MARCH/APRIL 1999 ----------------------------In this issue------------------------------------------ The Play's the Thing: A Glimpse behind the scenes of Floyd Collins Rubin's Corner: The Weir and Closer Swim Across the Pond Voices in Contemporary Theatre: SSDC secures victor for Director's and Designer's property Rights Techie's Corner by Michael Powers: Pools, Streams and Waterfalls CyberTheatre Monthly: Women in Theatre Links, Onassis Prize - Athens 2001 Held Over from Last Month: Enter Laughing - A New Showbiz Joke, "You know you work in Community Theatre if..." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Play's the Thing  A Glimpse Behind the Scenes of Floyd Collins An interview with Dr. Rick Simas, assistant director Hello TRE readers! Well, I managed to escape rehearsals for my upcoming projects and the mounds of homework to get out and see a musical. I hear all my online friends choking back a gasp! Yes, I saw a musical (for those of you who don’t know, I am known online as a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to appreciating musicals) and I have to tell you quite frankly that I enjoyed myself. This is not a musical that makes you think of Annie and the sun coming out tomorrow. It is a soulful telling of the story of Floyd Collins, a Kentucky spelunker (pull out the dictionary like I did - a cave explorer) who was trapped in a cave on January 30, 1925, which led to the first media circus as the public and the press waited to see if he would be saved. If you don’t know the story, I don’t want to tell you how it turned out, but there are Internet sites listed at the end that will answer those questions. One of the benefits from seeing Floyd Collins, and deciding to write about it, is that one of my professors at San Diego State University was the assistant director to Tina Landau who wrote the book as well as directed the play. Dr. Rick Simas, Associate Professor of Theatre, kindly agreed to be interviewed and has some wonderful background information on the play, its history, on the director and his experience working with her and the actors as they re-created Floyd Collins on the stage of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. This is the first of the a two part interview. I want to thank Dr. Simas for taking the time to share his insights and stories with the TRE readers. Floyd Collins will be closing in San Diego on March 21st, but, as you will find in the article, the show is traveling to two more theatres after its run here. If you happen to be in the Philadelphia or Chicago area in the near future, keep an eye out for it. Yes, TRE readers, Caprice is recommending you see a musical! (Oh someone run and get me a dose of Tennessee Williams soon! HAHA!) Caprice: My first question to you is how did you get involved in the project? Dr. Simas: I saw Floyd Collins . . . it was probably February or March of 1996. I had just moved to New York in November, taking a leave from San Diego State University to do professional work, growth work, and I was in New York. I had started reviewing shows with Theatre Journal and all the talk was about Rent and Bring in the Noise, Bring in the Funk which I saw I think Bring in the Noise, Bring in the Funk in December or January, December of 95 or January of 96, and Rent, I couldn’t even get in to the small theatre where, The New York Ensemble Theatre, I couldn’t get into that, but I saw it on Broadway. And when all this was going on, right across the street where I was living on 42nd Street at a small theatre called Playwright’s Horizon, where I had seen Assassins by Stephen Sondheim and I had seen Sunday in the Park with George, they had premiered both those shows, there was a new musical that didn’t get a lot of notice because it was right after the off-Broadway openings of Bring in the Noise, Bring in the Funk and Rent, which was the big sensation in New York. But people who were in the industry, directors that I knew and composers I knew and musical directors and choreographers, were all talking about this show. They weren’t talking about Rent and Bring in the Noise, Bring in the Funk. They were talking about this little musical called Floyd Collins that was at the Playwright’s Horizons and what a fantastic score it had by a new composer named Adam Guettel and terrific staging, with a book and direction by this brilliant staging artist named Tina Landau, who up to that point was probably best known – she had done a few things the theatre company called On Guard Arts, that is site specific theatre where they would actually present things not in theatres but in specific sites. She is primarily known for avant-garde, her avant-garde work, not for musical theatre, although she loves musicals and you will find that out about her, that she was raised by her parents seeing Broadway musicals and she loved them, but that is not how she got into theatre. She’s a protégé of Ann Bogart, who is a famous female director who is known for the Viewpoints, and Viewpoints direction, which is a movement-based kind of directing style. So that’s how I first heard of Floyd Collins and heard about Tina Landau, and heard about Adam Guettel. I knew Ted Sperling, who was the musical director, through a mutual friend, and talked to him briefly at the show. And the first time I saw it, and I saw it twice -- it was one of the few shows I paid to see twice in New York because every has a friend, or you somehow get into theatre free or cheap tickets or whatever -- but I paid full price to see Floyd Collins twice because the first time I saw it, I didn’t go expecting . . . well I didn’t really know what it was about. There was a lovely little lobby display that, in fact that you also saw at the Globe, that . . . oh this is a real situation and this really happened, and I had never heard of it before. I know it is fairly famous in history, but I didn’t know that, and I have a Ph.D. so it can’t be all that well known [laughs from both of us]. And I fell in love with it, and I can’t tell you . . . I think about it still . . . I went not knowing anything about it. It was in a small theatre that sat maybe 250 people on a stage half the size of the Old Globe stage, where you saw it, and was bowled over by it, both aesthetically by the beauty of the music, of the composition of it, and visually of the staging, the starkness of it and the simplicity of it. You know with all of these musicals that are so much about spectacle and junk . . . Caprice: Million dollar sets . . . Dr. Simas: Chandeliers, and helicopters, and you know, you’ve heard all the stories . . . that it was so simple but yet elegant in its simplicity. Not cheap simple, but elegant simple. I was moved by the story in a couple of ways, that it spoke to me. And it spoke to me I guess in that it is about people . . . I don’t know what this says about me . . .it spoke to me about people who seem to be misfits in some ways, that they have difficulty relating . . . everyone seemed to be isolated, and yet they had dreams that they cared about and loved about and had trouble articulating. These aren’t really smart people in the play. They are not people who are very articulate, except for perhaps Skeets, who is the reporter and writer. And at the end of the play, he [Floyd Collins] has an epiphany where he sings "How Glory Goes" and in the beginning he talks, in his cave call talks about looking for glory, about the wonder of the cave and not really being able to talk about it in any articulate way, being able to make his father proud of him, being able to have this wonderful kind of a park where you get people to come and you have a refreshment stand and a curio shop. At the very end, he realizes that he has devoted his whole life to exploring, looking for something that would bring him the knowledge of why he is there, why he’s on earth, what he was meant to do. He asks so many interesting questions at the end, about what glory is, and what heaven is and what life is about. He doesn’t have the answers, but he asks the questions for the first time, that are much deeper than a curio shop and yelling into a cave. The elegance of the metaphor -- hearing your voice back telling you that you’re alive and listening for your voice, and at the very end he listens for his voice and he doesn’t hear it -- it spoke to me. All of those things spoke to me. And also, I guess, because I didn’t . . . I had never heard of Adam Guettel . . . hearing a new composer for the first time, and being thrilled by the originality of his music that, yes it is Sondheim-esque in its complexity, but in the sounds that he uses, particularly in the musical figures that he uses -- he had done a lot of research into Kentucky folk music, like [demonstrating an example from the show] ‘dah-dah-dah-kadicky-dah’ that actually is a chant that he found that kids chanted in Kentucky – that it was an original voice and an incredible one. Caprice: That is one of the things that I enjoyed about it, was that the sound of the music so not typical to every musical that you hear. It really harkened back to this time and place where music was the soul of the people, instead of "Oh, now it is time for us to do a big production number here." Even numbers that lent themselves to being production-type number still had this simplicity underneath. It was very uncomplicated music. Dr. Simas: See, I feel that, but people say that it’s not melodic enough. Well, it maybe is not melodic enough because the intervals of -- you know usually you think of [demonstrates] "The sun’ll come out tomorrow . . . dah dah dah dah . . ." – it’s fairly simple in its intervals, where some of these songs like "Daybreak" and "Lucky" and "How Glory Goes" the intervals are not that easy. Yes, I’m hearing it, you do remember it when you hear it again, but you can’t necessarily sing it. But there is simplicity in that they are based on folks ballads and a lot of country folk music. Caprice: It’s like full of the story instead of just some lyrics that push the story forward. These were like, for me they were like, soulful songs. They were a person’s expression of what was inside themselves. Dr. Simas: It is all about character, character-driven instead of plot-driven. Caprice: I think that is what attracted me so much to it. One of the problems I have in a traditional musical it that sometimes the music doesn’t seem as connected to the character – it is just time to do a song – where with this one it was like the situation grew to the point that expressing musically what was inside of them was completely integrated with the character that they were playing. It was like a natural extension, like sticking your arm out, a natural extension of the actor themselves instead of just a gratuitous moment. Dr. Simas: Well, I think you are right. I think that the music and lyrics tell you as much or more about the characters than the dialogue and the movement. I think she [Tina Landau] also is a director who uses dialogue and movement . . . uses movement as much as dialogue. Caprice: And that was the other thing that I really enjoyed . . . thing like using the ropes to make it appear as though they were repelling into the cave, when they were doing the swinging over the quarry. All of that movement, again, it was very simple, it wasn’t complicated dance movements, but it all related to what was going on inside of them. Dr. Simas: And to who they are. I mean that movement you’re talking about, and this is what’s interesting about Viewpoints, and I am veering off our basic subject, but that rope movement of them swinging out and swinging back and all the movements, the reporters’ dance, all the things you saw in the carnival with the arm wrestling and the man who was the boxer and all of that, all the actors created all of their own movements so that she basically sets up a framework by which they improvise and work in a very safe environment with one another and create what she calls behavioral gestures and emotional gestures and different kinds of interaction through movement essentially, not so much through dialogue, that express who they are through movement. She then takes all those things and she puts them together, and edits them and maybe changes the duration of them. These are some of the Viewpoints: duration, tempo, spatial relationships, topography which is floor patterns, architecture which is how you use the props and sets that are there on the stage. She would take basically what they brought so they owned the things that they did. The example I use is that if you told an actor when he says, "He’s got the luck. It’s all around him," and you said, "Touch your head ‘He’s got the luck. It’s all around’ circling your head [as he demonstrates the move] ‘him’ bring your hand up, the actor would probably say, "What the hell are you talking about?" But, if you express it that this is someone who is perhaps not always in their head, not always realistic, and in some ways is metaphysical and mystical, well, how might she be able to . . . what emotional gesture would you come up with about luck and about how luck is around you. Caprice: Almost a ritual movement. Dr. Simas: Ritualistic kinds of movement. So they then could do those larger-than-life gestures, and own them, and feel comfortable doing them because they weren’t applied by somebody else who choreographed them onto your body. You brought them . . . you came up with them yourself. So she was great about that and that is why the movement is so integral and so un- self conscious in the way the actors do it. And the way that they handle one another, I think, is the same thing. Between the two brothers particularly and between Nellie and Floyd, who never touch until the dream at the very end, but who feel like they have, to me anyway, connected physically throughout the play by the way that she is calling and he is there . . . Caprice: He turns and can hear her. That’s almost like her voice reverberates through the earth to where he is at. Dr. Simas: And she has that line about, "We’re so much alike," because she says, "My head’s in the clouds and his is in the dirt," that they are in the same place, that they reside in different places in the earth, but that they are of the same force. I think they did that well. Caprice: Spiritually connected. Dr. Simas: Spiritually connected. Caprice: So going back then, you saw the show in New York . . . Dr. Simas: Saw it in New York, came back here [San Diego] and then a student of mine, David Tucker, was at the Globe, was the Marketing and Publicity Director at the Globe. When I came back from New York, we talked and he said, "What shows have you seen while you were in New York that you really liked and thought were worthwhile?" I said, "I have to tell you that the most exciting show I saw was Floyd Collins, more so than Rent, more so than Bring in the Noise, Bring in the Funk, and a lot of other shows, like Ragtime. I saw a lot of other shows." I said that [Floyd Collins] was the most exciting and he said, "We’re looking for new things at the Globe, and maybe I will put that forward." He mentioned it to somebody there and at the same time Michael Phillips, who was the critic on the San Diego Union-Tribune had gone back and he had seen Floyd Collins. He wrote about it in the paper, and also he reviewed the CD. He loved it. And of course that always helps a theatre know that they want to do a show because if the local critic likes it, they are going to get good reviews. David put it forward, and I guess they got in contact with Tina and Adam in New York, and I had not met them at that point, and were interested in doing Floyd Collins at the Globe. Tina and Adam had held onto Floyd and it had not been done since I saw it at the Playwrights Horizons, and that was February and March of ’96. They had done three productions before that, two workshop readings, one at Playwrights and the performance at Playwrights. They had done a reading at the American Musical Theatre Festival in Philadelphia and done a production there. Many people, since the CD has come out and they have heard the music, have wanted to do the show, but they wouldn’t let that happen until they got another first-class production where it could be seen again. Caprice: And the CD is from the New York production that you saw? Dr. Simas: Right, at Playwrights Horizons. The actors are Chris Innvar as Floyd, Jason Danieley as Homer, Theresa McCarthy as Nellie, Cass Morgan as Miss Jane, so it was all the New York cast. Caprice: So Michael Phillips heard the CD, and reviewed it? Dr. Simas: Reviewed it, liked it, and both Tina and Adam had not allowed another production. They had people ask them, and people wanted to do a production of it, but they said not until they could do their own production of it again that could be more widely seen. In New York they got mixed reviews. It went on for about six weeks. It was at a bad time, right between Rent and Bring in the Noise, Bring in the Funk, all of that was going on, so it got a little bit over-looked. The CD came out and it got a lot of notoriety. Since then a lot of people talked about it. They were offered the production at the Globe. They said they wouldn’t agree to that unless they could get some other theatres interested so that they could do a small tour. The American Musical Theatre Festival in Philadelphia, that is now called the Prince Musical Theatre, Harold Prince Musical Theatre was interested in presenting it again. So it is going to go to Philadelphia after it closes here on the 21st. Then the Goodman Theatre, which is a major regional theatre in Chicago picked it up, and they were interested in doing it. So it’s going to end in Chicago at the Goodman. And I think if anything happens with it, it will be through people coming from New York to Chicago at the Goodman to look at it. I know that Tina and Adam both have hopes. I don’t think it is a Broadway show . . . I don’t think it is a Broadway musical. I don’t think it will do well on Broadway, but I think they have hopes that it can be presented in New York, in a larger theatre for a limited run where it can be seen. That’s their goal. End of Part One of the interview Internet Sites on Floyd Collins, Tina Landau, Adam Guettel and the real Floyd Collins http://www.steppenwolf.org/berlin.html Tina Landau http://www.artswire.org/~nysca/playhorizon.html Tina Landau http://members.aol.com/bpsprtfan4/fcoll.htm Floyd Collins info and cd order and downloadable sound clips from the CD Review in the LA Times Old Globe Press Release Goodman Theatre Schedule San Diego Sidewalk Review Trapped, the book on Floyd Collins Lyrics to the song "The Death of Floyd Collins Floyd Collins Museum Beck Theatre Floyd Collins homepage Floyd Collins online monument --- Caprice Woosley is currently pursuing her BFA in theater (directing and playwriting), after 25 years working in and around the theater. She is a produced playwright, actress, and amateur dramaturg who enjoys researching plays. She is a host in the Writing Forum where she co-hosts a Writing Discussion Group. She also hosted "Shakespeare Unplugged" and "Murder and Mayhem" in the Theatre Forum. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rubin's Corner The Weir and Closer Swim Across the Pond There has been a lot of comments lately in the newspapers that this is the year of the English drama on Broadway. It began with "The Blue Room", which closed a week early due to the illness of the star Nichole Kidman. Then there is "Amy’s Way" staring Judi Dench in her award winning role as an aging actress and mother. The two jewels in this English invasion are "The Weir" and "Closer". Conor McPherson's award winning play, "The Weir", comes to Broadway on March 23, 1999. Born in Dublin 197 1, Conor McPherson's plays include "This Lime Tree Bower" and " St Nicholas". For "The Weir" he won the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award. Directed by Ian Rickson, the newly appointed Artistic Director of the Royal Court, "The Weir" is eerie and entrancing, and keeps you captivated for the whole I hour 45 minutes of the play, with no intermission. The story is set in a small pub in a remote part of Ireland. The landlord and two of his regular customers 'Jack' and 'Jim' are chatting about the weather and other unimportant events. However, when Tinbar' a local man made good, comes to the pub with 'Valerie', a woman who he has just sold. The conversation turns to describing a ghostly happening in the house she has just bought. This sets all of them off, with each having a ghostly incident to tell that happened to them at some stage in their past life. However, 'Valerie' has a traumatic story to tell of her own! The entire original cast will come to Broadway. The play is full of rich characters that are exploited fully by a wonderful cast: Brendan Coyle, as 'Brendan'a gloomy but kind bar-owner: KIERAN AHERN as' Jim a bachelor in his 40s: Des McAleer as the lustful 'Finbar': Julia Ford as 'Valerie', an attractive woman haunted by her past. However, the best performance is from Jim Norton as 'Jack', a cantankerous man in his 50s who never married and although he says he never regrets it, it is clear he does. After the huge success of Patrick Marber's first play 'Dealers Choice', everyone has been waiting with excitement for his second play. Could he repeat his success? The answer is 'Yes'. 'Closer', which is also directed by Marber, is a sharp, witty and powerful play. I saw this production in London. This is not a play to see if you are feeling tired because it is a quiet and relaxing play. It is like sitting in front of a log fire reading a good book, even though you like the book you still start to feel sleepy. However, it is a charming and touching play of missed opportunities, loneliness, haunted memories and love. The story focuses on love and relationships through the eyes of four strangers in a most horrendous and cruel way. Dan a writer of Obituaries, falls in love with Alice, a stripper who has a mysterious back ground. Dan writes a book about Alice's life and when he has some publicity photos taken, he meets and falls in love with the photographer, Anna. However, after a practical joke by Dan, using the Internet, Anna meets and falls in love with Larry, a dermatologist. As the story progresses all four become entwined in betrayal, jealousy and lies. The sets are very basic with very little scenery. After each scene change the props are piled up at the back of the stage, which is fascinating, even if I can't work out why! This is an impressive second play by Marber and should not be missed. Be warned there is a lot of bad language, but I think it is necessary to create the right atmosphere and tone for this powerful drama. London is coming to Broadway in a big way and Tony will be returning to London.   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Voices in Contemporary Theatre Voices in Contemporary Theatre SSDC REACHES SETTLEMENT WITH CALDWELL THEATRE SOCIETY OF STAGE DIRECTORS AND CHOREOGRAPHERS AND CALDWELL THEATRE COMPANY REACH A SETTLEMENT IN THE PROPERTY RIGHTS SUIT REACHING JOE MANTELLO'S DIRECTION OF "LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!" The property rights litigation commenced in 1996 by the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SSDC) on behalf of Joe Mantello against Caldwell Theatre in Boca Raton, Florida and Michael Hall was settled on March 22, 1999. Mantello had sued over the Caldwell's use of his stage directions in its production of "Love! Valour! Compassion!" directed by Hall. In an out-of-court agreement, the Caldwell and Hall agreed to pay a full director's fee to Mantello (as well as pension and health contributions to the directors' union benefits fund), as well as some of his expenses in the litigation. In addition, the Caldwell and Hall agreed to acknowledge its unauthorized use of stage directions created by Mantello. To the extent that the Caldwell used these elements of the New York production, the Caldwell states that is was not its intention to use such elements without proper authorization. Ted Pappas, President of SSDC, the union representing Mantello, indicated his satisfaction with the settlement: "I hope that this case will dispel the idea that original, artistic contributions by directors and designers to the play, which are not part of the text of the play, can be used or appropriated without permission." Hall testified that he believed that he had the right to use ground plans, pictures, prop lists and other materials which he obtains with scripts of plays without getting permission from the designers or directors. This decision concludes that stage directions could constitute intellectual property, could be copyrighted and could not be passed off as someone else's. States Mantello, "It's never been my point to pull apart the collaborative process of putting together a play. But a director can provide original elements to a production and deserves to be compensated for them." Per Mantello, this has never been an issue of money, but of artistic >ownership. Mantello is donating his settlement dollars to the >Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation for their director apprenticeship programs. Barbara Hauptman, Executive Director of SSDC, commented that "Our efforts have hopefully made clear to the theatrical community that no one can permit others to use designs, stage directions or choreography without the consent of the designer, director or choreographer."   Statement from the Association of Dramatic Artists of Servia on the occasion of International Theatre Day, 27 March 1999 In an international message on World Theatre Day, Mrs. Vigdis Finbogadottir outlines reasons for the survival of the theatre which, in our modern civilised world, is faced with serious problems. The same modern civilised world has placed all of us, our countryand our theatre in a situation which is irreconcilable with its own proclaimed ethical standards. Therefore, we consider that our reasons for the theatre to survive at this moment are far stronger. Confronted with bombs, destroyed towns, lost lives, and the whole aggressive attack upon human integrity, we are trying to justify the very existence of the theatre and to go on living the only way we know-by performing. Our own individual and personal reasons may be different. On the one hand, it may represent an escape from the present awful reality; on the other, the reason may lie in a clear, conscious and critical stand against the horrors which someone has decided to "stage" in another country at the end of the twentieth century. Fully aware that our decision cannot influence objective circumstances, like air raid warnings, loss of electricity, a ban on public meetings and other unpredictable events, we shall do all in our power to ensure that the theatre goes on as long as is humanly possible. Therefore, the Association of Dramatic Artists of Serbia calls upon its members to continue to play in their theatres as far as is realistically possible at this very unreal time. We do not have the right to ask others to join us, but in this way we wish to inform our audiences that we shall continue to be when they can always find us- an that is, on stage. Let the theatre be our bomb shelter. Presidency of the Association of the Dramatic Artists of Serbia President: Tihomir Stanic ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Techie's Corner Welcome once again to The Techie’s Corner. This months topic is the third and last chapter about "Water on Stage". Chapter One was about rain, Two was about sinks and this chapter is about POOLS, STREAMS AND WATERFALLS. If you haven’t read the first two articles, they are available in the back issues section. Unfortunately the archives can not store bit map images so the illustrations will be missing. If any reader would like to see the illustrations, please contact me by e-mail (mptecdir@aol.com), let me know which article you are interested in, and I will be glad to send the illustrations. Streams, pools and waterfalls still have the same concerns of supply, delivery, storage, conditioning etc. as sinks and rain. For a complete description of these, see the December ‘98 issue of TRE, "Rain On Stage". I would like to reiterate that this discussion is intended for the live stage, not theme parks or the mega budgets of Las Vegas. Pools are unique in that after the water gets to the stage, it just sits there. No pumps or barrels or pressure vessels. The effect itself is the storage vessel. Unless the actors jump in or splash about, the pool itself is the "recovery" and "control" mechanism. If there is a great deal of splashing then you have to deal with how the water affects the floor or "ground" around the pool, where it goes if it is enough to drain away, how quickly the area will dry on its own, the time interval between performances. However, let’s get the pool built. First, pools take a lot more water than most people realize. A small pool 10" deep and 4’ diameter contains 78 gallons of water. 78 gallons of water weighs 650 pounds, or, at 10" deep, 51 pounds per square foot. That is a lot of water and a lot of weight to handle. In addition the weight of scenery such as rocks or trees and the framework to hold and contain the water must be considered. Last but not least there is the live load of the actors which can add up very quickly, depending on the action or lack of it. A pair of performers weighing 120 pounds each can easily add up to one ton of impact loading if they are cavorting or dancing. If the pool bottom is directly on the main stage floor, there is rarely a problem. Most stage floors are rated at 150 pounds per square foot or higher. To exceed that loading the water, by itself, would have to be 30" deep or greater. If the pool is built into a raised level or platform, then the scenic unit has to be built to handle the weight of the water, other scenery, and the live load of all the actors that are in or around the pool at one time. The easiest way to create a pool is to use "pond liners" that are available at garden shops, some Home Quarters, Home Depot, et al. Smaller liners, 3’ to 4’ diameter, are usually made of a very ridged plastic and molded into shape. They are commonly 10" to 14" deep and irregularly shaped. While these liners look fairly strong and self supporting, they are designed to be set in the ground with soil supporting the weight of the water on all sides. If one of these molded liners is used, you must support the bottom and the lip or edge all around. Larger liners come in the form a vinyl sheet and if you have access to a used or discarded above ground pool liner, they can work also. If you have a second hand pool liner, make sure there are no leaks in the section you intend to use. Soft liners must be supported on all sides and surfaces, just like an above ground pool. Otherwise the weight of the water will pull the liner away or possibly rip it where it is fastened along the edge. The easiest way to support a soft liner is simply to make a 3/4" ply box (the stage floor can be the bottom). If the pool is supposed to be natural rather than man-made, build the box with as irregular a shape as possible, install the liner, and then shape the interior of the pool with real stones, astro turf etc. until the shape matches the design concept. When building a pool, it is easy to forget it once it is installed and filled. This is a big mistake because you have created a perfect place for bacteria and other things to grow. Theatre stages are also not noted for their pristine cleanliness. Dust, dirt and a myriad of other surprising things will find their way into the water. The water should be treated with a mild, non clorene pool or spa treatment to prevent any possibility of bacteria, mold or fungus growth. The reason for the non clorene treatment is twofold. First, the clorene smell can be objectionable and is easily detected by the audience. Second, any costume that comes in contact with the water will be slowly bleached out. The water should be changed at least once a week, depending on how much contamination it gets from dust, dirt, the snow from last year’s Nutcracker......! Streams and waterfalls are two aspects of a similar problem. Both have to use a recirculating water system. Both create noise that has to be dealt with in some way. Both have to have a catch basin to collect the water for recirculating. A water fall and a stream can end in a pool, but a stream can also run off stage to a 55 gal. barrel or some similar holding and recirculating tank. Streams can be built as high tech as a fiberglass trough that bolts together in sections, or as simple as a couple of sections of corrugated culvert liner with visquene or a pool liner. Visquene should be a last resort as it can develop leaks very easily. One rather easy method of constructing a small stream is to cut or build a series of ribs with a concave shape. Connect the ribs by laying 1/4" ply or luan sections from rib to rib. After cross bracing and securing, line the wooden trough you have built with visquene or a soft pool liner. The support structure for a stream rarely has to be built as strong as a pool, as there is usually far less water in any given section of the stream. The greatest danger to a pool or stream is if performers have to walk or wade in them. Walking or wadding present a grave danger of puncturing or abrading a hole in whatever you have used to line the waterway. First make sure that there are no foreign objects, dirt, grit, etc. between the floor and the underside of the liner. Next place a thin, firm but soft surface such as 1/4" ethafoam sheet or indoor-outdoor carpet, soft side up, between the liner and the support surface. Finally place a second layer of similar material, soft side down, where the walking or wading is to take place. This second layer must be weighted down, clamped or otherwise fastened to prevent a slip hazard. One way to help fasten down the layer in the stream is to use silicone caulk. It doesn’t really adhere to the ethafoam, vinyl or visquene but if left overnight before running water through the stream it will help to prevent slipping as performers walk on it. The amount of water running through a stream can be staggering. A small stream 24" wide and 6" deep at the center can run several thousand gallons an hour, depending on how steep the slope is. A pump that large creates quite a bit of noise and is pumping water out at a tremendous pressure. How do you handle the noise and the stream of water that would shoot clear across your stage like a fire hose? The first trick is to reduce the amount of water needed to the absolute minimum. Build your stream as shallow as possible. Break up the flow with rocks, logs etc. Make the bottom of the stream bed a dark color with mottled, soft edged break ups, like camouflage. If performers have to wade through an area, make that a small pool, deeper if not wider. Reduce the total drop from the top of the stream to the bottom to the least amount possible. Finally, at the out put of your pump, use the principle of greatly reducing the output pressure by greatly increasing the size of the output pipe. A simple way of doing this is to use a series of reducing couplings to increase the size of the pump output from the 1 1/4" to 3" that is the most common, to about 6"to 10". If this series of pipes is in a straight line it will have little or no effect unless it is 20’ or 30’ long. Put a 90 degree elbow or two in the system, the last one just after the final increase in size. Point the final stage straight up and turn on your pump. If the water simply bubbles up over the top, you are ready to install the piping to the stream. If you still get a slight fountain (you have one heck of a pump!) more than you want, you can add another section of pipe at a still larger diameter or you can use the "barrel method". The barrel method is simply to take your final stage pipe and aim it straight down into a 30 to 55 gallon barrel, from about 6" to 10" below the rim. When the barrel fills up you have effectively increased the final stage of your piping to the square inch area of the barrel minus the area of your pipe section. The water will pour over the edge of the barrel in a flow instead of a jet. The easiest way to terminate your stream is to have it continue off stage, out of sight lines and pour directly into your holding/supply tank. This eliminates the need to pierce your stream bed to install plumbing and piping for the drain. If you have any choice, do not design the stream so that the stream bed needs to be pierced anywhere for any reason. There is likely to be enough trouble with unintended leaks without adding any of your own. If you must end the stream on stage, the most common method, of course is in a small pool. If possible design the pool with one 6" section of the rim lower than the rest. Then, like a gutter drain in a swimming pool, run your piping to the holding tank under the brush, grass, rocks, platforms, etc. Again, avoid having to put a hole in the stream bed liner if possible. If you must place a drain or hole in your stream bead the best method is to use two bolt on, 8", PVC pipe flanges. Purchase some 1/16" neoprene gasket rubber and cut two discs, slightly larger than the pipe flange bases. Next cut an inside diameter hole slightly smaller than the I.D. of the pipe flanges. Finally cut out holes for the bolts. Using one of the flanges for a pattern, cut the stream bed material for the bolt and center holes. Place the flanges face to face on opposite sides of the stream bed with the gaskets in between the flanges and the stream bed lining. Cover both sides of the gaskets with silicone caulk (it will get a bit messy) making sure to surround the bolt holes and the center hole completely with no breaks. Bolt the flanges together carefully and tighten down in a star pattern. Allow this to set at least over night, 24 hours is better, before subjecting it to water. Now add your plumbing from the outside flange to the holding tank. Now for waterfalls. Water falls are really easy, they are just a stream that has a sudden drop. Everything we have discussed up to now apples to waterfalls also. A waterfall is usually a combination of streams, pools and a waterfall. The main addition is that there will be a constant sound of water as it fall into the pool. Whether this means micing the actors, living with the sound as part of the ambient sound design, placing the water as far upstage as possible or what is up to you. One way to lessen the sound is to have the water hit a steeply slopped surface that then runs down into the pool at the bottom rather than have the water fall directly in to the pool. Making the pool shallow or having something soft in the pool for the water to fall on does not work. In addition to the noise, there is the spatter problem. All surfaces anywhere near the waterfall must be sealed within in inch of their lives or be made of a material that will quickly and easily air dry on their own without soaking the surface underneath. Anything less is to risk mildew, mold, fungus, bacteria and all the bad things that can come with them. To make a waterfall seem more impressive doesn’t take a great deal of water. Simply make the area where the water falls over the edge as flat and long as possible so that you have a very wide but thin curtain of water. To increase the "size" of the water fall you can also hang a curtain of thin clear or silver strips behind the water(Rosco Glame) and light the water from the side or slightly from the back. If you have access to lights designed for outdoor pool use, light from directly below the waterfall shooting up the cascade can be very effective. What kind of pump should one use and how big should it be? The easiest to acquire are the submersible sump pumps available from any home improvement store, Grangers, McMaster Carr, etc. These are usually fractional horse power pumps ranging from 1/4 to 1/2 horse and from 1400 to 4200 gallons per hour and from $40 to $400. Which one you choose depends on your budget and the design perimeters of you situation. Generally it is a good idea to use the largest pump your budget allows without overkill. It is easy to restrict the flow with a ball or gate valve, it is impossible to get a pump to push more water than its rating. It is often more economical to use two smaller pumps rather than one larger one. In addition this gives you a bit of a safety margin. If one pump fails, you still have water, not as much, but some. When using any kind of "natural" water effects, there is a great temptation to have the grass and other things run down to and in the water. Be very careful what and how you do this as there is the chance of a wicking effect pulling the water up and away. This can lead to a soaking of areas around the stream or pool and, in effect, a slow leak. The last bit of advice is to build your effect with access to as much of the stream or pool bed as possible, so that leaks may be spotted and repaired as easily as possible, without having to tear up half your set to find and fix them. As the needs and design of water effects are so varied, this discussion has intentionally been very general, with little attention to specific details. If you are actually doing a water effect and have specific questions, please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to offer what help and advice as I can. So, until next month, stay safe, don’t sweat the small stuff.....and remember....it’s all small stuff. --- Michael Powers is the Technical Director at The Meadow Brook Theatre, a LORT B theatre in Rochester, Michigan, a Detroit suburb. Prior to The Meadow Brook Theatre, Michael has worked at such theatres as Geva in Rochester, N.Y., The Lyric Theatre in Oklahoma City, The Cherry County Playhouse in Traverse City Michigan, The Walnut St. Theatre in Philadelphia, The Pittsburgh Public Theatre in Pittsburgh and Wild Wood Park For the Performing Arts in Little Rock. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CyberTheatre Monthly Women in Theatre http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Alley/5379 If you cheered when Shakespeare in Love's Elizabeth I eyed Thomas Kent/Viola and pronounced "I know something of a woman in a man's profession" you simply must investigate Sarah Young's quite amazingly thorough collection of Women in Theatre links.  Whether you prefer the age of Sarah Bernhardt and Ellen Terry or contemporaries like Caryl Churchill, you'll find more links of interest than can be browsed in a day. Onassis Prize http://www.onassis.gr/amer/theatre.html Onassis International Prizes announces 2nd Competition for the Composition of a Theatrical Play, to be awarded in Athens in 2001. To suggest a theatre, dance, or music-related website for CyberTheatre Monthly, write to Theatre@1501broadway.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enter Laughing Entertainment merger's we'd like to see: Polygram Records, Warner Brothers and Keebler: New company will be called Poly-Warner-Cracker. Metropolitan Opera Company with 3M, J.C. Penney: 3 Penney Opera Amusement park Knott's Berry Farm & National Organization of Women: Knott NOW! Zippo Manufacturing, Audi, Dofasco, Dakota Mining: Zip Audi Do-Da More Things Never Said in the Theatre By the stage manager: •It looks as though there'll be time for a third dress rehearsal. •Take your time getting back from break. •We've been ready for hours. •No, I called that perfectly the first time-let's move on. •The headsets are working perfectly. •The cue lights are working perfectly. •The orchestra has no complaints. •The whole company is standing by whenever you want them. •That didn't take long. •No thanks I don't drink. By the producer: •Of course there's enough money to go around. •We have money left over. •No thanks, I don't drink. By the director: •Wow, the designers were right on, weren't they? •No, today is the tech rehearsal, we'll rework that scene later. •I think the scene changes are too fast. •Of course I think that we'll be ready in time for opening. •The crew? Why they're just wonderful! •No thanks, I don't drink. By the designers: •Of course all of my drawings were turned in on time. •Yes, it is absolutely my fault the set looks awful. •You know, you might have a point there. •The director knows best, obviously I wasn't giving him what he wants. •We have too many gel colors in stock, I can't choose. •Of course the shop will have the costumes ready on time. •No thanks, I don't drink. By the technical director: •This is the most complete and informative set of drawings I've ever seen. •We built it right the first time. •No problem, I'll deal with that right away. •I love designers. •No thanks, I don't drink. By the actors: •Don't...Let's not talk about me. •Really, I think my big scene should be cut. •This costume is SO comfortable. •I love my shoes. •No problem. I can do that for myself. •I have a fantastic agent. •Let me stand down here with my back to the audience. •I'm sure someone told me there was a wall here, I just forgot. •Without the crew the show would never run; let's thank them. •No thanks, I don't drink. By the stage crew: •That instrument is not in the way. •There's room for that over here. •We'll get in early tomorrow to do it. •No, no I'm sure that is our job. •Anything I can do to help? •All the tools are carefully locked away. •Can we do that scene change again please? •What a marvelous show!   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1999, Mersinger Theatrical Services