SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

University of North Carolina at Greensboro: School of Theatre

Directed by John Gulley

Lighting Design:

Kenneth White

Scenic Design:

Jonathan Wentz

Costume Design:

Ryan Moller

Spring 2019, Carpenter

For my second show at UNCG I worked on Shakespeare in Love, a stage adaptation of the 1998 film of the same name. The design team worked hard to tell the story as authentically as possible, with a heavy focus on being period appropriate. Team scenery had quite the challenge, needing to create a dynamic set that could accommodate for the many locations of the show, as well one that would be believable for Elizabethan England. Our Designer, Jonathan Wentz, was heavily inspired by the Globe Theatre and created a set that consisted of one main superstructure with a bridge, two tracking units, and two bookend structures.

The first project we worked on for the show were the bookends. These house-looking structures on either side of the proscenium helped to frame the stage and serve as exit and entrance points. They were simple frames put together with pocket hole joinery that were then connected to each other by level, then stacked to make the final structure.

The main structure was a series of platforms connected together that featured a large bridge. The bridge itself was built with 2x8 southern yellow pine and all of the joists had a small notch cut into them to accommodate for traveler track for 3 curtains hung underneath the bridge. The structure was cross-braced using the flats that acted as the walls of the set.

There were two tracking units in this production. First, there was a balcony with ladders on either side. This was accomplished by mounting a legged platform to a castered one. When not in use it needed to blend into the rest of the set, so making it shift smoothly and seamlessly was essential. The second tracking unit was several platforms bolted together, castered, and flipped over. On either side of the platform's path we added strips of 2x faced with UHMW to help guide the platform and prevent it from drifting.