Wonderland (and what was found there...) (NJSF)
July 14-August 8, 1999
A White Stone Day
Another summer interning at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival. As opposed to working on a main stage Shakespeare show, like last summer, I worked on the "Other Stage" on an original production written by Brian Crowe (our director and a festival head). What is the "Other Stage" you may ask? Well, this theatre was not located on the Drew University campus but, rather, about a mile way near downtown Madison. Calling this place a theatre is kind of a stretch. If you have ever been to the Playwright's Theatre of New Jersey (PTNJ) you would know that the theatre is actually in an old school house. The cafeteria was transformed into a very, very, very small theatre space. Even though we had a limited amount of space this didn't keep our director/masks & puppet designer and our set designer from making a huge set with elaborate masks and costumes. All of this made things backstage a little more tight. But this wasn't the only problem. This show had its fair share of problems to begin with (and then some). First, the Festival normally puts two stage management interns to a show. Our show had four. With four interns there were very few jobs to go around during rehearsals so at times it was really boring. But Brian finally figured out how to incorporate everyone into the show and eventually all of the ASM's were both backstage and onstage as extras (I was the mushroom in the catepillar scene!). Also, our head props person desided to up and leave without telling anyone! So we had to put a production management intern as the head of props. Our show was running alongside the big mainstage show of the season, Camino Real. So it was hard to get prop and costume people to work on our show because they were working on the other one. And since our show was such a BIG props and costumes show we were using rehearsal props into previews! To help with props and costumes (because they were so far behind) they sent all of the stage management interns to work in the prop/costume shop for a day. Wasn't that an experience?! (Ugh!). Our first dress rehearsal was our first preview. Tech went over so far that we didn't get to run through the show straight once until that first preview. So coordinating things backstage was a task. Everyone had to get somewhere and at certain time. So with everyone moving backstage at once with such a limited space backstage you can only imagine the problems which would ensue. Finally, the air conditioners did a very poor job of circulating air throughout the theatre. During some performances it was absolutely unbearable! We all started each performance fresh as a daisy and ended dead and soaking wet. The worst were days were we had two performances. I felt bad for the wardrobe crew who had to wash, dry, and iron all of the costumes in only two hours. But the show eventually came together and we had an awesome run. It was very acclaimed by critics and there was even talk of the show being produced off-Broadway! Cool! Whether or not this actually happens I sadly would not be involved (a little thing called my parents said 'no'). Oh well. I still met a lot of new and interesting people this summer, people I hope to work with again in the future!
The Cast | The Staff
Things to Remember| Pictures
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