Nils Emerson
Theatre Technician
Stage Operations: Scene shift videos
While working at Geva Theatre Center as the Stage Operations Manager, I was in charge of developing and coordinating scene shifts for the Mainstage productions. This usually required significant cooperation with Stage Management in order to meet the needs of the show while working within the possibilities and limitations of the various sceneic elements. Occasionally when working on a co-prodution with another theatre, we would need to make a video of the scene shifts to send along to the next crew. Below are three examples of such videos.
In Geva's production of Almost, Maine the director wanted the scene shifts to not only be in costume but also to have a story arc of their own. The play itself is a collection of five short stories all taking place in the unincorporated town of Almost, Maine. The stories themselves are not connected other than that. So to help weave them together the director came up with a basice storyline for the shifts to follow.
It goes like this: Boy meets Girl, Boy does something stupid to lose Girl, Boys spends the rest of the time trying to make up for it, Boy and girl get back together. In the shifts I played the Boy and Jenny Daniels, the production assistant for the show, played the Girl.
Almost, Maine
In Clybourne Park the setting changes drastically between the two acts, going from the 1950's in Act 1, to the modern day in Act 2. The neighborhood has also changed going from affluent to poor. The house has been through some very rough years and it shows. The shift happened behind a show curtain, during a twenty minute intermission. I worked very closely with Katy Kepler, the production assistant, to plan and execute this transition.
Clybourne Park
The Odd Couple
In the Odd Couple, the apartment that Oscar and Felix share famously changes from a sloppy, trash strewn, pig sty under Oscar's management, to a the fastidiously neat, sterile, showroom under Felix's care. The director for Geva's 2014 production wanted the crew to make the change au vista, to music, and in costume. The shift was highly choreographed with many small bits and beats that needed to be hit. Many of the props had to be rigged to be easier to pick up in one scoop. We also had to count on the actors to make sure that everypeice of detritus was in it's precribed place at the end of the act. It was actually a lot of fun.