What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks
(or, The Weavers isn’t exactly Shakespeare, but it does have a pretty cool window)
It’s production week! Today is Load-in/Tech Rehearsal at the Shu-Box Theatre. For the load-in part, most of the furniture has already been brought up from the Theatre Department’s basement shop. Thanks to Kathleen Irwin, our set and costume designer, the show’s set is more or less in place. There are still items that need to be retrieved from our off-site rehearsal space – a coat rack, a chair, a table, costumes, and props such as a laptop, a tray, some bottles and glasses and – ahem – a couple of other things.
It’ll all come together this afternoon, where we’ll see Ida Red Weaver’s farm house in all its glory for the first time. The play also features another location, but oh no, I won’t talk about that! Bill Hales, our sound and lighting designer, has already hung and focused the lights so that they’re illuminating the appropriate parts of the stage. A few years ago, during my only tech stint, I helped hang lights prior to a production. A lighting person, in a very nice way, later reviewed my work with a succinct “Whoever hung this light should be shot.” So for the sake of everyone on the crew, I’ll refrain from those duties. Hey guys, you can thank me later!
This afternoon Bill Hales will set the lighting levels with the help of our stage manager, Gillian Barker, who will also attend to approximately 1.5 million other details. The set will be dressed, the lights sorted, the props ordered, and the sound cues in place. Julianna Barclay and Adam Robert Milne, our actors, will be part of the tech run to make sure everything is working well. Our director, Alan Bratt, will be there too to keep everyone honest. Right, I almost forgot that a third cast member will also be present, a modest soul who shuns the spotlight. You’ll have to meet him at the show. Another full run with the actors and we’ll call it a day.
Okay, about the window. The play initially specified that the farmhouse had a window covered with a Safeway bag for insulation, a callback to a former neighbour’s house. Thanks to Kathleen, Bill, and Mason Roth, we have a far cooler item than that – a window that changes colour on demand. Neat!
Tomorrow the actors will show up on set for archival photos and some filming will also take place. And so much more! More on that anon – I mean, soon.
