Set Design and Little Women

The Set for Little Women

This is Charles. While Little Women closed a week ago, I thought our audience might like to hear about (and look at) this highly innovative set.

Here is Set Designer Lex van Blommestein talking about his first impressions for the concept of the set:

"When I first read the script for Little Women I realized that it is not as simplistic as some musicals. There is a rich story, that involves other fantastic stories wrapped within. I had to develop a visual idea that allowed for an interesting way to portray the rich and embellished tales that are spinning in Jo March's head. In the end, the decision became clear... bring it back to the story(ies). I had to keep the fantasy alive and interesting without making it seem like it was being acted. Using a semi-transparent material on the walls allowed for the hazy dream like stories of Jo's head to be played, while in front of the walls the reality of the musical can come to life."


These first three images are the preliminary sketches of how the set might work.






Once the set was okayed by Ray Gabica (the director), Lex and the Technical Director, Chuck Griffin, sat down to figure out what kind of materials could be used that would give the set the look Lex wanted but be within the budget for summer theatre. Scrim, the material that allows light through it when lit from the back and opaque when lit from the front, is very expensive.

Lex and Chuck decided to use a much more cost effective cheese cloth that had many of the same properties. It is never as opaque, but since we never had to see a "realistic" wall, it would work well--always giving a slightly ghostly feel to the room. Once the frame was built, the cloth was stretched over it and sized with a mixture of water and glue. Chuck demonstrates the look of the raw flat.


Next, it was Lex's turn to paint. Since the whole play is composed of Jo thinking back over her life, he opted to see fragments of the wall, not a hyper realistic look. Notice how the wall paper stencil fades in and out over the flat. The stencil is cut by hand and used to get the regulated pattern of the wallpaper. In the attic it is a suggestion of the lath showing through the plaster. For the floor he painted large pages of manuscript.


Ray wanted the show to always remind us of Louisa Alcott's (and, hence Jo's) literary roots. Great panels looking like books on a shelf were used to hide the house and provide other locations. Here Charlie Cochran and Chuck hold up the frame before it is covered with regular muslin.



Here is one completed and ready to go to the paint area. The workshop is located in the same building as the paint shop. Our property storage is there, too. The building is located about half a mile from the theatre. It's very convenient---until you need to transport the set to the theatre in the rain.


The platformed area helped define where we were at any given moment in the musical. The highest area was the attic. A sitting room area was to the left that could double in both the house and the boarding house. And an entrance/passageway was to the right of the attic. Here the platforms are just built and put in place for the first time at the scene shop.

Th Designer and Scenic Artist, Lex van Blommestein with the Little Women wallpaper stencil. Lex guesses he spent 55 hours painting the walls, platforms and floor.

The first day of Little Women!

Sunday 15th

After an exciting meeting of who’s who, and Charles’ famous Tibbits schpeal, it was time to get the Little Women ball rolling! We circled-up our chairs in the gym and did a read through of the script. Since the music is so tremendous in this show, we listened to the original cast recording when it was time for a song. Usually, when a show is familiar it’s not hard to sing a long with the piano during the initial read though, but with such a new and demanding score, it would have been quite difficult and not as enjoyable. We also got a chance to focus on the lyrics and their implication to the story.

The most exciting thing about a read through is experiencing the magic of what began as words on a page, come to life. Everyone had such a great sense of character, which is as refreshing as necessary when you only have 10 days to perfect a show! Also, most of us have never worked together before. We’re all coming from Anywhere, America and relationships have to be created almost instantly. Fortunately, this is an amazing group, and think it’s going to transfer beautifully into a truthful and wildly adventurous Little Women!

And to top off our first day— a lovely and delicious picnic only made more thrilling by a surprise thunderstorm! Talk about instant bonding!

{by Katie Lemos who plays Jo in Little Women.}

How Summer Theatre Comes Together, Part 2

I start to find the Design/Technical side for the summer at the same time in February as the acting auditions. There is something like a jobs fair at each audition I attend. Designers arrive at the Tibbits table with portfolios of their work--pictures, prompt books, technical drawings, renderings--hoping to impress the theatre representative. (Sometimes this is me, sometimes the Technical Director, if I have one in place that early in the season.) I also do a tremendous amount of our technical hiring from backstagejobs.com where countless behind the scenes jobs are listed for theatres across the country.

This year we have a very high return rate on the technical side. I think this speaks well for what we do here. It is an exhausting, sometimes thankless job. But we had a great team last summer and have only built on our strengths for this one. Lex vanBlommstein and Em Rossi, both in the process of getting their Master's degree with the Hillberry, are back with us. I know they were instrumental in talking up the Tibbits there, so we have three others from that program working here this summer.

The Design/Tech staff has all been here a week. The set is already being built. The Technical Director feels they are a couple of days ahead of schedule for Little Women and it has been given to the Scenic Artist to paint. The Costume Department is deep in research and showing renderings of the various ideas to be approved by the Director. The Properties Department is making massive lists and doing their own research of the Civil War era. Lighting is reconditioning lights and hanging them in a rep plot-- that is where the basic hang will be used all summer with variations for each show.

We have also been rehearsing Grace and Glorie and The House and Pooh Corner. By the end of the day we will be rehearsing three shows in three spaces around town. I will post this now, for it's time to greet the vast majority of actors who are arriving for Little Women. By the end of this week the first two productions will be open. That fact can still amaze me.