The one with the water on stage . . .

This Fall, we produced Metamorphoses, in the Pavilion Theatre. As you may know, this show incorporates a large pool of water that takes up much of the stage space, and the performers are regularly in the water in their various roles. This presented a challenge with regards to costumes, since they get soaked in a particular order through the show, and need to be dried before the next performance. You will often find that there are things that happen through the performance of a show that require a significant amount of effort to ‘reset’ to the conditions found at the top of the show. Some shows involve a lot of blood or vomit on the costumes (as we discussed in previous posts), or involve the actors systematically trashing the stage (looking at you, True West…). Resetting quickly for a photo-call requires a great deal of time and/or effort, and may not be feasible immediately after a performance. In this case, we decided to plan the call for a dark day in the schedule, which allowed us to shoot the show in order from beginning to end without the concerns about the costumes being wet ‘before their time’. This did require the entire cast & most of the crew to come in on a day off and get into full costumes & makeup and set the show to ‘run’ for the call. So, yes, this was a big extra time commitment, but really the only way to get the shots we needed without having to wait for all the clothes to be dried and reset after a performance. Many thanks to the cast & crew for being willing to pull the extra duty and make this happen!

Metamorphoses, Pavilion Theatre, Penn State University, Oct. 2022.