The Sound of Music
Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.

Portage High School
Portage, WI
March 2011
Acting Directing, Scenic and Lighting Design by Patrick Strain
Costume Design by Donna Schmit
Music and Lead Direction by Holly Atkinson

 
Act 1 opening entrance by the nuns, as they sing.

If you don't know what moment this is, you don't know the show and it won't matter, am I right?

The Von Trapp home.

The terrace of the Von Trapp home (reversed of the interior walls.)

 
Act I, scene 6. 16 Going on 17.

End of Act 1 - Go climb a mountain!

The wedding - which is to happen off stage in the script - we evoked with simple motions during the singing.

Edelweiss. Ala Nazis. I hate those guys.

I told our Rolf - the movie has lots of soldiers and guns and cars and underscoring... we've got you, a flashlight and a (toy) gun. Go get 'em.

For our space and crew and construction time, I concede I designed too much physical scenery. But my stagemanager earned her keep in getting the crew to move it all well. I only wish I had video that could show the changes...they were smooth and held the audience's attention in their fluidity. It was, as I had hoped, a scenic dance.

I knew from the start I'd want to keep the mountain in the background throughout (once revealed during Sound of Music.) The mountain drop (painted on site) was to evoke a stained glass window and the original model had lead caming as well. My (recently graduated) scenic artist didn't want to put them in after all the work (and I agreed that the look was working without it.) One fun occurance - during a couple scene changes, as the lighting rose, there would be a fleeting moment when the different levels of the mountains created a 3-D effect (not unlike the various planes used in early animation.)

The other elements needed to be flexible and serve multiple purposes. No fly space and limited wing space necessitated that. The arches served to create several spaces to evoke an abby - hallways, rooms, even the wedding chapel, and large as they were, were movable by a single person (at least, the right person). The house architectural units (meant to evoke the hills as well) were reversible and the SL wall, balcony and stairs were each independent units that joined once on stage. I struggled with whether to make the house more Rococo and feminine to reflect the haunting presence of the wife/mother who is no longer with us, but decided, this ain't The Secret Garden, so went with a more nautical flair and kept the lines simple. The richness of the color played well against the other cool palettes.

Lighting - nothing terribly in depth with the planning of that, I'm afraid. A bit austere in the abby (to evoke the morning/evening prayers we hear). Big and bright in and around the home, and textured in the "gardens."

So... this show's been done on every budget and scale in the world. Our production is somewhere in the middle. Larger than the average HS, but certainly not everything I'd have included had I had a larger budget, more time or more artists to work with. I'd have loved to have had a bit more detail in the Mother Abbess's office, as well as some more finish work in the house, for example. But... that's HS theatre.

Addendum: This show was Portage High School's first entry into the "Tommy Awards" a Madison-based HS recognition program from the Overture Center. The scenery and lighting (as well as the costuming, sound and props) were all awarded with "Outstanding Techinical Achievement" and our stage manager, Liz Foellmi, (along with her crew) were awarded for "Outstanding Stage Management." Like the awards I recieved while working with the Roadside Theatre in Heidelberg, Germany (a military community theatre), my reaction is partly, "well, I should win - it's my profession and the competition isn't necessarily formally trained in design," but there certainly are other schools out there doing really good work and the reviewers are people who know their theatre. Take that for what it is worth - recognition, yes. Tony Award, no.

More photos of this and other PHS shows can be found at the PHS Picasaweb page.