Waitress
By Bareilles & Nelson
Direction: Kelly Kitchens
Scenic Design: Jess Ford
Costume Design: Emmalee Berger
Lighting Design: Alan McEwen
Technical Direction: Abby Bender
Waitress was my first production with West Virginia Public Theatre (WVPT), and my first-ever musical. I had a good relationship with scenic designer Jess Ford, as they and I had worked closely for the previous academic year at WVU. The idea was that our production would set the story in Appalachia, which was very fitting for the first theatre in West Virginia to produce the show. This would be exemplified by our background, which would sit in front of a cyclorama but behind a scrim.
Renderings by Jess Ford
The Gladys G. Davis Theatre, where this production took place, is a former blackbox that was converted into a three-quarter thrust space. Backstage space is very minimal, so large scenery was out of the question. The kitchen window for the diner as well as the large window would track on and offstage from an overhead track, and the counter was a wheeled wagon that was stored offstage right in the attached scene shop.
This budget was being done later in the process than anyone in the company had wanted: the final budget was approved as build was being started, so there was a bit of scrambling to get materials and get started.
The pie cases were going to be the biggest effort, as they were completely scratch-made. The backdrop over time was simplified from four layers to two, and the idea behind the kabuki drop was also simplified (and would later be reworked entirely).
My primary focus on this show during build was the pie cases: Our director and designer wanted two pie cases on either side of the stage that woud light up and be places that pies would land at the end of the opening number.
These involved quite a bit of custom cuts in the frames for the upper portion, as I had to have space for both the acrylic that would enclose the case as well as space for lighting to install their LED tape. The bottom portion was large enough to hold a drawer for props as well as house everything that the electrics department needed to hook up that LED tape.
The rest of my crew had focused on the backdrop wall, the diner counter, and the two tracking units. The tracking units were framed with steel and then covered in lauan for paints.
For the end of the show, when Jenna inherits the diner and renames it after her daughter, our designer wanted the mirrored "Joe's Diner" sign to go away, curtains to be added, and a banner to be revealed with the new name and logo.
The lettering on the window was attached with magnets for ease of removal during that quick transition, and the curtain rod was simply hooked on by two crew members using the included hardware.
The original desire was to have a kabuki-style drop for the banner reveal. The material that the print shop had used for the banner was too stiff to make a kabuki system work, unfortunately, so I got permission to pivot to a roll drop. I had never built one before, and was very pleased with the result. The two lines that were attached to either end of the bottom pipe were led offstage to the operation point, and it was light enough that no counterweight was needed.
All photos on this page were taken by me