I was the Technical Director for the production of The Wild Party by Andrew Lippa as my final assignment at the University of Illinois. This particular production brought with it a set of distinctive challenges and characteristics that added an element of excitement and grit to the process. I will go into some of these unique features and provide insights into key aspects of the production, including the implementation of an automated stage elevator, the construction of fabric walls, and the difficulties of our build schedule. Addition information about the elevator can be found here:
Accommodating this set proved challenging due to its large footprint, nearly occupying the entire stage area. My task was to maximize the usable playing space while adhering to several crucial constraints: ensuring we didn't encroach upon the smoke pocket downstage, maintaining proper clearance from the CYC upstage, and keeping alignment with the centrally located stage elevator which came up from the trap room below. Additionally, understanding the relationship between the actors onstage and the trap opening took a few weeks to find a happy medium between safety and esthetic.
The fabric walls were instrumental in enhancing the show's impact, not only by providing context to the room where the characters were situated through their paint treatment, but also through their transparency and integrated blocking. By mounting fixtures on upstage booms and using muslin on the steel frames, we achieved an eye-catching shadow play effect during the major party scene where actor's silhouettes can be seen dancing.
Because this set had so much variation in the walls and the angles with which they connected, I had to find a way to attach them together quickly and efficiently while accommodating those angles. By using loose pin hinges on the backside of the seams, and anchoring the legs with lag screws into the deck below, these walls were climbable and secure. Taking advantage of the nailing strips on the back of the steel frames, gaff tape and staples were used to prevent light leaks in between walls.
Focusing on the center of the stage where the elevator was positioned, we faced design challenges on how to incorporate railings and other fall prevention features to keep actors away from the trap opening when the elevator was in the down position. Because we did not implement a rolling trap cover, the pit was exposed whenever the lift bed was in the down position. Another major focus of the elevator was accommodating larger costumes on the lift as seen in this image. Keeping multiple sets of eyes on the lift at all times allowed us to make these transitions safely and smoothly and without damaging any costumes.
As we began loading in the set, we had to maintain a safe working environment while installing scenery around the trap opening. We did this through stanchions place around the opening, 2 SRL's, and eventually a platform cover that was walkable. In the future, I would make sure to use metal safety barriers to act as a wall and keep people away instead of relying on the rope stanchions.
Focusing on the wall on the left, we needed a quick way to disassemble and reassemble the unit in the space as we could not move this down the hallway in once piece. Using 1.5" 16ga box tube as the main framing, I decided to use 1.5"x.75" 14ga tube to create a seam in the framing that allowed for a quick connection through weld nuts. I decided to use higher gage steel on the thinner section because of the starching process and the stress that the fabric put on the frames.
The most significant challenge in the construction schedule revolved around arranging each segment of the set's platforming for the scenic painting team in our shop. This posed a considerable difficulty, primarily due to the requirement of clearing the entire floor for classes on Friday mornings. To address this, we needed to layout the platforms, make any adjustments to the ledger bars, apply Masonite or MDF to their surfaces, ensure a smooth finish, allocate three days for painting, and ultimately dismantle the entire setup by 5 p.m. on Thursday.
Lastly, the process of making our custom tracery was interesting. In the beginning we looked at CNCing 2 laminated sheets of 3/4" MDF for a 1.5" thick build up but the laminate started to come apart during the CNC process. To avoid this, we decided to use 1" MDF sheets so we could still have considerable thickness but without the need to laminate. These were installed using 3M double sided tape and pressure. Tracery that was placed near areas where actors climb or interact had a small zip tie added to ensure they would not be shaken or torn off.