MIRANDOLINA - HPT - Lost Sketch

I discovered this lost sketch...I had completely forgotten about it..and only uncovered it recently as I was preparing some of my work to be sent to the archives of the HIP POCKET THEATRE.

This isn't an actual Design, or even an Elevation for set constuction. I must have made it  for myself as an Idea for possible use of the space for this particular play. It does pretty closely resemble the final set as constructed from borrowed and found objects.

After  UNDERNEATH THE TOP DOWN finished it's run ( we typically ran 12 performances of each show...Friday, Saturday & Sunday evenings...Sunday Night was Two For One!...for four weeks) RICHARD HILL and  I  had  ONE WEEK ( I still can't believe we pulled this off!) to re-align and re-light the space for the next show. The following Friday, after a typically Disasterous Thursday Night Dress Rehearsal...we  Opened the next show... come Hell or High Water ( not out of the realm of possibility out at OAKE ACRES ...see earlier posts).

This particular week..the early part of September, 1984  Richard and I did something pretty amazing together... the platforms you see drawn above at both stage left and stage right, with their regular and irregular steps, had been in existance out at Oak Acres since our first show there, THE BILLY CLUB PUPPETS  in 1979. We built the central platform which joined the two sides of the stage... just the two of us... during that off week. It was not built for MIRANDOLINA, but for ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN which was to follow in October. The area in the center was built to house a Revolving Wall, central to the plot of that show, and for which we would need to be able to rehearse during the run of MIRANDOLINA. For this show we used the upper platform as the "Suite" in the Inn which  DICK HARRIS  occupied, and staged some props and a fake door on the wall underneath, which with very little effort could be made to turn 360 degrees ( Completely thanks to Richard's Talent!)

RICHARD HILL passed away two years ago. He and I had been Friends and Theatrical Co-Workers for over a decade, both at CASA MANANA and at HIP POCKET THEATRE. Our relationship was not always easy, but I know that we both respected each other's talents...and I think about him...and miss him every day.... It is telling, I believe that when I found and unfolded this musty old pencil sketch...I immediately thought of Him.