A little about the Humana festival (told by a person going into it for their first year). The festival is essential a play competition where new works our picked from a pool of thousands of entries to be staged at Actors Theatre as our final shows of the season. 33 years ago, (or maybe it is 34? I don't remember) Humana gave a grant for Actors to produce these new works, and they continue to help fund the event every year. I compare the festival to be the mini version of summer stock for a regional theatre. There is a new show going into tech and opening multiple times per week and we are in overdrive to make sure all of the props get produced as needed in the short time span we have. The Humana Festival is so huge mainly because of it's track record in brining in prize winning playwrights, such as Marsha Norman (Night, Mother) and Beth Henley (Crimes of the Heart) to name a few. A lot of these shows get funded to make runs in bigger theatres, and eventual some make it to Broadway.
My bosses, Mark and Doc, have a small festival blog that they are writing for the Courier Journal (Louisville KY's newspaper). It is a great insight into what we are doing, and especially because it's from their viewpoint. Check it out at http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/humanafest/blog.html I love reading it, and I work in the department! But in all honesty, it does go into things more, especially things that happen during meetings, rehearsals, or while we are all in our own corners of the shop working on our own projects.
Speaking of projects, today was a pretty light load. I began the day cleaning some props from Humanas past for the Humana kick off party on Thursday, and then after our morning meeting I worked on a few hand props. My first assignment was for the show Slasher where I had to create a document that looked like an injunction. The fun thing about working on paper projects is filling in what needs to be written. I really like making stuff up, especially when it's me pretending I know what I'm doing, but also another thing that I love is making up things that are totally insane. The beauty of props for the stage is that only the actor really can read what it says. As long as you got the layout of the document correct from an audience standpoint everything else doesn't matter. After I started cleaning a diaper bag that is used for Absalom. It is only a set dressing, so tomorrow I will fill it up with some things to give the bag some weight and bulk.
After lunch, Alice our overhire props master, gave me an assignment for the apprentice company's show Brink. The apprentices are basically the acting interns at the theatre. They help run crew for the shows, get cast in smaller roles, get to partake in some classes, and also help the departments during work hours. Their show is crazy, and none of the props make sense. Last week I had found five babies and wrapped them in birthing blankets for a scene in the show. The babies were going to be used for juggling purposes. After a week with them, they decided that they didn't like the babies that they had, and my task was to take the heads of the babies, and make a muslin "hacky sack" filled with a pound of beans.
I found that one of them had a voice box, and so I went around the shop with the headless body of a baby doll pressing the button to make it talk. I felt like the next door neighbor in Toy Story, the one who would take apart all of the dolls. It was hilarious. After a few frustrating attempts, I finally was able to get the bag on the head, so that a.) beans wouldn't spill out and b.) It could be thrown without coming apart. I sewed the new hacky sack baby into a new blanket and put him with the other props for Brink.
My final project of the day was one that I took from Heather, the soft goods artisan. She was busy working in sheer curtains so I decided to help her out since I had no other projects on my list. For Absalom I made a box that would house a stack of dishes that would be used during the show. I had to put some blue foam at the bottom to make it look like it was a bigger stack of plates, and then I put some brown craft paper over it to hide the company logo and delivery stickers.
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