Setting the Scene
It has been a full week since my last post, and I can say with clear confidence that the Footlight company has had a full plate during this time!
To start, last Friday at 7PM began a full lock-in with the willing Academy Players that wanted to stay all night in Waller Hall ... until 9AM. I actually volunteered to stay during the entire event, and surprised myself by pulling a complete all nighter with the teenage group (and many cups of coffee) as they completed games of man-hunt, a ghost walk, movies, board games, and the classic card game Mafia. I had a blast and the Academy all had a great time!
All of the Players also had the chance to showcase their work during Parents' Night this past Thursday. During this night, parents had the opportunity to tour the entirety of Waller Hall to view where their children have been honing their craft for the past three weeks. The tour, of course, included areas such as the Costume Shop and the Scene Shop. I was happy to share with parents what kind of work the Players, especially the DTM group, have been doing in the shop to assist in creating the beautiful set that is now almost completed. Later during the showcase, parents actually followed their kids as they went through a mock schedule of their day, from workshop to workshop and teaching artist to teaching artist. Parents were asked to "share out" what they had explored that day, and positive responses about the program and how they had gotten to see their children acting as their own person were abundant. Personally, it was an exciting and heartwarming moment to be a part of the Footlight company and to share that experience with the Players.
Additionally, this past week began tech week for Footlight! Tech week is the last full week of rehearsals sans a show weekend; this time is to tie up all loose ends. These loose ends include finishing blocking/memorization work for directors and designers completing last minute decisions on final production looks. As the Scene Shop Intern, I have the honor of assisting the decoration of the set. Decoration has insofar included wallpapering a tree, painting a palace for Aladdin Jr, hanging ropes for actors to swing on during The Birds, and securing a roof for Fiddler.
Today concluded a successful "dry tech" run; a dry tech is a time exclusively for the operators, designers, directors, and their assistants to run all of the sound and light cues through a run of the show without the actors. This time allows for a clean preview of a show visual before the sing and dance portion.
Stay posted for individual photos of all the completed sets!
I hope everyone had a happy Independence Day! Footlight officially had a day-off to honor the fourth and I enjoyed my time in the city of Pittsburgh to celebrate. Pictures included!
