Archive: Around Town

When the cast takes its curtain call at the end of a show, they are only a part of the group who should be getting applause.  Theater is a collaborative art that merges visual arts with dramatic, musical, and others.  But those backstage rarely get public recognition for the work they do that is equally creative to acting.  That's why Cindy Howell was thrilled earlier this month when she learned that the set for this year's Lansing High School production of 'Brigadoon' is a first prize winner.

"Any time that out theater gets recognition it's wonderful, especially the volunteers," Howell says.  "I don't feel like the community would care if we put on a bad show because they love the kids.  But the adults and kids who work really, really hard -- when we get recognized above and beyond our 'family' it makes it really special.  So I am really thrilled that this award shows that we really do a good job."


Howell rents the plans for the sets for most Lansing shows from ScenoGraphics, a Pennsylvania company that rents plans and set pieces to theater groups internationally.  Each year thousands of schools submit pictures of sets built from their plans, and the winning sets are featured in the company's catalog.

Even though two schools may use the same plans, the implementation may be quite different.  "ScenoGraphics provides blueprints and they provide color pictures of some of the set," Howell explains.  "Lee Ionone, our middle school art teacher, is the one who is in charge of that.  We don't always do it exactly the way they show it.  She has many times chosen to paint it in a different way, maybe because she has an idea or maybe because someone has donated a whole lot of paint and we have a lot of yellow and want to use it.  She is excellent at figuring those kind of things out."


Each theater presents particular challenges, so the first task is to adapt the rented plans to fit a particular theater.  The better written musicals are crafted to use crossover scenes to facilitate large scene changes.  On Broadway a drop would be lowered downstage (nearest the audience) and these scenes are played in front of it while the larger scene change is taking place behind.  Then the drop is raised to reveal the new set, meaning there is zero waiting time between scenes.

In Lansing that is not possible because the fly system, which would have to be at least the height of two drops, is not high enough.  But where there is a will there is a way.  "We have to bring in the batten," says Howell.  "Our new scrim has ties on it, but we used to use shower curtain hooks and fish line.  You need six to eight depending on how wide the drop is, and you get six to eight kids going across.  They have to pick it up, roll it up, put the thing around, hook it on and take it out."


But before you can do that you have to build the sets.  "We're really lucky here that I've been able to have families and parents be willing to come and build these sets," she says.  "A lot of schools don't have that.  Dean Shea, Mark Armstrong, Lee Ionone... Karl Syck built some things in the shop to bring over.  You have to be careful when you build things outside the auditorium, because you can't get them on the stage.  My husband did a lot.  There were a core of five or six that put it together, and there were probably 30 people, including students, that built and painted and made it happen."

Lansing shows rely a lot on donations, and what is donated can effect the look of the sets.  "This past year when we did Brigadoon my husband happened to be working at someone's house and the people said, 'We have all this extra stuff, what should we do with it?'" Howell recalls.  "He said, 'Please take it to the school.  They could use it.'  So the Spring drama never had to buy any lumber between what was donated and the things we already had from 'Brigadoon'."

Howell says that once the sets are built you still need to find the time to photograph them, which means getting enough people together to change the scenery for each picture, and light them to show their best features.  She credits parent Tilly Garnett with making that happen for the Brigadoon set.  "She did a great job making sure that happened," Howell says.  "Within a couple of weeks we should be getting a very large box with the trophy in it and their first publication of their flyer with our picture in it."

Last year's Catalog uses pictures from the four first place winners showing four different shows, plus second and third place winners and honorable mentions.  It names the school that built the sets, its location and the director.  Lorrene Adams and Howell will be named in the new catalog.


In the coming school year Lansing Middle School will be performing 'Annie Junior,' and the high school will produce 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.'  Howell says she already has the ScenoGraphic plans in hand.  She is especially looking forward to 'Joseph.'

"It's one of my favorites that we did 15 years ago," Howell says.  "A group of us looked at the video and we've learned a lot since then!  So we're really excited about doing that and I have the blueprints already from ScenoGraphics.  Joseph used to be very small, but now they've made it bigger.  It's a wonderful set... I'm looking forward to doing it."

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