The Year in Review - June / July

June: June was a hectic month. I was designing A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the inaugural season of The Tennessee Shakespeare Festival. I had received the offer to design the show as a direct result of designing The Underpants with Tennessee Rep. The director of that show, Lane Davies, was the Artistic Director of Tennessee Shakes and the director of the show. In addition to continuing my association with Lane, the resident scenic and costume designers as well as the resident stage manager for Tennessee Rep would be doing the show. The Artistic Director of Tennessee Rep was also the Associate Artistic Director. Since I had had such a positive experience working with the Rep I did not see how I could turn down the gig (even if I did have trepidations of doing outdoor theatre). It seemed like a good opportunity to continue and strengthen my relationship with the people at the Rep.

Being the inaugural season, there was no infrastructure in place and the guidelines changed regularly. I was not able to lock down the generator until 10 days before I arrived and the equipment at approximately the same time. I did not receive the dimensions of the tent that housed the stage until I arrived. Upon construction, the scenic design changed considerably due largely to the unevenness of the earth upon which it was built. It was a totally different experience than anything I had ever done.

While the crew that I had was a hard working group, they were all comprised of actors with little technical experience. This further complicated the issue. The festival was held on the grounds of a private school in a small town about an hour outside of Nashville. The housing was in the dormitory for the students. I had not considered that they would not have bedding materials. Therefore, when I walked in I found what looked like a jail cell (cinder block walls, a single, industrial fluorescent light, bunk beds and a tile floor). No bedding. I ended up staying in Franklin and commuting in an hour and fifteen minutes each way, each day. This frayed my nerves as well. Luckily the people that I was working with were all very friendly and worked hard. This made the experience worthwhile and I ended up being fairly pleased with the result.

I was happy to return home at the end of the process. Following the 12 day stay in Franklin during The Underpants Brigitte decided to stay in Oxford for this trip. It was good to return in time for the 4^th of July and have the rest of the summer to work, presumably, upon research. More on that in July!

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Tennessee Shakespeare Festival

July: July was a fairly sanguine month. I had received a grant to study the similarities and differences between Eastern European and American lighting design styles. I thought that with the conclusion of the Shakes Fest I would spend the rest of the month working on the research. As soon as I arrived back in Oxford from the show I received a note from my department chair that I was needed at a meeting regarding the upcoming Presidential Debate (the first Pres. Debate was help at Ole Miss this past year). So, in spite of the fact that it was the summer and I was off contract I went in to the meeting. This was a preliminary meeting to see what problems might be encountered by using our primary performance space for several pre-debate events. The provost laid out the tentative schedule of events and wanted to know what it would do to our use of the space academically, practically, labor-wise, etc. I had been told by the chair before entering the meeting that we had to do this, so there was no purpose in trying to explain what problems there would actually be. Instead, I was to lay out potential problems for the organizations using the space, as well as labor needs and expected costs. This is no small task with nine events happening over the space of three weeks. Each had a different complement of speakers with different stage setups. Some had multimedia, others simply wanted a black background. The University wanted to videotape each production, some would be televised. All would be transmitted via radio. With so many variables in the process, generating the numbers that the chair requested was no small task, and certainly not something that I could generate on the spot. I could present potential difficulties for the various organizations, but had no immediate answers. This was not appreciated.

It is important to understand that our theatre is in no way set up to be a road house. We have several stages on campus. The largest, the Ford Center for the Performing Arts (where the debate itself was held), is the road house. This is where touring productions and musical acts typically produce their shows. They have a full time staff in place to accommodate these productions. Our main space, Fulton Chapel, is run by the theatre department. I am in charge of the lighting and sound. However, this is secondary to my teaching load. The only crew that I have are students who have production class hours or who are work-study. This is not the best setup for what we were being asked to coordinate. Therefore, I had to come up with solutions to these problems. I initially encountered resistance from the chair. I do not believe that she fully understands what goes into mounting a production. With the events all taking place at different times (some in the morning, afternoon, evening, etc) we would need students out of class to be able to pull this off. She said that we could not do this. I told her that we could not hold the events. She eventually backed down. This was my process. Telling people what we needed, them doubting me, and then, eventually acquiescing. It was a frustrating process. They trusted me enough to ask me to do it (or I was the only option), but they did not care for the answers I came back with. Therefore, they questioned my judgment, eventually agreeing to my suggestions.

As frustrating and time consuming as the pre-planning process was, it was also a lot of fun. I like being in control. I like pre-production work. I liked working on something unlike anything that I had done before. I appreciated the scope and challenge of what we were being asked to do. On paper, it was a good time. In the following months, when it was time to do it, the paperwork would be put to the test. Good times!