Technical Director Ross Rundell is back with another installment of his blog series, On the Road With Ross! Follow along for monthly updates of an insider’s look at the production rental world of Glimmerglass. To read his previous blog posts, click here.
Hi y’all, this month is relatively quiet on the rental front with the exception of one special case. This month, scenery for our production of Jungle Book heads to the Kennedy Center. Washington National Opera (WNO) is a frequent renter and co-producer with The Glimmerglass Festival.
What makes Jungle Book a special case is that they are performing the show in their Terrace Theater, a space that does not match our theater’s size, meaning that our existing Jungle Book backdrop would not fit correctly in their space. Most of the time, a change like this would fall to the renter to take care of, but given when the load-in was scheduled, the Glimmerglass Paints Department had the time available to take on the project. In a rare case, WNO contracted The Glimmerglass Festival to paint a new drop for them that we would send with the production.
I think this speaks to one of the Festival’s core values, to do our part in bringing excellent opera productions to all audiences, whether it’s in our Alice Busch Opera Theater or sharing our work on other stages. Yes, it is possible that WNO could have shopped out the project to any paint shop. But the fact that, while outside the normal scope of our work, we were able to step up and be a one stop shop for a production, is how we can help the industry as a whole. This allowed WNO to have the scenic artists that painted the original work and have familiarity with the designer, recreate a differently scaled version of the drop. It also simplified the logistics of having their new drop delivered with the rented portion of the set, and on our end, it provided a unique opportunity for our Scenic Artists!
We stopped by the Rehearsal Hall (where the Paints Department works during the cold off-season months) and checked in with the Scenic Artists. “It was a treat to go back to Jungle Book!” said Scenic Charge Sasha Glinski. “It was so nostalgic to return to Jungle Book. It was one of the first things I worked on, so getting to paint it again was really special. I especially loved working on the blue flowers in the foreground” shared Assistant Scenic Charge Rowan Fitzpatrick. “We got the chance to chat with the Scenic Designer James Rotondo when he came for a visit,” Rowan continued, “and it was fun to spot the small updates between the original rendering and the new one.”
Next month, I’ll be traveling to North Carolina Opera to load-in our production of Mary Cardwell Dawson.