Pinkie and Blue
Director: Jim Wren
Scenic Designer: Randall McMullen
Lighting Designer: Ken White
Costume Designer: Sara Petty
Projection Engineer: Katie Ward
Sound Engineer: Heidi Rothra
Photos: Bert VanderVeen
I was one of three assistant stage managers on NCTYP's production of Pinkie and Blue at UNCG in the fall of 2016. Pinkie and Blue has no dialogue and is done completely to different instrumental pieces and, in this production, with varying sound effects embedded within. There was a cast of 27 adults and 1 child aged 5. Almost every single cast member played multiple roles and thus had multiple quick costume changes. This show was prop heavy and relied heavily on projections. Some of my primary responsibilities included building a sound sheet with times as set in rehearsal for the sound engineer, a shift plot for the entire show, and prop tracking coordinated with the stage right ASM.
There were three projectors set up on scaffolding backstage that eliminated a backstage crossover and ate up a large amount of wing space on either side of the stage. This required careful and creative planning of costume changes and prop handoffs by myself and the crew.
*Stage Right Wing with projector scaffolding.
Each projector had scaffolding that accompanied it. I was the stage left ASM and also had the projector board operator in the wing, housed under the scaffolding. The scaffolding made the wing space very tight and traffic paths had to be set very clearly so that actors had clear entrances and exits around any stored set pieces and props.
*Stage Left Wing with projector scaffolding.
The upstage crossover was lost due to the upstage projector. There was a "no cross" zone in front of the projector due to shadows that would be cast by passing actors and crew members. The only times crew members were permitted to cross there were during planned scene changes when the projector was not being used.
*Upstage projector scaffolding and "no cross" zone.
Blue (character shown in the blue costumes) had a quick change from his suit to his swimsuit that had to occur in 48 seconds (the absolute maximum amount of time). Blue had to change from a jacket, a shirt, pants, socks, and shoes into a one-piece swimsuit. I assisted his dresser with this quick change and worked to coordinate the actor's needs with the show's needs as I assisted with the change.
This production had a lot of moving pieces like the waves and clouds pictured in the surrounding images. I created a shift plot tracking who moved what piece, when, to where, and other notations as necessary.
As mentioned, this production ran completely to recorded instrumental music. During the rehearsal process, I worked on recording the times of the sound effects and recorded narration and putting them into a spreadsheet for the sound engineer to refer to when building the show. Click on the PDF below to view the complete sound time tracking sheet.
