Daisy Journal: Props - God is in the Details

When it comes to props and set dressing, God can be found in the details and so can Alycia Bauch-Cantor.

During The Emperor's New Clothes, which she directed for Maurer Productions OnStage, Alycia exhibited a wonderful eye for detail when it came to all aspects of the production, but especially props and set dressing. You can see what I mean by visiting the Emperor page on our website and viewing the picture gallery of the production. You'll need to sift through all the pics of people having fun at rehearsal and backstage, but look closely at the images of the set and you'll get the idea. After seeing this, I asked her to bring that same skill to the props and set dressing for Driving Miss Daisy, and was thrilled when she agreed.

Daisy is a deceptive show when it comes to props (and given the way we're producing it, dressing as well). You'd think a production with three actors wouldn't call for much, but it does. The show covers 25 years. That passage of time is expressed not only in the make-up and the performances of the actor, but Alycia also reflects it subtly in the props as well. If you look closely, you'll see how some of the set dressing changes slightly as time passes. Just two examples you might look for are the phones and the flowers.

The telephones are period to the best of our ability. As the story progresses, the phones change to reflect the time period of the scene. Also, there are the flowers. Flowers are a big theme in our production. In our interpretation, Daisy is a gardener. (We've even blocked several scenes to take place in her garden, a setting that didn't exist in the original play. ) Daisy's home is full of flowers that she has cultivated in her own garden. They represent her strength, her independence and her spirit. As time passes, Daisy ages, and she loses her independence and her spirit dwindles, the flowers slowly disappear from the stage. By the end of the show, the garden has withered (because Daisy has grown too old to tend it) and the flowers in the house are all gone. Only a portrait of a bouquet of Daisy's above the fireplace remain.

Alycia had the portrait commissioned especially for this production by local artist Jason Tribble. Each of the flowers in the show were carefully chosen and arranged by her. Both the garden and the cemetery (where Daisy plants flowers on her husband's grave) are designed with a mix of real soil/mulch and artificial flowers and such to lend texture and realism to the moments Daisy works the soil. These are examples of things that only happen for a brief moment on stage, but for which hours and weeks have been spent in preparation.

These are just a few ways that details, expressed in props and set dressing, are helping to bring Daisy to life. They are an example of the elements of a production that audiences may not see and consciously recognize. But the mind processes them in the background and as a result, the audience gets a feeling from them that helps set a tone for the scene.

As you watch our production of Driving Miss Daisy, perhaps for the second or third time (hey, tickets are only $12), look closely for the details. They are there, and they are rich.

The Community in Community Theatre

I know, it's a corny title for a blog post, but I couldn't find anything more appropriate. It really does speak to the point of what I had in mind. I'm referring to the collaborative, supportive, collegial atmosphere amoung people who work in local theatre. At the Kelsey, every one of our shows seems to have a great family atmosphere. Everyone's helping everyone else, they're all part of a team. I think that's one of the reasons my daughter Caroline likes doing theatre. As an only child, she's always been very atuned to "family", and every time she does a show, she feels like she gets to add to her "theatre family". I'm sure it's the same way in other theatre companies. In fact, I can't even say it's unique to the Kelsey Theatre, though that feeling is very strong there.strong there. No, It seems to be pretty wide spread characteristic among people working in the theatre. Theatre people just want to help other theatre people succeed. The suit of armor story is a great example.

As we started pre-production for Emperor, Alycia said early on that she needed a statue or a suit of armor for one of the scenes. It only appears briefly, but it's important to establishing the setting and forwarding the purpose of the scene. She did a lot of research herself looking for a source of the needed stage dressing. But everything she found seemed to cost too much money. There was even discussion of purchasing or making a real suit of armor that we could use in a future production. That way the investment could immediately be spread across multiple shows. But it just wasn't happening. Then I offered to ask the folks at NJACT.

NJACT (New Jersey Association of Community Theatres) is a group of theatres around the state, many non-profit, that produce theatre for their local communities. They are also known as the people who do "the Perry's". The Perry Awards are sort of the Tony Awards of NJ community theatre. I happend to have an email mailing list containing most of the participating theatre companies, so I volunteered to send out a note asking them for help.

When I sent the email, I really didn't expect much response. But I was wrong. I ended up receiving more than 20 emails with ideas, suggestion, and even offers from people willing to loan us their suit of armor for nothing more than a mention in the program -- friendly and free! One of the first to raise her hand was Nancy Russell over at Playful Theatre, another was Jan Topoleski at the Strand Theatre down in Lakewood. Because is worked a little better for the production we ended up using Jan's suit of armor. OnStage does this type of thing itself by loaning props and lighting equipment to other groups who ask. Our starlight curtain has served several groups well since John created it for our production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

My point? It's simple: there seems to be an underlying theme in local theatre, at least between theatre groups -- when one of us succeeds, we all succeed. I find that refeshing.

Back in the Saddle

Glub, glub, glub, cough, cough! That's the sound of me coming up for air. After late nights and weekends crammed with theatre doings -- some backstage and some onstage -- I can finally come up for air and start posting to this blog again. That's right. I'm back in the saddle.

John and I and the rest of the OnStage team have been completely swamped since going into auditions for Emperor. Producing three shows in a season is a lot more work than I expected. Granted, we've brought this on ourselves, but still, we had no clue it would be another full-time job. Anyway, here's a quick recap since my last post.

1) We held a marathon weekend auditioning for and casting Emperor. About 70 people come out and audition on Saturday and Sunday, a great turn out. Then came the casting meeting, which started on Monday night at Buzz Herman's house and lasted until the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday. That's a story in itself, one that I'll save for another day.

2) Meanwhile, my brother John and I have been working on setting up the marketing for this season. That includes giant lobby posters for all three shows (in case you've been living in a cave the last few months, we're producing The Emperor's New Clothes, Driving Miss Daisy, and Singin' in the Rain); a large postcard featuring our three-show season which we'll use as a hand-out in various libraries, community centers and coffee shops; separate buckslips for each show (those are the promotional pieces you find in your Kelsey Theatre ticket envelope); and a large postcard promoting Emperor to school teachers (gotta beef up those school sales up).

3) While that was happening, John and I and Emperor director Alycia Bach-Cantor were working on a Short Play Festival produced and hosted by Arts YOUniversity. (The show was performed September 8 to a full-house). Alycia appeared in a piece called The Mystery at Twicknam Vicarage and did a wonderful job. John appeared in Twicknam as well and also directed a piece called Judgement Day. Meanwhile, I wrote and directed an original short play for the festival called The Road Not Taken, and also performed in Judgement Day. On top of writing, acting and directing, I did a little stage managing (everyone did) and played chief cook and bottle washer. No kidding, The Road Not Taken was set in a restaurant. There were real dishes to wash.

4) While that was happening, our production of Winnie the Pooh was nominated for two Perry Awards (yeah us!) -- one for Best Set Design (John), and one for Best Lighting Design (Kitty Geltik). What's more, John and I have been asked to be presenters at the Perry Awards Dinner. We'll be presenting the award for Best Costume Design for a Musical. With that going on, we wanted to be sure all our friends sat at the same table. Let me tell you, trying to pin down 10 busy theatre people to confirm a dinner date is hard enough, but to get them to cough up $60 per ticket was even tougher. It was a lot like herding cats. But it got done and we'll be going to the Perry's on September 16.

5) And if all that wasn't enough, John and I were working nearly every night and weekend for the past few months building a new website for the company. This blog is just a small part of it. The site itself probably has close to a hundred pages including photos, casts lists, feature articles, and tons of stuff on our new shows and most of our old shows. We have lots more in store for the website. By the time we're done (sometime next year?) the site will likely grow to several hundred pages. The goal has been to turn it into a resource for local actors, theatre patrons and potential volunteers -- and of course to sell as many tickets as possible.

Allrighty, then. The new website has been launched, the Short Play Festival is over, our Perry reservations are set, and Emperor rehearsals are rolling along smoothly with Alycia at the helm. That left me with a few minutes to bring you up to speed, and so I have.