he Lion’ prepare for show opening
Harvey. “With a show this big,
we all had to double-up on
parts,” she said.
Neil Hass is also a “techie”
for the show. He is running the
light booth and helping Ed
DeGrauw design the lighting.
“It’s all been pretty basic,”
Hass said. “The only thing
we’re doing differently than
most shows is lighting the isles
during the show. The actors
run in and out through the au
dience a few times and they
have to see where they’re go
ing,” he said.
“So far, the only problem .
is now to light the aisles without
blinding the audience.”
Don Williams, like
DeGrauw and most of the tech.
crew, has a small role on stage
in this show. In the theater,
world, such wordless parts are
often referred to as “spear
carrier” roles.
In “Androcles and the
Lion,” that’s even more ac
curate than usual. “About all I
do as an actor is stand on stage
and hold this huge spear,”
Williams, who is the show’s
properties manager, said.
This is Williams’ first show
at the College. “It’s very, very
exciting, he said. “This is an
entirely new experience for
me.”
The unusual style and
quantity of props in this show
have made it impossible to
simply buy the needed equip
ment. “You can’t just go out
and buy a sword,” Williams
said. “So we’ve made all our
own equipment.”
The same holds true for
the costumes department.
While it is true that costumes
and props have to work
together in nearly all produc
tions, a close working relation
ship was imperative in “An
drocles.”
“This show has been
much morë fun than last term’s
show,” Charisse Smith said.
Smith worked in the costuming
department in last term’s pro
duction of Agatha Christie’s
“Appointment With Death,”
and is working in the same
department this time.
“In the last show, most of
our work was done sizing peo
ple and buying clothes at
Goodwill. This term, we have
had to make the costumes
ourselves. It’s been very fun,”
she said.
Staff photos by Duane Hiersche
Smith-English creates theater sets
By Dianna Hardy
Of The Print
costumes for show
“I could make the polyfoam armor
look absolutely real, but I don’t have to
for this show. It isn’t true Roman
because it’s Shaw. He’s using Rome as
a platform for his feelings on religion.
Some of the arms and armor are fan
tasies from my own head. It’s been kind
of fun. I’d never made anything quite
like them before,” Miller said. “For the
other costumes I’m using curtains and
blankets from Goodwill. They’re perfect
in their dilapidation.”
Still, set and costume design is not
his favorite occupation.
“It’s a job,” Miller said. “I prefer ac
ting and directing. If I had my ‘druthers’
I’d be doing that instead. I still do on oc
casion. I’ve been in several commercials
and a couple of minor movies. One,
‘Portland Expose,’ was so bad it was
banned in Portland. It wasn’t obscene, it
was just bad.”
Miller had one piece of advice for
students who considered entering into
the technical aspect of theater:
“Go into computer programming,”
he said. “Theaters always need costume
and set designers, but they don’t always
have the money to pay. At the Universi
ty of Utah I worked 60-80 hours a week
, for just over $4,000 a year.”
. “Lynn is a genius,” Jack Shields
said. “We are very, very lucky. I got the
idea for using polyfoam from Lynn
several years ago and I’ve used it in four
of my shows. Polyfoam is basically fun
ny, so it fits the play. The show is a kind
of cartoon. What the author is talking
about is blown way out of proportion.”
“All my friends innundate me with
requests for help,” Miller continued.
“I’m a great experimenter. They’re all
new challenges. Luckily Jack doesn’t
need me for set design.”
Miller is also designing the set for
the Wilson High School production of
“West Side Story.”
'
Wednesday February 16, 1983
Light Technician Neil Hass
David Smith-English is a
man whose talents help sup
port the backbone of the
theater department. He is
responsible for all of the sets
and scenery for the drama pro
ductions at Clackamas.
In addition to being a skill
ed carpenter, his talents in
clude many other areas that do
not specifically coincide with
theater. Before he switched to
drama as a major at Lewis and
Clark College, he was a voice
major, studying classical music.
- Smith-English is a voice
teacher for theater work-shops
in Portland, where he now
lives, and also gives private
lessons. He took twelve years
of piano before he ever decid
ed to become an actor. But this
musical background has aided
him in landing roles for three
consecutive
years
in
Washington Park’s summer
musicals. He acted one of the
lead roles in “Kiss Me Kate,”
playing two parts; Petrucio and
Frederick. “It’s a play within a
play,” Smith-English said.
The following year he
acted in “Carousel,” and this
past summer he directed
“Oklahoma!”
in
the
Washington
Park
Am
phitheatre, a play that was
viewed by 50,000 people dur
ing the four night run.
Set designer David Smith-English
Even though Smith-
English enjoys all kinds of
music (his wife, Cynithia, is an
accomplished opera singer) he
is particularly fond of jazz,
perhaps stemming from the
fact that*he played trombone in
a stage band while he was still
in school. He gained further
experince in music when he
traveled in the New England
area with the Funtastics, a
musical review group which
performed in Boston night
clubs.
After deciding to go into
drama full time, Smith-English
discovered a problem: how to
design and build a set for a
traveling children’s show. This
was his project for a threater
cla^s, and since learning
carpentry skills, he has been at
it ever since. He found that
“Unless I did it, it wouldn’t get
done,” Smith-English said. He
was a partner in a small theater
when this dilemma first came
up.
Currently, he is associated
with a number of theaters, and
has acted and directed many of
the Gilbert and Sullivan plays.
At
present
he
is
simultaneously holding audi
tions for the play “The Petrified
Forest/’ acting in “The Half-life
Conspiracy,” and designing the
set for the College’s production
of “Androcles and the Lion.”
The added problem with “An
drocles” is that it will be
presented here at the College
and also at the Coaster Theater
at Cannon Beach, so the set
has to be moveable.
As to which role he likes
the best, either in acting or
directing, he said,, “I have no
preference. They’re both very
interesting and exciting. I just
want to continue doing what I
am now,” he said. “But like
everyone else, I want to make
more money ... a lot more!”
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