Siege - Day #2

The coronavirus is the big thing - the papers (both actual paper paper and e-) are full of it.

The Dallas County emergency order is in today's paper and there's something truly frightening to see in smudgy black and white where - in too much haste to retype the order? - the forbidding of gatherings of "500 persons or more" has been crossed out and amended to read "fifty."  Then the entire paragraph explaining that this does not apply to, for instance, office buildings has also been XXXed out.  (Which makes a certain architectural office I know that's refusing to let its employees work remote all the more maddening.  It's unsafe.)

So here I am, typing, self-isolating like a good girl.  

Yesterday  I did briefly shop for food - and toilet paper, ha! - and model building supplies.  Today I'll drop a couple pay checks at the bank only because I'm out for a doctor's appointment that, more and more, seems like a bad idea.  But theater can be pretty hard on knees.  In my case it's due to standing on ladders and stepping up and down and up and down onto stages raised juuuust a little too high for my short legs - some tendons or ligaments or something have stretched painfully once too often.  For a few years it's been an occasional problem, now it's sore almost daily.  Last week talking to a doctor about it seemed sensible... but today?

I also started the taxes, beginning with the tangle of my professional receipts.  Always depressing.  (Both the taxes and the tangle.)  

On the brighter side, I'm rereading Ben Aaronovitch's new Rivers of London novel, False Value.  It just came out last month after a long wait and it's good... maybe a bit dry though, sort of abstract, compared to others in the series, I think that's because he's setting up the next Big Bad for upcoming books and readers just can't have as much emotion invested yet as had accumulated in the earlier part of the series.  Also, the world of computing is just not as visceral as the first, shocking encounters with magic and Punch or the Faceless Man.  I still highly recommend his work, just be sure to start with Rivers of London.

I'm thinking of next rereading the new Stephen King, The Institute.  (I race through books the first time and enjoy catching more nuance on a second read).  But I'm looking around for a new novel - new to me anyway - preferably a series.  Have you noticed the usefulness of a really gripping, page-turning, long series when times are difficult?  I still have fondness for the Hunger Games books, simply because they engrossed me when I really needed distraction from a family health scare.  There's a line in another Stephen King book (Misery) that describes a writer "typing until he made a hole in the page he could fall into."  Well, a reader can certainly find the same escape hatch through the page, into the right book.  

(That quote is paraphrased probably.)

I've done another pretty sketch for The Silver Chain:

Castle Wyvern view - copyright retained by Clare Floyd DeVries and J. Trask 

I'm still looking at this one... it may get revised.  Perhaps it's a bit too cheerful and sunlit?  Then again, that's all the more contrast for the later, darker adventures.

At home we marked the first day of coronavirus seclusion (well, my first day because certain stupid offices are still open, endangering others) by  a tastey long-prep-and-cooking dinner and drinking wee little Coronitas.

When stocking up include beer.

Siege of Dallas - Day #1

Well, if you've heard me sometimes complain about being too busy and not home enough... the pandemic has fixed that!  Dallas County has closed all bars and restaurants (except for take out) and, naturally, all large gatherings... which means theaters are shut.

Very tough.

So here I am with an empty drawing board.

Sorta.

Besides doing taxes and all the many, many chores that I have been putting off forever, and really getting into the major rewrite and expansion of my set design book Alice Through the Proscenium (there will be Case Studies, very cool!) I've been doing a bit of stocking-up-the-pantry shopping, and a few sketches for a friend's D&D campaign: The Silver Chain.  

See the pretty map of the castle?

D&D Castle Wyvern - copyright reserved to the artist and Dungeon Master.

I wish I had wise words to share about the crazy, scary state of the world right now.  But all I have is a determination to stay as calm and as usefully busy as possible, to get in touch with friends and family, to enjoy things - spring! imaginary maps! books! jokes with loved ones!   Anyway.  And to help where I can, though I am in lock-down, even if it's only with bad jokes or maps or donations to food banks.

And to wash my hands.

A lot.

Did Someone Mention Life/Work Balance?

Ha!

As if.

It's been a crazy,  crazy few months.  Five months.

Several shows, several holidays, and one family health crisis later (pro tip: don't let 89-year-olds fall over, just don't.) I'm finally able to dump some pictures here!  (I'll try to talk more about each next time, when I have more time.)

Harvey at WaterTower Theater:

Harvey, WaterTower Theater - photos by Jason Anderson

Alabaster at Kitchen Dog Theater:    On stage through March 8th!

Alabaster at Kitchen Dog Theater.  The house's bedroom with all our "folk art"

Close-up of art...

An in-progress photo of "weeding" the goat hill side of the set. 

This show is kinda a big deal - this year's Hot Play and our entry into its rolling world premier.  A Theater Jones review is HERE , a Column review HERE, and really nice article in the Dallas News with good pictures HERE.  I really enjoyed being part of this effort, working with this talented team,  and getting to meet the playwright!

The Royal Dilemma by Think India and Mainstage Irving-Los Colinas:  I'm attaching a blurry picture of the cave scene from The Royal Dilemma from last fall (the blurry may hide the not-quiiiiite-done aspects.  This was an insanely ambitious show and a ton of fun!  I never got good pictures.)

Think India Foundation's The Royal Dilemma

I will attempt to be more regular in my posts from here on out.

If no one else breaks an arm...?

It Always Comes To This...

Life / Work balance?

Good one!

No matter how carefully you try to schedule (and, really, how hard do we try?), there will always be weeks where The Show takes over your life.

Not only do the dishes not get done, but the Bard set dressing from the last show doesn't even make it all the way from your car to the garage prop storage.

Last week was the week of the Indian Show - a heads-down attempt to finish before opening.  Or at least 98.5% finished!  (The Cave scene turned out pretty cool.)

Go see The Royal Dilemma at ThinkIndia / MainStage Irving Las Colinas.

Upcoming...

at Stage West

Books and Such

(Look another post - and so soon!)

First, here's a fast peek at an upcoming show, a collaboration between Mainstage Irving Los Colinas and Think India.  For a few years now they have collaborated on huge (and I mean Huge) story/song/dance spectaculars.  This year I'm designing the sets.  (And I mean Sets: there are not one, not two, but three separate Indian palaces in the story of The Royal Dilemma!)  So here's a just random, warming-up-the-audience Ali Baba style cavern to start out:

Concept sketch for scene 1 of The Royal Dilemma - 

set design by Clare Floyd DeVries, production by Think India/Mainstage Irving Los Colinas

So that's the "and such"... The "books"?  

I recently had a chance to tour a young designer and a student around two of my sets on stage and generally Talk Design - always fun.  Inevitably the subject of books came up (doesn't it always?).  Now I will admit that these days the first attempt at research is always a matter of googling - and I love internet research - but the second, more serious deep-dive always includes books.  The thicker the better.  Every designer I know accumulates at least a modest library.

Here are a few books from my shelves that I refer to often:

Authentic Decor: the Domestic Interior 1620-1920, Peter Thornton

Period Details: a Sourcebook for House Restoration, Martin and Judith Miller

The Elements of Style, Stephen Calloway ed.

And, for the skills, methods, and how to achieve a scenic effect,

Designing and Painting for the Theatre, Lynn Pecktal

Book talk usually wanders off into fiction and "so, read any good books lately?"

Here are a few of my favs:

Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series of magical police novels.  Set in London.  I love the characters and especially the protagonist's wry and snarky voice.

Uprooted by Naomi Kovic.  Another magic-is-real novel, but with a tone like a Russian fairy tale.  (I made the mistake of checking out the Good Reads reviews - wow - this seems to be a love it or hate it book.  Vote me "loved it!")

Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel.  I think of it as a post-apocalyptic tale of art and Shakespeare.  It is structured unusually and reminds me, in some ways, of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas another terrific and strangely "accumulating" story, one that gathers weight and meaning as it goes on.

Obviously I've been on a speculative fiction / world-building reading binge.  But I also read other things...  I can highly recommend the odd-duo I'm reading right now, in alternate bites: The Mueller Report, Volume II and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.

Moral whiplash, those two together.

"The best revenge is to not be like that."

Marcus Aurelius

Catch Up Photos

Soooo that "I'm going to Blog!" resolution went about well as expected.  It's been very busy this spring is all I can say - six shows in the last six months, one of them Off-Broadway - so there's that.

Here are a few catch-up photos at least:

The Ballad of Little Joe at WaterTower Theater - 

set design Clare Floyd DeVries, photo by Jason Anderson 

A super dramatic look at the climax of The Ballad of Little Jo  at WaterTower Theater in Addison.  Here's another view, showing the "geological" levels: 

The Ballad of Little Joe at WaterTower Theater - 

set design Clare Floyd DeVries, photo by Jason Anderson 

Speaking of geology... try cramming the Grand Canyon into a basement space!  I found a good photo of my Men on Boats at Circle Theater:

Men on Boats at Circle Theater, set design Clare Floyd DeVries, photo Chris Herrero

And here's a random memory, the first good photo I've found of the top-of-show setting for Blasted at Undermain Theatre:

Blasted at Undermain Theatre - set design Clare Floyd DeVries,

 if you know the photographer I'd love to credit them properly

Scenically this show was a clever trick... because in a couple minutes this nice hotel room becomes a bombed-out hellscape.  (The secret is that wainscot and fiber "wallpaper" above, which disguises a collapsing wall.  Shutters of the "bomb damage" swing in to change everything - very very fast!)

I'll toss in a few sketches for three shows at Kitchen Dog Theater this spring from which I don't yet have good photos:

You Got Older, Kitchen Dog Theater - set design Clare Floyd DeVries

Wolf at the Door, Kitchen Dog Theater - set design Clare Floyd DeVries 

Reykjavik, Kitchen Dog Theater - set design Clare Floyd DeVries

Reykjavik and The Ballad of Little Jo are still running!  So go by tickets if you can.

As soon as I have both the time and the energy I'll tell you about my adventure in NYC, which was exhausting and pretty cool...

The Blogging Habit - a Huuuuge Catch-Up Post

"Where have you been?" my faithful readers (all both of them) might ask.

Sorry, it's been a wild few months and I haven't posted a thing.  First there were a bunch of shows and family health issues and holidays, then family weddings and more shows, and now home repair and yet more shows...  Blogging - like exercising - turns out to be hard to do regularly, but much much harder to do if you get out of the habit!

I'm trying to regain the blogging habit.

So, what did I miss blogging about?

RECENT SHOWS:

The shows at the end of last year included Once, my first show ever at Theatre Three.  I never got to see the final show.  We had tickets and friends lined up to see Opening, but spent the evening at the hospital instead (all's well now, so no worries); rehearsals however were wonderful!  Here's a sketch, inspired by Dublin's architecture and street art scene.

Once at Theatre Three - sketch by Clare Floyd DeVries

Almost simultaneous was Men on Boats at Circle Theatre (my last there as Resident Set Designer - they're getting rid of residents, new management, new philosophy).  Suggesting the Grand Canyon on Circle's low-ceilinged stage was a bit of a trick!  Here's the model... which was finished and painted in a hospital room.  (A great conversation starter with nurses.)

Men on Boats at Circle Theatre - model and design by Clare Floyd DeVries

The actual set was built from ordinary flats and platforms with an added layer of carved foam and then paint.  Big thanks to the great carpenters and painters who pulled this off with while I was preoccupied with other things.  Thank you.

At Kitchen Dog Theater, Radiant Vermin was a completely different kind of design - a minimalist sort of Monopoly house all-white stage with spiffy model house footlights.

Radiant Vermin at Kitchen Dog Theater - sorry, I don't know who the photographer is (tell me and I'll eagerly credit them).  

The floor and wall - to ensure perfect, seamless whiteness - were built very smooth and flat, then covered with stretched muslin painted, and frequently re-painted, white, white, white.

Radiant Vermin at Kitchen Dog Theater - sketch by Clare Floyd DeVries

And, lastly, Kiss Me Kate at MainStage Irving Las Colinas.

Kiss Me Kate at MainStage Irving Las Colinas - a construction drawings, just for variety

It was a little hectic just last Fall!  

Since then You Got Older at Kitchen Dog has opened and closed...  

I don't have any good images for that one yet, but I'll add them asap.  Basically, it was one of those scripts with many varied settings that are difficult to do on a small stage - reality, fantasy, garden (with growing/dying bean plants), bedroom, kitchen, dive-bar, hospital room, woods during a violent snow storm, imaginary cabin snowed-in during that blizzard...  

Our solution was to build a seemingly simple wall of "weathered" wood slats that opened up or pulled out and thus transformed to suggest the different locations.  I compared it to a Swiss watch... but maybe more a Swiss cuckoo clock?

You Got Older at Kitchen Dog Theater - sketch plan by Clare Floyd DeVries

UP-COMING SHOWS:

Several exciting things are coming up, including Office Hour at Circle Theatre (my first as a visiting designer), Wolf at the Door at Kitchen Dog, and - the BIG excitement! - my first Off-Broadway show, an Equity Showcase of Self-Injurious Behavior at Urban Stages in NYC.  Can't show sketches of this yet - the director needs to see them first - but I thought I'd blog the whole process here as it goes along.  

So, new section...

Self-Injurious Behavior - the Off-Broadway Adventure:

To date, this show - written by Dallas actress/playwright Jessica Cavanagh -  has had a first, very successful, run at Theatre Three's downstairs space Theatre Too.

This run was so successful that it was decided to pick the whole thing up and move it to New York: props, costumes, director, whole company, and designers...  except for the original set designer - who had conflicts - and the original set - which wouldn't fit this completely different stage.

Hence me!  A lucky fluke... which is often how Big Breaks work I notice.

More on this show as it develops...