The Secret in the Wings
Production Team
Director - Greg Parmeter
Assistant Director - Grace Happe
Stage Manager - Julia Milne
Scenic Designer - Talia Mentjes
Props Designer - Carson Kreger
Costume & Makeup Designer - Joe Anderson
Lighting Designer - Ben Golden
Sound Designer - Laura Felde
Technical Director - Brodyn Byington
This production of Mary Zimmerman's The Secret in the Wings was my first show as lead TD, and was quite the experience. There were many interesting things that I needed to consider while drafting and loading in the set.
One of the large pieces required for this set was a large platform. In this platform, we needed to make a trap door for one of the characters to crawl into, as well as to have light shining up from underneath it.
We constructed the platform out of 2x4 and plywood. For the trap door, we added chains so that it stay open in an upright position; we also cut small holes in the door to allow light to bleed through.
Something pretty unique about this show is that it calls for many hidden entrances, one of which being a wardrobe that actors could walk through. Here can be seen the view of the back wall of the wardrobe. I wanted the back of the wardrobe to be heavier than the front so that it would not tip over when the doors were being opened and closed, but if I had to draft something like this again I would find ways to make the whole unit lighter.
We built the wardrobe in two main pieces: the wardrobe itself and a small platform that it sat on to raise it off the ground, as I thought that would be easier than building one entire unit.
I noted the lauan layout on my drawing with green lines to stand out from the framing. There was also a hidden entrance under the large staircase, which is the slightly awkward diagonal bit of framing towards the middle.
There was a moment which required three of the characters to be backlit to appear as portraits, so we had to build a platform for them to stand on as well. With so many entrance and exit pathways, it was challenging to figure out all of the necessary escape stairs and masking flats, especially because of the semi-transparent scrim material we used to create the portrait effect.
Perhaps the most defining features of the set for this production were the two giant walls. Being 16 feet tall and 23 feet wide, I concluded that it would be best to construct each wall in multiple pieces. For the stage left wall, the main section was built as a Broadway-style flat, while the smaller sections were built as Hollywood-style flats. The reason for this is that there needed to be a bookshelf built into the wall, as well as an escape doorway at the top of the wall, so it would be easier to stack Hollywood flats than try to build them all as Broadway flats.
I drafted an additional plate to send to the paint shop for them to cartoon the jagged lines at the top of the lauan before it could be cut in the scenic shop.
Production photos courtesy of Joe Anderson