th anniversary. As such, we have hired two designers and a director who are alum of the theatre at UNI, as well as several performers for the production. Steve Gilliam will design the scenery and Richard Devin will design the lights. Larry Paulsen is directing the show. Because Steve, Dick and Larry are all living in different parts of the country, we are beginning this process early and bringing them back to the Strayer-Wood for the initial design meeting. They will be joined by Carol Colburn, costume designer, and Vanessa Sheppard, the stage manager. We are all very excited about this project and encourage our constituents to follow our progress on the show on the Alumni Project web site, http://www.thealumniproject.org/ created by alum Angie Toomsen.

With so much going on this year, we have decided to try a few new things in the production schedule, including what we are calling "Rep Prep Week." In preparation for the consecutive openings and repertory performance schedules of Cloud 9 and A Midsummer Night's Dream this fall, the faculty decided last spring to devote one week of theatre classes prior to the beginning of technical rehearsals to hands-on production experiences and have the students use the class time to help get the shows up. Rehearsals will continue in the evenings as usual although we exploring the possibility of having specific scene work rehearsals during an afternoon or two. There are also numerous opportunities for the students to help with the construction of costumes, building and painting the scenery and props, working on electrics crews, helping with marketing efforts and general maintenence of the spaces that often gets overlooked in the heat of production but is always needed. To promote this concept and the opportunities available to the students, department head Eric Lange will be sending all students an email early this week encouraging them to sign up on the seven page calendar that is now posted in the north lobby of the theatre. I'll let you know later in the week how the sign up is going.