Backstage

Backstage Studio

Backstage - Early 70's

A selection of pen sketches. Each is aproximately 7" x 5"

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Included: Office in the West Barn (Tanglewood); Televising 'Antigone' at Juilliard; Photographers during rehearsal of 'Krapp's Last Tape' at The Forum (Lincoln Center); Rehearsals at The Forum; Camera man for 'Antigone' at Juilliard; Jessica Tandy watching Hume during rehearsals at The Forum; Paul Zalon, assistant Set Designer for Douglas Schmidt; John Gleason, Lighting Designer at the Beaumont; John Houseman during rehearsals at The Good Faith Shepherd Church, 4 plays in repertory with his just formed The Acting Company; Coffee shop on Broadway; Another Coffee Shop (wandering about NYC); Filming 'Antigone' at Juilliard; Chats during rehearsals; The carpentry shop under Juilliard; my studio apartment; The kitchen on West End Avenue; Back in the West Barn; Doug during rehearsals at Good Faith Shepherd Church, The Acting Company; Watching Hume rehearse at The Forum.

These are some of the quick sketches done during rehearsals and elsewhere while in New York City in the early 1970s. A compulsion to attend to the moment -- it was challenging to record the activity unfolding while sitting through rehearsals and observing as a person would arrive on stage to manifest the written drama --and to fine tune my impressions and develop drawing skills. It was important to be present and to see. I used an unforgiving pen on paper and some drawings with highlights in pastel chalks on paper shapes --all aprox. 10" x 12". The actors would come sit with me . . . . it was awesome.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I had an opportunity in 1971 to work backstage in the theatre in NYC with a fellow I knew from the school we attended in New Hampshire. He invited me to join the group that summer at Tanglewood in the West Barn to do the sets for three one-act operas under the direction of Ian Strasvogel for the Washington Opera Society. He rented a small house on a field in Lenox, and we were joined by others involved in the theatre including students from the Juilliard Acting School, who had finished up their short season in Saratoga and would dance about the field during breakfast in the morning singing 'Oh What a Beautiful Morning' ("and the grass is as high as an elephant's eye!!") and other songs from 'Oklahoma' . . . . He invited me to assist in NYC that fall and winter. He was the resident designer for the Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center with two major productions at the Beaumont for the 1971-72 season. Also --he was working with Alan Schneider on three Becket plays (Mr. Schneider was the only director Becket approved for his plays) with Hume Cronin and Jessica Tandy at the Forum at Lincoln Center . . . and, he was working with John Houseman and his first Juilliard School graduates (forming the City Center Acting Company, including Kevin Kline, Patty LuPone, David Ogden Stiers) --and --there were sets for 'Antigone' to be filmed at Juilliard with Genvieve Bujold and Fritz Weaver for PBS Channel 13 --and there was more work with the Washington Opera Society at the Kennedy Center ('Mahagonny') . . . . . and 'Satyricon' for the Hague in Amsterdam (I was left in NY, where I sat in the sunshine of that West End studio watching and sketching the winter Olympics . . . . . and 'Grease' was 'going on the road', so the sets had to be prepared for the road! He introduced me to the resident designer at the Metropolitan Opera, who gave us a tour of the wonderful 'Magic Flute' drops by Chagall. I got tours of the Shops that build sets (Fellers, etc), and he arranged for me to apprentice with one of the best Italian set painters in New York City for a major production at Juilliard --and he sent me to learn more about set painting at Lester Polokov's school for Set Design. I really did learn something while climbing ladders to spritz 20'-30' flats and I had to paint the illusion of wallpaper on flats and of marble floors as part of a HUGE 4-set production to revolve on a turntable --all constructed in the basement at Julliard) --but otherwise I just followed and sketched during long rehearsals . . . . . And, I never knew what to expect from one moment to the next: taxi to a warehouse of pianos in search of a prop --off to the shop to figure out how to make the branch of an oak tree move up and down --and oh my goodness!: there are crates of wine and caterers arriving here for an opening night party?!!.
This was an incredible introduction to the theater! I never could quite justify being there --I was just a painter. When I decided to leave I was advised that the theatre is people and a lot of collaboration, whereas, if I were to leave I might end up alone with piles of work . . . . hmmmm.
Most experiences in my life have been defined by people --those who inspire, those who have brought me along . . . . . I discovered that this fellow helped so many people to survive in NYC --actors out of a job that could depend upon him for a meal if not a part-time job somewhere . . . . Generosity, high vaulted and structurally very stable design proposals --responsiveness to the needs of those he was working with --consideration for how the actors would navigate the stage --and extremely clear drafts delineated for the shops that would build the sets . . . . and the fun! Douglas W. Schmidt is a remarkable artist and loves the work and the people he works with. I learned a lot. Thank you!

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