As some of you know, not all the drama happens onstage.
This certainly became the case for the set of After Magritte and The Real Inspector Hound on Friday/Saturday. Set designer Marysia Bucholc had a gang in during the day on Friday, painting the window unit and flats, then my pal Lies and I joined her in the evening to do the floor and the inside of the window unit. Painting the floor (and glazing at the end) didn’t take so much time – it was peeling the masking tape from around the edges (that had been stomped into the floor by the film shoot rental), then measuring, chalking and drawing in the floor board lines that was the time-consuming thing. Marysia and I got going on the lines, then got a call from Sandy Schneider, who’d been there earlier in the day, offering to come help – and bring us food. What a rescue that was! The soup and salad were delicious – and we had a nice break before we continued on the floor. By the time Lies and I had finished glazing the floor, cleaning up and changing out of our paint clothes to head to Betty’s, it was after 11 p.m.
When Marysia returned Saturday morning to do some odds and ends, she discovered – to her horror – that something had gone horribly wrong with the glaze. It had dried goopy, white and spotty all over the floor. This meant the floor had to be repainted – and no one on the painting crew was available to come back (due to other commitments), but luckily her daughter and husband came in, and producer Lynne Patterson and director Ellen Green stopped by as well.
The floor is done again but not glazed – and there were already scuffs in the paint job on Sunday, when the cast and crew gathered for a very tasty cue-to-cue day lunch provided by producers Lynne Patterson and Tina McCulloch. Oi! On the upside, at least lighting designer Paul Hardy had a painted set to work with on the cue-to-cue, which had been bumped to Sunday from an earlier date.
Anyway, Marysia is in today and the two of us may be in tomorrow night to finish off any loose ends.
Got your ticket yet? I do. In the meantime, here are photos of the cast (photos by Joshua Meles www.meles.ca).
The cast of After Magritte – Left to right: Foot (Rob Candy), Mother (Susan Wilson), Harris (Patrick Brown), Thelma (Andrea Brown) and Holmes (Adrian Yearwood).
Another man down! The critics plus cast of The Mystery of Muldoon Manor in a scene from the play-within-the-play of The Real Inspector Hound. Back row: Moon (Scott Moore), Birdboot (Richard Jones*), Mrs. Drudge (Brenda Somers), Felicity (Laura Vincent), Magnus (Rob Candy). Front row: Inspector Hound (Derek Perks), Simon (Leeman Kessler), Cynthia (Andy Fraser).
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