SUGAR 4

Here are the only other color production photos that I have from the TWC productions of the musical SUGAR. RAY PIERCE & AUBREY ALLRED as Daphnie & Josephine with LANA HOOVER as Sweet Sue the band leader and HOLLY WAHLSTROM as Sugar Kane.

SUGAR 3

TEXAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY was no bush-league college in the Dramatics Department in the 1970's. Although TCU and SMU often claimed the glory, TWC was known as THE place to go for a Broadway Caliber education and that is why I was able to get a scholarship to attend after graduation from R. L. Paschal High School and my early work at Casa Manana in Fort Worth.

Here are some publicity photos taken prior to the production itself. I don't claim to have designed all these clothes ( oftentimes my job was as costumer...finding and fitting the right existing garments) and not just a designer. TWC had an extensive attic full of past wardrobe which I could pull from, and I also borrowed from Casa and the Forth Worth Community Theatre, where I had connections. Some numbers, like the Title Tune required special costuming. In the "Sugar" number a line of 15 chorus boys in identical yachting outfits to the leading man were required. I ended up scouring the town for 16 pairs of white slacks, blue blazers, and white caps...along with the appropriate patches as insignia and in the required sizes, to outfit the men's chorus for that one number. It was worth it though as they casually stepped onstage in support of the leading leady as she sang the title tune
( see pic 3).
The actors seen here fron the top photo left are: Mike Wood, Ray Pierce & Aubrey Allred. Holly Wahlstrom, Lana Hoover & David Floyd. Ray Pierce & Holly Wahlstrom. Lyle Knause & Aubrey Allred.

SUGAR 2

I had designed and built costumes, props, sets and puppets for productions before...I was not exactly an amateur at this point. But I had never headed an entire segment of a production before and never had to account for my contribution for college credit before. I begged, borrowed ( almost stole) and finagled every favor I could, but in the end I had to deliver and that meant hours hunched over a sewing machine. And I learned what being a designer was all about. And I Loved It!

SUGAR TWC 1975

I cut my teeth on production design at CASA MANANA from 1972 on, but I really studied design and staging when I went to college at TEXAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY in Fort Worth, Texas in 1974. By the next year I was fullfilling my major requirements by designing and costuming the spring musical "SUGAR" which was based on the film SOME LIKE IT HOT and set in 1920's Chicago.

Here RAY PIERCE and AUBREY ALLRED, two terrific performers as males...are transformed into Daphne & Chloie as they hide out in the all-girl band on the run from the mobsters. The costume designs were only the start. As any decent drag queen knows...the secrets are in the foundations. Turning Guys into Gals in the space of 5 minutes on stage is no mean feat...doing it in the period clothes is even harder. I really learned a ton working with our Director, Mason Johnson and Technical Director, Cecil Cole. No one could ever want a better theatrical education than we all got there.

In Watermelon Sugar 4

I hope you've enjoyed your 360 degree tour of what once was the Oak Acres Amphitheatre. It's all still there just off Loop 820 on Las Vegas Trail, although you can't see it from the road anymore and  there is nothing magical about the space now that the HIP POCKET THEATRE has moved on...

Still, sometimes in my dreams I find myself back there... in the dark... with the stage lights glowing ...and the music playing... and it is a very comforting place for me to be.

I'm sure I am not alone in that dream...

In Watermelon Sugar 3

The :"Forgotten Works" at far stage right was a hideous conglomeration of crap...the entrance to some sort of city or factory that was once the focus of the human's lives, but is now completely foreign to them...a place not to venture into. These daylight photos don't do it justice. I had weird lighting and smoke pellets going so it steamed it's fetid atmosphere...just off stage...during the entire show.It is also an example of bits and pieces of old sets from previous productions...a bit of personal irony thrown in for good karma...

In Watermelon Sugar 2

My sets sometimes resemble art installations because I like to add "texture" especially in the outer regions of the space which might not be used as main performing areas, but are there nonetheless for the audience to see and experience. In contrast i sometimes tend to understate the main acting spaces.

IN WATERMELON SUGAR takes place in a post apocolyptic time when humans have gone back to a simpler way of living and items of technology that crop up are foreign to them. It is a very "Hippie" mindset and the show plays out in that way. The comfortable old relics which adorn the walls and main stage area reflect this in the upper photo. In the lower shot, the main characters "House" is spartan and simple as befits his personality. This ramp which sprang up sometime in the 1985 season leads to a small platform built next to the existing light booth structure. We used this space repeatedly as the actor to audience dymanic was heightened by the energy generated there.

IN WATERMELON SUGAR

And here is the same stage less than one month later. We did a show a month in those days, 11 productions a year during my time there in the 1980's, either UPSTAIRS AT THE WHITE ELEPHANT, at the KIMBELL MUSEUM, or in the summer out at OAK ACRES. It was a pretty amazing and creative time. I believe that our audiences really did not have a clue of what went into putting on one of these shows and perhaps that is what kept it so magical...for them!

You can see here that the center platform and all trace of the "House of Tarzan" are gone, as well as the lower area of audience seating, since Johnny wanted to utilize that space for performance. I scrounged all the furniture from the side of the road, as was my custom and completely repainted the entire space. The resulting set was centered around the mask streetlight which brought this more intimate show down among the spectators. I really loved this design. A lot of planning and work went into it, and the audience never sensed any of the artiface behind it, they just sat and let it flow over them...

Oak Acres 4

Here at the top is the stage left platform and the staris leading down from the cetral platform "House". You can see the sand dune I built there in the corner. Following around we move up into the stage left audience seating and the platform built up in the audience which represented the "Oodles O' Noodles" offices. One of our trademarkes as a theatre company was the intimate inclusion of the audience in the production whenever possible. You could expect to be touched, fondled or manhandled at some point by someone in the cast at almost any HIP POCKET THREATRE show. PAT DIAS was largely responsible for the carpentry involved in raising our precious audience up out of the quagmire that was Oak Acres. Every year I remember him coming out in the spring, surveying the damages and with a huge sigh getting to work to fix everything. He was also a fine actor and I tried to use him in everthing I did out there. His "Nutty Professor" take on Professor Stevens in A&C MEET FRANKENSTEIN may well have been his finest hour on the stage!

Oak Acres 3

At the top is a detail of the lower part of the central platform built in 1984. We used it and the various attachments in 1985 and through this production in late summer 1986. We took the platform down before the next production of IN WATERMELON SUGAR which finished the 1986 season. The Knarled "Trees" that support this house were left over from the season opening show PETER PAN. The sign "This is the House of Tarzan the Killer" hanging at center was the original used at Highway 80 in 1977 for the production of TARZAN OF THE APES. JOHNNY SIMONS and I were ( still are I guess) HUGE Tarzan fans; the original Burroughs, the Comic Books and the Hollywood versions, too.

The bottom shot shows the "House" in all it's sunlit glory. If you would like to watch the production under proper stage lighting it is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/HipPocketMemories

For the second show of this season ON BEAST BEACH, a parody of the Beach Party movies, I imported several yards of real sand for the actors to cavort in. I used this to create areas at center stage and on the right and left for OLD BOY and OLD CHEETAH ( Me) to play in during OLD TARZAN. I had a helluva time "removing" the sand before the next, non jungle show. It's probably still out there under the stage somewhere.....

Oake Acres 2

Now we're looking from the audience up toward the stage right band platform, above which is the obligatory King Size bedsheet used as a slide screen during OLD TARZAN. Except for the screen this area of the stage would be virtually invisible during production with only the band's music lights on. You can just glimpse the "Horse Stable dressing Room in the far left background of this picture.

The bottom shot shows the area where the action of OLD TARZAN bordered at stage right. This area was the first we built up at Oak Acres using steps and platforms brought over from Grissoms on Highway 80. It reamained the "Center Stage area for many years, but here gives way to the big platform just at the right which RICHARD HILL and I built in 1984 for MIRANDOLINA and more importantly for  ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN  which required the famous Revolving Wall as the main gag in Act 2. Here this part of the stage is dressed as the House of Tarzan the Killer, with the ramp specially built as the entranceway. I used a lot of bamboo and reed matting to suggest a structure built up from the jungle floor by Tarzan himself.

Oak Acres Amphitheatre

With the start of school my summer of scanning my design work has ended and I'm not nearly finished as yet! To keep the posts moving along I thought I would share this panoramic view of the Amphitheatre located at Oak Acres on the southwest end of Lake Worth in Fort Worth, Texas. The HIP POCKET THEATRE performed a summer season there from 1979 until the early 2000's before moving to their current home just a few miles away.

These photos where taken by me in the late summer of 1986 and show the space as I utilized it for the productions of OLD TARZAN by Simons & Balentine  and  IN WATERMELON SUGAR by Richard Brautigan. The theatre looks pretty ramshakle ( and it WAS!) during the daylight hours, but at night under the stage lighting ( and frequently the Moon lighting) this was a spot of pure magic.

The top photo is taken from the upstage platform looking out toward the Light Booth(on the right) and the main audience seating area. the botton shot shows the audience seating at stage right and a glimpse of the platform on which Douglas Balentine's band sat during performance. The speakers here covered with blue tarps during the week as protection against the infrequent Texas rains.

 Actors could enter from the aisleway leading up to the sloping hill in the background ( how many times I made my entrances from up there...once famously without the key prop gun I needed in THE MALTESE FALCON, which had fallen out of my suit pocket somehow...I used my finger as the "gun" and the show went on!)  There was also an entrance immediately off right in front of the band platform which lead straight up the hill to the old horse stable we used as our communal dressing room.

My 3 ANGELS Plans

At top is the groundplan for the set of MY 3 ANGELS. This outline was taped off on the floor of the workshop space for rehearsals. The sightlines in the Little Theatre at Century 21 were very shallow, with audience seated at both the extreme right and left of the stage. This meant that the action of the plays had to be pulled as far forward as possible, leaving a pretty narrow central space which could be seen from all angles. I would soon be forced to employ the hydraulic orchestra pit to stage level and design later shows to play on this thrust for better sightlines.

Below is a section of the Working Drawings or Plans which I would prepare for the Carpenter so that the flats and extra decorations could be built to scale. Every flat needed for both the forward set walls and the returns and masking had to be meticulously drawn out with reference to any existing set pieces which I intended to incorporate. This theatre had been in operation since the 1950's and there was a wealth of left-over doors, staircases and large props in storage which I used to fill out my designs and offset the budget for each show.

The bamboo supports used for MY 3 ANGELS were something new however, and all had to be built from scratch. For the smaller elements such as the garden gates, we used real bamboo shafts from a garden center lashed together with twine ( and hot glue, a new invention back then!).

The large beams and supports were constructed out of the central tubing on which rolls of carpet are shipped. We cut each long tube in half lengthwise and cut foam insulating tubing into quarters as well. about every 12" a quarter of foam was secured around the half cardboard tube and then the entire thing was covered with muslin, glued and stretched in place. When dry these were faux-painted to look like real bamboo.

MY 3 ANGELS Wichita Community Theatre 1981

I designed sets and costumes for the WICHITA COMMUNITY THEATRE from 1980 to 1983. We used an old synagogue as our workshop stage in those days and performed a 5 play season in the 600 seat theatre which was a part of the Wichita Convention Center dubbed "Century 21" which was beside the Arkansas river directly downtown.

The first show I designed there was MY 3 ANGELS by Samuel & Bella Spewack ( the movie version called WE'RE NO ANGELS starred Humphrey Bogart ).

The play takes place behind a general store in French Guiana around 1900, so I incorporated large bamboo supports and interwoven matting to give the set the exotic flavor required. This was counter-pointed by the provincial style furnishings which the family would have brought with them or had imported from Europe. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a large quantity of silk flowers to populate the garden seen through the gates at stage right, augmented by two palm trees that we built from scratch out of carpet tubing and oiled paper leaves. Details such as these and the shop wares glimpsed through the doorway at center and on either side which give a set "depth" and believability.

THE THREE CUCKOLDS Photos

As per my usual...I have no clear photos of this set in production! Above is a frame grab from a video promo created for public television in 1986. To watch it visit ttp://www.youtube.com/user/HipPocketMemories.
This entire production was re-staged for television at TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY with the possibilty of inclusion in a PBS Arts series...but this never materialized. I wonder where the taped version of this production is now?

The frame grab shows the setting in production ( from the mask drop down unfortunately), but a good idea of what the staging looked like.

The lower picture was taken for publicity and features two of my favorite performers, RICHARD (DICK) HARRIS and JIMMY JOE STEENBERGEN...and lastly ME as the THREE CUCKOLDS of the title. Jimmy Joe and I are still moving around some, but sadly Mr. Harris has passed on to that great Greenroom in the sky.

THE THREE CUCKOLDS

Another KIMBELL ART MUSEUM production which was a great success was THE THREE CUCKOLDS, a commedia del'arte play from the italian renaisance.

Above is my original rendering for the backdrop curtain which highlighted the three main characters as commedia masks ( the curtain behind this drop was red satin with three fuzzy red lurid "tongues" which appeared to drop down from each mask). This drop hung above a raked platform upon which the action of the play took place, complete with trap door for the entrance of "The Devil" puppet late in the play.

My good friend ( and Incredible Scenic Artist!) MARK EVAN WALKER executed the painting of my designs for both this drop and the groundcloth of the raked platform.

The Second Shepherd's Play Program

here is the program for THE SECOND SHEPHERD'S PLAY. Once again I would like to thank my good friend JOHN MURPHY, who appeared in this production, for the video copy of the play that I've uploaded to YouTube and taken these frame grabs from.

The Second Shepherd's Play Design

At the top is my original rendering for the wagon-stage setting of THE SECOND SHEPHERD'S PLAY.
The actors actually carried the pieces of the wagon down the aisle at the start of the play and "assembled" it on stage in front of the audience as the show began.

 The inner stage behind the "Weaver's Guild" curtain was used as the house of the thieving shepherd and at the end as a tableau of the nativity...the ANGEL puppet rose up behind the wagon to sing it's joyful news of Christ's birth to the Shepherds as seen in the lower picture.

 ( These are frame grabs from a videotape of the production).

This simple show was so popular that it garnered the best reviews of any holiday offering that season in Fort Worth and we toured it in Dallas after the Kimbell run was over. I am proud that my original vision of the play was presented intact as I designed it ( not the norm, sadly) and that it was so roundly well received.

If you would like to see some scenes from the play visit http://www.youtube.com/user/HipPocketMemories

The Second Shepherd's Play

Here are some more pics from the Dallas Theatre Exhibit, these  showing my puppet ANGEL from THE SECOND SHEPHERD'S PLAY and DIANE SIMONS costumes for the three shepherds.

I had studied medieval cycle plays in college and recommended this as a good Christmas piece when the KIMBELL ART MUSEUM requested a show for the holidays.

THE MANDRAKE SKETCHES

It constantly amazes me how little archival material I possess related to my own design work (it still runs to trunks full, hence this blog...). I know some who meticlously document every stitch and paintstroke of their work, but I seem to have been either too busy ( most likely) or more interested in the next production to have spent the time and effort. I did do quite a bit of work in my head. My costume work and to some extent my puppetry work was accomplished this way. If I was the primary builder/fabricator then a detailed sketch or rendering wasn't needed.

I learned how to draft patterns in college and how to fit costumes by draping on the actor or dressform using a million pins, and that is how I worked.

DIANE SIMONS and I both worked on the "found item" model which meant endless hours scouring thrift stores and vintage clothing boutiques...or visiting the fabric wholesalers ( when we had a budget!) and "draping" the characters out on a table. She is a Master at this and I learned so much during the years we worked side by side.

Here at top is the only sketch i have of the groundplan and partial elevation for THE MANDRAKE. Our shows at the KIMBELL had to be completly broken down and stored between performances, as the recital hall there was in constant use by others. Building scenery that can withstand "travel" is about 4 times harder than doing it on site with staple gun and paint.

Also for THE MANDRAKE I built most of the ensembles' wardrobe from scratch, or spent extensive time actually painting or dying existing pieces to fit my needs, again without a dedicated crew.

THE MANDRAKE

Here, also from the Dallas theatre display are two of my costume  designs from THE MANDRAKE, the Wallace Shawn translation which was the last production we were allowed to perform at the KIMBELL ART MUSEUM ( this Italian Farce, which I had recommended to Johnny Simons, was just a bit TOO earthy for the blue-haired crowd we played to there. It would have been better suited to our outdoor audience at Oak Acres, I think now...but...Oh, Well!)

This is the only production at HIP POCKET for which I designed both the Set & Costumes. I had done this successfully in Wichita with the Community Theatre there, but it is really hard to pull off when you have no crew to help you, or the "volunteer force" is sketchy at best. The Show looked and played well, though...but still not one of my favorite shows.

My concept was a Fellini-esque world where the then 80's inspired Nouveau riche costumed characters enacted their lusty plot against a ruined and decaying classical backdrop. This included BROTHER TIMOTHY, a sham of a priest in hand painted zebra striped tuxedo and boots and the mother MADAME SOSTRATA in faux tiger skin, with her poor daughter a sex kitten vision in pink maribou and angora.  Stylish if somewhat heavy-handed, but fun... and way over the heads of our audience...a serious miscalculation on my part.

HIP POCKET ON DISPLAY

I just found these photos from a display of theatre costumes and set designs which was held in conjuction with a conference of some sort in Dallas, I believe in the early part of 1987.

Here are two very nice shots of the HANS & FRIEDA puppets from FREAKS, along with FREDDY the SEAL which belonged to Lorca Simons' character of VENUS in the Play.

The Fabulous CLEOPATRA, QUEEN OF THE AIR costume was designed and built by DIANE SIMONS, as were all of our costumes in those days. But Oh how DENA BRINKLEY did fill it out!

I remember this and at least two other instances where we took costumes and props to display over in Dallas, where they did not have such things of course....One time was in Bloomingdales of all places with these outlandish outfits atop the platforms over the cosmetics counters and jewelry cases...Talk about swine among the Pigs!

HANS & FRIEDA look pretty good here after their star turn in FREAKS and some storage time. Sadly these foam rubber creations tend to disintegrate fairly soon after the are used...

FREAKS Reviews and Video Link

If I've piqued your interest in the HIP POCKET THEATRE production of FREAKS you might want to visit YouTube where you can watch a video of the show from 1986.

http://you.be/ZqlmrEooVRw

Is the direct link.

FREAKS Production Reviews

I've received many reviews of my work over the years, mostly favorable...but none so unanimously good as those for FREAKS which was gratifying. What sticks in my mind though is the moment in the play when Hans in his sickbed, as seen above in the show, lays back... and with Johnny Eck poised nearby, repeats Cleopatra's insult to them all very slowly, " Filthy...Slimey....FREAKS!". As the light dimmed on the scene there was a collective "Oooooooo" that rose up from the audience and I knew we had them in the palm of our hands. That is what I did theatre for. That is what it is all about.

FREAKS Production Stills

here are four still shots taken during a live performance of FREAKS.

LORCA SIMONS as Venus shares a scene with Frieda, manipulated and acted by CINDY GRIFFIN. Notice how the larger-than-life poster of Hans ( the topic of their conversation) looms between them from the set behind. As Frieda breaks down and cries, LORCA gently lifts her up and away from CINDY'S control although as an actress CINDY'S  performance still dominates the scene. This is puppetry combined with live actors taken to the next level.

DENA BRINKLEY as Cleopatra, Queen of the Air and the object of Hans infatuation which drives the plot of FREAKS. Acting alongside puppets is not an easy thing to do convincingly and for this show it had to be convincing. DENA was such an acomplished performer she made it look easy and set the tone for the rest of the company of actors. In the first still she flirts with Hans as he helps her on with her cloak. Since my black gloved hands were directly controlling  the puppet's hands he could appear to handle the real costume cloak as he placed it around her shoulders. A small movement, but one that cemented in the audiences' minds that Hans was a real character and not just an inanimate object.

 In the second still DENA as Cleopatra and ADRIAN MARTINEZ as Hercules the Strongman make fun of Hans as he stands pitifully just "outside" her wagon door. Again the setting is merely suggested, the manipulation of scale creating a tableau of simple power to put over the complicated scene.

FREAKS the Puppets

The two central dramatic characters in FREAKS are the midget couple HANS & FRIEDA,

In the original 1932 Tod Browning film on which this show was based these characters were portrayed by actual Little People ( in fact a brother and sister) but for our purposes they were enacted by 36" tall foam rubber puppets. Operated in the Japanese style,  aka the  Bunraku, with puppeteers all in black and hooded in black, these puppets had movable mouths and eyes, but were not constructed with lifelike features. They would appear too much like "Dolls" if I had designed them in that way. Oddly their pudgy cheeked hollow eyed appearance was rendered totally believable with careful lighting and staging. The arms, hands and legs of the puppets were directly manipulated by the puppeteer's black gloved hands which allowed them to handle props and costumes naturally and even to affect a fairly convincing "walk' which is usually so hard to achieve in puppetry.