We just opened the production for the second-to-the-last set that I will design for Simpson College. This one is for a pair of Opera One-acts for Opera at Simpson. Produced in Blank Performing Arts Center’s Pote Theatre, the short operas, directed by Giselle Ty are both Italian, Baroque-era operas. The evening starts with (Franz) Joseph Haydn’s short two-act opera buffa La cantarina, and continues after short intermission with the opera in one-act Prima la musica e poi le parole, written by Antonio Salieri.
Because of challenges relating to time, budget and manpower, much of the scenery onstage for the two productions is resurrected from previous designs for plays and operas that span my entire career at Simpson (though never before seen together in quite this way).
Plan for La cantarina
Both operas feature an acting area for the small “chorus-less” casts that is built out from the stage into our thrust-like “playing circle”. This deck is constructed of stock 4’x4′ steel-framed “Texas Triscuit” platforms that we used for Top Girls in 1997 (and may have built as early as Fall 1996 for Arcadia). This acting area extends the apron
Plan for Prima la musica…
of the stage 12 feet into the 20-inch-below-stage-level playing circle and ends in a pair of shallow 4-foot deep steps that span the entire 30′ width of the stage extension deck. The space around the deck and stairs is often termed “the gutter” and has a single central vommitory entrance leading from beneath the audience seating.
The onstage elements for the opera buffa La cantina include an eclectic array of reused items. Upstage right (also stage right and left in the “gutter” portion of the playing circle) are a trio of carousel horses from Opera at Simpson’s 2004 production of Carousel (reused in the
Production Photo of La cantina
Theatre/Opera co-production of the same musical in 2014). Upstage center is the screen I designed and built for the Theatre production of Playhouse Creatures in 2017). Upstage left is one of 2 doors first constructed for the Theatre production of Arcadia in 1996 (although it may actually be the 3rd matching door constructed for the first of three Opera productions that I have designed of The Marriage of Figaro; that one in 2002). These doors have appeared in countless other productions over the years. Downstage of the first carousel horse is a dressing table designed and built for the Theatre production of The Memory of Water in 2014. On the other side of the stage is a harpsichord (with lid covered in Astroturf, inspired by a director-provided image), and a candelabra. Both the harpsichord (sans the turf-covered top) and the candelabra graced the stage of my first-ever Theatre Simpson set design of Les Liaisons Dangeruses in 1991. I also designed and built the chaise-lounge center stage for that long-ago Les Liaisons Dangeruses. I originally purchased for and used the 3 side-chairs on the set of the 2005 Theatre production of Hamlet. Finally, 3 topiary bushes in pots were originally conceived for and used in To Fool the Eye in 2002. (Side Note: My thirty-something daughter Brittany, who was in high-school at the time, constructed one of them). The “putting-green” amoeba-shaped carpet (also inspired by images that director Giselle Ty offered at initial design meetings) was crafted from carpeting originally used in the playing circle for conferences (It matched the green auditorium seating that we replaced in 2010), while 96 pink and white inflated beach-balls were purchased specifically for the production. Of course, all of the recycled scenic elements received entirely fresh paint to unify them while maintaining an ersatz Baroque/Rococo quality.
By contrast, Prima la musica e poi le parole affected an edgier, modern aesthetic. However, it, too was largely composed of reused scenic elements. On the stage right side of the stage, the arched mirrors, the settee and coffee table (the last not shown in the rendering) as well as the table downstage all were previously designed and built for the Theatre production of Tartuffe
Production Photo Prima la musica e poi le parole
in 2017. The settee was originally purchased for a 2007 production of Rumors, and has been used repeatedly since then. Meanwhile, up-stage left, the trunk was built for the Theatre production of Comedy of Errors in 2016. The 4 chairs used in production differed from those illustrated in the rendering in that for the production we used metal bent-wood chairs that I originally purchased for the Theatre production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1997. We built a fake keyboard (seen downstage left) for the “Composer” as well as the colorful upstage structure (also derived from a directorial inspirational image) that we came to refer to as the “pick-up-stix”. Colored photo-copy paper in letter, legal, & 11″x17″ sizes strewn about the stage defined each of the 4 character’s “areas” and coordinates with the palate chosen to represent each of them.
In the end, I think that the resulting designs are both appropriate to the aesthetic as presented by director Giselle Ty and effective. It is an additional bonus that cost was able to be held down through the generous reuse of elements existing in stock.
Well, that’s all for now. Be safe!
SJM
All Photos & Art by Steven J McLean
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