Neal's brief career as a theatrical set designer

I enrolled at the University of Michigan College of Engineering in 1953. In 1958 I switched to the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) to pursue a degree in the Radio, Television, and Film (RTVF) program in the Department of Speech. In order to meet the requirements for graduation I also took courses offered by the department in public speaking, audiology, communications sciences, and theater.

I loved the technical courses offered by the theater faculty — especially scene design, set construction and lighting. I managed to squeak through courses in acting and directing, and ended up with a major in theater, not RTVF.

In the spring semester of the 1959-60 academic year I signed up for Speech 146, Scene Design, taught by Ralph W. Duckwall, Jr., Instructor in the Department of Speech. Duckwall was a well-known scene designer who designed many sets for theatrical productions presented by the Department of Speech and the School of Music.

Speech 146 required, among other things, that each student design and build sets for three one-act "laboratory playbill" plays to be presented during the semester in Trueblood Auditorium. Lab plays were produced and directed by students from other classes, with actors from acting classes. The producer and director were free to select the plays. Some plays were written by students from the English department as part of playwriting classes in that department.

During the semester I designed and executed the stage sets for three one-act lab plays:
         Fratricide Punished, by an unknown author.
         Ganadie, by Ernest E. Ellis.
         My Heart's in the Highlands by William Saroyan.

At some point I also constructed a model stage set.  It may have been for a different course.
         Winterset by Maxwell Anderson

Fratricide Punished, a one-act play by an unknown author.

Fratricide Punished is a one-act play by an unknown author.   The student director who selected this play noted that it was a "one-act version of Hamlet with the three witches thrown in" (or something like that).   I never questioned that analysis until I began researching the history of the play as part of this slide-scanning project.

A bit of Google research turns up two references to Fratricide Punished.

• In The Michigan Alumnus, Volume 66, Page 240, an unidentified author (possibly William P. Halstead) writes "Shakespearean plays, of course, are frequently staged.   But this month, the laboratory playbill includes an early 17th Century improvised version of Hamlet called Fratricide Punished, which was played in Germany in Elizabethan times by the touring English Players and actors who found better reception In Germany than they did in London." 

• E.K. Chambers, writing in A Literary History of Hamlet writes "There is another source from which it has been suggested that we may perhaps get some idea of what the pre-Shakespearian Hamlet was like.   This is the German version, known as Der bestrafte Brudermord, or Fratricide Punished.   The existing text dates only from 1710, but in the opinion of some scholars it is a degenerate form of a play, written not later than 1589."

In any case, for the student production the director wanted a multi-layer set in which he could freely place actors in any context.   He also wanted a prominent space for two thrones for the king and queen.   So, I thought, he wanted platforms.   Platforms were in common used; each consisted of a sheet of plywood mounted on a frame of 2x10 or 2x12 dimensional lumber.   Each platform was thus about 11 to 13 inches high.

The Speech Department owned numerous platforms, some in storage, some in use in workshops, and some in use elsewhere.   Finding them all took some patience but eventually I compiled a list of all available platforms and made cardboard cutouts to represent them.   After arranging the cutouts in a possible stage set I presented it to the director.   He loved it.   He then proceeded to rearrange the cutouts to suit his concept, ending with "The King and Queen go here!"

Rounding up the platforms proved more difficult than inventorying them but eventfully we got them moved to theater.   We painted them all black and arranged them following the cardboard model, with the two thrones in the designated spot.

Fratricide Punished turned out to be the easiest set design I did.   It took a while to arrange the platforms (platforms are heavy!), but not much artistic creativity.   Just a lot of black paint.

Full set at full light

Opening scene

Full set with night lighting

Sword fight

The King, the Queen, and Hamlet

Add caption

The Three Witches

Program Pages 1 and 4

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Program Pages 2 and 3

Set Design

Ganadie, a one-act play by Ernest E. Ellis.

Ganadie is one of three one-act plays by Ernest E. Ellis, a student in a playwriting class in the English Department.   Ellis had won a Hopwood award for Drama in 1960 for the three plays in a contest judged by University of Michigan faculty members Marston Balch and Ward Morehouse.   [Citation].

The Hopwood Awards are a major scholarship program at the University of Michigan, founded by Avery Hopwood.   [Wikipedia].

The play takes place in the apartment of a young woman named Ganadie.   From her apartment window the audience can see a church across the street.   Above the front door of the church we see a reproduction of The Pietà, a sculpture by Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo.   The Pietà hovers symbolically over the action of the play.   [Wikipedia]

Vatican Pietà  Sculpture by Michelangelo, 1498-99.

In my set design I represented the church with a large black cutout of the tracery of a gothic window suspended in front of the cyclorama at the rear of the stage. It stood out prominently when the cyc was bathed in blue light.   I rigged a slide projector to project an image of the Pietà into the oculus of the tracery.   It worked well except that Christ's head was partially blocked by the tracery.

When I went looking for flats to assemble the walls of the apartment I found nothing but 6- and 14-foot flats.  All the 8-, 10, and 12-foot flats were in use for a production of Look Homeward Angel taking place the same week at Lydia Mendelssohn.  So I built the set with sixes and fourteens. 

Ganadie lives alone but a friend and neighbor named Gretchen visits her frequently.   During the course of the play, while Gretchen is visiting, John arrives with a gift for Ganadie.   Gretchen departs, leaving Ganadie alone with John.   John rapes Ganadie.   Gretchen returns to comfort Ganadie in a tableau reminiscent of the Pieta.

Full set in full light

Full set in subdued light used in the stage production

Full set with no light except for the cyc and a spot on Ganadie.

Detail of the tracery cutout with image of the Pieta projected in the oculus.

The living room area within the apartment.

The bedroom area within the apartment

Ganadie

Ganadie and Gretchen

Ganadie looks across the street to the church.

John's arrival.  From left: Ganadie, Gretchen, John

Ganadie accepts John's gift

Ganadie and John

The rape

Gretchen returns to the apartment to comfort Ganadie in tableau reminiscent of the Pieta.

My Hearts in the Highlands by William Saroyan

Student production of William Saroyan's play My Heart's in the Highlands, adopted from Robert Burns' poem of the same name.

References:

• My Heart's in the Highlands   Poem by Robert Burns   [Wikipedia].
• My Heart's in the Highlands   Stage play by William Saroyan   [Wikipedia].
• My Heart's in the Highlands   Abridged script of the play.   [Tickoo, M. L., Sasikumar, Paul Gunashekar.   in &quot:Spotlight: An Anthology Of One Act Plays".   Orient Blackswan, 1978.   91-132.].

Full set, full light

The House.  Johnny and his father live here.

Jasper entertains Johnny with his trumpet

Jasper, Father, Johnny

Johnny at Mr. Kosak's Grocery store.

Jasper plays his trumpet for the neighbors

Mr. Carmichael arrives to take Jasper back to the Old Folks' Home

Jasper says goodby to Johnny and his father

Jasper leaves with Carmichael

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******* Director Irwin Starr interacting with cast members ********

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Director Irwin Starr coaching Ron Sossi, who plays the father,

Director Irwin Starr with Johnny

Winterset

Model of Winterset by Maxwell Anderson

A model of a hypothetical stage set for a production of Maxwell Anderson's play Winterset, in Lydia Mendelssohn Theater.
 

The action of the play takes place in front of, and inside, an apartment located near the end of a large bridge.  The bridge dominates the scene.  In my model -- unique to Lydia Mendelssohn Theater -- the bridge crosses above the orchestra pit and the first few rows of the audience.  At stage left, a large abutment surrounds the edge of the proscenium.  As stage right the entire bridge disappears into the observation room overlooking the auditorium.

The exterior of the apartment building appears beyond the bridge.  When the script shifts to scenes inside the apartment, the interior of the apartment occupies the full space under the bridge.

The model was prepared as an assignment for a course in scene design taught by Ralph Duckwall.  It was too large to fit inside Ralph's display cabinet so it sat outside the cabinet on a table.

Front view of model, with curtain down.
The bridge dominates the scene.  The stage left end of the bridge terminates in a large abutment that conceals the edge of the proscenium.  The stage right end disappears in the small observation room.

Interior of the apartment with the entire bridge in view.

The apartment building beyond the bridge, evening

The apartment building beyond the bridge, late evening

The apartment building beyond the bridge, night

Interior of the apartment