Introduction
“Birth. Adolescence. Marriage. Death?” The history of a man is one with many twists and turns and ups and downs; life doesn’t always start the same but we all end the same though the journey is very rarely the same. If you’re not familiar with the George Herman two-act play: A Company of Wayward Saints it is a show about an improvisation troupe and their struggles on trying to make their way back home. Of course, their immediate plan doesn’t exactly turn out the way they expect but it all works out for the better and they discover a part of themselves they either lost or desperately needed.
The show, at first glance, is pretty simple: nine actors, a simple stage, and a handful of props. The biggest catch of the show is that it’s based on a theatrical acting style called Commedia dell’arte which, without going into an in depth analysis, is the idea that no matter what the improvisation scene calls for each character portrays the same character or represents the same idea-oh and they all wear masks.
At first, it didn’t seem like there was going to be any real complexity behind the tech just simple lights, simple set, simple props, simple costumes, etc. The more I sat on the idea of keeping it simple, the more it unsettled me. This was going to be the very first show that I got to technical direct so keeping it that simple isn’t really what I wanted. To summarize, I didn’t realize how wrong and misguided I was until show week crept closer and closer like the top of a roller coaster. I didn’t know how much work I really had to do and how short the time I had was.
Setting the Stage
The script was pretty descriptive on what the tech should look like anywhere from what the props looked like to every single piece of clothing each actor had to wear: well, except the set.
In the script it is simply referred to as a “pitiful platform” which isn’t very helpful when you’re the one creating the set. There were a lot of different factors that went into trying to make this stage: the size of our performing area, the resources that we had, the idea my student director had in mind, and the most important factor-how in the world do you even design a set?
I went through a lot of different ideas some of them were simple, some of them were complicated, and most were just plain impractical to begin with. There was a very confined space that we had to work with. There was an audience on all three sides of the performing space which proved to be a challenge because how do I make a stage for the actors to be able to move on that would allow them to perform without completely cutting off audience members. There was a little over ten more feet of room at the back then what the diagram might suggest but it still was a challenge.
The first idea I had come up with right after sitting in on the first read through was to create something that would fill up the entire performing space- a little (very) impractical to do. I had the idea to put ramps on the sides and steps in the front. With the Repertory Class shows we do, there isn’t a whole lot of funding allocated to it so for tech most of the time it’s what we have is what we use. The musical we did this year had built a set that we were planning to use for the play this year also. A lot of our resources went to that including a majority of our platforms-which I was planning on using for the sets. There was only about five platforms in the shop and they were all different sizes which made it difficult to try to create the stages I had in mind.
Another idea I had involved an attempt at creating a turntable in the center of the stage; although, the idea was ambitious the technology was above my current resources. I took the idea of making a circular stage by cutting three platforms and when you put them together it would be a circle. The turntable would be in the middle of the bigger circle and I thought about putting wheels at the bottom so that the actors would just have to spin it. There was also this platform at the back that would represent the backstage part of the setting since that’s where the actors spent a majority of their time and it also allowed them to stay on stage but not at attention. A little ambitious and ultimately didn’t end up working out with the same reason the first idea fell through.
The idea that I had planned to do was one that fully used the performance space. I had the notion of creating a sort of arena feel to the show. It was this big U-Shape with a dais in the front and the dais was going to be able to push forward for one of the scenes and turn into porch steps. The sides took the two smaller platforms while the middle was the biggest platform we had in the shop. This was the plan that was agreed upon by the director and I. It was the plan until it ended up completely falling through. The day after we came back from winter break I started build in both my Repertory class and the Technical Theatre class I take. Well, I head on into the shop and see that the pile of platforms that I had made before break had gone from five platforms to two. Apparently, our set designer from the musical had taken some for another show he was doing. That proved to be an enormous problem because we didn’t even have enough wood to make another platform or anything like that.
All of this was happening about three weeks before show week so the stress was on. I had to finish the set along with costumes and getting all the props organized and set. I ended up grabbing a bunch of square platforms and painting all of it-along with the platforms-brown. I wasn’t super sure how I was even going to arrange the set. The day that the set was supposed to be done so that the actors could rehearse with it, I had gotten everyone to go and grab all of the platforms and the dais and immediately got to thinking on how I wanted it assembled. When I realized that the original plan wasn’t going to work we had collaborated and thought of doing it as a “V” with the dais on the front. Our teacher had suggested that the platforms be uneven with each other to give it an unbalanced feel. Once all of the set pieces were done I had felt super unhappy because I felt like I had really let everyone down and that it didn’t look any good; but, in the end after doing a couple of runs on the stage it really started to grow on me. With how shambled and how crumbled it look worked really well with the show itself and it gave the actors a space that they could also interact with. What was really cool was how all the set dressing pieces could be used and moved by the actors and it all looked pretty natural.
Propping Up the Actors
Set was a territory that I was vastly experienced in: I had been doing it for over two years. Since all of my focus was used to being all on one area I really had to prepare myself to be able to multitask and realize that it was more than just one aspect I was in charge of. The first thing that I had done after the read through was go through the script and write down all of the props that were going to be used in the show. The thing about the show was that there weren’t a whole lot of big props needed but several people needed a bunch of small items. It was honestly kind of ridiculous how many items every person needed and part of me really just wanted to have everyone just pantomime everything but apparently that doesn’t make much sense in the context of some scenes so I wasn’t allowed to do that.
The hardest part was trying to find all the props in the first place. We were luckily enough to have our Scapino (who needs to play all these different instruments) actually own a lot of weird instruments and know how to play them. The most difficult prop that we still didn’t really figure out was Harlequin’s batte. We didn’t think that the text meant an actual baseball bat (which was the only thing that showed up when we had googled it) so we tried to find a cricket bat because that was probably the closest to what we wanted. Turns out that cricket bats are a little harder to find and we ran out of time to actually order one so we ended up having to improvise. The issue that we kept running into with the batte was the fact that it had to be strong enough to survive a pretty intensely choreographed sword fight with an actual prop sword. We ended up using a walking stick that our teacher had and tied strips of cloth to the end of it to give it a vaguely nomadic feel. It actually suited the character pretty well and the actor had done well to incorporate it with his actions.
That was sort of a theme with the props was that they were meant to add on to the characters. Columbine is meant to be this jaded and apathetic character: one of her props that she brings on is an apple she eats on stage during the show-it really shows how little she cares about what everyone thinks of her and it’s one of the very first interactions that the audience has with Columbine. Of course, there’s the sword that Capitano carries around because he’s this washed up warrior with a big personality so he’s constantly swinging his sword around in all different directions.
What really put the icing on the cake with the props was how smart everyone was with their props and how they went above what the directions on the stage set. I think one of the biggest changes was in Dottore and Capitano’s use of their props. Dottore has this doctor’s bag that he carries around with him in every single scene he’s in: he’s never without it, yet when he enters act two which is the act where everyone gets serious and the allegory really comes to life he puts the bag away. What’s interesting was the fact that his bag would make the most sense in that scene which was the birth scene, but he puts the prop away and with it goes the faux intellectual persona. With Capitano he was apart of the death scene and he played this military man so again the sword would make complete sense, but right before he sits in his chair: he stops, looks at his swords, then puts it down. It was moments like those where the interactions that the actors had with their props really brought to life these whimsical characters.
Threading it All Together
The most challenging part of being a technical director wasn’t hanging and focusing lights, it wasn’t trying to fix a gaping hole that was accidentally put into the dais, it wasn’t making a giant sign that was meant to be sown but the sewing machine wasn’t working: it was none of those things, it was costumes. Trying to get all of the actors dressed and have them look semi-decent as they performed onstage was by far the most difficult part of the whole production. This is the part where the director and I really wanted to be edgy and different but it wasn’t going so hot.
There are specific directions on what each character wore and what they looked like-there was even a costume plot online-but the big issue was funding for the whole thing. Since this was just a class show there wasn’t a whole lot of money allotted for us to use for the show let alone costumes. The director and I had went to a local coffee shop to try and figure out how in the world we were going to NOT send the actors onstage in their underwear. We spent a good two hours just talking about ideas alone on how we could make everything work. After discussing, what felt like every single idea known to man, we decided on the idea that each character should have a color that represents them and their own time period. The big idea of the show itself is going home but the characters don’t know what or where home is so we wanted to try and represent that. We had the idea of everyone being from a different time period to represent the passage of time in a way.
Harlequin
I had Harlequin’s design in my head every since we had done the first read through. I always knew that I wanted Harlequin to be white. The idea I had was that I didn’t want him to have the stereotypical look of harlequin which is bright colors with the diamond pattern; instead, I wanted there to be elements of that within his costume. White is the color that goes with everything plus it makes the other colors stand out. At the end of his character arc he becomes a fitting leader and like any fitting leader he has to be able to work well with his followers while also helping them shine. His era was the 1920s with the whole button up, dress pants, suspenders, and a fedora. We incorporated the harlequin pattern into his suspenders and the diamonds were the colors of the members of the company.
Columbine
Columbine is written as the oldest woman in the company but she is meant to be around the same age as Harlequin which is mid-thirties. Since Columbine and Harlequin are married we wanted them to be from the same era. The idea was that since Columbine looks down at the rest of the company that her color should be purple. Purple to symbolize that she is “higher” than everyone else. We wanted her in a purple flapper dress since she was the 1920s with Harlequin.
Scapino
Scapino is meant to be this young and energetic character. He is exciting to be around and knows how to do any and everything. So what other color than orange to really show how much he’s meant to stand out. With Scapino we wanted to show that he was very street savvy and he really knew his way around the block. We gave him the time period of the late 1800s. We wanted him in an orange button up, brown dress pants that we’d roll to his knees, orange tights, a black beret and black suspenders.
Ruffiana
Ruffiana is known as the tart. She’s the sexiest out of everyone in the company and is known as the “most popular actress who can’t really act” and as Harlequin says “there are other forms of entertainment.” With this in mind we wanted to do as Les Mis and give her red the color of desire. With that in mind, we didn’t want her to be so overly sexy that it’s trashy so we wanted her in a red high low skirt with fishnets and a peasant top the idea of her being modeled after an 1800s prostitute.
Capitano
Capitano is vivacious and tenacious. He’s probably one of the most interesting characters within the play and that’s saying something. We gave him the color green as a symbol for the military and life. Capitano’s costume was probably the easiest to put together because we had just wanted him in a military costume. What better time period for the military than the 1940s which has probably the most recognizable military style.
Dottore
With Dottore, he is an old man and he’s also a doctor so we had given him the color of black to symbolize death in a way and there’s a negative connotation to the color. The reason we wanted that negative connotation was because there is a line that Dottore says in his introduction: “I am not much loved.” We gave him the time period of 1910’s just because that was the aesthetic we gave him and we had simply asked for him to be in an all black three piece suit with a black bowler hat.
Pantalone
Pantalone is the oldest of the company and is constantly bickering with Dottore. We wanted to keep the old men in the same time period with the idea that they came from the same time but shared different views. Pantalone was brown and it’s kind of a joke: we gave him brown because Pantalone is as old as dirt. It’s a tad more than that with brown also meaning material security and traditionally Pantalone is meant to be a money grubbing old man. So like Dottore he is in a three piece suit but we wanted him in a flat cap.
Isabella & Tristano
These are the Innamorati or the lovers: they are the youngest of the company so we wanted to make them the most modern. We gave them the color blue since it’s so universal in its meanings like love. The idea for the lovers was that Isabella was the sky (light blue) and Tristano was the ocean (dark blue) so that they fit together and are endless. Since there’s was the most modern they simply had to dress as if they were teens going on a date: Isabella in a nice blue sundress and Tristano in nice jeans and a blue button up.
Though the ideas were all well thought out and pretty solid, reality had other ideas for us. As the weeks pass and opening night gets closer we put the final details on everyone’s costume except two: Columbine and Capitano. Their costumes were the two we had to order since we didn’t have any purple flapper dresses and the military costumes we had didn’t fit our ex-football player Capitano. As show week comes so do all of its stresses along with botched ideas. The costumes come and I’m too busy running around trying to gather the props and talking to the director to notice the very big mistake. Hearing my name being called I turned to see the actress playing Columbine holding up a bright red-and I mean scarlet-flapper dress, worlds away from the purple dress I asked for.
Our teacher also happened to be gone because of a virus she had caught so there was no way I was going to be able to fix it by opening night tomorrow. Pushing back the panic that bubbled up in my small body I simply grabbed the keys to the costume closet and began to search for any semblance of purple in the many racks of clothing. Eventually my search turned fruitless and went to the director to figure out a game plan and how to fix this pretty big mistake.
We decided on simply changing Columbine’s color and giving the dress to Ruffiana instead. We went in the direction of a sexy 1960s housewife instead and gave her a pink dress with a floral pattern and a low neckline and it still went with Harlequin’s look but it still derailed the whole time period idea we had going on but the flow was the way we had to go. The time period idea had gotten thrown out the window and our lovers didn’t end being as modern as we wanted them but it all had worked out for the best in the end.
Even though it hadn't turned out exactly as envisioned it really did fit the show quite well. The mismatched cast of misfits had really blended well with the story itself. What had really worked that I hadn't really thought of was how distressed and how distinctive everything had looked put together.
