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for Sinners’

by Betty Barton. .

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When you find your seat in a theatre, anticipating the pleasure of seeing a good play, do you ever. wonder what preparation goes on behind the scenes, long before you even know the play will be per- formed?

Well, backstage at the McColl Theatre, the Terrace Little Theatre company is putting the finishing touches on their production of "Sinners", an adult comedy. I had the pleasure last week of watching Set designer Dave Battison and

assistant Merry Hallsor doing their

*thing’ to the set.

Dave explained the process by which the set comes to be. "You have to do numerous readings of the script, the first time at least, with a completely open mind. You have to let the playwright’s magic work for you." Dave goes on to say that in subsequent readings you get the feel of the play, the time period, the location, the social background of the actors, the play- wright’s main statements and “all the ins and outs of it". For “Sinners", director Karla Hennig was anxious to get the production into the works, so Dave spent an

intensive | three days ‘doing his

script readings...

Then he and Karla entered into discussions about what she wanted to achieve with the play. Karla was looking .at things larger than life, with caricatures, not cattoon characters. She wanted to play it very straight so that the ridiculous-. ness of the play jumps out at the audience.

They took a look at the main character Peter, the protagonist. Dave looked at the set through Peter's eyes. "Things are very fragile with him. He’s afraid of being seen," elaborates Dave. Thus, an abundance of windows

about which he has to lurk and

hide as the play progresses through all its evocative antics.

Dave came up with a typical

Presbyterian _rectory/vicarage, something” immediately recogniz- able to the audience. He viewed and researched a Prince Rupert rectory and began to design the set, with all the woodwork and

Mementos of the 1930's and

1940’s era.

Then he analyzed all the charac- ters and which ones actually live in the set he had to design. With- out giving the plot away, he explained that the vicar is much

Setting the stage

older than his wife and had lived in the vicarage long before she came along. Also, many of. the possessions of past vicars and the mismatched furniture resulting from this progression of people had to be incorporated.

Dave says the ultimate goal of a set is to make the actors stand out from the set, to enhance their look and performance and to push the Story along. It’s a delicate balance. The set cannot overpower. It should never become stagnant. If the scene doesn’t change, then the lights can make the set change, if only subtly. Colours can enhance

‘moods. "As a set designer, you have to be a manipulator," adds —

Dave, "A set designer is a frus- trailed director",

You then have to go back to the script and work out the traffic patterns and the action in the play. Then the job of mapping floor plans begins. Dave says he usually staris with grandiose ideas and modifies them to the budget and space constraints. "It’s a constant exploration and discovery", he notes.

"All the while, you have to be relatively open to any concerns the director might have — and then try to talk them out of it!” quips Dave. He adds that you have to be artistic and realistic at the same time. And remember that theatre is many artists working together with different ideas and different per- spectives.

Throughout the past two months, Dave and his rotating crew of about six have been building and painting “and painting and paint-

ing!" groans Merry. Carol

Zucchiatti coordinated the crew, providing people with the specific skills Dave needed at each stage in the process. A lot of -scrounging and recycling materials was Tequired to stay within a very limited budget, all part of the challenge, the crew feels.

Work on sets, costumes, rehearsals will continue until open- ing night of "Sinners" on Nov, 15. Then there is always the possibility that the set will need some minor changes or repairs through it's two-week run, ending on Nov. 24. Come out and enjoy the hard ‘work and energy of a small num- ber of enthusiastic artists putting on the refined, ridiculous, ribald comedy, “Sinners". Tickets are available at Erwin Jewellers in the Skeena Mall.

Vancouver writer to read at NWCC

Contributed by

George Stanley . Vancouver short story writer

Cynthia Flood will read: from

her stories at Northwest Com-

munity College’s Terrace cam-

pus, Room 217, on: Tuesday; - November 20 at 7:30 p.m. The: reading is sponsored by the col- -

lege’s Creative Writing Depart- ment and by the Canada Coun- cil.

Flood’s collection of stories, The Animal in Their Elements, was published by Talon Books

‘in Vancouver. She is the winner of the 19990 Journey Prize for .

short fiction. Of her stories, critic Gary Boire has written: ‘She creates subtle subversions

.which disclose the inner work- -irigs of lives lived in the contem- porary political network called. Canada.” | , .

Terrace Review — Wednesday, Novemher 7, 1990 B13

_ Dave Battison, Merry Hatisor: being artistic and realistic at the same time.

TERRACE LITTLE THEATRE

presents

AN ADULT COMEDY Directed by Karla Hennig - _ Set Design by Dave Battison ' Produced by Betty Barton and Karin McIlmoyle

November 15 °l6 +l? ae” November 22°23 -24 Showtime S:OOPM ea& McCOLL PLAYHOUSE 3625 KalumStreet Thursdays $8°° = Fri/Saturdays ¢10°° TICKETS AT ERWIN JEWELLER’S SKEENA MALL

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Poster Design /Grant Piffer ~Art /M-BrorupWesion

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