Berkeley Rep Blog: As master carpenter of Berkeley Rep, I am constantly confronted with new challenges and get to work with new materials and techniques. It’s my favorite part about my job. Recently I built the rolling fire escape and stoop unit you saw on stage in Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup. The stoop unit was tricky. It had to be wheeled out and placed on its spike mark and stay there as Rita Moreno recounted her early years in New York. To accomplish my given task, I drew upon past Berkeley Rep experience, with some help from my wife Stephanie Shipman, who built two rolling desks for The People’s Temple back when she was the scene-shop intern during the 2004/05 season. I was able to base the engineering of my stoop on what she did with the desks, but augmented her design with some techniques I recently employed on an outside project. I devised a lever-and-pulley system in the stoop that engages the wheels in much the same way that I made the rudder turn with the front wheels of the 25-foot-long submarine my friends and I made from scratch this summer.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
At Burning Man
Berkeley Rep Blog: As master carpenter of Berkeley Rep, I am constantly confronted with new challenges and get to work with new materials and techniques. It’s my favorite part about my job. Recently I built the rolling fire escape and stoop unit you saw on stage in Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup. The stoop unit was tricky. It had to be wheeled out and placed on its spike mark and stay there as Rita Moreno recounted her early years in New York. To accomplish my given task, I drew upon past Berkeley Rep experience, with some help from my wife Stephanie Shipman, who built two rolling desks for The People’s Temple back when she was the scene-shop intern during the 2004/05 season. I was able to base the engineering of my stoop on what she did with the desks, but augmented her design with some techniques I recently employed on an outside project. I devised a lever-and-pulley system in the stoop that engages the wheels in much the same way that I made the rudder turn with the front wheels of the 25-foot-long submarine my friends and I made from scratch this summer.
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5 comments:
I was a little bit aprehensive to see that at the start of this article he commented how much he loves his job; it allows him to work with new materials and new challenges. While I'm sure all of us TD-type folk admit this, largely because it is true, at times I think this is something we can't stand about our jobs. But I believe him on this project. And I wonder how much that has to do with the extra-curricular aspect of the project.
He builds scenery for a living. I think sometimes, I know I'm guilty of this, when we are asked to do something unconventional, use an unfamiliar material, or build scenery that is closer to an art installation rather than a set, we can get grumpy. What's cool about this project is that he used his knowlege of tech design and construction techniques in addition to pulling together resources from other artists and craftsmen. It became a collaboration, a true labor of love. This was a big project and I'm sure he was juggling other Berkely rep project as well. This was his (their) collaboration piece and Burning Man his Playground.
I agree with Matt that for a lot of us TD types using new materials are apprehensive to use them on a show. I think that when given a labor of love such as this with less time pressure to figure out the materials it is more fun to learn about these material. Being forced to learn new material interaction with itself and more standard materials is a fundamental part of why we do what we do but when it is on an outside project it can be more enjoyable. I would be deeply interested in some sort of conference dealing with material that is outside of the confines of specific industries. Learning about materials through the internet and print is fine but I would like a place that is more interactive with the materials and the manufacturers.
Reading about this guy's labor-o'-love, to borrow Matt's terminology, is certainly enjoyable. What's nice about this story is that this man's work is informing his personal projects, and those personal projects are informing his work. Being able to transport skills across that boundary will definitely lead him to be more effective in both areas. As long as he is really doing what he loves, and I don't doubt it, than you can't really fault a guy that loves what he does, and does the same sort of work, even when he's not at work.
The sub is certainly a cool project, but like many similar ones I can't help but wonder what it would have been like with a bit less support from outside. Having a large budget and access to a shop is great, but what would the result have been with a budget of a few thousand dollars and having to build on a salvaged car chassis? Trying to do a project under those circumstances calls for even more engineering and inventiveness because you can't just pull out a McMaster catalog to buy what you want today, instead you have to figure out how to make do with what's available.
So I had heard of 5 ton crane when they installed the raygun gothic rocketship at burning man. I thought it was a really cool project to recreate a toy rocket ship big enough to inhabit. It like the Sub took an incredible community of people to build. I think the sub and the rocketship are both great examples of non-academic collaborations where people can be exposed to new things while creating great art. The people you meet and the things you learn through communal projects end up informing and enriching your future projects. I think that the more places like 5 ton crane the better off the community
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