Lost in Yonkers - Set and Prop Designs

Plays and Players Theater Company produced Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers this month and I had the pleasure of designing both the set and props for it.  The show was performed in the Skinner Studio, which is the smaller third floor venue at the historic playhouse located in the Rittenhouse district of Philadelphia.

The space is a black box with a low ceiling and modular risers for seating.  This was the last show in the space before it is completely renovated for next season.  It gave me some challenges, but in the end turned out to be a perfect fit for the Yonkers apartment.  The room itself was built around the turn of the last century, so it had a lot of the same qualities of a room from the show's1940's period.

Skinner Studio's existing wall which became the SR wall of the Yonker's set

Inspired by the room's existing walls, I designed the set walls to match with a patchy plaster job covered with layers of different paints. Grandma herself must have been making the repairs all those years without her husband and sons around.

Because of the upcoming renovations to the space, we were able to pull the baseboard from other parts of the room and use them in the set.  This allowed for a continuation of the trim from the room's existing wall stage right around the entire set (as you can see in the picture to the right).

The wood floor in the space was cleaned up a little to look more like a floor in someones home and less like a floor abused by decades of rehearsals, concerts and plays.  After some aging and distressing of the walls and doors, the entire set had a very nice "lived in" quality.

Brick facade, window and store sign

To give just a hint of the world outside this second floor living room, a semi-complete window unit and brick facade are featured down stage right.  A sign for the "Kurnitz Kandy" store hangs off the brick facade and disappears into the floor as if continuing down to the lower level. (seen in the picture to the right)

One of the biggest challenges of Yonkers was the furniture.  It was impossible for us to find a pull-out couch that was the right size for the stage, would fit up the stairs to the theater and had enough of a style to pass for early 20th century furniture.  In the end, I modified a trundle bed from Ikea which ended up looking just fine.



Director Betty Chomentowski was incredibly helpful in procuring some of the period set dressing (seen above).  One of my favorite set pieces was an authentic Philco Radio from 1940 (seen below) that I found waiting to be used up in the Prop Loft at the Barn Playhouse in Norristown where I am the Chair of the Props Committee.

Good shot of the 1940 Philco radio

Along with Andrew Cowles' lighting design (an amazing feat given the limitations of the space electrically) and Kate Edelson's detailed costumes, we presented a very believable setting.











Check out my interview with Andrew Cowles for my podcast, Out of Sight (part of the Represented Podcast Network) via the link below:
http://outofsight.repradio.org/2011/05/27/102andrewcowles/

Happily, the reviews of the show came in and they were all pretty spectacular.

Toby Zinman, theatre critic from the Philadelphia Inquirer, had this to say about the set:

The set (designed by Christopher Haig) gets all the details of this WWII New York apartment right - you can almost smell the years of accumulated cooking odors.


Read the whole review here: http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20110607_Family_charm_of__Lost_in_Yonkers_.html#ixzz1Obctwy5c









By far, one of the best reviews I've ever received and much appreciated.  The review helped ticket sales soar and the show was extended an extra week.  It will be sad to see it come down next weekend, but that's the nature of the beast.  Love it while it lasts!

David P. Gordon

David P. Gordon

Check out the link above to hear my latest creative endeavor.

I am the host of the Represented Podcast Network's newest segment OUT OF SIGHT.

On my show, I interview the artists, designers and stage managers who make Philadelphia theatre come to life. It's a behind the scenes peak into the minds of those who create amazing theater but who never receive a round of applause for their work. Those folks who remain "out of sight" in the wings either imagining the world of the play or running it once the show opens. I will feature all types of professionals working in the field and look forward to picking their brains. If you want to be interviewed, just email me at christopherhaig@yahoo.com

My first segment is with the amazingly talented and prolific scenic designer, David P. Gordon. It was an absolute treat to have a sit down with David and hear about his process and experiences. Enjoy!

Next up will be local lighting designer, Andrew Cowles. If you haven't worked with Andrew yet, you will. He is a busy busy man.

The Credeaux Canvas

It's been a long time since I've blogged...must have been busy.

With Jesus Christ Superstar wrapped, I focused on my next prop job, Theatre Horizon's THE CREDEAUX CANVAS by Keith Bunin.  http://www.theatrehorizon.org/

What a fun show to prop. Right up my alley. The play takes place in an East Village artist's studio.  Winston, played by Andrew Kane, is a painter working on his thesis and navigating the manic-depression of his roommate Jamie, played by Chris Bresky.  Jamie's girlfriend, Amelia, played by Clare O'Malley, serves as the wedge between the two men. In a small but pivotal role, Susan Giddings rounds out the stellar cast as Tess, an art collector and socialite misled by Jamie into the possible purchase of a Credeaux "original" actually plagerized by Winston.  It's an intense show that blends artistic philosophic rhetoric and complicated sexual relationships quite well. Director Matt Decker nailed this one, as usual, and gathered an amazing team of designers and crew to create an intoxicating theatrical experience.

The joy I had as the Prop Designer on this show was creating the world of Winston's art studio.    Set Designer, Maura Roche, created a claustrophobic world of grimy, paint splattered and dirty brick walls, covered in sketches, paintings, canvases and pictures torn from art books.  Below is the scale model designed and constructed by Maura:

As you can see the place is a bit of a mess.  Creating a "mess" can be a real challenge as a designer.  As the Prop Designer, one of my favorite jobs is set dressing.  The script calls for all manner of art supplies, materials and artwork.  Maura and I went through countless art books and magazines to find the right pictures that Winston hangs on his wall.  I was able to procure all of the art supplies, materials, paintings and sketches through the generous donations of several local artists and the Greater Norristown Art League, who are also presenting an exhibition of their members' works in the lobby of the theater during the run of the show.  http://www.gnal.org/

One of the challenges of this "mess" was maintaining actor safety.  There are two fight sequences and the area of these had to be strategically clear while not appearing clean.  Another, and perhaps greater challenge, was the easels used in the show.  We have two: one which Winston paints on (seen in the model above) and the other a display easel that is brought on with the infamous Credeaux canvas.  Finding the easels was hard enough, but being able to clear sightlines was the real challenge.  To allow actors to be seen while viewing a canvas on the display easel downstage, I had to cut the legs down (we went inch by inch until we found the right height - only took about 7 tries).

Finally, the bane of most prop designers' job - consumbables.  This production calls for edible muffins and a ton of beverages - coffee, vodka, orange juice, Maker's Mark... To defray costs, we received a generous donation from Wegmans.  After a day of shopping, I brought over 30 muffins, 4 gallons of apple juice, 2 gallons of orange juice and enough food dye to make "coffee" to the theater.  And that was just the first food run...

If you are able to catch this one, it is well worth the trip to Norristown.  The show runs through April 30th!

Below are some pictures of the finished design and set dressing in more detail:

 

MMM...Brains

As promised, here is the second installment on my prop work for Plays & Players' production of A NEW BRAIN by William Finn.  Last week I discussed the food I created for the show.  This week, it's all about a brain.  Gordon's Brain specifically.

Director Daniel Student explained his vision to me at our first meeting and I was both inspired and challenged at the same time.  Basically, we needed a head that would house a brain that would have pieces of paper inside of it which represented all of Gordon's songs waiting to be written. After some brainstorming (haha), I presented him with a design and the pictures can tell the rest of the story.  It was a lot of fun to make and I'm happy to say Gordon's Brain remains one of my favorite props to date.

 Gordon's head was made from a styrofoam wig

  form that I split in half and shelled out to hold Gordon's Brain.  

Above, the raw brain before cooking and then after it had hardened and was painted with a red base coat. 

 

The holes in the picture to the left housed the rolled up pieces of sheet music that Gordon handed out to the other characters as seen in the photo at the bottom.   





  It came onstage as part of a full body replica of Gordon being wheeled in on a gurney so I tried to make the head form look as much like Brendan Norton as possible.

Magnets were added to avoid the head opening accidentally and a twine hinge was placed on the back of the head to keep it as one unit once it was opened. 

Here we see The Doctor (Joe Sabotino) explaining to The Mother (Susan Johnson) how a shunt was going to be used to drain fluid from Gordon's brain. 

Gordon pulls the songs literally from his brain.

Brain Food

Recently, I had the fortune to be asked to come aboard the creative team mounting William Finn's musical, A New Brain at Plays and Players in Philadelphia. The production was directed by Daniel Student, set designed by Andrew Thompson and I had help on props from Jacob Riley. Daniel is a director with a wild imagination and his vision for this production was bold. The props were a definite challenge as the musical mostly takes place in a hospital where a semi-lucid composer attempts to write his greatest songs before dying from a brain disease. It's actually a lot funnier and uplifting than it sounds. There were the usual medical props required: IV stands, x-rays, gurneys and medical charts. All of which were hard to come by, but there were also some specialty items that needed to be created, which gave me the chance to flex my creative muscles. I'll talk about the brains in another post. Today: FOOD.

Three items of food appeared onstage - baked ziti, a goat cheese salad (no cheese) and scallopini (oh - and a diet coke). Since the food was rushed around on a tray by a frenetic waitress during a fast-paced musical number and seen onstage for less than five minutes, Andrew Beal, like all good Production Managers, requested we avoid real food to cut down on costs and save pre-show food prep time. I was happy to oblige and created the items out of simple materials pulled from around my studio and the theater; a bit of foam from here, some fabric from over there, a bit of sculpting and painting and done.

Baked Ziti - To create the baked ziti, I carved a piece of foam to shape, painted and sprayed with a glaze finish to give it that moist look. The green garnish is a piece of dried latex paint found in the shop stuck on top. The whole piece is glued to the plate for ease of movement.

 

Goat Cheese Salad - To create the goat cheese salad, I cut up random pieces of green fabric found around the studio and hot glued them to the bowl. The croutons are simple pieces of the same foam I used on the ziti.

   

 Scallopini - To create the scallopini, I cut out a thin layer of cardboard and glued a few smaller strips of cardboard to the top. Then I wrapped the whole thing in masking tape and painted to look like cooked veal. The garnish consisted of round balls of foam painted green and glued to the top to serve as capors and the whole thing is drizzled with a thin line of orange acrylic paint. Mmmmm... During the previews, Daniel said he couldn't really see what was on the plate from farther back in the audience, so added another piece of dried latex paint to the dish.

  

Oh & a Diet Coke - Luckily, we had this plastic cup in stock that already had bubbles in it. By adding a few squares of brown gel (graciously donated by lighting designer, Joe Glodek), a pipe joiner for weight and a straw to the inside of the cup, the drink was complete and looked great onstage.