Good Friday

I was the Technical Director for Rhode Island College, Growing Stage, production of Good Friday, designed by Dominic Arlia.

The Growing Stage is the student run portion of the theater department at Rhode Island College. Growing Stage shows are entirely student directed, designed, and constructed. Each production has a total budget of $500 for all elements.

Each production for the Growing Stage also has only one day to load in the set, drapery, costumes, and props.

In addition to being in charge of set construction as the TD of the growing stage I was responsible for the entire load in happening in the allotted time and for maintaining the entire budget of the show.

The set for Good Friday consisted of two “houses” stage left and right, a series of platforms upstage center, and two chicken wire walls, 12 feet wide and 16 feet tall downstage left and right.

One of the first challenges we had to overcome with this show was that during the first scene a character needed to spray paint “GOD IS DEAD”. This had to happen inside an enclosed space, feet from the audience, and it had to be removable after every run. Our workaround for this issue was to clear coat the wall to make it easily cleanable, and to use spray chalk as the ‘paint’.

In order to stay in the limited budget of the Growing Stage the majority of the set was made of stock flats and jacks, found materials such as used pallets, and limited amounts of new lumber as was required for structural support.

Pictured here, the stage right house, was constructed of three stock flats for the walls. The roof was constructed of pieces of four pallets, and placed onto a frame made of new 2x4’s. This allowed the upstage side of the house to be empty, which was used for props and costumes storage for scene and quick changes.