Blithe Spirit

Portage High School
Portage, WI
Jan. 2015
Also directed by Patrick M. Strain
Lighting Desing by Nathan Booth
Costume Design by Barbara Church
Portrait Artist: Karolyn Boaz

 

The opening party.

The levitating table. No strings. No rod from below stage. Everyone's hands flat on the top of the table. It's magic.

The portrait reveal of Elvira.

Aren't gifs fun?

Late in the evening conversing with a ghost.

The refreshing clear light of morning.

 Just having fun with photoshop.

Production Notes:
As director and scene designer of this piece, I had total control over the look. Having designed lighting for the show years and years ago, I wanted the avoid the stodgy English manor and provide my lighting designer with a bit more fun (and truth be told, I didn't want to deal with accents with this piece, given the volume of lines the two main actors have to memorize - both of whom were pretty new to acting), so we moved the show across the pond to a NYC suburb and bumped it into the Art Deco period. With a modest HS production budget, we built just about everything on the stage, save the chairs, piano and victrola.