Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Les Liaisons Dangereuses: Tech and Dress Rehearsals

We have had a relatively painless tech process; there are not a huge amount of light and sound cues in the show.  Last night was our first run-through with full costume, make-up, and hair.  The costumes really add to the characters.  It was exciting to see what a big step forward the show has taken. 

Here's a picture of the floor and the Arena Theatre columns.  The set was designed by Daniel Hobbs and painted by our scene shop:
In our early design meetings, we talked a lot about rococo style and interior decoration for eighteenth-century French aristocrats.  There are many examples of walls and ceilings that are painted, gilded, and/or hung with tapestries in this period (Here is a video of the Boucher room at the Frick Collection: http://www.frick.org/visit/virtual_tour/boucher_room and this article in French has great pictures of eighteenth-century rooms in the Louvre.)  It would not have been typical to paint a floor in this way, but doing the show in the round means we have no walls! 

Here is a picture of the floor in the scene shop, before it was loaded into the Arena (photo by paint charge Dan Huston):
You can see the putti better in this version.  Putti are the little cherubs that show up almost everywhere in rococo art. 

We have two more dress rehearsals before we open on Friday.  The show is coming together very nicely!


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