Pajama Game

Well, it's over. The Pajama Game is done and gone and now I have so much more free time. YIPPEE! So, I'm finally getting around to putting up some of pictures for this particular production. There were seven different sets for the show, which makes it the biggest show I've ever worked on, but I totally lucked out with the space and with the help I had. Firstly, I have to give a huge thanks to Caleb Kardell. The man is a set-building machine! And he's also so chill about things, it kept me from getting too stressed out. Caleb and I both, insanely, called up the director and volunteer to help with the show... little did we know how intense it would be...

I had a lot to learn just being in such a large space. The Nantucket High School Auditorium is gigantic. After working in Bennett Hall last summer it was more than awesome to have wings and a fly system.
Zeb Bennett offered up an artistic hand when he could, he's a very busy boy. I couldn't be more appreciative to have someone who's hand their hands on a paint brush before. Good help is hard to find...
But the crew my buddies created was nothing but money. Carmen showed up pretty much every day as we eeked out every last piece and finished up the flats. Nothing but rockstars, that's what they are.
Carmen painted these sweet sewing machine cutouts...
Linney, the stage manager was always willing to help. Here she is sporting a tunic/apron. I was trend setting... every one wanted to be the cool kid with the apron.
Zeb and Little Lizzy Skokan had the pleasure of painting over "FOOTLOOSE" that was painted on the back wall of the theater. Poor guys. It was oil paint and Little Lizzy had it all over her glasses, neck, face and shirt. All in a painter day's work.
One day, I believe it was a Saturday, a good decent number of cast members hung out and helped prime and paint pieces. It was a huge help.
The first piece that was really done was the Hernandos hideaway sign. It turned out to be my favorite piece in the show.... this photo doesn't do it justice, it really looked sick all lit up. The entire Hernando's scene was dark. The actors used cigarettes lighters to light their faces and then there were just heavy red lights for mood. I don't think there are any really good pics of it so you'll have to take my word for it.
I'm so glad Carmen was so willing to help. She did a lot and kept me in stitches. Every time I'd break out the camera she'd whip around with the super happy face smile. In this super happy photo she's painting the stairs to give them a corrugated tin feel.
Margie didn't want her picture taken, but she's was another god-send. Not only had she done numerous plays in this auditorium, she rocks, pure and simple. So after she hung the flats with a little help from some of us we could get down to business on "Babe's House" and "the Office." We needed a fridge for the kitchen, so we turned the chest, you see pictured below, on it's short side which worked perfectly. The problem was that we couldn't paint it, so we settled to cover it with blue painter's tape and then paint over that. In the end it looked pretty great.
Getting closer than we'd ever been before... Carmen paints in the tree I shabbily sketched out on the huge picnic scene backdrop. We totally lucked out... these 8 flats were already together, hung on the fly, and painted with an ocean scene. we just painted some grass over the ocean, added a tree, and changed the seagulls to black birds.
The breakroom scene flat was actually pretty fun to paint. I put in a vintage Coke machine and a trash can and lastly added my not-so-straight lines to insinuate corrugated tin. I didn't do much for shading, at first just for time but once we saw it up we realized it didn't really need it.
The picnic scene was one of the first to have multiple pieces done ... we were fitting it all together. I was hellbent on having those swans, even though they fell down in two of the performances. ha.