Because we can not use the theatre until the week before a show opens, we rehearsed the first four weeks of West Side Story in our Mount Pleasant rehearsal studio. Our rehearsal facility has a specially built dance floor, a mirrored wall and a stage that is almost as big as Sottile’s stage. We are lucky to have a large work space, but it is not quite big enough for one important element— the set. The ceilings at the rehearsal studio aren’t tall enough for the twelve foot walls, platforms and chain link fences that make up the streetscape of NYC for West Side Story. Stefanie Christensen, our resident scene designer has designed an amazing set for us based on a dilapidated NYC playground with torn chain link fencing and grafitti-spattered brick walls in the background. (For that we’ll paint the actual back wall of the theatre.) To show the actors what the set will look like, Stefanie built a scale model for us. (See photo below) In the rehearsal studio, production stage manager Bessie Edwards, taped the outlines of the set on the floor and I directed the actors using these marks. This is a challenge, for the fire escape balcony for instance, all we have in rehearsal is a rectangle taped to the floor. Actors have to use their imaginations for scaling fences, ducking under platforms and even sliding down giant drain pipes. The cast will get to work on the actual super sized set on Saturday. Though this will be the first time they get to work with the full scale scenic elements choreographer Kevin P. Hill, Music Director Wendell Smith and I tried it out this “playground” yesterday. We had fun but the balcony scene just wasn’t quite the same with Wendell playing “Maria”…. I can’t wait til Saturday.
(Miniature scale model for West Side Story)
(West Side Story set in progress on the stage of the College of Charleston’s Sottile Theatre. Grafitti and chain link fence are still to come. Photo taken on Sept. 5, 2008)