Mall Madness comes to life

In the 1980's, the mall was the one place where
all the cool (and not-so-cool) kids hung out.

Long-time followers of this blog know that I like to post the first production photos I find for each new play of mine. I do this for a couple of reasons. 

One is to promote the play. My hope is that these photos will help you theater directors and drama teachers out there to get a sense of the play: what it's about, the tone, how difficult it might be to produce.

The other is to provide a little inspiration. If you do decide to produce the play, the sets and costumes in these photos might give you some ideas for your own production. At the very least, they'll get you thinking.

 

"Oh, for heaven's sakes! Popcorn again!
Why can't it ever be something easy
like a doughnut or a quesadilla?"

Today I'm sharing photos from my 1980's high school comedy, Mall Madness. This is not actually my newest play. That honor belongs to A Fine-Feathered Murder, which was released in November. But since Mall Madness came out in August, most schools were unable to squeeze into their fall semester so the first productions are only just happening now.

The good news is that I found two schools which posted photos of their shows on Facebook. These schools took very different directions in their designs, but they did a such great job of capturing the playful, fun-loving mood of that decade that I decided to share photos from both.

 

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm not authorized
to give you a second sample."

The first four photos come from Oak View Middle School in Andover, MN. I love the whole look of their set, from the jazzy, colorful Food Court sign to the chunky, cafeteria-style tables specially built for the show.

All in all, they kept it pretty simple. But still, looking at the set, you can tell exactly which decade the play is set in.

"Now, Blanche. You know we can't be stopping
every five minutes just so you can grab a snack."

The costumes were also a lot of fun. The custodian, Mr. Henry, appears appropriately authoritative in his orange safety vest, while Darla, with her bright red apron and rooster-inspired baseball cap, looks like she just stepped out of a cheesy 1980's fast food restaurant. And in the play, she did, a place called Rooster Ray's, which offered free samples of a brand new food item called "chicken chunks".

I especially loved the neon-colored tracksuits of Blanche and Evelyn, the middle-aged mall walkers. No danger here! You'd be able to them coming from a mile away.

The students, on the other hands, wore more timeless styles. From the nerds to the jocks to the mean-girl Glams, the clothes were largely indistinguishable, perhaps emphasizing the point that, underneath it all, these kids really aren't that different from each other.

"Are you crazy? What makes you
think she'd go with you?"

The last four photos come from Holy Cross School in South Bend, IN. Their set is much bigger, dominated a mostly gray backdrop that extends the entire width of the stage.

Here, the signs like Glendale Mall and Rooster Ray's are just paper cut-outs attached to that backdrop, but the set folks added a lot of additional details, like those geometric accents and an elaborately painted pillar that you can catch one small glimpse of along the right side of the bottom photo.

They also managed to snag some rickety, formica-topped tables for the students to eat at (perhaps borrowed from the school's own cafeteria?). And those molded plastic chairs look uncomfortable enough to belong in any 1980's food court.

"Elwood was right! You really are a jerk!"

As for the costumes, well, they went all out. Elwood and Fletcher, the two Dungeons-and-Dragons-loving nerds at the heart of the story, are outfitted in embarrassingly dorky clothes, while their friend (and potential love interest?) Stevie wore an only slightly less embarrassing sweater and skirt combination with knee socks.

The jocks, three football players exhibiting various degrees of obnoxiousness, wore real high school letter jackets. The Glams, meanwhile, were a plentitude of pink. In fact, these uber-popular girls loved the color so much that they insisted on bringing their own satiny pink tablecloth to the food court!

"Sorry, Amber, but you're forgetting Rule
Number One Hundred Twenty-Eight.
Don't share food with another Glam."

But my favorite touch had to be how they turned Elwood's uncle Wayne into a John Cusack-lookalike for the final scene of the play, in which this lovelorn shoe salesman tries to win back his ex by holding a boombox above his head.

No, it never made sense to me either.

"Oh, I know I've been a fool. I know I've
focused too much on the latest trends in
casual footwear and not enough on you."

If nothing else, these photos prove once again that there are an infinite number of ways to design any scene. All you need is a little creativity and a willingness to think outside the box.

Do you have photos from this or another show of mine that you'd like to share? If so, please email me at todd.wallinger@gmail.com. Thank you!

Set ideas for The Enchanted Bookshop

It looks like The Enchanted Bookshop is going to have another bang-up year. It's already booked 69 productions for the new school year, and there are several more months still to go.

Many of those productions are in their planning stages, so I thought this would be a good time to share some of the photos I've found from earlier productions. This time I'll focus on the set.

One of the best things about The Enchanted Bookshop is that it used a single set, and the requirements are really quite simple. In fact, the script lists only four must haves: a counter, a small bookcase, a cat bed and a shop sign. In this play, you won't be needing any doors, windows, or furniture.

But you can use doors if you want to:

Fort Stockton, TX

A comfy chair can be nice too:

South Saint Paul, MN

As for the sign, I like the old-timey look of this one:

West Pawlet, VT

Or you can paint one right on the counter:

Huntingdon Valley, PA

Some theaters are happy with just a bookcase or two:

Carroll, IA

While others go nuts:

Seaside, OR

Still others build a whole wall out of them:

Thornton, CO

Some even paint books on the flats:

Spokane, WA

Using book covers as posters is a great idea:

Medford, OR

You can also use oversized books as set pieces:

Aberdeen, WA

Or one really big book for the book characters to enter from:

Pearl, MS

The grandfather clock and fireplace here add a homey touch:

Kearney, NE

While this backdrop lends a more elegant air:

Eudora, KS

I really like this colorful, circus-like set:

Clarksville, IN

And the mimimalist, almost dreamlike quality of this set is quite striking.

Thunder Bay, ON

These are just a few of the sets I've found online. If you're proud of yours (and why wouldn't you be?), email it to me and I'll add it here.

By the way, The Enchanted Bookshop Musical has the exact same set as the play, so you can use the designs shown here for that show too.

Babka on a shoestring

Babka Without Borders had its world premiere this last weekend with TheatreWorks, a homeschool group in Bloomington, IN, and I was thrilled to hear from Dianna, the nimble-fingered mom who'd made all the costumes.

Dianna got me in touch with Tara, the photographer, and Tara sent me an invite to the group's Shutterfly account, where she'd archived a whopping 275 stills from the show.

I wish I could share them all, especially since they show just how creative you can be on a shoestring budget. these penny-pinching moms and dads were.

Dianna told me that their stage was very small, so they only got rid of two tables on each side of the border that runs through the middle of the set. (The set diagram in the script shows four table on each side, but that is only a suggestion.)

Costumes were also a challenge, especially for a play set in 1910 Europe like this one is. But Dianna was able to get everything she needed at the local Goodwill, and she added embellishments as needed to make them period-correct.

It's resourceful volunteers like these that make youth theater such a positive experience for actors, stage crew and audiences alike.

As they say in Primwick and Bunkelburg, vielen dank!

Set ideas for How I Met Your Mummy

A while ago, I posted photos from Rumpelstiltskin, Private Eye showing some of the costumes that were designed for the two main characters. My thought was that other performing groups would get ideas from those designs--or be inspired to go off in their own direction.

Well, that post was so popular I decided to do it again, only this time I wanted to focus on set ideas. And what better play to use than my museum play, How I Met Your Mummy,

When I wrote the play, I purposely kept the set requirements to a minimum. There are no doors or windows and only two entrances, making it perfect for schools and community theaters with limited space. Here's how the script describes it:

The exhibit consists of a single room dominated by a sarcophagus lying horizontally on a platform CENTER. A work table is STAGE RIGHT with a yardstick, rope, and other miscellaneous tools as well as a folding chair just LEFT of it. There are two exits, one STAGE LEFT and one STAGE RIGHT. These lead to other exhibit rooms and should be open archways. The STAGE LEFT exit also leads to the restrooms.

It's what you do with that space that counts. Some groups went all out, constructing pillars, statues and an elaborate sarcophagus covered with hieroglyphics and Egyptian-style art. Others kept things simple, using just a hand-painted paper backdrop and a plan wooden box to set the scene.

Well, I think it's all great! No matter what size budget you have or how experienced your crew is, I'm sure you can find inspiration in these awesome sets:

Rumpelstiltskin, Private Eye costume ideas

My editor at Pioneer Drama Service tells me that Rumpelstiltskin, Private Eye has gone off the charts recently. The play has booked 51 productions since last May and he continues to see several new orders almost every day.

With so many schools and youth theatres producing the play, I thought it might be helpful to show some pictures from those productions. It's always fun to see the creativity of the designs, and it might inspire some of you as you work on your own designs.

For this post, I'm going to show you costumes for the dynamic duo themselves--Rumpelstiltskin and Ugly Duckling--around whom the play revolves. You can see there are lots of variations, especially for Rumpelstiltskin.

Some go for the classic gumshoe look, giving him a dark suit and fedora. Some go more gnome-like with a beard and fairy tale garb. Still others prefer a hybrid look, combining a beard with a trench coat. And one school went in a completely different direction, decking him out like Sherlock Holmes with a frock coat and deerstalker hat.

It's all good. The only limit is your imagination. And maybe your budget.