Playbill: When director Sam Pinkleton is asked what the play You Will Get Sick by Noah Diaz is about, he has a very straightforward answer: “It's about a guy who turns into a scarecrow.” Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of hay involved. And wheat. Because a scarecrow always needs to be in a wheat field.
8 comments:
This is a cool idea to have wheat onstage. The article unfortunately was superficial enough that all they described from a technical standpoint was that they had to fireproof the wheat and what the reveal looked like. I’d like to know a little bit more about the fireproofing process for something which must be slightly more complicated than fireproofing something solid, like the logs we used for considering Matthew Shepard. I also was hoping to learn how the wheat actually stands up and is affixed to the stage floor. I’d also be interested to know how it was shipped from the scene shop to the space. We also had this discussion for considering Matthew, but live material can have bugs in it. Beth implied that the fireproofing would kill any living thing, so presumably something like that would have worked. Overall it looks like a cool effect and I’m bummed I couldn’t find any videos of the reveal on the internet.
This is definitely an extremely cool concept and idea. I remember when it came out the Come from Away on Broadway had really trees on the stage that bloomed every spring however that feat seems easier than putting real wheat on stage. During the summer I was helping trying to source wheat and find suppliers during the bidding stage of the production however I was really curious how the engineering process and just construction of this element would shake out. I am happy they were able to find real wheat for the show as that wasn’t something that is typically used within theatre. I admire the scenic designer for maintaining what they wanted through out the entire process and hope to see more articles about this entire process, hopefully one that highlights the people behind the scenes or even the company that was able to make it happen. I am also curious what maintenance of a piece like this would be, how much stage hands have to tweak and maintain for if there’s nothing needed after loading in. I wish this article broke it down a little more but ultimately this was a pretty cool thing for the show to do.
This is such an amazing concept for a design and reading this article about it really makes me want to see it happen in person. There are so many cool ideas in this set that are described in this article. Having the set be tiled and dark to allow for hidden doors to be used for subtle entrances and exits is incredibly cool and I can see how that would have a great unnerving effect on the audience. I really like how the main idea for the reveal of the wheat field came to be because of an accident. Some things just are not planned in theater and this is a perfect example of how a great, show stopping idea could be because of a simple accident and not some super complicated trick. I also love how instead of trying to create fake wheat that looked real, they just used real wheat. Sometimes the best solutions are also the simplest.
I always find it interesting to read articles like this where you learn how technical designers found or created solutions to very case specific challenges they face in bringing a set to life. In this case, the challenge was wheat. Lots of wheat. And, how to hide said wheat when wing space was limited and fly space simply did not exist. I like that they went with real, grown wheat and not some plastic alternative. The funniest challenge to me, out of all the challenges faced, was procuring the actual wheat. One would think that wheat is abundant, and that it would be simple to obtain the relatively small amount of wheat needed for this set. But as with most crops, wheat is seasonal, and the time that they needed to get the wheat was evidently out of season. Using real wheat also brought in another issue – flammability. Dry wheat, which is evidently what they used, is exceedingly flammable. I find it fascinating that something so flammable can be treated, and still appear unaltered, while also now being fire retardant. Fire retardant regulations are strict – I experienced this firsthand while sourcing cotton rope for an LA Opera set this summer.
This sounds wild. Coming right off working on a show with a hole in the floor (that is revealed in the first scene), this designer/TD/scenic shop discourse is super intriguing to me. Just thinking about a) what you need to convey b) what space you have c) what money you have and d) how the heck you get that all to fit together into one solution. They figured this out on a fluke messing with the scale model! I really do wish I could see this show, and see this happen in real time. Like Akshatha mentioned, I do wish there were more details about how exactly they implemented this (also getting wheat from across the country? That cannot have been cheap). I’m wondering what the upkeep is for the set, and how the show runs knowing there is now wing space. All very curious and super interesting.
I haven't seen this show, nor do I know anything about it prior to reading this article, but I would love to see it. This set itself sounds like an interesting design and build, with the tiles acting as hidden doors - I would love to do something like that in a set at some point. The whole concept of the wall falling down as a transition is also something that I've never seen done before, that's also something that I would really like to do. Once it was said that “you cannot get the texture of wheat unless it's real” in the article, I wondered how many times they had tried to create authentic looking wheat before deciding that you cannot get the texture unless it is real - don't get me wrong I believe them, but I wonder what the best material would be to make the closest thing to real wheat… And how long it would take to make enough of them to look like an actual wheat field.
I like reading articles like this where they are talking about how the process went when trying to figure things out for a show. Being able to hear from the designer how the idea of how to transfer from the tiled set to the wheat field apparently came about is interesting to me. I like knowing that sometimes things just happen and then that inspires something in a design. I am simply a sucker for any kind of insight about the design and build process. I do wish that the article went into more detail about how the construction of the wheat field was accomplished. More specifically, on how the wheat field is actually standing there along with how they actually went about making the wheat fire resistant. I just think it would be better if the article was more detailed than it is now.
When I saw that Sam Pinkleton requested a real wheat field onstage for this, it made me laugh. It was nice to hear why he felt it was important to have it onstage. But getting to learn how Kimie Nishikawa actually figured out how to get the wheat field to work onstage was quite delightful. She was playing around with her model and suddenly the wall just fell down. I feel like this is such a good example of problem solving and how there are ways to look at things from outside the box (though within a model box). I wish I was able to see this show, because I would love to see an actual wheat field onstage and because I do like Kimie and Sam’s work. In my experience, they are both delightful people to work with, though my time with Sam was cut short due to Covid. I’m glad they were able to collaborate together.
Post a Comment