
Bonnets: How Ladies of Good Breeding are Induced to Murder
Technical Director
Penn State Centre Stage
Pavilion Theatre
11/14/23 - 11/17/23; 11/28/23 - 12/2/23
God watching Prudence and Fortitude in Scene 4.
Claire and Laurent in her Boudoir in Scene 6.
Mistress Stone bursting in on Webster in Scene 11.
God center stage in shock having just witnessed all chaos of Scene 11.
As the Technical Director, I was responsible for carrying the set through the production. I’m proud of my work considering it’s my first time in the role. It was new to budget a full production, create a build calendar, need to draft a show and coordinate schedules with paints.
The biggest challenge of the show was the rolling platforms that were designed in the shape of Einstein tiles. The idea was that actors could easily manipulate the units while onstage and create different scene looks thanks to the dynamic interlocking nature of the shape. They were a lot to consider in terms of ease of load-in, how to approach the underlying structure, how the pneumatics would function and whether air casters could fit, and the most important question of actor operation.
Photo by Quinn McDonald
The solution to actor operation was building out walls on each platform to be as rigid as possible. Pictured left in performance photos and below in build plates. Each wall was made of 2x posts that were notched for two 10” L Brackets to reinforce it in addition to a 1/2” ply face that went down to the floor.
The first wall and plate to hit the shop floor.
One of my favorite plates since I needed to break this wall down for easy transport.
This platform needed a pocket to allow for a fog geyser to fire through. An expanded steel vent was put in the opening.
This is another platform with a vent since they were on either side of the door. This is one of the downstage most pieces of the platform, it echoes the shape of the stairs and rolling units.
This plate was another favorite of mine because of how much information it needed to cover. The printed version ended up becoming our best reference during tech.
I'm really proud of this plate since it is my first time sending anything to the floor to be repeated, let alone reverse and repeated.
Directed by Jenny Lamb
Scenic Designer & Projections Designer Vega Hernandez; Costume Designer Lauren Bretl; Lighting Designer Riley Allsop; Sound Designer Carter Celgin; Production Stage Manager Evelyn Murphy-Welconish
Technical Director Hailey Sanchez; Deck Carpenter James Wolgast