Waiting For The Parade - program

I wish I had photos from this production ( I didn't personally own a camera back then...seems kinda quaint now, huh?). It was every bit as good, if not better than some of our Main-Stage shows. The cast really rose to the occasion and so many very talented people helped us to mount the play and make it the small success that it was.

Workshop productions in those days were considered "experimental" and not held on a par with the Main-Stage works. I remember that  MARY JANE TEALL,  the Artistic Director for WCT at the time told me the production "Had some good things in it...". I begged to differ with her then, and God rest her soul...I still do.

  I really feel that I helped start a tradition of using that space for the type of A-List shows which I for one knew it could support. This is another reason why I am so glad to see the current WCT making such inovative use of a building which I always felt very much at home in as an artist and an actor.

Although I was excited to be moving on back in 1984, I really did feel that I would miss working at WCT. The Theatre and that Company of wonderful professional people will always hold a warm place in my heart.

Waiting For The Parade - drawings

 This sketch shows the breakdown of platforms used to create the thrust stage. The two "plugs" on stage right and left already existed and were used to expand the for-stage during the COMMDEDIA summer performances. Everything else was built specifically for this production ( and used again and again afterward as I have been told...may even still be in use today!)

 WAITING FOR THE PARADE takes place mainly within a sort of All-Purpose Union Hall. In order to convey this and conceal the very familiar looking procenium of the Art Deco Workshop stage, I constructed a series of flats without any backing cloth. The girder-like constuction, along with working light fixtures, gave a fair representaion of the utilitarian building the Women volunteered in by day.

A piano, simple chairs and small tables made up the remainder of the setting. At stage right a small "Tailor's Shop" was suggested by a counter and a few props. The character of the sole German/Canadian Woman held sway there with some very moving monologues.

As You may be now familiar...most of my working drwaings which have survived are awash with coffee stains. Par for the course for me, I'm afraid... I built a very nice maquette, or small model of this set which sadly has not survived the years....

WCT - Waiting For The Parade - 1984

I've been looking at the WICHITA COMMUNITY THEATRE website and being amazed at their clever and creative use of the space at what was once just our Workshop rehearsal hall and summer COMMEDIA venue. They are really doing some incredible things now in a place that always cried out to be a more open performance space.

Back in 1984 I staged the play WAITING FOR THE PARADE  there. It was in fact my last work with WCT before leaving Wichita for Fort Worth, Texas and my stint as Designer/Puppeteer/Actor with the  HIP POCKET THEATRE.

I was originally only acting as Set Designer for a play which  MARY LOU PHIPPS WINFREY  had been scheduled to Direct. When she got a job offer out of town, and it looked as if the production would have to be cancelled, I stepped in and Directed the show as well.

I believe this was the first time in the Workshop's history that a show was staged on a thrust which extended the small stage area out into the audience, as seen in my original groundplan above. The play involves a small group of Canadian women who were coping with the war effort during WW II. The "communal" feeling of Cast & Audience occupying the same space seemed to suit the intimate action of the play. 

I'm sorry for not posting for awhile. A family emergency ( fairly common for folks in my age group) has kept me away from home for a couple of weeks. I'm back now and will be proceeding with some of the fine work I did in Kansas in the 1980's. A shout out to the WICHITA COMMUNITY THEATRE! I hear that their recent production of  INHERIT THE WIND was a rousing success! I wish I could have been in the audience for that...maybe someday I will be able to travel up there again and be apart of the wonderful work that they are doing.