THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601170133
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LORIE GOMEZ, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines
AMID A CLUSTER of drab, gray buildings in Cavalier Industrial Park in Chesapeake, a beautiful fantasy world comes to life under skilled hands. Recently, it was post World War II Paris. Now it is the mystical world of legend.
The work that is created there may be seen only a handful of times before being locked away, sometimes forever.
The fantasy worlds being created within are sets for the Virginia Opera, now in its 21st season. The skilled hands belong to the 14 men and women who make up Virginia Scenic, a division of the opera. That number includes nine carpenters, four painters and three supervisors, including Technical Director Bob Minnick.
Minnick brings 16 years of experience to set building. He moved to Hampton Roads from Richmond in 1986 to become assistant technical director at the Virginia Opera. Last year, he became technical director. In that position, he is responsible for getting the scene designs, developing costs, determining the logistics of getting the scenery into the theater, engineering the scenery, and, managing the money for the shop.
The men and women working for Minnick are not run-of-the-mill carpenters and painters. Many hold degrees in the fine arts. All are specifically trained in scenic construction. Each year, this team of artisans turns about 20,000 feet of 1-by-12-inch lumber, some 700 sheets of thin plywood, masses of steel and other odds and ends into elegant opera scenes.
Minnick enjoys the luxury of having a full-time staff with which to work. Many opera companies hire artisans on a temporary basis to construct sets, so there is little or no continuity.
``You actually develop a style when you have a stable work force as opposed to a seasonal one,'' Minnick said. He explains that there is ``no book of rules on how to build scenery. There's a thousand different ways to go about it.'' His staff uses the same way of building, making it easy for each member of the staff to understand how scenery comes apart and goes together, for example.
Virginia Opera stages only five productions a year - four operas and a musical - not enough to maintain a full-time shop. So Minnick and his staff look elsewhere for business in order to stay open 12 months a year.
Currently, they construct about 15 sets annually. Much of their work is found among the other 100 or so opera companies located throughout the United States and Canada. Virginia Scenic is currently building scenery for the Virginia Opera's January production of ``The Flying Dutchman.'' At the same time, scenic preparations are under way for the season finale, ``Carousel,'' and the staff is completing work on scenery for ``The Fair Maid of Perth'' for the Sarasota Opera.
In addition, Virginia Scenic rents scenes that have been built for previous Virginia Opera productions to other opera companies. The rental cost? About $10,000.
``We rarely throw away a set,'' Minnick said. ``Often, it can be used again.'' Sometimes sets, like the one for last year's ``Norma,'' are brought out again, perhaps after a little revamping, for Virginia Opera productions. Meanwhile, the scenery is stored in two Norfolk warehouses, and at the Harrison Opera House.
Virginia Scenic also has worked for years with Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, and most recently constructed their set for ``Totally Television.'' They also build what Minnick calls ``Santa sets,'' where mall Santas set up shop during the holiday season to visit with tots.
Scenes are not cheap. A set can cost as much as a company has to spend. Often Minnick and his staff have to take an elaborate plan made by a scene designer and scale it back to fit an opera's budget. Once a budget is established, scenes for a show generally take two to three months to construct.
``The deadlines are pretty absolute,'' Minnick said. ``When the curtain goes up, that's it.''
Before the sawdust begins to fly at Virginia Scenic, however, plans must first be drawn. That work is done by a professional scenic designer who is limited only by his or her imagination.
Minnick said designers are ``restricted by gravity like the rest of us, but there are no real restrictions on what you can dream up.'' While the designer draws the scenes in two dimensions, the builders must construct it in three.
``There's usually stuff in the design we have no idea how we're going to do,'' Minnick admits. ``But you have to commit to doing it before you even know if you can!''
That means a big part of each person's job at Virginia Scenic is to make illusion reality, even if that means making a wood set curl up on one side, turning an empty canvas drop into a mountain village, or making a bunch of oddly shaped foam blocks look like rocks.
The scenic designer for ``Flying Dutchman'' is Hugh Lanwehr, who has designed scenery throughout the United States and Canada, and is an instructor at the North Carolina School of the Arts. He has designed sets for Broadway and off-Broadway productions, as well as for regional theater.
Currently, he is working on a production of ``The Magnificent Yankee'' with James Whitmore, which will open at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., in February, and ``Bus Stop'' for Circle in the Square Theatre, Broadway.
With all these years of scenic construction, Minnick is hard-pressed to pick a favorite. ``La Boheme,'' he said after a pause. ``I liked the design .
The detailed post World War II scenery used as the backdrop for last year's Virginia Opera production was certainly memorable. But then, who knows what fantastic world may be waiting to come to life at Virginia Scenic? ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
BEHIND THE SCENES
ON THE COVER
The crew works on the set of ``The Flying Dutchman'' in a photo by
Mort Fryman.
Staff photos by MORT FRYMAN
A carpenter with Virginia Scenic prepares another piece of wood to
add to the set of ``The Flying Dutchman,'' the next production of
the Virginia Opera.
Bob Minnick, left, and Frank Gragnano work on a set piece.
A welder works on a metal brace for the back of the set for ``The
Flying Dutchman.''
Amy Sweat uses fire retardent paint on part of the set.
John Baise puts together some framework for the set.
by CNB