KEROUAC : A REMEMBRANCE - Final

Here are a few more frame grabs from the video of KEROUAC, showing the use of slides and banners as backdrop for the various vignettes of monologue and dialogue.

 The big backdrop seen behind Me ( yes that's me with John Murphy during the show),is supposed to be a brick wall with "Kerouac" grafitti, and was created for the publicity photo shoot done about a month prior to the production. Here I used it as both a backdrop and a way to conceal the actor's dressing area just off stage.

 I love the juxtaposition of the slide of Kerouac standing before a neon sign, and John Murphy portraying him in front of my banner with the neon "Beatific slogan". Totally unintentional, and yet so perfectly apt.

This was a limited engagement running only two weekends, although it was popular enough to have been a month long run. The Hip Pocket Theatre was evolving in the mid-eighties after a decade of producing cutting edge shows and classic plays with that "Hip Pocket" touch that many found irresistible back then.

Things have changed a great deal since those days, and not really for the better in this age of mass celebrity worship and faux "Reality".

I've had a great deal of fun producing this blog for the last year and I'm grateful to those of you who have tuned in and followed along. I'll be suspending my posts for the summer, not due to lack of material...there is Tons more...but I will be focusing on the production of my third book on the art of Puppetry during this season ( it should have come out this summer, but the recession finally hit out here in New Mexico last year and I am only now able to resume my work on it, with a hopeful release date of September 2014). In order to produce a text which I feel is publishable takes an enormous amount of effort ( the last two each took two years to produce, and are selling well).

So I will not be keeping up my usual pace here...however, there are a number of "Miscellaneous" little items which will be posted from time to time during the lull, so don't give up following...

KEROUAC _ Banners 5

 I couldn't figure out what these Xerox's were about until I lined up the "sketch" of the  Cafe Bizarre banner and realized that I had actually cut it out of the copy and converted it for the projector.

This was a  Banner of an actual Banner! It hung above the Jazz Ensemble ( quite appropriately ) duruing the production  as seen here with MICHAEL BODYCOMB on bass.

KEROUAC - Banners 4

 The other two individuals who figure into the story of Kerouac's life are NEAL & CAROLYN CASSIDY, and both were represented by banners which flanked the audience seating areas.

Again, this studio portrait of Carolyn Cassidy, with it's extreme light and shadow, offered a perfect illustration for the banner with only the need to re-align to fit the canvas as seen above.

 Neal Cassidy still stands as the mostly silent symbol of all that Kerouac and the Beat Generation were about, and of course his presense permeates  ON THE ROAD. The photo above of Cassidy behind the wheel spoke volumes and covered two banners as laid out in my sketches at right.

Since these banners were behind the audience seating, the video camera was never aimed at them and so I have no frame grabs to show them in performance.

 Above actress CINDY GRIFFIN, who spoke for Carolyn Cassidy within the play, is seen performing in front of a slide of Neal Cassidy.

( Note: The banner of Carolyn Cassidy seen above still exists and is in the possesion of the play's creator JOHN MURPHY.)

KEROUAC - Banners 3

 For the background of the "Critic's Corner" area of the KEROUAC set, there was no better subject than ALLEN GINSBERG.

At first I considered using the younger image of him seen at left above. When I found the older Ginsberg in the photo above ( with WILLIAM BURROUGHS) and started doodling my graphic design over it, I knew that this was the right choice. The finished sketch appears at right.

 Here the Ginsberg banner is seen backing the Critic's Corner ( BOB KALBFLIESH and MYSELF as the Critics). I took the companion banner "Le Sang Des Poetes" from this image I found in a book about Kerouac.

KEROUAC - Banners 2

 I thought this photo of Jack Kerouac, taken with his mother near the end of his life, was a nice counterpoint to the previous banner which showed him young and ambitious. Also the natural light and shadow immediately lent themselves to the kind of graphic representation I was going for.

I used slogans from the Beat Generation at clock-points around the room. Using ordinary Letraset Type I set up the "Beatific" lettering.

 All of the artwork for these banners was projected onto the pre-primed canvas and traced onto it with a charcoal pencil. I had to rent the Art-O-Graph at a cost of $75 a day, a whopping sum for me back then! So I had to work quickly, sketching each banner off and then on to the next, so that I could return the machine before the shop closed and not have to pay for another day.

Here JOHN MURPHY as Kerouac and MYSELF as a Critic play out a scene under the two banners sketched out above. The elder Jack loomed above the desk and typewriter of his alter-ego on stage, while the serene but somewhat larger image of Kerouac's mother dominated the scene. We are all our mothers in some ways, after all....

KEROUAC - The Banners 1

 I lined the bare walls of the space Upstairs at the White Elephant with a number of painted banners taken from contemorary photos of the principle characters in the story of KEROUAC. These averaged about 3 feet by 6 feet, like the one shown in my original sketch above. This young image of Jack Kerouac was a studio portrait.

 You can see on the xerox at left how I would doodle the outlines to try and find an acceptable graphic representation. I've even penciled in a demarcation line to show the edge of the banner and the realignment of the image. Below you see a frame grab from the video of the show featuring CINDY GRIFFIN performing in front of the finished banner.

KEROUAC: A REMEMBRANCE - Groundplan

 I never actually drew up a groundplan for KEROUAC, Johnny Simons and I walked out the space Upstairs at the White Elephant and decided what would go where to facilitate the staging. Our aim was to recreate the atmosphere of a 1950's coffee house. The evolving performance piece would be played out in and among the actual audience, as if everyone present, both cast and patrons were a single collective unit. That "Painfully Intimate" Theatre I was so fond of ( the room above the famous Saloon downstairs was not quite 40 feet square!) Above is my recollection of how the space was laid out.

 JOHN MURPHY, who conceived this show played Jack Kerouac, holding court, as it were from the coffee house "stage". A collective group of his Friends and Critics sat at tables around the stage and moved among the audience when their specific narrative came up. The Critics Corner was a platform slightly "above it all" in the back of the house. The MICHAEL BODYCOMB Jazz Ensemble played live from a platform in another corner.

All the words spoken during the show were taken verbatim from published interviews and Kerouac's own writings.

Here DOLORAS HOGGARD, CINDY GRIFFIN and LYSTER CONNELL portray some of the many women in Kerouac's life as they listen to a Critic's words.

The real design elements in the space were a series of banners I painted which were taken directly from photos and images of the time. My next few posts will detail how I came up with these...

KEROUAC: A REMEMBRANCE - HPT - 1985

From the relative security of the WICHITA COMMUNITY THEATRE in 1984 ( a steady paycheck) I made the radical decision to depart and head down into a life untried, and totally unpredictable.

......Lean Years...of growing and expanding both my talent and my mind.

This Very Unpredictable Show, created by the very handsome fellow seen above  JOHN MURPHY
cemented that commitment.

 More to follow...

FIRST MONDAY IN OCTOBER - WCT - Groundcloth

 This sketch of the groundcloth painted for FIRST MONDAY was based on the Mall area in front of the Supreme Court building. This in conjunction with the Facade unit at the rear of the stage represented the Institution of the Court. The Columns, walls and Office Units which "floated" within this space contained the physical action of the play, with the Outer Institution looming...always as support ( the groundcloth) and tradition ( the facade).

The play as written takes place on fairly rudimentary stage "Sets" which represent the two offices. These were done on Broadway with the use of rolling wagons which held each stationary set. The intermediate scenes took place "before the curtain", which is the standard method of covering a major scene change going on "behind the curtain". That "4th Wall" stage mentality that I don't much go in for.

 Like THE NIGHT THOREAU SPENT IN JAIL and this production, I seem to have honed my style more toward Environmental Theatre. I like to create not a set, but an environment within which the characters can express themselves and perhaps also sometimes "Find" themselves.

( I used foam rubber stencils to lay out the stonework in this groundcloth painting. A square of ordinary foam rubber, cut to shape and carved out a bit to suggest stone was glued to a small piece of plywood screwed to an upright stick. A dab in the paint tray, dab off the excess, and impress on the cloth...over and over and over. Tedious, but much faster than hand painting the detail on such a large area. This technique was originally taught to me as a way to replicate wallpaper patterns on flats in college. If done correctly, it really works and saves so much time. I've used it thousands of time.)

I'm reminded now that this play, by the authors of INHERIT THE WIND, was Way ahead of it's time. When produced on Broadway and even in our production it was not held in high regard by the Critics ( mostly Male) who couldn't really grasp the reality that women were moving into not only the workplace, but into the politics which control all of our lives.

A footnote to all of this which I've never revealed:

 After the 1981 WCT Season which was my first with  MARY JANE TEALL, the Artistic Director, I found myself in a central position within the process. She and I spent many evenings together discussing the plays we liked and the current productions we admired. She very kindly asked my opinion as advice for the upcoming season. As I look back now I realize that the first two shows in the season, FIRST MONDAY IN OCTOBER  and SLEUTH were my personal suggestions to her. The last two, ARMS AND THE MAN and MORNINGS AT SEVEN were Hers to me. This was Our Season together, and I don't believe I've ever worked harder or admired more the work we Both put into this.

 If  MARY JANE was alive today and called me to come and work with her...in any capacity at all...I believe I would pack up and go.

FIRST MONDAY IN OCTOBER - WCT - Plans

 My memory has been playing tricks on me I see. After examining these plans again after 32 years, I see that I was wrong on a couple of details in my previous post.

We did indeed "re-purpose" elements of this set, not from SLEUTH but For that play as it actually was the production that followed this one in the same season! The tall wood stained columns were built specifically to be re-used again in the next show. The average set budget for one of these Main Stage productions ( including my fee and the fee for the carpenter) was around $3400.00. This is nothing today, but was a respectable amount in 1982. Even so it was always neccesary to re-use stock elements from past productions whenever possible, as it still is today.

(The missing piece in the plan above was my to-scale pattern for the acanthus leaf motif atop the columns which STAN FOSTER cut out of the plan and used in the shop to create the patterns.

The other mistake I made in the previous post concerns the "Columns" which appeared to support the Facade of the Supreme Court building at the rear of the set. I did originally plan to have these be dimensional, as indicated on my original groundplan...budget and time constraints forced me to make the change to a pleated, but Flat arrangement as shown in my plans for the carpenter above. The effect didn't light as well and the Facade structure took on the form of a "backdrop" more so than a real structural unit, but it was still very effective and something different from other WCT productions. I'm still amazed that I managed to sketch out all the show's setting requirements on only 2 sheets!

The rolling platform unit pictured in the upper left corner here was used to delineate parts of the downstage area which were used for special scenes within the play: A projection room seating, a group photo setting and a Dias for the Congressional hearing in Act 2. This unit was simply rolled out by "Pages" and locked in place...the area specially lit to contain the action of these vignettes. Afterward the actors would just move back into the main setting and begin the next scene with a lighting shift. The pace of the play could be maintained without the audience having to wait between long scene changes.

( A Tip: The ornate "Gates" on either side of the set had to appear to be bronze. They were of course simply made of wood. When you need to show a good even gilt tone to any object, first paint it GLOSS RED. Then using spray paint of the metalic shade you wish give it a good even coating over the red. the result will look very rich and reflect the light on stage much more realistically.)

FIRST MONDAY IN OCTOBER - WCT - Facade

To save money, STAN FOSTER as Carpenter and I as Designer "re-purposed" sections of the set from  SLEUTH produced  the previous season. One new set piece was the scaled representation of the Facade of the Supreme Court Building which dominated the upstage area of the set. I modeled it after the actual facade (seen above), but greatly simplified, of course.

The structure was a molded but fairly light-weight frame which was backed with stretched theatrical scenic fabric ( a loose-weave sort of guaze that can hold paint ). Onto this I outlined and painted in faux relief the pediment figures sketched out above as well as the lettering for "EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW".

The four "Columns" which appeared to support this Facade were made by pleating and stapling the same guaze material around circles of plywood at top and bottom ( slightly larger at the bottom to create the column shape). All of this was hung from the 4th grid at the upstage center and when lit properly, created an effective image of imposing structure while also being somewhat transparent and etherial.

FIRST MONDAY IN OCTOBER - WCT - Groundplan & Rendering

 The second LAWRENCE & LEE play I designed for the WICHITA COMMUNITY THEATRE after  THE NIGHT THOREAU SPENT IN JAIL,  was  THE FIRST MONDAY IN OCTOBER.  The play dramatized the experiences of the first (fictional) Female Supreme Court Justice, predating the actual events by over a decade.

My concept for the setting attempted to encapsulate the Grandeur of the Supreme Court building itself as a counterpoint to the very real and humble goings on within it's halls and offices. This proved to be quite a bit to fit onto a single stage set, and not completely successful, but I pride myself on a grand try at it anyway.

THE 3 CUCKOLDS - Final

 As usual, I have no photos from this show. Above is a publicity shot of DICK HARRIS, JIMMY JOE STEENBERGEN and Myself as the 3 Cuckolds.

 Here is a frame grab from a Public television promo for the show. This is the only view of the raked stage setup I've posted about earlier. The lecture hall at the KIMBELL MUSEUM is a very narrow, white walled space, not well suited to theatrical performance. This stage which seemed to "project' the actores up and toward the audience seemed to work best for us there. At the left is the musical ensemble SUNGARDEN, who provided background music and sounds for several of our shows. At center is our Artistic Director JOHNNY SIMONS. You can also see the "Tongues" draping down behind the masks of the main characters.

 The entire cast during the production. The raked stage offered many opportunities for staging at different levels within the same space. It takes some practice to work on a surface which pitches you forward constantly, but after awhile you become quite adept at the use of the space.

Somewhere in the universe a filmed version of this production exists, although I have never seen it.
When the Kimbell run ended, we transported the entire set and cast to the then newly built multi-media lab on the TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY campus. There we spent one long night enacting the show for the cameras under studio lighting...stopping and starting just as is done in shooting  a film to get different angles on the action.

The resulting professional video was to have been pitched to PBS for airing locally and hopefully nationally as well. The whole thing somehow fell through and I still don't know what happened to that tape of the show. It would be very interesting to see, if it ever surfaces again.

THE 3 CUCKOLDS - HPT - Program

As per my usual, I have no photos from this production. A Designer I am, and not a Documentarian, apparently.

A Great Play, Great Cast. Above are DICK HARRIS, JIMMY JOE STEENBERGEN  and  JAMES MAYNARD as the 3 Cuckolds, and below the program from the production.

THE 3 CUCKOLDS - Stage Plans

My solution to the terrible sightlines and poor sound quality of the KIMBELL MUSEUM'S lecture hall was to build a raked stage platform as seen in the diagram at top. We were able to make use of a group of collapsable platform units which the Kimbell had available to raise the performing area up to 24" above the lecture hall floor, and atop this I mounted another platform which was gently sloped forward about 6 degrees from 18" in back to 8" in front.

Since we had to strike these units in between performances, I devised a couple of canvas groundcloths which could be stretched over the platform units and then removed when needed.

These and the backdrop I posted earlier were painted by my good friend MARK EVAN WALKER.

The 3 Cuckolds - HPT - 1985

I found this rendering I did for our production of the commedia del-arte play THE 3 CUCKOLDS.
Produced in conjucnction with an exhibition of Italian art at the KIMBELL MUSEUM in Fort Worth, Texas in 1985.

We performed in a long narrow and very steeply raked lecture hall just off the museum's main gallery. The space was NOT intended for any kind of live performance, just an occasional slide show or the preliminary rounds of the VAN CLIBURN piano competition.

As an added negative point, we were not allowed to do any kind of permanent installation in the space...every set had to be completely removed after every performance. Luckily, I had some experience with touring shows from my days with THE TROTTER BROTHERS puppet company in Kansas. So I was able to concoct a plan to create a workable stage set which not only projected the action of the play up and into the audience, but could be completely struck and removed from the hall in less than an hour.

The play calls for the set to represent the 3 houses of the 3 main male characters: COVIELLO, PANTALONE & ZANNI. Here, as rendered, appear three"doorways" with the character's noses forming the upper archway of each. Not seen here is the backing curtain, which supported 3 long red fuzzy "tongues" draping down from the "mouths" of each character. A break in the curtain behind each of the center panels allowed the cast to pop in and out of any of the "doorways" at a moment's notice, accentuating the sexual antics the men and their wives in the very slim plot of the play.