'GREASE' SET DESIGN TAKES CENTER STAGE
Preparations Continue as Work Begins on Prop for Signature Song
Clockwise from top left, the construction of "Greased Lightening" begins. Director Audra Duvall's daughter Riley adds some detail. Riley and her dad, Mike, take a test drive to the drive-in movie. Almost finished. But you'll have to wait until September to see the finished product. Photos by Bob Cohen/Link.
By Bob Cohen/Link
Each year a Tony is awarded for the best set decoration in a play just as an Oscar is given for the same accomplishment in a film. Sets are important because they bring the audience into the timeframe and place of the action. Imagine “Hamlet” without Elsinore Castle, or “Paint Your Wagon” without the Old West backdrop.
But there is a difference between stage and movie sets. Stage sets must fit on the stage and be easily moveable between scenes. Movie sets may be more permanent (think New York streets on a back lot) or even real. “Westside Story” was actually filmed in the West-side neighborhood of New York.
The film, “Grease,” used a real car for the “Greased Lightning” scene; a luxury not available to the Sun City Community Theater production of “Grease.” So, a set had to be designed and built that, to the audience, creates the impression of a car.
For Audra Duvall, show director, acting coach and set decorator, creating the faux automobile would be a challenge. Thank goodness Audra has lots of experience in making scenery come to life.
“You can really mess up this entire show if you don't do it right,” said Audra. “I've seen dozens of videos and play renditions where the car was either an actual car onstage (a feat in and of itself), or a wretched example of what you hope it will be (bizarre proportions and an overall lackluster presentation of cardboard, a golf cart or more expense and time than it is worth. So, I figured, if it has to be fake. let's try and make it as close as possible to what a 2D car could look like.”
Another obstacle presented itself in how the car should be rendered.
“What direction would it be facing was another big choice on a 2D version,” explained Audra. “Did we want to build a profile or head-on view? The drive-in scene in Act Two sold me on a full-front cut out.”
Each year a Tony is awarded for the best set decoration in a play just as an Oscar is given for the same accomplishment in a film. Sets are important because they bring the audience into the timeframe and place of the action. Imagine “Hamlet” without Elsinore Castle, or “Paint Your Wagon” without the Old West backdrop.
But there is a difference between stage and movie sets. Stage sets must fit on the stage and be easily moveable between scenes. Movie sets may be more permanent (think New York streets on a back lot) or even real. “Westside Story” was actually filmed in the West-side neighborhood of New York.
The film, “Grease,” used a real car for the “Greased Lightning” scene; a luxury not available to the Sun City Community Theater production of “Grease.” So, a set had to be designed and built that, to the audience, creates the impression of a car.
For Audra Duvall, show director, acting coach and set decorator, creating the faux automobile would be a challenge. Thank goodness Audra has lots of experience in making scenery come to life.
“You can really mess up this entire show if you don't do it right,” said Audra. “I've seen dozens of videos and play renditions where the car was either an actual car onstage (a feat in and of itself), or a wretched example of what you hope it will be (bizarre proportions and an overall lackluster presentation of cardboard, a golf cart or more expense and time than it is worth. So, I figured, if it has to be fake. let's try and make it as close as possible to what a 2D car could look like.”
Another obstacle presented itself in how the car should be rendered.
“What direction would it be facing was another big choice on a 2D version,” explained Audra. “Did we want to build a profile or head-on view? The drive-in scene in Act Two sold me on a full-front cut out.”
CATCH THE DAILY SHUTTLE TO RED ROCK
Sun City residents can catch a free shuttle to Red Rock Resort every day outside the Mountain Shadows Fitness Center. The bus picks up passengers at 12:30 p.m. For the return trip, the shuttle departs the casino at 4:10 p.m. and returns to the Mountain Shadows Fitness Center around 4:30 p.m.
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