LAMDA Rep 2: ASM on "Cat's Eye"

March & April 2015

Cat's Eye is a novel by Margaret Atwood and was adapted for the stage by Lisa Evans. The play takes place in Toronto, Ontario in the 1980s, with flashbacks to the 50s and 60s. I was surprised to be placed on a show set in Canada, but happy that my research for props and furniture would be made a little easier!

Our first task as a Stage Management team (1 Stage Manager, 1 Deputy Stage Manager and 2 Assistant Stage Managers) was to gather our scale rulers, ground plan, LX tape and some trigonometry to lay a mark up of the set onto the rehearsal room floor. The set for Cat's Eye consisted of 4 Oversize frames which the actors would interact with. To substitute this, we brought scaff poles from LAMDA and rigged up 2 H frames that the actors could sit and stand on. Our rehearsal room was in a church at Earl's Court, so we had a twice daily pilgrimage to and from LAMDA to set up and take down as well as check in with the director.

The play's design was minimalistic, which meant that our Prop and Furniture List was relatively short. However, this being our first run as ASMs, we still felt we had a lot to do.  Our first furniture find was the ladder. LAMDA keeps a small selection of furniture in which we were able to find a suitable ladder that we could modify. We switched the lower rope hinge for a higher metal brace, which would keep the ladder safe, but allow room for the performers to duck underneath it. In the theatre, we painted it white to match the hanging picture frames of the set and installed padding on the feet to prevent scraping on the floor when it was dragged across stage. 

The fun thing about ASM work is getting out into the city to find things, and the best bit is when you find something you weren't even looking for. I went on a hunt to Shepherd's Bush Market and Portobello Road, hoping to find an 80s SLR camera and a few other odds and ends. I walked behind a luggage stall and saw the perfect trunk tucked away. We even got a bit of a deal on a scratched one, happily knowing it would be covered up when we painted it to match the ladder and frames. I took it to the workshop to reinforce the lid, for standing on, and prime it for painting. I soon discovered that I am happiest as an ASM when modifying or making something.

In the play, the 4 girls play "Eaton Catalogue Ladies" where they make collages from cutout dresses and household items in the Eaton's Catalogue and imagine their future homes. It was funny to discover that in my Stage Manager's initial research, he struggled to find anything because Eaton was occasionally spelled as Eton in the script, constantly leading him to Eton College! I enjoyed scouring the internet for catalogue covers and learning more about this Canadian icon that sat fuzzily in my memory.

 

Originally, we made the catalogues by adding a printed cover to newspapers and gluing in a few pages for the girls to cut out. However, it was too bulky to be believable. We started again, this time to create a book from scratch. This required more pages, but it was difficult to find interior pages from Eaton's. My North American knowledge finally became useful when I suggested searching for images from Sears as well. From there we printed the pages double sided and carefully bound them with thin strips of double sided tape. We were all very proud of the result!

As I put my Photoshop skills to use in making a cover for the two Bibles, the others channeled their inner child to make the scrapbook pages and Eaton collages. I'm tempted to say that they had far too much fun with this, but it is these kind of projects that make theatre great! 

Another prop to make was an art gallery catalogue to feature the work of the main character, which was to be similar to surrealist Leonora Carrington. Our SM donated a museum catalogue and I searched out some of Carrington's images that would suit some of the themes within the play and pasted them in. I made up a cover in Photoshop, with a white frame to match the set, and voila!

 "Cat's Eye" was performed in "rep" (repertory/rotation) with "The Merchant of Venice" at The Pleasance Theatre in Islington. The Pleasance was my first contact with LAMDA when I attended an Open Day there back in November 2013. It is also just a few doors down from my first London office. It was almost surreal to be back there; it felt "full circle."

 

During the run of the show, the ASMs set the props and furniture before each performance and then live backstage to assist with props and quick changes. Before each show, we would set all of the props and furniture, ensuring that everything is in the same place each night. My "favourite" task became setting the dust sheet that draped on the ladder and each show I would curse it for not behaving. It had already been a source of frustration to find a fabric to look like a gallery sheet, but still meet industry flame proof standards, and then fight with the sewing machine to hem it nicely. (Hemming the 1.5m x 3m sheet quickly became a 3 person job...)

"Cat's Eye" was the first show I worked in Rep, so it was also my first set "Turnaround". Turnaround is changing the sets between shows. Eg. Cat's Eye performs an evening and a matinee, then Merchant performs an evening and a matinee and so on. The change into Cat's Eye was usually problem free, however, going into Merchant was always finicky.

Source: www.lamda.org.uk

 The set for Merchant was a Periactoi set, made of 4 large triangular pillars, each side painted with a different scene, which were rotated in unison by the crew to create a new location. To create storage space, one side of each was removed in each turnaround. Thus, hooking the periactoi to their overhead rigging, reattaching the 3rd side and setting the periactoi to be perfectly balanced and lined up became the daily challenge. Also, we had the shiniest and most reflective of black dance floors, so there was a daily line up of SMTTs across the stage, buffing the floor. One day, as I had to leave for other ASM duties, someone set their phone to play "Cinderelly, Cinderelly" while they buffed. Ah, the glamour of theatre!

Source: www.lamda.org.uk

For a girl who hates shopping, the role of Assistant Stage Manger was a challenging one.  At the beginning, I decided to embrace the challenge of hunt in an attempt to keep the frustrations to a minimum. There were frustrations, of course, and I learned a lot about how I deal with that and how I need to communicate better. In the end, of course, it was such a rewarding experience and I'm excited to return to Stage Management next year!

The "Cat's Eye" Stage Management Team