MFA DIRECTING ONE ACTS:

North Carolina Theatre for Young Audiences

FEEDING THE MOONFISH

Directed by John Perine

THE ARKANSAW BEAR

Directed by Hayley Greenstreet

Scenic Design:

Natalie Davies

Lighting Design:

Rachel Lake

Sound Design:

Lane Palmer

Costume Design:

Karsen Green

Fall 2020, Technical Director

Assistant Technical Director:

Ryan “Rye” Carchidi

The MFA Directing One Acts was a set of two shows that would play one after the other. At intermission, the crew would flip the set from one show to the other. For this production, our team opted to share units between shows rather than having two completely separate looks. This allowed us to spend more time and effort on the units and really refine the aesthetics of the show. The large tree that stayed for both shows helped to bring these polar opposite shows together in harmony, and the moving dock pieces allowed for a dynamic change in playing space between the two.

Feeding the Moonfish is a show that centers on the cycle of abuse. It follows Martin as he is plagued by the spirits and voices of his past. His routine is interrupted by Eden, a girl from his work who wants to get to know him better. The setting is described in the show as a “rusty old piece-of-shit dock” and the team decided to not stray far from that. There were ramps leading up to the dock, as well as down to the lowered orchestra pit to help establish levels and a waterfront.

The Arkansaw Bear is a show that seeks to help children understand and process death. Young girl Tish wishes on a star to understand why her grandpa has to die, and her wish is granted by way of a dancing bear whose time has run out. By the end of the show, the characters learn that death is natural, and as long as you pass on your knowledge and experience to the next generation, you will never be forgotten. Our director asked for a magical forest with a grand tree, and so we delivered.

The first part of build was mostly spent creating the dock pieces. All of the dock pieces made up the Feeding the Moonfish set; however, at intermission three of the four platforms had to be struck to set up for The Arkansaw Bear. This meant the platform had to be easy to get apart. We attached the sections with carriage bolts and wing nuts. Next, twenty-two custom dock legs had to be made. Many of them were of unique size or placement. For Feeding the Moonfish, our orchestra pit was lowered eight inches, and one of the platforms hung over the dip. This meant that I had to take a meticulous approach to my drafting. I made a key to go along with my construction plans (click to enlarge). Once the legs were made, we built the ramps, and decked everything with MDF strips to help with the slatted dock effect. Some of the ramps proved to be a bit steep, so we added extra strips of rounded 1x to give the actors more traction. The dock was a satisfying project that I am very proud of.

The last of the more conventional build for this production was the rotating tent unit. This needed to be offstage for most of The Arkansaw Bear , and come on discreetly. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, we had a limited crew. This meant the unit had to function well with only one operator. As such, I drafted up a castered archway that was mounted to a cross-braced pipe, and weighed down in the back. Once the props team added fabric, the tent really came alive.

The biggest scenic element, by far, was the large tree in the center. This was a huge challenge for everyone involved, but a challenge that I welcomed and definitely grew from. The first challenge was having to construct the tree completely from hand draftings. Considering this a “challenge” may highlight my youth, but it was simply something I had never done before and I got very comfortable tracing the various elements in Vectorworks to create my CNC files. I’ve included the initial sketches I was given for the individual tree pieces as well as the sketch for the overall unit.

The fun thing about trees is that there are many ways to accomplish them. I find any free-flowing organic shapes or structures in theatre require great collaboration between the carpentry, paints, and props departments; this project is a great example of that. I had done a tree once before (see my Falstaff page for details), so going into this I had a rough idea of what was possible. I met with my designer and paint/prop shop supervisor to discuss what they wanted. I suggested for the tree roots a base to establish the overall shape, and stacked rings as the units got vertical to help keep the deep ridges of the bark. We opted for the sake of accuracy and time to cut these pieces on our CNC table. We would then take these pieces and slowly build up a wooden structure around them for the props team to then cover in chicken wire and muslin. I created a 3D model of what a completed base might look like to better illustrate the idea. Also above are two sketches my designer gave me to help make my CNC files. Another is a selection from one of my finished files.

The branches proved to be an interesting project not only because of their unique shape, but also their use of a compound angle. They needed to be hung above the stage at various angles, meaning they needed to be completely three-dimensional. After some healthy discussion, we came up with this large irregular shape cut out of 3/4” ply on the CNC table. Two of the pieces were bolted together, and the third slotted in at an angle.

Once we cut the plywood pieces, we were ready to assemble. We had long boards running the full length to add structure, and various smaller boards to help get the rings up to the correct height. Beyond that, the rest of the assembly was much more free-form. I would analyze the drawing and instruct my team on where, and at what angle, to add a board to the structures. Once I was satisfied with the shape, it was on to cross-bracing to make sure it could support any future applications and movement.

Above are various pictures of the units as we built up the structure, and below is a picture of all of the units completed and rough fit together.

Our incredible props team then spent days wrapping the bases and branches in chicken wire and muslin. The branches got a painted bark texture. However, the bases got an applied bark texture. Hundreds of small cardboard pieces were ripped and individually hot glued to the tree.