The Sugar Creek Players wrap up their two-week run of seven straight SOLD OUT PERFORMANCES of The Wizard of Oz, directed by Tyler Bernet and produced by Amy Woodall.
Also wrapping this weekend is the Wabash College Theater's production of Sam Shepard's epic A Lie of the Mind. We saw A Lie of the Mind last night (it is — in a word — stunning) and we are seeing Wizard tonight. And with auditions for Mockingbird Monday, it's all-theater all the time.
While at A Lie of the Mind at Wabash last night, we bumped into James Gross, the amazingly talented scenic designer and technical theater professor at Wabash College. James worked on a production of Mockingbird years ago, and shared some ideas of how we might simplify Maycomb on the Vanity stage. We're honored and thrilled that James has agreed to help us think through our options as we bring our depression-era town to life for Mockingbird in Crawfordsville.
The Vanity Theater is a wonderful space, but it is a narrow stage on which to mount a production like To Kill a Mockingbird. The grand old building the Sugar Creek Players have called home since 1988 seats over 160 and includes wonderful dressing and make-up rooms, improved storage for our costumes and props, and a terrific wood room upstairs.
But it's narrow — roughly 11 seats wide with aisles down each side. That gives us less than 25 feet of stage space to build our Maycomb, Alabama. If we are true to Christopher Sergel's excellent script, the Finch home will be stage right, the Radley home stage left, and the neighbors straight in the back of the stage. But we simply don't have room for four houses!
And that's why we're honored that James has agreed to give us some advice. The good news is that we have a story so strong, it needs little in the way of theatricality. The better news is that James can help us make the most if this wonderful opportunity.
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