Craftsmanship

Now, I may completely enjoy the way gaf tape and paint are the lifesaving tools of theater construction, but I also appreciate real craftsmanship.  

Enjoy this video showing the crafting of a wooden box:

Did you feel all swoony at the dovetail joint bit?  Okay forget that gaf tape!  I demand dovetail joints on all my theater sets from now on!

Ahem.

Feeling calmer now.  

Speaking of craftsmanship... I'm feeling pretty happy with the progress of my next show for WaterTower Theater, which opens on the 23rd.  Silent Sky.  Meanwhile, here's a glimpse of the crafting of this set:

Silent Sky, WaterTower Theater, back of the flats

You're looking at the back of the curved wall - which is meant to suggest the astronomical observatory where much of the play's action happens, as well as the night sky.  Notice the tidy carpentry and the neat way the (mostly) concealed curved! door sets into it.

Silent Sky, faux "planks" going up

And here you see the opposite side of that wall, which has cardboard light-blocker underlayment with faux "planks" being attached.  These are slices of lauan, cleverly painted.

Silent Sky

BTW that apparent jog in the front edge of the stage?  Just a tech table gettin' in the way of my camera. Sorry.  I didn't want to disturb Tech by bobbing around to get a better shot.  The tornado warning sirens that brought 30 teenaged actors into the room for shelter that night seemed disturbance enough.  (They were very quiet and well-mannered actually - better than the weather.)

The painting is responding very nicely to changing theatrical lighting... and there's a little surprise to come too.

Come see!  

Wood in Architecture

After WoodWork's day-long conference on building with wood, I came away with one major realization: this has got to be the most versatile and potentially "greenest" material to design with.  With the one proviso - that timber come from properly managed forests - this is the renewable resource.  And if you look at carbon-storage issues, then wood is IT.

My second realization was just how beautiful the stuff is.

Lincoln Park Zoo structure by architects Studio Gang

After a day of timber-talk, I'm more knowledgeable about detailing and attaching wood and wiser about the vital matter of keeping wood dry and protected from insects and rot.

Easy to think that wood is less permanent than steel or concrete (they look so darn sturdy next to sticks, more kinda butch, you know?), but that permanence is an illusion: steel and concrete both have serious issues with deterioration when unprotected or late in their lifespan.  At least wood tells you when it's in trouble - other materials may not.

Though I must admit the seminar that advocated wood posts buried in the ground as building foundations just felt... wrong.  My brain knew the argument made sense, but my architect-schooled instincts felt all queasy.  Silly, really, since any number of buildings are well-built on pilings, just like in Venice and Amsterdam.  I know this queasiness is illogical because over thirty+ years of watching gulf coast houses - on wood or concrete pilings - I absolutely know that under harsh conditions wood outperforms concrete.  Reinforced concrete depends on its steel... and steel corrodes .  After just a few salty, gulf-humid decades, steel rebar is just a rust colored stain.

So!  Wood.  Good-lookin'.  Green.  And surprisingly Durable.

Remember that.