PostScript for Picnic & Splendor in the Grass

We had our PostScript for Picnic last Thursday. This is where we invite the audience to ask questions of the actors' choices and experiences with the play. We always hear very funny and insightful comments from the cast. For example, the audience becomes enthralled so much with the exchange between Rosemary & Howard that people begin vocalizing suggestions to the actors such as, "Why don't you slap him?!"

We also regularly host the post-performance talkback in our Upstage Cabaret, where you can order soda, beer, or wine while you enjoy the talkback.

If you are interested in a season pass for the PostScript series click here.

(photos by Charles Howard)

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We will also be showing Splendor in the Grass in our Upstage Cabaret on our 3rd floor. William Inge won an Oscar for this 1961 screenplay.

Price: $7.00
Date: Monday, September 21, 2009
Time: 7:30pm - 10:00pm
Location: Triad Stage's UpStage Cabaret
232 South Elm Street
Greensboro, NC

And we're now on YouTube...

(Blogger has a limited format, to see it bigger go click here.)

AND we got a nice (and rare) review from Shane Hudson, theatre maven of NC.

His "Theatre North Carolina" blog is linked on the right.

"Triad Stage’s Picnic Is a Superb Rendition of a Theater Classic"

The Classical Voice of North Carolina, based out of Raleigh, has given us another insightful review of one of our plays.

Read the review.

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Also, at our last Sunday matinee on Sept. 13th we had the definitive William Inge biographer, Ralph Voss, come and speak with us at our InSight talkback.

“Even an isolated prairie village can produce a killer or an artist, a thief or a saint, a dreamer or a builder: whatever possibilities human beings have anywhere else, they have also in the Midwestern village. That such an environment is uniformly wholesome and unerringly beneficent was a myth that had been well exposed by such Inge predecessors as Sinclair Lewis, Sherwood Anderson, and Edgar Lee Masters, who was also a native of Kansas. William Inge, however, was the first American writer to expose that myth in the dramatic genre.”

-Ralph Voss

Mr. Voss visited us last time to speak about William Inge we did Bus Stop way back in the fall of 2004. If you are interested in getting season tickets to our InSight Sunday matinee click here.

Technically Talking (about sod) and the Season Pass Drawing

The News & Record has run an article about the sod we have used on the set for Picnic. Follow the link for the article and photos here: http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/09/09/article/picnic_gets_a_perfect_setting_real_dead_grass

Also, if you want to be updated on Facebook about the goings-on at Triad Stage you should become a fan @ Triad Stage's Facebook page.

Once again our website also has plenty of info that can get you to the theatre or find out about our season pass drawing! When you buy a season pass between now and Sept. 27, you will be entered into a drawing (along with all current season pass holders) to win a free night's stay @ the O. Henry or Proximity hotels.

Our Tecnically Talking talkback occurred this past Tuesday, where the designers the directors get together and answer questions from the audience about the play. Pictured above are myself, Howard Jones (scene designer), David Smith (sound designer), Preston Lane (director), Kelsey Hunt (costume designer), and John Wolf (lighting designer). Photos by Charles Howard.

Howard Jones talks about the sod and how he was inspired by the artist David Hockney when it came to designing the sky.

Kelsey Hunt describes the reasoning behind the neutral choices for costume colors.



David Smith describes how he sampled George Winston, but reconfigured the piano music to mold the moments of the play.



A patron peruses the dramaturgy boards in the lobby that include the prop newspaper created by Amy Peter.



The theater at rest.
(But just imagine all the seats filled.)

Tech into Previews

We invite you to come see William Inge's Picnic because...

There will be dancing...

There will be drinking...

There will be heartache...

There will be accusations...

And there will be romance.

Amy da Luz plays Rosemary Sydney.

Beth Ritson as Flo Owens is asked by Joe Tippett playing Hal Carter if she would "mind a little fire?"

Matthew Carlson as Alan Seymour.

During a rehearsal, Preston Lane sits and chats with Meg Steedle and Joe Tippett.

Linda Carlisle, the Secretary of Cultural Resources for North Carolina, volunteered to help in the box office on our first preview night as a part of the national initiative United We Serve.

Here is Ms. Carlisle helping with will call tickets.

This is Sherry Barr, director of Audience Services.

Here is Amanda Waterhouse and Jennifer Blank who help bartend but also work respectively as a box office associate and adminstrative intern.

Picnic in Tech Rehearsals

The moon rises above the buildings downtown during tech rehearsals for Picnic.

Beth Ritson, Cheryl Koski, & Lorraine Shackelford relax as an entrance is restaged with light.

Preston Lane, Kate Muchmore, Sasha, and Kelsey Hunt watch from the seats.


Kate Muchmore (assistant director), Howard Jones (scene designer), & John Wolf (lighting designer).

Emily Mark as Christine Schoenwalder.

Meg Steedle as Madge asks for her cue.

Preston at tech notes at the end of the day following rehearsal. Tech notes happen after every technical rehearsal and performance preview. All the designers, the director, and the crew get together to go over what needs to be fixed, changed, adjusted, reblocked, refocused, hemmed, or painted.

Amy Peter (props master) talks with Tom McCoy (master carpenter).

Amy creates prop newspapers with actual articles from 1950s newspapers. You will be able to see Amy's handywork on display in our lobby.

Lighting design by John Wolf.

David Smith (sound designer) talks with Preston Lane (director) as Meg listens.

Joe Tippett as Hal relaxes as lights are adjusted.

Amy Peter & Howard Jones wait to redress the laundry lines with new linens.

Donna Bradby (choreographer) watches the dance scene.

Amy da Luz & Jim Crawfor relax as sound & lights are adjusted for their scene.

Beth, Lorraine, & Amy.

Beth & Preston ponder milk.

Christina & Kate search for a snap.

Preston sometimes sits that close in order to get an audience's perspective from the front row and also to check sight lines.

Preston & Beth.

Meg Steedle & Beth Ritson.

"If there was one thing..."

So, I asked the cast of Picnic the following curious question:

If there was one thing from your experience thus far that has helped you get into character within this William Inge world of the 1950s in Kansas,
what would it be?
Here's how some responded:

Emily Mark playing Christine Schoenwalder said, "If I had to choose one thing that's helped me the most I'd say it was the opening scenes from The Wizard of Oz. The flat landscape, the farm images, the way that people (especially Margaret Hamilton!) spoke, all of that has been the strongest influence for me. "

Matthew Carlson playing Alan Seymour said, "For me, its been Alan's car keys. My entrances in both Act I and II are preceded by the sound of a car, so I asked for a set of keys to use. It's been a subtle reminder of class difference for me, creating a little social distance and a pride that sets Alan apart."

Amy da Luz playing Rosemary Syndey said, "Images are big for me, I always cut and past a lot of historical and geographic (to set time and place), but also conceptual. Which is often a lot less "literal" as you know. Anyways, this one clicked for me in a big way for Rosemary. Everything about it. What it once was. What it is now. The proud stalk still standing - but with the hopeless droop of its head. The washed out fence behind it. It worked for me on several levels...

Funny thing is, I had no idea the state flower for Kansas was the wild sunflower until after I had cut the image. Who knew?"

Jim Crawford playing Howard Bevans said, "There were a lot of helpful visual images, but the thing that helped me the most on Picnic came from Chris Morris, our dialect coach. She recommended that we listen to Kansas-based Farm Radio (KFRM link). I listened to it often in my apartment. There is a particularly midwestern way of talking about business--the rhythm is clipped and upbeat, and it's simultaneously friendly and keeps people at arm's length. It helped me to get a handle on my character, Howard the shop owner, more than anything."

Beth Ritson playing Flo Owens said, "For me its the image of the landscape: flat, barren, and endless, but with a beauty so extraordinaire that its pioneer ancestors said, 'Let's stop here.' "