What I’m working on now

I am in the midst of Little Shop of Horrors. Here is one afternoon’s work shrunk down to a minute or so:

A bit of my house in “This Old House”

I have an entry in the Salvage contest at the This Old House website. So please check out the contest. I hope that you find it in your kind heart to give a positive vote to my entry (Stained-Glass Table). If you also find it in your kind heart to put some negative votes on my competition, all the better…

If I get selected by the masses via the web and the editors of the magazine, then it could appear in an upcoming issue of This Old House. Wish me luck ( get clicking!).

Kiss Me Kate

The pictures are in! you can view a slideshow of my Kiss Me Kate production photos here. It is by far the biggest show I have done, with the most extensive settings. There were eight or nine locations in a realistic show. Word on the streets of lexington is that this is the best musical in 8-10 years. Now to get ready and strike it on Sunday…

Another Opening, another Show

Well, it’s has been a ‘long hard slog’ (as it goes in the script). There has been many many long hours on my part, but the show is finally open. You can see the final dress in a nutshell here. I’ll have more pictures available soon. In the meantime I have some progress shots in my Flickr feed.

paint, paint and oh more paint.

I have been working madly on Kiss Me Kate. One of the few times here at W&L that I am just doing one part(scene design, lighting design costume design or Technical direction). In this case I am just doing the set design, and it is more than enough. Eight different settings in a realistic piece call for a lot of work. I’m very excited about this show, but is quite a daunting amount of work. And for the first time I have designed something too big, both size and budget wise. We’ve cut some pieces from the show, but the budgets I was given were guesses that are totally inaccurate.

So I’ve set up one theatre as a painting studio. I’ve already gotten through painting the scenery for three of the settings. I’m halfway through one drop for the show, and have one more to go. The problem is that the Technical Director is only concerning himself with the set and not the props, as is the usual here. So I have to devote a lot of time to that as well. Not to mention I have to run the department since I am Acting Chair of the Department. We’ll see how things are at the end of the week, that will be crunch time.

Part of the problem is that none of the students have an artistic eye. So I can’t train them to do the finish work, some of the finish work they have done I just want to do over. Now I know I can’t, but it’s still on my list if I have time to do it during tech week. But that really slows me down, having to do everything.

I didn’t do any work today(I’m writing this on Sunday- Mother’s Day), because there are limits to how much time I should spend at work. Although I was thinking about set stuff throughout the day. I guess I can’t let go. But I’m not a perfectionist, I just want it to be right. :)

In the thick of things

Currently I’m in the first dress for Oscar & Felix. Sometimes I can’t wait for a show to open because I’m excited to get an audience in. And sometimes I just want the show to be open and done with. This is the Latter. I’ve decided being the Scene designer/Lighting designer/Technical Director isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Mainly because I think the design has suffered. Some interesting things can happen when elements are designed at the same time. However, there is too much overlap and not enough people. As a result we are a little behind with both the sets and lights.

I’ll have time for more later…

Website update

I have updated the site for Courtney Collins Studio. Let me know what you think.

Thanks to a program called Rapidweaver it to a lot less time to complete. But still took forever. As with everything I do I look at it and find more things to change.

Fun movie from strike

I made a time lapse movie of taking the set down for the recent shows

Here it is.

enjoy.

technorati tags:theater

Blogged with Flock

Picures from recent shows

Here are some pictures of the latest shows I’ve been working on:

The Long Christmas Ride Home and How I Learned to Drive

Also I have posted some process pictures of the puppets we constructed for The Long Christmas Ride Home.

Boy am I glad that is over.

technorati tags:lightingdesign, setdesign, theater

Blogged with Flock

Just keep chewing…

So I am in the middle of Technicals for two plays in repertory. Meaning they are playing on alternate nights. So while the directors, actors and such are just doing one show. While have two complete shows to deal with. I’m acting as the Scene designer, Lighting designer and projection designer.

We are in a flexible space so we have to set up the audience seating each time. and we haven’t completed that. It was done when we started and we just haven’t had time to get to it. The set I inherited from the previous designer is so clunky and formulaic. I was able to visually clean it up a little. It also is horribly unsuited as well. There are screen that need to be back lit but there is only 4′ of space to do it in and that is nothing.

Since the playwright is coming we really have to get this right.

One of the directors keeps changing things so we just can’t catch up. He’s unorganized and quite an ass sometimes. And not that I have a big ego or anything , but I don’t like being yell at in front of my students.

So I just keep spending all day and night in both work and rehearsals, not seeing my family enough and getting tired and grumpy. I don’t know what else to do but just keep slogging through it.

What else are you supposed to do when you have bitten of more than you can chew?