{"id":151945,"date":"2023-03-02T13:12:29","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T18:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=151945"},"modified":"2023-03-10T08:35:03","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T13:35:03","slug":"peek-behind-the-curtain-ep-4-setting-the-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/02\/peek-behind-the-curtain-ep-4-setting-the-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Peek Behind the Curtain (Ep. 4): Setting the Schaeffer stage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One level below the Schaeffer Theatre stage, the carpenter shop is buzzing with sound. Natalia Jacobs \u201926 of Amherst, Mass., is busy vacuuming dust from a set of French doors, recently pulled out of storage, before painting them a shade of mossy green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gideon Berrie \u201926 of New York City is carrying pieces of lumber up to the stage, which is in the middle of a huge transformation: By March 16, opening night of the Bates theater production of Much Ado About Nothing<\/em>, the set will transport the audience to the backyard of a summer estate in Bar Harbor, Maine, in September 1945.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Justin
Natalia Jacobs \u201926 of Amherst, Mass., paints the French doors green in the carpentry shop. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The set is anchored by a 16-foot, two-story facade evoking the exterior of a famed Mount Desert Island \u201ccottage,\u201d otherwise known as a mansion. On the second level, the newly painted French doors will open onto a balcony overlooking a garden, bandstand (where a five-piece band will perform), trellis, and lawn, which is currently rolled up and sitting in the entrance to the theater, waiting to be patchworked onto the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this construction is getting a hand from one of the experts brought in for the production, Aidan McDowell, a carpenter who usually works on real houses \u2014 and most recently, tiny houses \u2014 and not facades that last only a few weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The set of Much Ado About Nothing<\/em>, including the mansion’s two-story facade with a balcony and French doors, a courtyard wall and door, and bandstand \u2014 are seen during a rehearsal with director Assistant Director of Theater Tim Dugan at Schaeffer Theatre on Feb. 27, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

McDowell, who lives in Pennsylvania, has worked on other Bates productions, and while he\u2019s got a slew of student workers helping in the carpentry shop, many haven\u2019t quite honed their talents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s part of what draws McDowell back to Bates; in fact, for this gig, he drove through the night in early January for the start of the semester. \u201cIt’s definitely a lot of fun to work with students and teach them how to work with their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justin Moriarty, the technical director for theater and dance, oversees the work done in the carpentry shop. Whether it\u2019s learning how to use a saw, properly calculate measurements, or even how to work from a plan on paper, the skills that students in the shop gain are both practical (to fix that sagging bookshelf)  \u201cand really empowering for students,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Justin
Aidan McDowell checks the warp on a board from lumber storage before taking it up to the Schaeffer stage to be cut and used on the set. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll explain it, and then I have them do it. I never do it myself; it\u2019s about them doing it,\u201d Moriarty says. \u201cAnd then I\u2019ll say, \u2018Here’s some tips about this.\u2019 And then if they’re still having trouble, then I give them hints until they get it. And so the empowering piece of that is they get it. It’s not because I am telling them exactly what they need to do, it\u2019s because I’m working with them as individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Jacobs, who did theater in high school, this is her first time working behind-the-scenes and helping build a set. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of cathartic,\u201d she says. \u201cIt’s nice to take a break and do something hands-on and creative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019s also excited to take her skills home, to her father, who used to work in carpentry. She gets to do a little bit of everything. \u201cOne day I\u2019ll be helping with the siding, which involves more power tools, and today I\u2019m painting. You really develop a diverse range of skills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Justin
Justin Moriarty, the technical director for theater and dance, places a pencil in the pocket of the woodworking apron worn by Gideon Berrie ’26 of New York City as Moriarty teaches him how to mark a board before cutting it with a compound miter saw. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Much Ado<\/em> set was designed by Judy Gailen, who has designed theater and opera scenery throughout the U.S. for more than three decades, at Bowdoin since 2000 and for Emerson and Dartmouth colleges, Princeton University, and the Yale Repertory Theatre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scenography wasn\u2019t her first career \u2014 she also has a background in mime, clowning, and movement theater, as well as graphic design \u2014 and it probably won\u2019t be her last, she laughs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she thinks about designing a set, Gailen first analyzes the text. \u201cI need to think about what the story’s telling; is it a comedy? Is it a drama? For me, designing for Shakespeare is always hard because Shakespeare was written in a time where they did not really have scenery, so he describes everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal is to create a set that evokes the place, and is immersive enough that the audience isn\u2019t confused, but doesn\u2019t overpower the action onstage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Justin
A model box for Judy Gailen’s design sits on a table onstage behind the two-story facade, providing a 3D reference for the building crew. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So the \u201ccottage\u201d that now dominates the Schaeffer stage can be big enough for a balcony scene, but not too<\/em> big, and the garden gate needs to be striking, but not a scene-stealer. It\u2019s all about the balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most tedious parts of this set in particular, she says, is the rocks, which will help to bring the seas to the stage. \u201cThere are lots of rocks in Maine, and rocks are hard to paint. So I tried to cut down the number of rocks I have to paint, which is why the garden wall is not a rock wall \u2014 which is probably what it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good set transports the audience to a time and place as soon as they glimpse the stage, she explains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She quotes Robert Edmond Jones<\/a>, an American stage designer in the early 20th century, who said that stage design \u201cshould be addressed to [the] eye of the mind\u2026 It echoes, it enhances, it animates. It is an expectancy, a foreboding, a tension. It says nothing, but it gives everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ve seen shows where I come in, I sit down, I don’t know what the heck to expect from the play, but the design is such that I trust that I will find out \u2014 eventually,\u201d said Gailen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo a lot of it is about trust from your audience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paint brushes, saws, nails, and tape measures are the tools of the day for the carpentry crew bringing a Maine seaside estate to life for the Bates production of Much Ado About Nothing,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1422,"featured_media":151970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[11010,14,11012],"tags":[12313],"class_list":["post-151945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-faculty-staff","category-student-life","tag-peek-behind-the-curtain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151945"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152183,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151945\/revisions\/152183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}