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, it’s been awhile! As they say, time flies when you’re…flying. And that’s what I’ve been doing since my last blog.

In December, our production of Mary Caldwell Dawson travelled to North Carolina Opera (NCO) in Raleigh, North Carolina. This was a special case: North Carolina hires Technical Directors per show, so I travelled with the production as usual, and stayed on to act as their Technical Director throughout the run. It was a relatively short run, so besides some pre-production work I did ahead of time, I was only in Raleigh for about a week and a half. In that time we loaded in the set, had two technical rehearsals, one dress rehearsal, three performances, and loaded out the show.
It was quite a busy week, but an interesting experience to stay through the process. Generally, after loading in the rental scenery, I return to Cooperstown until they call me back to load out after they finish performances. The show and process went smoothly and I think it was received well by both the organization and audience. They already have reached out about bringing more GGF sets down in the future!
On my return from North Carolina, I stopped by our friends at Washington National Opera (WNO) to retrieve the Jungle Book scenery I spoke about in November. I’m happy to report that their audience also enjoyed the roaring jungle that James Rotondo (the Scenic Designer) and our Glimmerglass Paints staff brought to life. After wrapping up in D.C., it was time to return to Cooperstown to check in with the Scene Shop as we are currently building the wonderful world John Conklin is designing for our 50th Anniversary Season this summer. I hope you have planned your trip, as it is looking like a summer not to miss!
After the New Year, it was time to travel West to Houston Grand Opera (HGO) and load-in West Side Story. This was a full circle moment. You may remember that West Side Story is a co-production with Houston Grand Opera and Chicago Lyric Opera.

HGO was actually the first company to produce the show in spring of 2018, prior to its debuting on the Glimmerglass stage as part of our 2018 summer season. However, due to Hurricane Harvey, when the show debuted at Houston Grand Opera, they did so in a convention center that they heroically transformed into a stage, due to their theater having suffered damage from the storm. Several adjustments had to be made for the show to be performed in the comvention center. This time around it was performed in their Wortham Theatre Center as it was originally designed to! We are thrilled that the Houston audience will get to enjoy this production in all its glory as originally planned. West Side Story has been one of our most popular rentals since its debut, and it always felt like it had unfinished business in Houston.

As of now, I’m back in Cooperstown working on hiring for our summer season, but the road is always calling. And this time the call is from Detroit, Michigan as our 2023 production of Rinaldo will head to Detroit Opera in February.
Until next month!