{"id":649,"date":"2012-06-08T16:56:12","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T23:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/?p=649"},"modified":"2012-06-08T17:10:35","modified_gmt":"2012-06-09T00:10:35","slug":"backstage-at-geva-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/2012\/06\/08\/backstage-at-geva-theater\/","title":{"rendered":"Backstage at GEVA Theater"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Backstage at GEVA<\/p>\n

by Kate Chamberlin<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 The three-story brick building on the corner of Woodbury Boulevard and Clinton Avenue was constructed in 1869 as an Armory.\u00a0 It has gone through numerous metamorphosis, including a convention center where Teddy Roosevelt addressed the multitude, a hospital quarantine for the over-flow from the main hospital, and, since 1985, the home of GEVA Theater.\u00a0 During the \u201cOccupy Wall Street, in the Park\u201d in 2011-12, it almost became a public restroom, because it is located across the street from Washington Square Park.\u00a0 Fortunately, GEVA Theater prevailed.<\/p>\n

The Visionaries Low-to-no vision Support group recently toured the building with Eric Evans, the Dramaturge for GEVA.\u00a0 A dramaturge or dramaturg is a professional position within a theatre company that deals mainly with research and development of plays.\u00a0 In Eric\u2019s case, he has a degree in History and also has the privilege of giving tours to school groups and others who make an appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe building is always evolving,\u201d\u00a0 Evans told the 9\u00a0 members\u00a0 of the Visionaries.\u00a0 \u201cWe bought the building from the city for $1, but then we had to spend over $3,000,000 to renovate it for our productions.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are three stages: a rehearsal stage, \u201cNext\u201d Stage, and the Main Stage.\u00a0 The Next Stage is used for smaller productions, with a more intimate ambiance. The Main Stage is for larger productions and accommodates 550 patrons.<\/p>\n

In the costume shop, Amanda explained how the costume for Hamlet\u2019s father\u2019s ghost was designed, developed, and worn.\u00a0 The intricately adorned outfit of black and silver has intentional \u201choles\u201d in it so the lighting will flash on the shiny red lining to simulate the fires of Hell.<\/p>\n

With another costume, Amanda told us about a little girl who imagined that a\u00a0 Heritage Tomato grew up to be her friend.\u00a0 The costume entailed the blossom stage of the plant, the red fruit was added and the vines became arms and legs. As Amanda talked, I felt the various parts she mentioned.\u00a0 I noted that the arms were rather long.\u00a0 It was explained that the fabric would be pushed up the actor\u2019s arms to simulate the hairy stems of the tomato plant.<\/p>\n

The simulated chain-mail used in their production of \u201cCamelot\u201d was actually made by knitting pearl stitches on one side from white seine floss\u00a0 which was then dyed black, , shaped and melded with Mylar on the inside that would flash silver as the lights hit it, and a touch of silver spray paint on the outside\u00a0 for an over-all metal effect.\u00a0 It\u00a0 was cooler to wear, light weight and a whole lot less expensive than purchasing heavy, chain-mail.<\/p>\n

Although the large scenery panels are constructed off-site\u00a0 and delivered in sections, the Prop Shop is a handyman\u2019s dream with all sorts of saws, routers, lathes, and assorted other tools to help the audience enter into the world the play portrays.\u00a0 Many of these props and numerous costumes are stored in their \u201carchive\u201d area.<\/p>\n

It is better than Grandma\u2019s attic, because all the canes are in one location, the hats in another, and so on for what seems like miles.\u00a0 Each item is carefully labeled with the name of the item, the production and date it was used and even the actor who used it.<\/p>\n

After a production ends its run, props and costumes go through their own triage:\u00a0 put it in the archive\/museum, reuse with possible renovations, or trash it.\u00a0 In as much as GEVA Theater is a\u00a0 union house, they may hire only members of the actor\u2019s union, however, along with a certain number of union actors, they may hire local, non-union members.\u00a0 GEVA\u00a0 has an \u201copen audition\u201d policy, where folks audition and their name is put on a list for when that type of character is needed.\u00a0 They also run a children\u2019s program for aspiring wanna-bees.<\/p>\n

Once a month, GEVA hires sign language interpreters so that deaf folks can also enjoy the productions\u00a0 that is running at the time.<\/p>\n

Of particular interest to our group, was the audio description of each matinee production on the third Sunday of the month.\u00a0 Lisa Helen Hoffman began this service several years ago so the blind and visually impaired patrons could enjoy GEVA\u2019s efforts.\u00a0 The patron wears a head-set and a hired narrator up in the booth will read the playbill, describe the scenery, and then, in-between the character\u2019s dialogues, describe the action on stage.<\/p>\n

Our 2-hour tour was over much too quickly, however, it made us all want to come back to experience a play at the GEVA Theater.<\/p>\n

NOTE:\u00a0 GEVA Theatre Center, Ground Floor Lobby, 75 Woodbury Blvd., Rochester, NY 14607; Box Office Contact: Phone: (585) 232-GEVA (4382); Box Office Email: boxoffice@gevatheatre.org<\/a>;\u00a0 Group Sales: (585) 232-1366, ext 3057.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Backstage at GEVA by Kate Chamberlin \u00a0\u00a0 The three-story brick building on the corner of Woodbury Boulevard and Clinton Avenue was constructed in 1869 as an Armory.\u00a0 It has gone through numerous metamorphosis, including a convention center where Teddy Roosevelt addressed the multitude, a hospital quarantine for the over-flow from the main hospital, and, since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions\/655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katechamberlin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}