This week, the shops have been busy working on My Fair Lady.  As the electricians focus the lights, the carpenters put their last welds on the railings and the prop-eteers hang the last crystals on this fantastic chandelier.  

The concept for My Fair Lady has a lot to do with transformation.  The set is open, and the audience can see the back wall of the theater.  The actors don't leave the stage.  Instead, they sit in antique theater seats upstage where the audience can see them change minor elements of their costumes.  

It is always exciting to fit a show into a space and see how all of our hard work has paid off.   This one is so different than any of the other sets we are doing this season, I can't wait to see it under lights.  

My favorite part of the set are the fake paint spills and bucket marks we put on the wooden floor.  



Alex Meyer, right, the carpentry intern, puts the molding around the frosted windows we created for the pub. 

In the slideshow below, you can see a detail shot of the window, along with a few of the awesome props that will provide context for the scenes of the play.  

We're back to work here as OSF, already elbow deep in our 2013 season. This year, we have so many great shows including a Rockabilly version of Taming of the Shrew, an in-the-round interpretation of King Lear, which takes place on a giant antique mirror, and an uber-realistic Two Trains Running, a very exciting August Wilson that takes place in my hometown, Pittsburgh.

Over the past few weeks, we've gotten so much done!  

The first show we painted was Taming of the Shrew.  
The show takes place at a run down Coney Island-like amusement park, full of fun quirky details found on the boardwalk of yesteryear.  Complete with posters for freak shows, signs for  food and games, and lots of bright colors,  this set was as much fun to paint as it will be to watch.  My favorite part was painting the door to the funhouse.   Shaped like a clown's head, the patron would have to walk in his mouth to enter.  The top of his head is on fire and painted with iridescent paint, to give him a hot-rod edge.  There will also be a fully lit ferris wheel and even a roller coaster! 

Next, we dove straight into Two Trains Running.  The show takes place in a well-kept but run down diner in the 60's.  This set was super realistic, so we paid careful attention to where the dirt would collect and where the scuffs would be and that kind of thing.  In the picture to the left, Scenic Artist Amanda Haverick puts some finishing touches on the coca-cola sign she also painted.  Sometimes it can be hard to put a lot of time into making something look beautiful and fresh, and then having to cover it up with dirt, but our 'Manders is the consumate professional and adds not only dirt, but water damage and rust as well as scrapes away some letters. 

As you can see in the short slideshow above, the set has an entire street upstage of the main set complete with storefronts, broken windows, and overgrown sidewalks.  The three women at right are busy carefully selecting the right plants (some of which are real and found locally) and gluing them to the cracks.  

The result of thier work is very convincing!  I think this is one of the coolest parts of the set.  

Our efforts to make this set realistic have seemed to pay off.  Here, Lead Scenic Thayne Abraham enjoys his sandwich at the cafe counter.