************************************************** ** A Guide to the South Forty Facade ** ** Version 1.0.1 (Tue 9 Sep 1997) ** ** ** ** by Adam M. Costello ** ** with Diana Laulainen-Schein ** ** ** ************************************************** Contents: Introduction History The Shows Historic Figures Advice General Positions Activities Forming the Committee Publicity Obtaining a Script Auditions Social Events Rehearsals Construction Tyson Lot Week The Carnival Take-Down Script Hints Production Hints Construction Hints Design Management Techniques Materials Supplies Tools Rentals Tech Hints Techniques Equipment Supplies Tools Rentals ============ Introduction ============ My name is Adam Costello, and I am one of many people whose heart has been ensnared by the South Forty Facade. By one measure, I have been the most ensnared, having served on the committees of seven Facades and having traveled two thousand miles to help with an eighth during lot week. I have seen many struggles and triumphs, and I deeply wish for the continuance and future success of this wonderful institution. This document does not attempt to persuade newcomers to become involved with Facade--I'll leave that to future publicity officers. This guide is intended for those who have already joined the project. "Facadites", we call them. Because Facade is such a huge endeavor, there is a wealth of specialized knowledge and experience that gets built up inside the heads of those who work on it. As years go by, new Facadites bring valuable new ideas, but unfortunately, as senior Facadites depart, old wisdom is sometimes forgotten or ignored. There is no excuse for this, and I am as guilty as anyone for failing to preserve and apply existing knowledge. With this guide I hope to make up for that. In the next section (History), you should definitely read the Shows subsection to familiarize yourself with what has been done before. You can skip the Historic Figures subsection, but feel free to track down those people and ask them for more advice. The Advice section is organized so that you can pick out the parts that apply to your position and areas of interest. This guide contains a disproportionate amount of construction-related material, because that is where my personal experience lies. Many thanks to Diana Laulainen-Schein, one of the "Original Idiots" (founding members of Facade) for providing much of the non-construction content and historical information from the first three years (before my time). Note that throughout this document, "we, us, our" may refer to any Facadites, including those from before my time, whereas "I, me, my" refer to me personally (except in the Script Hints section). So for example, you might encounter statements about what "we" did in 1987, although "I" wasn't there. If you have any suggestions for future revisions of this guide, please tell me! ======= History ======= This summary conveys only the tiniest fraction of the historical information to be found in scrap books, on video tape, and in archives. The future Facadites must take care to preserve those records. Shows ===== Note on awards: The Burmeister Cup is awarded to the best facade overall. Thurtene has not been consistent in its names for the two runner-up awards, but one of them always focuses on the construction, and the other on the production. In recent years, the construction award was renamed in memory of a member of Theta Xi [what is his name???] who had been in charge of the construction of some very impressive facades. 1987: Movin' Out chair: Brian Arbetter Set in a train station. Before this, all Facades were done by fraternities and sororities, who struggle to complete the task even with dozens of conscripted workers. This first S-40 Facade was mostly the work of nine people, the "Original Idiots", with some help from the small cast and some S-40 residents. The fraternities griped that the S-40 has a much larger pool of "eligible" participants. Unfortunately, motivating them to help has always been a problem, despite the fact that those who do participate love the experience. After seeing the S-40 struggling during lot week, the greeks were betting 20-to-1 against us completing the facade. The building was described as "decrepit". Part of the problem was the continual rain, which greatly interfered with painting. We were also short-handed. The fact that we pulled it off at all is downright miraculous. If the first year had failed, there would not have been a second S-40 Facade. That probably remains true: If there ever comes a year in which Facade doesn't happen, that will be the end of it. Even in its first year, the S-40 set a precedent of innovation: it used a live band rather than pre-recorded music. Since then, the S-40 has always used a live band, as have most other facades. 1988: Nights of the Round Table chair: Diana Laulainen award: best production A take-off of Camelot set at Wash U. Arthur is on a quest to make Washington a household name (like Harvard) but spends most of his time searching the campus for a round table (there weren't any on campus in 1988). During the 1987-1988 year, the "administration" attempted to get students to refer to Wash U as "Washington" because it sounds more dignified, like Brown, Yale, Princeton... The show poked fun at this campaign, as did most of the student body, but also wove in parts of the classic Camelot tale. This show achieved greater success because there were more people working on it: around 75. During lot week, many S-40 residents adopted it as their own and pitched in to help. The house was packed every time. A wandering crowd of a capella singers sang about the show, rewriting sit-com themes, such as Gilligan's Island, to reflect the content of the show. Other facades subsequently adopted variations of this technique. The Wash U theme was also a big draw, and the S-40 show was one of the few on the lot suitable for children, which brought in families. Other facades also adopted this technique and moved away from the raunchier shows of the past, particularly after Wonderland drew in huge numbers of kids in 1989. In 1996 and 1997, Sig Ep and Alpha Phi were very successful with their Candyland and Sesame Street shows. The building was a castle, of a very odd shape, to fit the corner lot: . ---> N |`. | `. | `. | `.entrance | `. rides | `. exit <---- |`. `---+----+ | `. | | | `. | | green room | stage`. | | | `. | | +----------------+----+ grass The stage was 18 inches tall and fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Other facades used rented risers, which echoed and wobbled during performances. Having the stage in the corner has been a feature unique to S-40, which we have kept every year because it works well. The walls were 12 feet tall except the front wall, which was 10 feet tall, to provide drainage (but alas, not enough). 1989: Wonderland chair: Nichol Trump award: best production Will Alice ever let Jack hold her hand? Anything goes and did in Wonderland. The same building was used, but with lots of spiffy new 3D decorations, like chess pieces. The north wall and large south wall were filled with murals. Many, many people felt that the 40 was robbed of the Burmeister that year, and there was some talk that the greek-dominated Thurtene committee would prevent a non-greek facade from ever winning. 1990: Shakespearean Follies chair: Tracy Coe Something is amiss in the works of Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet are not in love. This was my first year. The construction chair from the previous year had quit the week before the carnival, and many old Facadites had graduated, so construction-wise we were pretty clueless. One of our mistakes was leaving too much work to be done on the lot, then getting caught by lots of rain. We use the same building again, feebly decorating it as an unrecognizable immitation of the Globe Theatre, but the mural on the south wall was nice. 1991: Hard Time chair: Brian Stephenson award: Burmeister Cup Who killed Ted Benson? Flashbacks and three endings. Set in a restaurant (the Golden Parrot). David Margolis, then a freshman, totally redefined S-40 Facade construction. He got Thurtene to give us a rectangular lot, so we could have a rectangular building. The old 8-foot flats were torn apart to build 12-foot flats, making the walls sturdier. The interior walls were covered with luan, and the inside of the building was decorated as much as the outside (an innovative idea at the time). The stage was rebuilt using interchangeable pieces that were simply bolted together. The 12-foot flats are still in use as of this writing. The Mosaic Whispers originated as a spin-off of this cast, founded by musical director Dan Newman. 1992: Modern Art chair: David Margolis award: best production The artworks come to life, and Mona Lisa is in love with the night watchman. This show definitely deserved its best production award. I redesigned the building to be a square with one corner rounded off. We built a new large quarter-circle stage, an upper stage, new beams, a curved wall with a curved door, and a light/sound booth above the band. It was awesome structurally (if I do say so myself), but looked pretty bad, because of my failure to pay enough attention to the appearance (it was supposed to be an art museum). The stage is still in use as of this writing. It combines the truck-space efficiency of the 1988 stage with the sturdiness and ease of assembly of the 1991 stage. It is also the largest stage (by far) of any facade. 1993: Buy the Book chair: Rachel Weinmann award: Burmeister Cup Cinderella set in New York City. The same building was used from the previous year, so we were able to focus on the decoration. The building was disguised as a giant book, with 4x16-foot pages that the public could turn. The inside was completely surrounded by city skyline with thousands of little yellow windows, backlit by Christmas lights. Way cool. The show was simply hilarious, thanks to a very talented cast and production staff, a good script, and full audiences lured in by the pages and by Ken Krieger, ticket pusher. Mama's Potroast originated with three members of this cast. 1994: All A Board chair: Slick (Anita) Tripathi award: best construction A bunch of random people get trapped in a Monopoly game, and are forced to play the game in order to acquire what they each want most. We redesigned the building to make it easier to assemble, but we also spent enough time on decorations. The exterior was a smattering of Monopoly symbols (a bank with a 10-foot diameter safe door, a train, a top hat, a horse, water works, property cards, and the Monopoly board). The building is still in use as of this writing. 1995: On the Air chair: Greg Messina and Eric Natinsky Two guys flip TV channels and find lots of cliches and nostalgic programs. The stage featured a 20-foot diameter turntable divided into three sections, each of which had a page for flipping between two scenes. This could have been very dramatic, but was not taken full advantage of due to lack of manpower and lack of coordination between production and construction folks. The front of the building was a row of houses from different eras, but it wasn't polished enough. The turntable is still at Tyson, so perhaps someday it should be tried again. 1996: Operating Theatre chair: Seth Theriault The Beatles are doctors in a zany hospital. The exterior featured a giant blinding-yellow submarine as the entrance-way, a sea of holes with figures that popped up and down when the public pulled ropes (which required a lot of maintenance during the carnival), and a mural. 1997: Heart and Soul chair: Jen Adams A contest for the hand of a maiden. The script was terrific. The show was outstanding for the one performance that had a full audience; for most of the others it lacked energy. The exterior featured a giant dragon (similar in style to the submarine) and not much else, because there were too few people working on construction (mostly just Peter Gilchrist). This points out how the show itself depends on the exterior construction, because that attracts the audience, which feeds energy to the actors. Some of the years can be grouped. The first three Facades (1987-1989) form the Early Years, featuring some Original Idiots on the committee, with their formula for success. The years 1991-1994 form the Golden Age, in which additional ideas combined with unflagging effort led to even more success. The shows since then were accomplishments to be proud of, but they were handicapped by not having quite enough people involved. This trend can be reversed! Historic Figures ================ Basically, this is a list of everyone involved in three or more Facades (plus a couple of exceptional cases). This list should give you the idea that despite its heartaches, the facade is something that can get into your blood. People who join often are hard to get rid of, even after graduation. Diana Laulainen One of the Original Idiots; assistant director for Movin' Out (1987); co-author and chair of Nights of the Round Table (1988); co-author, director, and CS40 advisor for Wonderland (1989); co-author and casual helper on the lot for Shakespearean Follies (1990); and long-time friend of South Forty Facade. Ardently encourages people to contact her for advice and/or moral support. Notable achievement: uncanny ability to predict the Burmeister winner. Brian Arbetter An Original Idiot who absolutely made the whole deal possible. Brian was the CS40 treasurer and without his wizardry, the financing that made the first year possible would not have happened. The project was hopelessly over budget and Brian pulled strings campus-wide to get the needed funds (I think he might have even bargained away his first-born son). He burned out after that first year for good reason, but deserves credit for his efforts in that critical first year. Carolyn Schierholz An Original Idiot who defected from her sorority's facade and brought two years of experience to an otherwise clueless committee. She also served as treasurer for Nights of the Round Table (1988). Mark Hunter Construction God of the early years. An Original Idiot who designed the infamous triangle building. Also did construction for Nights of the Round Table (1988) and came to the rescue after the construction chair quit for Wonderland (1989). Also assisted with Shakespearean Follies (1990). Jeff Greenwald An Original Idiot and director for Movin' Out (1987). Jeff pioneered the idea that a facade can utilize the principles of good theater. Also directed Nights of the Round Table (1988) and stepped in as temporary director for Wonderland (1989) when tragic circumstances led to the loss of the original director. Also assisted with Shakespearean Follies (1990). Doug Sanderson Sidekick to God. Invaluable technical work in construction, particularly for Nights of the Round Table (1988) and Wonderland (1989). Like Mark, he was an absolute professional in his approach to construction. Missy Hill Diana's co-author for Nights of the Round Table (1988) and Wonderland (1989). Originally helped out during lot week for Movin' Out (1987). Also did costuming for Nights and Wonderland. Heather Iceland An example of the importance of tireless helping hands. Heather worked construction for the first three facades. She officially joined the committee of Wonderland (1989) but her help was invaluable each year. Don Porter Lead (Arthur) in Nights of the Round Table (1988); musical director for Wonderland (1989) and Shakespearean Follies (1990). Adam Barish Adam redefined lighting on the lot. Before 1988, all lighting was done with white bulbs and tin cans. Adam brought the professionalism of theater lighting to Nights of the Round Table and there was no going back afterwards for any of the facades. Leesa Jindra Legendary choreographer for Wonderland (1989) and Hard Time (1991). Mike Winter In the casts of Wonderland (1989) (typecast as the Mad Hatter) and Hard Time (1991); and helped with Shakespearean Follies (1990). Destruction enthusiast. Robbie Adler Worked with and in the casts of Wonderland (1989) and Shakespearean Follies (1990); director of Hard Time (1991); and helped with Modern Art (1992). Brian Stephenson Played Bill in Shakespearean Follies (1990); chair of Hard Time (1991); advisor from CS40 for Modern Art (1992). Has visited the lot many times since then. Dan Newman In the band for Shakespearean Follies (1990); musical director for Hard Time (1991) and Modern Art (1992). Brad Nemer Drummer for Shakespearean Follies (1990) through Modern Art (1992). Adam Costello Worked on construction every year of his seven-year stay at Wash U, from Shakespearean Follies (1990) through Operating Theatre (1996), and showed up for lot week for Heart and Soul (1997). You may never be rid of me! Most notable artifacts: the stage (used ever since Modern Art, 1992), the light/sound booth (used ever since All A Board, 1994), the rotating stage (On the Air, 1995). Devorah Rosner Played Rebecca Benson in Hard Time (1991) and Mrs. Jones in Modern Art (1992), and was construction wonder-woman both years. Likes to climb walls. Rachel Weinmann Stage manager for Hard Time (1991) and Modern Art (1992), and chair of Buy the Book (1993). Always made us smile. David Margolis Worked on construction from Hard Time (1991) through All A Board (1994), and Operating Theatre (1996) and Heart and Soul (1997); and was chair of Modern Art (1992). Instrumental in winning South Forty's first Burmeister Cup for Hard Time. Most notable artifacts: the truss (Hard Time), the 12-foot flats and luan (used ever since Hard Time), the hyperbolic paraboloid roof design (used ever since All A Board, 1994), the safe door (All A Board), the submarine (Operating Theatre). Deena Rubinson Cast member, choreographer, script co-author, and artist for Modern Art (1992) and Buy the Book (1993). Most notable artifact: the paintings (Modern Art) (they are behind the door to the closet). Shaden Marzouk Treasurer Extraordinaire for Modern Art (1992) and Buy the Book (1993), returning unexpectedly and miraculously to fill the abandoned post for All A Board (1994). Usually visits during lot week. Yoko Toyohara Worked on Modern Art (1992) through All A Board (1994) as secretary, on costumes, and on the crew. She was very good at carrying 12-foot flats up stairs. Slick (Anita) Tripathi Worked on construction for Modern Art (1992) and Buy the Book (1993), and chair of All A Board (1994). Everyone's favorite little dictator (and I do mean that affectionately!). Rebecca Henderson Gave excellent performances in Buy the Book (1993) through On the Air (1995). Eric Natinsky Tech God for Buy the Book (1993) through On the Air (1995), and co-chair of the last. Most notable artifacts: all of our lighting equipment and home-made cables, the breaker box, the "Slick circuit". Greg Messina Worked with the cast and co-authored scripts for Buy the Book (1993) through On the Air (1995), and co-chair of the last. Most notable artifact: "party pic" (Buy the Book). Seth Theriault Worked on construction for Buy the Book (1993) and All A Board (1994), and chair of Operating Theatre (1996). Cindy Green Assistant director for Buy the Book (1993), director of All A Board (1994), cast member of On the Air (1995), and showed up to help during the performances for Heart and Soul (1997). Matthew Blain Worked on construction for Buy the Book (1993), All A Board (1994), and Operating Theatre (1996), and showed up for lot week for Heart and Soul (1997). Claris-CAD guru. Most notable artifacts: the pages (built with Adam for Buy the Book) (they are at Tyson), the sea of holes (for Operating Theatre). Anu Kalyanam Cast member and unofficial cast morale booster for On the Air (1995) through Heart and Soul (1997). Many individuals, having worked on both Operating Theatre (1996) and Heart and Soul (1997) are poised to become historic figures if they return in 1998. If you have email addresses for any of the above people, please let me know. ====== Advice ====== General ======= Every aspect of Facade is a lot of work. It is all loads of fun (the most fun I've ever had) as long as there are enough people to do it. If the number of people sharing the work drops too low, it can change from fun into stress and drudgery. Someone who can recruit people and motivate them to stay involved and show up is a priceless asset. One of the most powerful motivations for people to work on Facade is spending time with friends. The Facadites must become friends. In earlier years, the committee, crew, and cast would do social things throughout the year, like have parties (including co-ed slumber parties), go bowling, and watch tapes of previous years. In more recent years, there has been much less of that, and I think that is a major reason why it's been harder to get enough people to show up for construction work. Where friendships have formed, it's usually been within the construction group or within the production group--there needs to be more cross-ties between the two. The cast members need to do some construction work, even if it's just painting and moving things, and they need to genuinely enjoy it. They need to understand from the very beginning (at the audition) that this is what Facade is. Positions ========= The one thing Facade is always most desperate for is people. There are a wide variety of jobs that must get done. Each and every one is vital. Often one person can do multiple jobs, and often one job requires multiple people, but you must cover all the bases. Don't worry too much about official titles--take talent and time from whoever has it. The jobs are: chair The chair organizes the other people, makes sure everything is getting done, and makes decisions when no one else will make them. One of the biggest jobs of chair is networking to draw in other people from other congressional committees, as well as residence hall councils. The chair ensures that people are communicating with each other and aware of what is needed; in particular, the construction folks need to be aware of what the production folks are doing, and vice versa, so that everything comes together at the end. The chair also runs the weekly meetings, and should not let them drag on too long; long discussions of limited interest can be deferred to a more appropriate forum. This job is one of the most difficult, and definitely the most stressful. Historically the morale job has been performed by the chair (if at all), but since the chair is often in need of a morale-boost herself, perhaps that should be a separate position (see below). Prior Facade experience is essential. South Forty residency might be required--check with CS40 each year. director Originally known as "vice-chair (director)", but everyone says "director". The director is in charge of script changes, auditions, blocking, and rehearsals; oversees the cast and production folks; encourages the cast to get involved with construction (leading by example); and keeps the construction folks informed of the needs of the show. Experience in directing, stage management, or acting is needed. Prior facade experience is a definite plus, since the Brookings Parking Lot is like no other "theater." assistant director The assistant director shares the burden of directing, fills in for the director when necessary, and creates cast unity. stage manager The stage manager oversees activities related to costumes, props, and make-up. musical director Music is a big part of the show. The musical director arranges the music and teaches the songs to the cast at rehearsals, and to the band at separate rehearsals (if necessary), and directs the band. choreographer The South Forty Facade has historically had superior choreography. With a much larger stage than any other facade, it has the potential to greatly impress audiences with big dance numbers. The choreographer plans the steps and teaches them to the cast at rehearsals. band The band has always included a keyboard and guitar, and often a bass guitar. Whenever we've had drums, they have been too loud, unless they were electronic drums. For Wonderland there were a trumpet, a trombone, and a saxophone, and in Shakespearean Follies an on-stage sax solo went over quite well. Other instruments can be played on the keyboard or programmed, but it's more impressive to have them actually there. Some facades pre-record their music, but I hope the South Forty never resorts to that. costumes Audiences love good costumes. Costumes can easily consume a lot of time and/or a lot of money, so the challenge of the costumer is to improvise with very limited supplies of both. Creativity, sewing, bargain-hunting, and calling in favors are good skills to have. Costumes also need to be guarded and often repaired during the carnival. props Exactly like costumes, except that sewing skills are not useful. make-up Depending on the show, this may be a small job or a large one. cast The cast members not only act, sing, and dance, but also help with construction. Some will only be comfortable painting and moving things, but there is plenty of that to be done. Others will also enjoy the power tools. One or two of the production staff must be prepared to fill in for a cast member who gets sick during the carnival (it has happened more than once). construction chair Originally known as "vice-chair (construction)", but everyone says "construction chair". This person is to construction what the director is to production. The construction chair must coordinate with the director and artists to determine what needs to be built, plan how to build everything, instruct people how to build it, decide what to buy and when and how much (keeping an eye on the budget), schedule work times and Tyson runs, draw up plans for Thurtene, and rent trucks, scaffolding, and chairs. This person should probably come from the school of architecture or engineering. assistant construction chairs (one or more) The assistants share the burden with the construction chair. In fact, multiple people need to know everything about the construction of the facade, because in practice you need at least one omniscient person at all construction activities in order to get things done. Often the construction chair and assistants act effectively as equals, and the choice of which one is in charge is based not on experience or qualifications, but on who can afford to make the strongest commitment that year. artists (two or more) Often many people are involved in sketching out what the building should look like on the inside and outside, and titles like "interior designer", "exterior designer", and "scenic designer" have been used, but the important thing is that there be people who can actually draw, both on paper and on the flats themselves. There ought to be at least two, and the more the better. If one person does all the drawing, s/he won't be back the next year (history proves this). Typically the artists draw lines on flats and lots of other people paint by numbers. tech Lighting and sound are complex issues. There are various kinds of lights, gels, microphones, and optional special effects (like fog machines, TV monitors, color changers, mirror balls, motors) that need to be planned for the show, in consultation with the director. Facade has its own light board, twelve dimmers, and some cables, but the lights, all sound equipment, and some other cables are rented (as of this writing). An electrical plan must be submitted to Thurtene. During lot week the lights must be hung and aimed, the cables run, and the light board programmed. This is usually a two or three person job, and can be divided up as lighting director and sound director, or technical director and assistants, or whatever. At least one person must have experience. construction crew People are needed to paint, drive screws, paint, cut wood, paint, move heavy things, paint, etc. There are never enough of these people, but there should be, because just about everyone involved with Facade can help with construction too. secretary The secretary takes minutes at the weekly meetings, maintains a phone list and a schedule of events, and takes care of logistical things like reserving spaces, making phone calls, sending letters, etc. treasurer Facade costs a lot of money. The annual budget was $15,000 to cover start-up costs for Movin' Out (1987), then fell to a reasonable $6000 for Nights of the Round Table (1988), and gradually grew to $9500 for Heart and Soul (1997), though it will probably go down for 1998. The treasurer must prevent people (mainly the construction folks) from running up a debt that cannot be paid. The treasurer should reserve a lot of money for unexpected expenses in order to save the day when people suddenly realize they've spent too much and need to buy even more. The full story on the whole budget is nobody's business but the treasurer's and the chair's; everyone else needs to know only their own budget. Past budgets and receipts are the best source of information about what to expect. Don't depend on ticket sales, because bad weather can reduce them to nearly nothing, but resist CS40's attempt to grab the ticket sale cash before everyone has been reimbursed. The treasurer also deals with paperwork like purchase orders, reimbursements, and tax-exempt forms. publicity South Forty Facade is always struggling to attract committee members, script writers, a cast, and a construction crew. This cannot happen unless the residents of the South Forty know what Facade is, how much fun it is, and when its events are taking place. Our past publicity efforts have ranged from passable to pathetic, but someone should figure out how to do a good job. Tactics that have been used in the past include putting up flyers, painting the underpass, showing videos in Wohl and at the Activities Fair at the beginning of the year (sign them up before they're comitted elsewhere!), holding information sessions, and persuading friends. One risk Facade continually faces is the threat that its funding will be revoked, because the residents think it's a waste of money. If the residents don't want Facade, then its funding *should* be revoked, so make sure they want Facade! The publicity tasks often require the talents of the artists and graphic designer. historian The entire Facade process should be documented. The historian takes photographs and video tapes of construction, rehearsals, social events, lot week, the carnival (including photos of the other buildings), and take-down, and assembles archival information like scripts, meeting minutes, plans, receipts, and memories. The historian is working more for future Facades than for the current one, but the job is no less vital to long-term success. The end product of this task (often completed over the summer) is a scrap-book, some of which could be duplicated on the web by the webmaster. graphic designer The graphic designer designs the T-shirts, tickets, and program, which must be ready before the carnival. The program and tickets have often been boring, but they don't have to be! For example, one greek facade handed out plastic keys as tickets when their facade was set in a hotel. Another, set in a school, folded their programs into paper airplanes and launched them at the audience for distribution. The graphic designer may also be enlisted for publicity-related tasks. food Someone needs to feed the people working on the lot. Variety is good--in addition to the usual pizza and subs, we've had chinese, spaghetti, and Taco Bell. People will be grateful for anything better than Marriott for dinner. For lunch, groceries will suffice (build-your-own sandwiches, for example). webmaster This has not yet been a recognized position, but it should be. Facade needs a permanent web page, with links to the current year's information and past years' pages. Talk to CS40 about what the permanent URL should be. Facade needs mailing lists, one for each year (like s40-facade-1998@domain.wustl.edu) and one that points to the current year (like s40-facade@domain.wustl.edu). morale This has never been a recognized position, but perhaps it should be. Social events need to be planned in order to promote familiarity and friendship between the Facadites, especially across the production/construction boundary. Someone should keep an eye on all Facade activities to see if people are having as much fun as they're supposed to. helpers Anyone who wants to help should be welcome, whether there's an official title for them or not. They should be thanked in the program. In the Early Years they were called "sub-committee" members. Cast, band, and some crew members have traditionally not attended the weekly meetings, but they should be welcome. Their attendance at these meetings may encourage them to join a future committee as a member rather than as a visitor. Activities ========== Forming the Committee --------------------- The Facade committee must be bootstrapped. First, the chair must be selected by the CS40 executive committee, during the first few weeks of the fall semester, or during the previous spring semester if the new CS40 execs have their act together. Occasionally more than one person will apply, but just as often someone must be persuaded to take the job. Often the returning Facadites from the previous year decide by consensus who will be chair and the CS40 execs rubber-stamp the selection. That is the best situation, since it ensures that someone with a clue and some experience gets the job. Once there is a chair, the remaining positions can be filled, but not all at once, because people in some positions must have a say in who takes other positions. Here is the partial order: level-0 level-1 level-2 level-3 chair--+--director-------+--musical director--+--choreographer | | | +--publicity +--asst. director +--band | | +--secretary +--stage manager-----+--costumes | | +--constr. chair--+--tech +--props | | | +--treasurer +--artists +--make-up | | +--historian +--asst. constr. chairs | | +--webmaster +--constr. crew | +--graphic designer | +--food | +--morale | +--helpers The chair should immediately fill the publicity position (probably from the pool of returning Facadites). Then they should all pitch in, under the direction of the publicity person and chair, to attract applicants (in addition to themselves). The chair fills the level-1 positions, taking advice from the other Facadites. The positions to be filled most urgently are director and construction chair, who can then fill the level-2 positions (taking advice from the ever-growing pool of Facadites), and so on. It is particularly important that the director and construction chair choose their own assistants, since they'll be working so closely together. The cast doesn't appear in the chart because it's different: it is chosen at the auditions by the director with the advice of the assistant director, musical director, and choreographer (and anyone else whose advice is requested). Finding enough interested people to cover all the positions is a challenge. One idea that we've never tried is to do a micro-facade in the swamp in September. A bunch of returning Facadites could go out there one day with some wood and tools and paint and build something fairly small in a few hours, then perform a 3-minute skit (or scenes from past shows) with makeshift costumes and one musician. Let anyone walk up and help. Answer questions. Have prepared hand-outs and the scrap-books on hand, and perhaps videos of past years. Publicity --------- Here are just some things that work. Be creative. Be relentless. table tents Approximately 150 are needed for the dining areas in Wohl. flyers * Stuff RA boxes in the duty lounge for quick distribution (at least 2/RA). * Plaster Wohl. Placing 3-4 of the same posters together increases effectiveness. * Keep the posters off of walls. Cleaning people will rip them down. * Bathroom doors are the most visible place to post. * 25 each for Eliot/Shepley * 15 each for low rises * 10 each for old suite buildings (GHI, JKL) underpass painting * Do not paint over events that have not occurred * Use exterior latex paint (same as for the Facade) or spray paint (easier, but less precise). * You need one can of paint for a base. * Make it look good. newspaper Personals and column ads. A series of personals during Nights of the Round Table (1988) generated attention. The Desk in Mallinckrodt Send an announcement to The Desk in Mallinckrodt informing them about the basics of your event. It's free publicity and they need to know. brown posters * Free paper and markers are available in the Office of Student Activities. * Hang them along the stairs in Mallinckrodt and in Wohl. * Unusually cut paper or borders will attract attention. * Make them neat and don't overload the poster with too much information. fall activities fair * Grab those freshman early before they commit to something else. * Use scrapbooks and videos to draw attention. CS40 and residence hall council meetings The people at these meetings are already joiners, so get them to join Facade. It doesn't hurt to have CS40 members think well of you. They control the purse strings. CS40 bulletin board For Wonderland, we had a spot on the CS40 bulletin board devoted solely to Facade. Cast and committee members checked there for messages, and it served as good publicity as well. stuff mailboxes Expensive but worth it. Consider using this technique to advertise for auditions. T-shirts If the theme of the facade is on them, which it usually is, they are only useful for advertising your show during carnival. This is great publicity, however. Order extras for people who show up during lot week. Another idea is to have fancier shirts made up for committee and cast members, and have a nice but less expensive version for your casual helpers. chalk the sidewalks Particularly the sidewalks between the South Forty and the underpass. word of mouth Encourage your cast and committee members to sign up their friends, as well as perfect strangers whom they encounter standing in line at the Bear's Den. make friends with ITSA and APO Contact these two groups early in some way. The earlier Facades drew many cast and committee members from ITSA, and several Facades both early and recent have included a surprising number of APO folks. It also can't hurt to reach out to the theater and a capella groups on campus around audition time. Obtaining a Script ------------------ Every year the South Forty Facade offers a reward for a script. Originally it was $100, but last year it was $150, and it should probably be $200, because it usually takes more than one person to write a script, it's a large effort, and the whole show hinges on getting a good script. It usually happens that the scripts submitted are inadequate, and the Facade committee ends up sending two or three of its members off to write a script, putting everything behind schedule from the start. In the early years, the winning scripts were submitted by committee members anyway. Therefore, all people involved with Facade should be strongly encouraged from the start to write a script. Ideally, you want to select your script by late October. All other plans hinge on the script selected, so the earlier it is chosen, the better. Diana Laulainen wrote a how-to guide to writing Facade scripts, which appears reformatted but not materially edited as the Script Hints section in this guide. Don't worry if a script looks dumb. I've thought every Facade script looked dumb on paper, even the ones I loved once I saw them performed. What's important is that it be funny, have a plot (some didn't!), have good music, and lend itself to ideas for the building. Watch the video tapes of past performances, especially our most successful ones: Nights of the Round Table, Wonderland, Hard Time, Modern Art, Buy the Book. I believe CS40 has copies of all of those except the first. It should obtain a copy of Nights. The Facades from the Early Years were 20 minutes long. The Facades from the Golden Years and later were about 40 minutes long, even though we aimed for 30 minutes. A shorter show allows more performances, making it easier for carnival goers to find time to see one of them amidst the other facades they want to see. Traditionally, the topic of the show is kept secret until the carnival itself (or until it becomes obvious during lot week). The rationale is that if the competition discovers the topic of the show, they can turn in a dummy script to Thurtene that has a similar plot, and both scripts will then be thrown out late in the year after too much has been invested. This has reportedly happened at least once. While you may question whether the fear is warranted, the secrecy tradition itself is a strong one, and strong traditions have intrinsic intangible value. If people are dying to know what the show is about, they should be told to wait until the carnival, or better yet, join the crew. Auditions --------- Auditions are usually scheduled in the fall after mid-terms and before Thanksgiving, so there must be a script by then. Hold the auditions in Friedman Lounge if at all possible (reserve it well in advance!), because many people will try out on a whim when they see it happening. But try to publicize it well anyway. There are generally try-outs on two consecutive nights and call-backs on the third. The director, assistant director, musical director, and choreographer must be there to evaluate the acting, singing, and dancing skills of the auditioners. Who else is allowed/required to be there is up to them. You may want to divide the time into acting, singing, and dancing try-outs, or divide the auditioners into three groups and have the three try-outs concurrently, rotating the groups twice. At the very beginning, have them fill out note cards with their experience and talents listed. Then, if you can't cast them, have the chair of the committee ask them about filling another position. Don't just ask them if they want to help but rather approach them with a "I know you'd be a great _______. Would you consider joining us in that capacity?" You can also find musicians this way. Be sure to have scrap-books and information on hand so the auditioners know what they're getting into, and know that while Facade is the most fun they will ever have, they will be part of a team and people will be depending on them to show up to every rehearsal and help with construction. For the acting portion of the audition, it is best to rely on improvisations. You can't use selections from the script, since you must maintain the secrecy of the theme, but you can audition types via improv. For Wonderland (1989), we had a lot of improvs where people played animals, since some of the characters were animals. As it turns out, a hilarious skit ensued featuring a pig and a dominoes delivery man. The "pig" eventually got cast as the lead, because he showed he had the capacity to exude sexiness as he cozied up to a sausage pizza. One technique we've used is to write out characters and characteristics on 3x5 cards and have people draw them at random. One set of cards has characters on them, such as "2 year old", "Opera Singer", and "Policeman". A second set has characteristics, such as "sexy", "homicidal", "sad", and "haughty". The players draw their cards and create a scene. Although the script has (hopefully) been written so that not every role requires a good singer, everyone will sing in the show, so they must all sing at the audition. You can suggest easy and fun songs, like a television theme song, to make them less nervous, and allow them to bring their own music. We also have used music that is similar (often songs by the same artists) to those that are actually in the show. It is best to pick one piece and advertise it as "the audition piece" so that people know what they will be expected to sing. Note that you will need a keyboardist for the auditions. Often the musical director will suffice. In the audition advertisements, state that singing ability and experience are not required, to avoid scaring people away. You can always work with someone and ensure s/he doesn't have to sing a solo if they truly can't sing, and in one case, we encouraged lip synching. For Wonderland (1989), we rearranged the singing parts so that our lead female had no solos. She was a fabulous actress with no singing voice whatsoever, so we fixed the script to accommodate her. The choreographer should work up a simple routine and teach it to the auditioners, to evaluate their ability to learn and perform dance steps. Think about which roles the auditioners might be suited for during the audition, so you can put particular combinations of actors in scenes together. In the decision-making process, try to reach a consensus. When that fails, the director's decision is final. This must be clear at the beginning to avoid hurt feelings. Remember that talent is not the only consideration; the cast must be able to get along socially. Be flexible. Sometimes we didn't have a role for someone but wanted him/her bad enough to rewrite or create a role. The greeks use two casts, yielding a lighter workload on the actors during the carnival. The South Forty never has done this, but it's theoretically possible if tons of people try out. It requires a second director, and usually leads to one weak cast and one strong cast, but it would also draw more people into being involved in Facade. Social Events ------------- There should be a party for all Facadites shortly after the cast is chosen. It should feature ice-breaker get-to-know-you type activities, videos of past shows, and whatever fun stuff you want. A fun event should also be planned for January after the break to recommit everyone to the project. This is when slumber parties were held for Nights of the Round Table (1988) and Wonderland (1989). There was also a Marriott-catered meal in a private dining area for both the cast and the committee, with everyone paying via their meal cards. It served well as a social gathering, a meeting, and a pep rally. At some point in the fall or January, everyone should get a tour of the basement of Millbrook. Make this fun: Have food and music, give power tool lessons. Perhaps the director should choose one rehearsal where everyone is especially encouraged to show up and watch. A few miscellaneous social events should be scattered throughout the year. Maybe another party, a cook-out or picnic, or bowling. Other people can probably be more creative on this front than I. Remember that the goal is to build friendship among the Facadites, which motivates them to do more work and allows them to have more fun doing it. Rehearsals ---------- Reserve a lounge on the Forty, not a public space, for rehearsals. You need to be able to preserve your the secrecy of your theme. If you are in a lounge with open windows, bring butcher paper to cover the windows once you start dress rehearsals. Use masking tape and a tape measure to mark the stage. Make sure that cast and band members know that rehearsals are mandatory. They should be once a week, and perhaps twice a week as the carnival draws near. The first "rehearsal" should be before winter break. Use it to hand out the script (along with a lecture about secrecy) and begin the bonding process. Have people introduce themselves, and introduce them to their characters. Play trust games (for example, give them the task of getting everyone over an invisible 5-foot wall) and improv games. Have them memorize their lines over winter break. Collect their spring schedules so you can pick a regular time for rehearsals (though you'll probably end up choosing Sunday). The second "rehearsal" (after winter break) should be a field trip to Millbrook to get them acquainted with and enthused about construction. Use the third rehearsal for blocking, and begin learning music with the fourth. It helps to start every rehearsal with trust games or improv exercises to get people loosened up. Encourage all cast members to improvise and ad lib and generally work with their part. Some of the best lines and portions of shows are those created either at rehearsals or by the actors as they get to know their parts. Remember this is carnival theater, not theater, so the integrity of the script is of little or no consequence. The last two weeks or so before lot week, you should be doing straight run-throughs of the show. The actors need to get used to doing shows in quick succession anyway. Be sure you understudy your parts in some way. For Wonderland (1989), the director, assistant director, chair, and costumer all had minor understudy roles, and some of the lesser characters understudied the major roles. It doesn't matter how you do it, just be sure to plan for emergencies. For Shakespearean Follies (1990) we were less prepared, and the chair had to fill in one of the roles for a few shows! Since we've always had problems with the actors not speaking loudly enough, here's a suggestion that has never been tried: Make a long recording of carnival-ish background noise, and play it loudly throughout all rehearsals. Until you've been to a facade, you have no idea how much noise you have to speak over. Construction folks should occasionally watch rehearsals to get a feel for the show, and to tell the cast what's going on in construction-land and get them excited about it. In recent years, the production folks and construction folks have been too segregated. Construction ------------ The first task of the construction folks is to tidy up the closet, which is probably in disarray from the end of the previous year. Assign everything a proper place and take a complete inventory, so you know what tools got lost and need to be replaced, and which materials need to be replenished. Count the bolts, or make sure you have a lot more than you need--you won't have time on the lot to wait for someone to go buy more (and the stores often don't stock very many). During the fall semester, after you have a script, you can start designing what needs to be built. I personally think it's nice when the building is not a building. For example, Buy the Book was a book. Other groups have done ships, a boom box, a Dr. Seuss setting. And the inside of a human body, but that was revolting. Even before you know exactly what you're building, you can buy some of the standard materials that you know you will use. Don't get so focused on the building itself that you forget about its appearance. This was the mistake I made in Modern Art. Did anyone notice the new curved wall, quarter-circle stage, raised light/sound booth, and upper stage that we had spent all our time building? Barely. What they saw was an exterior that was half boring and half hideous (the interior was okay, but not great). The next year the time was spent building the magnificent pages, and the interior was completely surrounded by a spectacular skyline backlit by Christmas lights. We won the Burmester Cup. The next year the exterior featured a huge shiny safe door, two trains, Pokey (a horse head sticking out of a top hat), a roofline of Monopoly property cards, and more. The interior used an insane assembly of large pages for switching between multiple scenes, including the finale scene: a giant dazzling casino that the audience had previously seen only on a projection screen. We won best construction. The key points are not to leave anything looking boring, to build lots of decorations, to pay attention to details, and to start early! You should begin construction no later than the start of the spring semester, so you need plans before then. There should be people working every Saturday and Sunday for about five or six hours (we've usually started at 11am). In the past, we've always found it necessary to add a weekday or two to the schedule as we ran out of time, so it might be best to do this from the very start. In the past, the work has usually intensified toward the end of the semester, which is exactly when schoolwork intensifies, so it would be nice to be ahead of schedule instead of behind (somehow this has never happened). Count the weekends in the semester before lot week--it's not that many. Don't forget about spring break: either don't count it, or plan to stay in town and use it (the Original Idiots did a lot of work during spring break). Don't neglect the painting--there will be huge amounts of painting to be done, so start early. People need work clothes, because they *will* get paint on them, and it doesn't wash out. Once Thurtene has formed, make sure they give you the same lot as last year, unless you're redesigning the building, in which case it doesn't really matter. With the current building, from All A Board (1994), the stage goes in the southeast corner. The west and north walls should have 3D stuff, while the east wall can just be painted nicely, and the south wall, which has booths next to it, can be painted more plainly. (Every other facade has one completely unfinished wall.) When you're designing things, don't just think about how it all fits together and is supported. Also think about how it will be assembled on the lot. The biggest pains during assembly have been getting the beams up and getting the tarp up. Everything is more difficult the higher off the ground you are, and the heavier the objects are. Overbuild everything. Think about things collapsing and falling on people's heads. This absolutely must not happen. (Which is not to say that it hasn't happened a few times to various facades, including S-40. Not surprisingly, it happens during lot week and take-down, when things are half-built. People have needed to go to the emergency room, but thankfully, I know of no serious injuries.) South Forty's building has always been by far the sturdiest on the lot, and we're proud of that. Other facades have collapsed during lot week and had to be rebuilt, or even re-designed! KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Murphy's Law states that if anything can go wrong, it will. The Facade Reality is worse than that--if nothing can possibly go wrong, it will anyway. If you design something that ought to work, you'll be in trouble on the lot. You need to design things that are so butt-ass simple that they can't possibly fail. Then, when they do, they will at least be easy enough to fix in the limited time available. Tyson ----- At some point in the spring, you need to retrieve the parts of the building that you plan to re-use from Tyson. Choosing when to go to Tyson is a trade-off. If you go earlier, you have more time to work on the stuff you bring back. But after you retrieve it, the basement becomes *very* crowded. Anything that can be done before going to Tyson should be. Now that there is a guy with a fork lift at Tyson, it's possible to go there with only four people, but I still recommend six. Expect to be at Tyson for two hours at the most, probably less. Our stuff is at the far end of the warehouse on the left. The end of the Heart and Soul (1997) video features a tour of Tyson. You will need about a dozen people back at Millbrook to carry flats down into the basement. It's pretty quick and easy with enough people, slow and miserable otherwise. Plan where you want to put things in the basement, because it will be hard to move things around once it's crowded. Lot Week -------- Get as much done as you possibly can before lot week, because you'll have more than enough to do on the lot. In theory, there need not be any cutting or painting on the lot. I'd like to see that someday. Also remember that it's much easier to paint things that you can reach from the ground, and nearly impossible to paint things in the rain. One year it rained for four days during lot week. Load the truck(s) the day before (Sunday). If you have only one truck, you'll need to make another trip (or two) during lot week. Keep the covered truck throughout the carnival until it goes back to Tyson on Tuesday. You will have all sorts of junk you need to store inside it during the carnival (scaffolding, tools, paint, extra wood). Spend that extra half hour getting the chalk lines in precisely the right place, because the corners of the building cannot be moved once the walls are up, and getting beams to fit into a crooked building while you're 14 feet in the air is frustrating, to say the least. Use a large 3-4-5 triangle to define the first right angle. Use a map to unload the flats directly to the proper place, then bolt each wall together. Have a single strong person verify the presence and tightness of every bolt in a wall before raising that wall. Have enough lumber to screw stiffeners to the top of each wall, above the vertical seams that run the full height of the wall. Those will stay in place, but you'll also need stiffeners crossing the horizontal seams while you raise the wall--these will be taken off after the walls are up. It takes many people to raise a wall, but extra people from the fraternities and sororities will be willing to help. Have enough long lumber for pushing on the top of the wall. Remember that anything too big to fit through a doorway must be on the proper side (inside or outside) of the building before the last wall goes up. Putting up an entire wall is much easier than putting it up in pieces. Just round up enough people. Raising the walls is exhilarating: suddenly, instead of a pile of wood, you have a building. Doorways in the wall will often shrink when the wall is raised, unless something holds the bottom apart. However, there mustn't be anything that people might trip over. Trimming the door is one option, but it's quite difficult and destroys the door. You can buy wood or metal things (called "door sills" maybe???) to put at the bottom that are designed not to trip people. You can either install them before raising the wall, or use a car jack to push the bottom apart while you drop the door sill into place. You must get the walls and beams up the first day. We haven't figured out a really easy way to put the beams up. If things are going smoothly, you'll also have time for the stage and light/sound booth on the first day. Have a map of the stage (available in the archives, plus there's one drawn on the inside of one of the 12-foot flats). If you're using the building from All A Board (1994), don't forget the diagonal braces going vertically from the west and north walls to the beams. They don't appear on any plans because they were an improvisation during lot week 1995, in response to strong winds. Also, here are some hints on the light/sound booth. The bottom of the booth goes 7 feet above the pavement. First bolt the steel brackets on the wall loosely, then raise the railing into place with the aid of a one-section scaffold with levelers, and bolt it tightly. Cut a 7 foot 2x2 to support the floor at the corner of the building. Then put the floor in, biggest piece first. It's tricky: Put the long edge in place with the opposite edge hanging down lower, then swing it up into position, which will probably require force. The other floor pieces are easier. Don't forget the tiny 1-foot triangle piece (David has always made fun of me for that). Your biggest enemies are wind and rain. The building is most vulnerable to wind when it is half-assembled. The walls are huge sails. During the take-down of Buy the Book, while one wall was attached at only one end, a very strong wind tore it in half, taking a tower of scaffolding down with it. Ben Regen was on the other scaffolding, attached to the end of the wall that stayed up (luckily!). Rain can collect in the tarp, which is attached to the building. Water is very heavy, and as it collects, the tarp sags, making room for even more water. Other facades have collapsed under the weight of rainwater. We have gradually improved the drainage of our roof, but not yet achieved one that collected zero water. Choosing when to put up the tarp is a trade-off. You need a clear path around the building to put it up, so you have to put it up before 3-D exterior things are attached, but the interior will become much darker under the tarp, making it harder to work. Speaking of light, I find that it is infinitely easier to work in daylight than at night. Therefore, it's a shame to waste early morning daylight. Unfortunately, most people don't want to work that early, and want to stay up late. Try to convince people to go to bed early and return early, rather than stay up late trying to work in the dark. But since you will inevitably be working in the dark, buy more halogen work lights and extension cords. We never have enough. The South Forty's electrical requirements are different from those of other Facades, so show the electricians the breaker box as early in the week as possible. They can start hooking it up as soon as the light/sound booth is assembled. During lot week, absurd amounts of precious time are wasted hunting for tools and supplies. It gets worse as the week goes on. I don't know why we have never solved this problem, because the causes are clear: * There are not enough containers. * Many containers look the same. * People don't know which containers are supposed to contain which things, so they often migrate. * The containers themselves get scattered all over the building. * Things get lent out to other groups and forgotten. The solutions are simple: * Buy a lot of containers and distinguish them. I suggest eight each of 5-gallon paint buckets, 2-gallon paint buckets, 1-gallon paint cans (with handles), and 1-quart paint cans. For each size, paint them black, white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Also get a few crates of different colors. Replicate containers that are likely to be needed by multiple people simultaneously. For example, there should be three 1-gallon cans of 1-1/4" drywall screws, all the same color. There should be some sort of filing system for the tarp certificate, the light board manual, construction plans, etc. * Write down exactly which container every tool and supply is supposed to be in. Train people to consult this list when they're not sure where to put something. * Have a central location for the containers that are not in use, and train people to returns containers there when they're finished with them. * Keep a check-out list of borrowed items. Write down the item, the name of the person who borrowed it, the time/day, and the name of the group that the person is from. Cross items off the list when they are returned. Take care of the people on the lot. They need water. A cooler of ice-water with a spout is the best thing. A variety of packaged drinks, including non-carbonated and non-caffeine drinks, also works. People also need to eat. Having food on the lot (real food, not just junk) goes a long way toward maintaining morale as well as re-fueling the workers. People are made irrationally happy by being well-fed, so use this to your advantage. Provide sunscreen and work gloves. Try to have the basic scenery up for a rehearsal on Wednesday without lights. The rehearsal on Thursday can be used for aiming the lights and planning the light/sound cues. There should be a full dress rehearsal on Friday. No matter how much work is left to be done on Friday night, the cast must be kicked off the lot in time to get a good night's sleep, because they'll be working their butts off during the carnival. Keep an eye on paint supplies. Make the trip to the paint store before you run out, so you don't lose time. Train people to close paint cans tightly (using a 2x4, not a hammer). Spilled paint is a pain to clean up. Also train them to clean out their brushes (and roller covers unless you have an endless supply). Remember to have the certificate of flame resistance for the tarp for the inspection. If it's been lost, another one can be obtained from the company that sold the tarp (we've always used Lawrence Canvas). Have enough tables on the lot. Anything put on the ground is likely to get wet, because it will rain during lot week (sometimes a lot). The band members especially don't like their stuff getting wet, so put them on flats. Have brooms and a mop on hand for cleaning the stage. Make the program ahead of time, but leave space to thank people who show up on the lot. Finish it on Friday, but don't be late to the copy shop! You don't need to be overly worried about Thurtene's fines. In our experience, Thurtene finds excuses to impose lots of fines on everyone, in excess of their deposit, and forgives everything over the deposit. That's not a license to misbehave. The campus community is being very generous by letting us use their parking lot, so we should honestly try not to spill paint on it, and try to be off as quickly as possible, leaving no debris. The Carnival ------------ For the past several years, the shows have been at 11:30am, 12:30pm, 1:30pm, 4:00pm, 5:00pm, 6:00pm, and 7:00pm, both days. The ticket price has varied between $2 and $3, and is often (but not always) agreed on by all the facades the night before. For the first three Facades (1987-1989) the shows were played every 45 minutes or even every 30 minutes, and Diana recommends a return to this practice, because it allows more people to fit the show into their schedule and recommend it to their friends. Of course, it requires a shorter show. Just make sure the actors get a long enough break to eat and see one other show each day. The last show on Sunday usually departs from the script. Depending on the cast, it might be mild, or extremely raunchy. If the latter is a possibility, the show must be closed to the public. Make sure there is plenty of water for the cast. Between the sun, the lights, and the costumes, they can get extremely hot. During the carnival, there must be people to run the lights, sound, and followspot, and manage the stage (props, costumes, makeup). There has generally not been a shortage of people to do this, though remember that you also have to teach enough people the light/sound queues. You also need someone to record a few of the shows on video tape (think about where the camcorder is coming from well in advance!). Which shows? The ones with the biggest audiences are almost always the best. Extra committee members should be encouraged to fill out the audience in any non-sold-out shows, applauding wildly and laughing to encourage the audience to do the same. Audience appeal is one of the criteria on the judging sheets. You need someone selling tickets at all times. This is extremely important, so get firm commitments in advance. No one has ever done a better job than Ken Krieger, who never stood in the ticket both, but donned a tool belt filled with tickets, change, and programs, and cheerily accosted people in front of the building and convinced them that they wanted to see the show. Another good technique is to have the actors make appearances in costume and in character in front of the building. They need enough time between shows for relaxing in addition to advertising. Remember that attracting audience members is not just about collecting money--a bigger audience truly makes for a more exciting and humorous performance. Trash will accumulate on the ground. Pick it up quickly--we don't want the building looking like a garbage dump. David Margolis once had an idea that someone should mount a movie camera atop a light pole overlooking the lot that snaps one frame every minute or 30 seconds or so, over the course of the entire transformation from parking lot to carnival to parking lot. That would be really cool. Take-Down --------- Take-down begins immediately after the last show (probably after a few short speeches). Traditionally, we have required everyone to stay until the building is reduced to walls and beams, but there is never enough work to keep them all busy, because there are only so many screw guns and only so many people who know what needs to be done. Perhaps a list of volunteers should be collected beforehand, and people conscripted only if necessary. There should be one person in charge of taking down light/sound stuff, with one or two assistants. Every screw gun should be in someone's hand, taking down scenery. There should be two to four people moving things into piles or to the dumpster, and building scaffolding as necessary. Depending on what is on the outside of the building, some number of people need to take it all down, and then unfasten the tarp. And of course the construction chair (or both of them) should be keeping an eye on everything. Watch out for people trying to take apart things that shouldn't be taken apart, like flats and stage pieces. Once all the scenery is down, people can start disassembling the stage, and once the light/sound stuff is down, the booth can come down. Hopefully the Facadites feel like one family by now, so any celebrating will be done together. If the cast goes off and has its own private celebration (as has happened), it's kind of demoralizing for the rest. Don't overdo it--there's a lot of work to be done on Monday. There will probably be another party after classes are over, and a S-40 Facade area at WILD. In 1988 CS40 threw a South Forty party to celebrate S-40 Facade's success. Lots of people are needed on Monday for taking the walls down and loading everything onto the trucks. Some years we've been off the lot by Monday afternoon. For Buy the Book, due to lack of people, it dragged on until 8:00am Tuesday morning. That was miserable--don't let that happen again. Part of the problem was that we didn't do enough on Sunday night, because we were too psyched after winning the Burmeister. It should be made clear that take-down will happen, Cup or no Cup, and people will show up the next day, hangover or no hangover. The easiest way to get the walls down (after everything else is down, including the fans) is to take all but the top bolts out of the four corners, then drop two walls that meet at a tall corner, then drop the other two walls. For Heart and Soul (1997) we dropped all four walls at once, just for fun. It's on the video tape. Obviously, you should make damn sure nothing is in the way, and warn all people in the area. In 1987 a falling tower almost crushed Diana, who was saved at the last minute by the construction chair heaving his body into the tower to change the direction of its fall. Don't let people pound directly on the threads of bolts! That ruins them. When a 1/2" bolt is stuck, pound a long 3/8" bolt in from the other side. Script Hints ============ [This section is a reformatted rendition of a document written by Diana Laulainen-Schein. I have fixed a few typos and added a few attributed annotations in square brackets, but I have made no material changes. Outside the square brackets, "I, me, my" refer to Diana. --AMC] Facade Script Writing Musings of Diana Laulainen-Schein What follows are my thoughts on how best to approach writing a facade that will win the South Forty an award. That's the goal... writing a script shouldn't have anything to do with your ego or with some sort of vision of great writing that you might have in your head. Quite simply, facades are not "great" writing and the skills you use in creating one are not likely to translate to any other writing project. Thus probably the first thing you need to understand is that a facade is a unique beast. I always suggest that freshman are unlikely to write a great script because they don't know what a facade really is until they go to carnival and experience it. I myself spent two years analyzing what made scripts winners before I attempted the task. Once you've figured out the formula, however, the task is not only simplified but fun. Things that make facade unique: * It's a carnival. Don't forget this. It's not theater and it certainly shouldn't pretend to be. There is also the noise factor to contend with on stage, and people go to the carnival to be entertained, not to be confronted with a thought-provoking drama on the state of the nation. * Your actors may or may not have experience and/or singing. Plan accordingly and be sure all of your characters don't require dazzling talent. * Along the same lines, try to write roles so that gender is interchangeable. You might get 20 women at tryouts and 3 men. [But if you are able to cast equal numbers of men and women, it can help the choreography. --AMC] * Your script has to be adaptable to some sort of three-dimensional exterior. THIS IS OF PRIMARY IMPORTANCE. I don't care if you have just written the most witty play known to Thurtene, if there are no forthcoming ideas for exterior design, the script isn't useful. So how do you start? I start with two things: (1) a theme or story to parody and (2) music. Step One: The Theme ------------------- I prefer to take something that's known and play with it, such as Alice in Wonderland, Star Wars, Camelot, Dr. Seuss, Cinderella, Seinfeld... you get the idea. The rationale for NOT doing something completely original is this: You have a very short time to introduce characters and a plot, develop interest, and then end the show. It's so much easier if your audience already knows the basic characters or premise. This is not to say that original plays have not been written and done well, only that it makes your job much harder. I would also suggest that even those that are "100%" original, still attach themselves to a genre and follow a predictable pattern. Common things to think about basing a facade on: Movies Plays Television Books Comics Nursery Rhymes Musicals Games Commercials Once you have a theme in mind, test it. Has it been done is the first question you should ask. Originality is 30% of your score. Don't ask how I know, I just do. Those top-secret judging forms have been seen. Originality means it hasn't been done in the last 10-15 years. Yes, I know you and the other students haven't been around that long but the judges have. They are the same people year after year and they have long memories. Hence, if someone can recall it being done in the last 10 years, ditch it. Things that have been done: Alice in Wonderland Greek tragedy Camelot Shakespeare Guys and Dolls Dr. Seuss Young and the Restless and The Boat and the Beautiful (both Sammie Soap Operas) A Human Body (don't ask, it was gross) City Hall corruption Westerns (too many) Hotels Pirates of Penzance (Way cool, the building looked like a boat sitting on the lot) Bowling Alley Cave Man Trains/Train stations Ancient Greece Candy "Bar" (ala Willy Wonka) Mother Goose Hospitals (too many) Talk Show Restaurants (too many) Town Hall (ala Spin City) Ancient Egypt Western Saloon Castles Theater 50s setting (ala Happy Days) Fairy Tales Wizard of Oz Circus Fair Monopoly Board Star Wars (few sci-fi's have been done in general) These are just the ones that I personally remember... if anyone remembers a theme being done, don't redo it. Even if you can do it better, you lose in the originality scoring. The second question should be: Can I easily think of ideas for an exterior design? If the answer is no, ditch it. I generally had my themes in my head for over 6 months before I tried to write something using that theme. In that time, I thought about the well-known portions of the theme that I would use and browsed music collections for inspiration (music stores, your collection, other people's collections). Step Two: Characters and Main Plot Device ----------------------------------------- Go ahead and pick out a preliminary cast of characters and decide what the conflict of your show is going to be. There should only be one main thing going on in your show, since there really isn't time to truly develop anything more complex... some sort of love story works well. Other central crises can work though and in the interest of originality, should be explored. Think about that center and how you will relate it to your theme. For example, in Wonderland, the main plot device was that Alice wouldn't hold Jack's hand. This sent her off into tears and into Wonderland, where she got all sorts of advice on whether she should or shouldn't hold his hand. That's it, nothing fancy, but it won best production and it was fun. Same thing with Nights of the Round Table... the main problem was that WU wasn't getting the same respect as Harvard. Prince Arthur decides to fix this but spends most of the play looking for round table around which to hold his meetings of knights/nights. The rest of the story weaved around this central theme, with Lancelot transferring from Harvard and Guinevere jumping into his arms ala Camelot. In good judge brown-nosing style, the affair is discovered and everyone decided no one really wants to be like Harvard anyway when they can be at "dear old Washington." One more example from my bag of tricks. In Shakespearean Follies, the problem was that Romeo and Juliet don't love one another anymore. The play was all about finding out why and fixing it... actually in the end the two decided not to fix it, but that worked too. The main idea needs to be simple though. If it takes the first half of the play to get to the point, you've lost your audience. As for cast. I recommend selecting 2-3 central character leads with a few sub-leads and then a chorus with a purpose. In Wonderland, the chorus was a deck of cards; and in Nights, they were the knights and damsels. [Elsewhere Diana has stated the rationale for the leads/chorus casting model: You can't count on the quality of those who show up at auditions. With a handful of major characters, you only need a few good actors/actresses to pull off a good show. Most facades follow this model, including the first four S-40 Facades, and it works. It should be noted, however, that Modern Art (1992, best production) and Buy the Book (1993, Burmeister Cup) used more balanced casts of about a dozen parts, so that can work too. --AMC] It helps to use stereotypes in defining your characters. We did this well in Nights. Each of the Daves was one type: an engineering geek, a b-schooler, a jock... Having such exaggerated, blatant types on stage made them easily identifiable, which is again helpful in such a short show, with little time for character development. Also in developing characters, it is often possible to meld together elements that the audience is acquainted with... For example, in Wonderland, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum doubled as the Blues Brothers, which made sense since their song was "Everybody Needs Somebody" from the "Blues Brothers" movie. The Caterpillar was a Caterpillar with a distinctive "surfer dude" mentality. On the other hand, the Cheshire Cat and the White Rabbit, as written by Lewis Carroll, had plenty of character already and were not augmented. Step Three: Music ----------------- Once you have picked a theme, I suggest selecting potential music. Really. It's so much easier to sculpt a facade around music than it is to sculpt music around a script. You might even change your main theme based on music. The main theme of Wonderland, for example, became the hand-holding dilemma when I was looking at potential Beatles songs and found "I Wanna Hold your Hand." Go through and pick popular songs that everyone knows, older stuff as well. In fact, older stuff might be better for two reasons. (1) The judges are older. (2) There is a better chance that everyone will know the song. Along those same lines, I also recommend musical or movie music. Films like Animal House, the Blues Brothers, and Footloose provide music that is catchy and well-known. Musical stuff from shows like Grease, the Sound of Music, and South Pacific are also tried and tested. Don't overlook unusual sources. We used the Slinky commercial music for one song and just the playing of the tune got people laughing. So don't hesitate to use the Oscar Meyer Wiener song if it works. Jingles sell products because they are catchy, so go ahead and let them sell your facade. Along the same lines, think about those songs we all learned in school and at camp (like the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Bingo"). Again, easily identified by your audience. [As far as I know, only once has a facade used an original song. Jon Kravitsky composed "Mrs. Jones", a barber-shopish song, for a tap-dance number in Modern Art (1992). It was very cool. --AMC] The Opener Write out a list of potential music sources and pick your opening song. Make it a loud, flashy tune that everyone knows. Don't change many if any of the words and get all of your characters out on stage singing and dancing. This is your big chance to get the audience into your facade immediately, which is critical. You need to win them over ASAP because without a receptive audience, no facade, no matter how well written, will win anything. The Rest of the Music Now, with your main idea, think about the rest of the music. Here's an example: What sort of music works for hand holding and reluctant love? (Wonderland) Actually, the music for this was a piece of cake. We started with "Let's Go Crazy" to set the mood, introduced the crisis with "I Wanna Hold your Hand" and filled out the show with pro and con love songs, such as "Everybody Needs Somebody" and "I'll never Fall in Love Again." Just before the resolution, Jack pleads with Alice using "Help me Rhonda/Alice" from the Beach Boys, followed by the finale, Alice agrees to handhold, which gets Jack out of a jam with the Queen of Hearts, and "Shout" ended the show. I think I changed one word in all six songs. (In "Let's Go Crazy," I changed the word afterlife to wonderland and Rhonda changed to Alice in "Help me Rhonda for obvious reasons). Otherwise, I pretty much let the music stand as written. (Have you ever read the lyrics to "Let's go Crazy"? They make very little sense, but for the purposes of Wonderland, it didn't matter. The main message of the song was "Let's go Crazy" and that's all anyone in the audience needed and could get out of the song.) WHY!?!? It has to do with that audience familiarity thing again. If you write really clever lyrics, you and your cast will know it, but the audience won't catch most of your changes. They hear the song once, and hence don't have time to process all that cute stuff you changed. It takes a ton of time to do, and it yields very little reward, if any. That said, I have been known to break this rule. In Madonna's "Vogue," we left everything but changed the catalog of characters in the middle to reflect the show's theme. [This refers to the Star Wars script that was never performed. Incidentally, Vogue was actually used in Modern Art (1992) --AMC] When we used "Camelot" for Nights, we changed Camelot to Washington and tweaked the song just a tad throughout. Oh yes, and we rewrote the Brady theme song to introduce the theme of a show. That was easy on the audience because they knew "Here's a story..." and only had to know that we were telling them what was to come in the show. Oh, and the rule about not changing the words doesn't apply as stringently to jingles either, since jingles general have one message that is repeated over and over. If you change the message, no matter, so long as it's blatantly obvious. The first and last song should be full-cast, blow-them-away, fully choreographed dance numbers. The rest of your songs can be sung as solos, duets, or mixed ensembles. Using the full-cast is an option but doing this for only the opening and closing songs will make them "main events," via the contrast rather than just two more songs. The final song should be a particularly energetic song. You want the audience to leave uplifted and the judges to score your facade humming and tapping their feet. It doesn't hurt to have the audience clapping along and/or dancing in the aisles at this point either. [It is sometimes a good idea to shorten songs. It helps keep the show moving, and allows room for another song. --AMC] Step Four: "Oh yeah, the dialogue." ----------------------------------- I suck at writing dialogue. I know what I want to say but can't get it to sound natural. I solved this problem by having a writing partner. I would tell her what I wanted to come out of a character's mouth and she told me how to write it to make it sound natural. This brings me to another important point. COLLABORATION. Three to four people working together works best. Any more and it becomes a mess of opposing ideas. Ideally, you should fill each other's weak spots. One person, however, needs to be in ultimate control of the typing/writing, with the others rummaging through music, tweaking dialogue, and generally just brainstorming. Did I mention alcohol? Can't say that I ever completed a facade without the downright silliness of drunkenness... Which isn't to say it can't be done, but it worked for us. Oh yea, don't forget to reread and fix up your script later, when you are sober. But back to brainstorming... One of the weird but useful things we did as a group was make a list of cliches. We used it for three years, adding new things and crossing out things we used. What do I mean? Well, take these phrases: This is your brain on drugs. Any questions? Milk. It does a body good. Timex. It takes a licking and keeps on ticking. The force be with you. 4 out of 5 doctors recommend... Luke, I am your father. You know all of them, and inserted in the right place, your audience will recognize them too. An example: In Wonderland, Alice eats cookies labeled "eat me" and goes weird. The Caterpillar gives her a bottle labeled "drink me" and it straightens her out. Pick the line that fits. It worked well for a laugh and ended the scene. You can also gather cliches and well-known phrases by watching the movie, TV show, or theater production that you are basing your theme on or by reading the text. We took a lot of the Wonderland-specific cliches from a viewing of the Disney version and a skim of the book. Putting it together ------------------- Ok, so you have your opener and you've done some dialogue... the next song should reiterate the conflict of the play as you have just outlined in your fabulous dialogue. This should always be true. No song should be done that doesn't either reinforce or introduce (IN A BIG OBVIOUS WAY) a major plot point. If you have pre-selected some music, you can often write your dialogue in such a way that it leads up quite cleverly to the next song. I found that this preselection of potential music often sort of allowed the facade to write itself. All you need to do is figure out how you want to arrive at the next song. In matching your music with your dialogue, keep in mind that the people you cast in certain roles may or may not be able to sing. Strive for songs in which the song can be sung by a group or that can be sung by one character or just as easily another. Example: The opener to Wonderland was to be sung by Alice, the lead. Makes sense? Well, singing wasn't her strong part, so we had the Mad Hatter sing it, which in retrospect made more sense, given the message of the song. Important point: as you work through your show, stay focused. Don't wander off on a tangent. With only 30 minutes to play with, you can't afford to lose your audience's interest in a subplot that generally goes no where. It's also bad writing in that everything you write should serve a purpose. I was greatly dismayed as the author to see the addition of Batman and Robin to Follies in that they served no real role and added nothing to the advancement of the script. Try as I might, even 7 years later I can't figure out what Batman and Robin were doing in a Shakespearean spoof. [Agreed, they did nothing to advance the plot. They did, however, draw laughs. Their first laugh, at their first appearence, was entirely due to their out-of-place-ness. Whether they were a net gain or a waste of time, I don't know. In Buy the Book (1993), there were two "nosy neighbors" who spent most of their time in a balcony off to the side. They were obviously modeled after the critics from the Muppet Show (Statler and Waldorf). Unlike Batman and Robin, these two were essential to the show, though I can't explain why, since the plot didn't really depend on them. Watch the video. --AMC] Tricks of the trade: things I have done that worked --------------------------------------------------- I have left scenes unwritten to be ad-libbed by the characters. This was very risky but turned out fabulous. The scene changed every show. I think it worked because we did a fabulous job in casting a first-rate ham in the role and he drove the scene. Alternatively, you can just encourage your actors to ad-lib and change lines once you get into rehearsals. Don't know what to do to end or change a scene? Don't want to simply send one character off as another comes on? As you write, you will come to points when you recognize the scene is over and you need to figure out how to move on. Chaos works and so does a black out. Don't do either one more than once in a show. We used the chorus/deck of cards chasing Jack as a scene changer in Wonderland... they just ran helter skelter through the scene and the audience and dispersed the scene. Alice got muddled up in the confusion and rushed after the whole crowd while the focus shifted elsewhere. Black-outs work well when a major piece of information is revealed to the shock of the characters/audience. Oh, and we did a vortex once... vortex music and flashing colored lights as the characters melted off stage. The best scene ender, however, is simply to go into song. This can be done more than once in a show too, unlike chaos and blackouts. If you've done your crafting well, the dialogue leads into the song, which reinforces the dialogue. [Example: In Modern Art (1992), the night watchman asks one of the paintings how he can enter the painting with Mona Lisa. The answer: "Strike a pose" (the opening line of Vogue). --AMC] As you are working on your show, don't ever limit yourself with thoughts of "that can't be done." It usually can be, if not in the exact manner you envisioned and it's those "impossible" details that can make the difference. Try to twist the obvious around in your writing. One would expect the resolution to a "Romeo doesn't love Juliet" plot to be that they get back together. If they don't, it's unexpected and more interesting. [Likewise, in Buy the Book, Cindy (the Cinderella analog) and Jack (the prince analog) live happily ever after separately, though her step-mother and his dad end up married. --AMC] Ending it --------- Any fool can start a facade, but it takes a genius to end one well. The ending is the hardest part. Strive for an absence of lameness. Wrap up your plot and then finish the show with a BANG! It should be an audience-pleasing song that will have them clapping, tapping their feet, and leaving uplifted and energized. Revisions --------- After you have a script written, put it away and dwell on it. Take it out in about a week and tweak it. Read it out loud with your collaborators... Does it sound ok? Are you laughing as you read it? Then put it away, dwell some more, and tweak it again a week later. The changes you make in these two weeks will probably be some of the best things about the show. You'll think of things in the shower and at dinner that can be worked in to the show... write them down as you think of them or you will forget. I kept a piece of paper and a pen by my bed because invariably I would literally "dream up" up good changes or adds... Obviously this is a long process. Don't plan on rushing through it in a weekend. You can probably flesh out a complete outline in a weekend but to polish it and make it good, you need more time. Finishing Touches ----------------- Hand in notes about lighting, special effects and such. Add in notes regarding gestures, such as high-5s, winks, thumbs up, and the like. Add in notes about how things can be done: for example, we wanted a space battle in one show. It's best to tell the committee that they can either do this with the "pilots" flying the craft off of fishing poles and wire or alternatively to have them hold craft in their hands and fly them much like kids do in play. Draw sketches to reflect stage set up and design, as well as interior design. Create a list of costume ideas. Create a list of character characteristics that can be used for auditions. Think about what you would look for in a character in general terms. I recommend that you steal ideas from movies, TV, and other theater shows. "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" gave me the idea of using satellite stages, which were used in Wonderland (for the Cheshire Cat's tree) and Follies (for the witches scenes). [And Buy the Book (1993) for the nosy neighbors. --AMC] This brings ups another point as well... it helps if you like the theater and have seen a lot of shows, particularly musicals. If you haven't and you are in St. Louis for the summer, go to the MUNY every week. You can sit in the back for free and soak up some inspiration. MUNY shows led to a one-on-one chat between the lead in Nights and the audience and the use of a strobe, reversible scenery, and various other special add ons in other shows. A final note: I would recommend watching Wonderland or Nights of the Round Table following along with the script to see how things were written and how they turned out in the final product. I recommend these two scripts in particular because they were written under my guidelines as presented here and they both won production awards. Pay attention to the stage directions as you read along. These directions are as important to the play's form as a whole as the music and dialogue. [The scripts should be available from the same source as this guide. CS40 should still have its copy of Wonderland, and should obtain a copy of Nights if it doesn't have one already. --AMC] Good luck and have fun. DLS Production Hints ================ This section is for production-related things that don't fit into the earlier sections. So far, that's not much. Preserve costumes and props from one year to the next. If they don't fit in the closet in Millbrook, find another space. We probably still have keys to the closet in the basement of Graham Chapel, but a closet somewhere on the 40 would be more convenient. Construction Hints ================== Design ------ Follow the requirements in Thurtene's construction packet. For example, I think there needs to be a ground-floor exit for each 25 people in the audience, doors have to push outward easily, no flammable materials, etc. The maximum height of the building (except towers) was reduced from 20 feet to 16 feet after 1994, so we've been grandfathered since then. The next time you redesign the building, you'll have to obey that requirement. The one mechanism that has proved its usefulness again and again is the page: a lightweight hinged flat, usually used to change scenery. Every other kind of mechanism has given us trouble (even if eventually we got it mostly working): ropes, pullies, castors, velcro, motors. Keep mechanisms simple and foolproof. If you want to use a motor, get a big one. No, a bigger one. The motor we used to turn Pokey for All A Board barely worked for about 15 minutes, then the power supply burned up. For On the Air we got a nice big motor to turn the stage, and it still needed human assistance to get started. Have a plan B to fall back on if the motor fails. Paint is expensive. We usually get many colors, use a few of them a lot, and have lots of the other colors left over. Try to get the artists to use as few colors as necessary, and to predict how much of each will be needed. The idea of doing theatre-in-the-round has been discussed. The blocking and lighting would be very hard, so this probably shouldn't be done. If you really want to though, some octagonal stage designs were drawn and evaluated back in May 1996. Contact me if you're interested. Management ---------- The construction chair and assistants need to remember that their job is not only to build things, but to manage people. Keep those people busy, or you will lose their interest and their help. Budget *time* as well as money. For Shakespearean Follies, we sewed our own tarp. It was very time-consuming, and the seams were not water-tight. The folks who sold us the tarp (Lawrence Canvas) can do a better job much faster. For All A Board we bought steel posts for the corners of the building, and decided to drill the holes ourselves. It took a very long time, and the holes are not as numerous or as precisely placed as we would have liked. For Heart and Soul we spent a lot of time during lot week looking for extension cords. We should have just bought a bunch more. Speaking of the tarp, for All A Board we had Lawrence Canvas sew it, but to save money we decided to seal the seams ourselves. It didn't work. Having water drip into the inside of the building is very annoying. In the future, do not skimp on the tarp. The next tarp should be opaque like the current one, but white instead of black. That will help a lot with the heat problem. (Ideally, it should be white on the outside and black on the inside, but white on both sides might be the only available option. I don't think it will matter much as long as it's opaque.) Old pieces cannot last forever. The 12-foot flats date back to Hard Time (1991), and much of the plywood in them is from the first show, Movin' Out (1987) (in fact, you can still see some of the original labels on the insides of a few of them). Be willing to start retiring old flats that are falling apart. 12-foot flats can be replaced from the pile of extras at Tyson (there were originally 34, but we currently use only 20 at a time), but others would have to be replaced with newly built ones. The stage pieces are getting very old too, so be ready to replace them as they become too weak. There is one extra 4x8 legless piece. The holes in the stage pieces must be precisely placed, and precisely perpendicular to the surface, because the pieces are meant to be interchangeable. We used the drill press in Givens Hall. The centers of the holes must be an odd number of feet from the edge of the stage piece, 1-3/4" from the edge of the 2x4 (that's centered on the 2x4). The plywood is 5/8", and the ribs are spaced every 16" on center. The radius of the stage is 21'6-1/2". Techniques ---------- The first four Facades used nails, but we haven't even owned any nails in many years. Use screws. Bent lumber can and should be straightened when it is being attached to plywood. While one person puts the screws in starting from one end, s/he instructs the person at the other end to force the wood one way or the other. The loose end can be moved a large distance in order to make fine adjustments at the spot where the next screw will go, until the lumber and plywood are flush. Apply primer to full sheets of plywood and luan before building anything out of them. That's much easier than priming the things after you build them. Measure twice, cut once. Mark the outsides of paint cans prominently on all sides with both the paint itself, and the number corresponding to the color. Also make a large chart on a piece of primed luan with the color-number mapping. Write "color chart" very large on the back so someone doesn't accidentally cut it up. It is possible and sometimes useful to drive drywall screws into asphalt. Materials --------- The South Forty Facade construction folks have traditionally been masters of wood, screws, glue, and paint. We have used those four materials for virtually *everything*; sometimes for things no one would think of making out of wood. The advantage is that those materials are well-tested and well-understood. On the other hand, other facades often use other materials, with interesting results. The South Forty should consider branching out, but keep in mind the following caveats: * Flame retardance. A day or two before the carnival, the fire department will hold a match up to various parts of the facade. Anything that catches fire must be removed. This has happened to other facades, and they usually don't have time to replace the removed materials. Some things are flammable that you might not expect, like styrofoam and many plastics. * Water. Everything will get wet, guaranteed. * Paper mache, even if you can satisfy the flame retardance requirement (perhaps paint and a flame-retardant spray will suffice) and keep it dry, is still a royal pain. It has, however, produced nice mushrooms and chess pieces for Wonderland (1989) and mellon-sized rocks for Shakespearean Follies (1990). The precise materials we use regularly are: * Plywood, CDX grade. 5/8" for wall flats (I used to think that was overkill, and that 1/2" would be sufficient, but after seeing the abuse that flats take, I think the fifth ply is a good idea), 3/4" when you need to screw into the edge (which is often necessary when you're making something crazy out of wood). * Luan (similar to plywood, but non-structural). 1/4" (or 5.2 mm) for scenery flats, 1/8" for applications needing more flexibility (crazy wooden things). * 2x4 lumber, premium grade. Believe me, it's worth the extra money--the lower grades are much more warped and twisted, making them much harder to work with. Mostly 8' and 12' lengths, for structural things. * 2x2 lumber for non-structural things, like scenery. * 2x6, 2x8, 2x10, 2x12 lumber. Occasionally, for things needing a lot of strength, like beams. * 1/2" hex bolts (and nuts and washers). 4" length for going through two pieces of 2x lumber (the most common application), 5-1/2" for going through three, 2-1/2" for going through one and a thin metal plate. In general, you want 1" longer than the thickness of material you're going through. In a pinch, you can use a bolt that's too long with a lot of washers, but it would be nice to stay well-stocked in all useful sizes. * Steel wood screws, flat head, Philips. Historically, we have used #8x2" and #8x3" for building flats, but a #2 Philips bit on soft steel strips the screw extremely easily, after which you can no longer drive the screw in or out--you just bend it over with a hammer. Perhaps we should switch to #10 screws, which use a #3 Philips bit. These are thicker, though, and would require pre-drilling when driven into a 2x4 to avoid splitting the 2x4 (maybe not when driven through plywood into a 2x4). We use #10x1" with washers to affix the tarp to the walls, and #12x1-1/2" to attach large hinges that support beams. * Drywall screws (implicitly flat head, Philips). Also called "black screws". 3" for lumber, 1-1/4" for affixing luan to lumber, and 2" for occasional strange applications. The 2" screws break very easily from being driven too hard. Drywall screws are much weaker than steel screws, but they don't strip. If you want to get the screw back out again, you better use a drywall screw or a steel screw thicker than #8. The steel screw will probably need to be thrown away after it's removed, but drywall screws can be reused. * Wood glue. Also called "carpenter's glue". Glue is extremely strong, much stronger than you probably think, usually stronger than screws. If you never want to get something apart again, you might as well use glue (generously) in additional to the screws. Glue is often necessary for crazy wooden things involving bent luan, even though we wish they would be easier to destroy after the carnival. * Paint, latex exterior. Buy white paint in units of 5 gallons, because you need it to cover up old paint before painting new designs. * Paint, metallic. This is either spray paint or oil-based paint in a can, neither of which is allowed on the lot because they're flammable. Oil-based paint does not wash off with water, so you must either buy paint thinner or (more likely) plan to throw the brush away. * Primer. Apply this to bare wood before painting it, because bare would soaks up a lot, and primer is cheaper than paint. * Hinges. We have a lot, but we use a lot. They come in all sizes and three main styles with different geometries: door hinges, gate hinges, and strap hinges. They can be useful for attaching small beams at angles, as well as for doors and pages. * Door handles and door springs. We often have as many as seven doors in the Facade at once. * Hollow core doors, 80"x30". It's much easier to use these than to build your own doors. Get the ones without doorknob-holes. * Exhaust fans. For ventilating the building. * Sump pump. Was used for Water Works for All A Board (1994). * Glitter and white glue. We used to obtain these materials at Builder's Square (or, in the dim past, Central Hardware, but that doesn't even exist anymore), but they had bad dealings with other parties at Wash U, and for some reason they can't distinguish us from them, so now we go to Home Depot. If you're paying for materials yourself and getting reimbursed (which is sometimes easier than getting a purchase order), remember to bring the tax exempt form! 6% of thousands of dollars is a lot! We also have fourteen custom-made 1/8" steel brackets for supporting beams and the light/sound booth. Four of them are no longer in use. Supplies -------- Also bought at Home Depot. Maintain supplies of: * Paint brushes. These are continuously used up and must be replenished. Buy the cheapest ones you can find. Foam brushes fall apart more quickly but can be easier to use while they last. Try to get people to wash the brushes, but don't be surprised when they sometimes forget. * Roller covers. These get used up even faster than brushes. They take much longer to wash, and become crusty if you don't do a thorough job. Perhaps we should give up on trying to wash them, since disposable roller covers can be had for about 25 cents each. * Screw bits. #2 and #3 Philips for magnetic bit holders. These continually get lost and/or worn down. Also make sure there is a magnetic bit holder for each drill. * Drill bits. We go through 1/2" augers often (for drilling bolt holes), but keep a stock of all sizes of twist drills less than 1/2", and paddle bits (butterfly bits) greater than 1/2". * Long 3/8" bolts. Just a few for removing stuck 1/2" bolts. * Jigsaw blades. * Circular saw blades and chop saw blades. These last about two years. * Extension cords. 12 gauge, a variety of lengths. Also power strips. Some have female ends that light up when they're powered, which is useful, though perhaps too expensive. * Light bulbs for the work lights. Keep a stock of spares. * Chalk for chalk lines. Get both blue (shows up well on wood) and orange (shows up well on asphalt). * Pencils. Buy vast quantities because we go through them in no time. * Thick black permanent markers. For labeling things. * Kleenex. Keep some in the closet. * Dust masks. It can get very dusty in the basement. Sweep occasionally. * Work gloves. It's easy to get splinters when handling unfinished wood, or to get blisters when carrying heavy flats. * Ear plugs. Saws make a lot of noise. * First-aid kit, including tweezers and needles for removing splinters. * Rope. Which kind depends on the application. Braided nylon is good general-purpose rope. Read the package regarding strength when choosing a thickness. * Lighters for melting the ends of nylon rope and sterilizing needles. * Non-elastic twine. For drawing circles. * Staples for the staple gun. * Hot glue. * Sand paper. I can't remember what we needed this for. Tools ----- The best time to buy tools is at the end of the year, if there is any money left over. These are the tools we use regularly: * 3/4" combination wrenches, 3/4" sockets, and ratchets. Plus a full set of wrenches for miscellaneous unusual purposes. * Cordless drills. Mostly for driving screws. Different models use different batteries, and it's convenient for all the drills to use the same batteries, so there's an incentive to stick with compatible models. * Corded drills. More powerful, more cumbersome, and less expensive than cordless drills. We have a problem losing chuck keys, and it seems every drill uses a different size, so if you ever buy another corded drill, get one with a keyless chuck. * Chop saw. For cutting lumber. * Circular saw. For making straight or very gently curved cuts in plywood. * Jigsaw. For making curved cuts in plywood. I used to loathe jigsaws, but it turned out that we just had crappy ones. Now we have a very nice Bosch jigsaw. * Goggles. Protect your eyes around power saws! * Hand saw. Sometimes necessary for cutting wood after it's part of an assembled object. * Rasp, wood chisel. Hardly ever needed, but occasionally nothing else will do. * Tape measures. * Hammers. For bending over stripped screws, forcing things into place, and getting bolts into and out of holes. * Sledge hammer. For moving walls (no kidding). * C-clamps. For whenever you're short of hands. * Carpenter's square, speed square, chalk lines. Very helpful for drawing lines on wood. * Work lights. * Paint keys. For opening paint cans. * Spinner-thing for drying roller covers. * Staple gun. * Hot glue gun. This has been used to attach velcro to wood. Beware: hot glue is very dangerous! It drips, burns, and sticks to you! Rentals ------- Rent things early, because the other facades are trying to rent the same things. * Trucks. You need them for moving the building from Tyson to Millbrook, from Millbrook to the lot, and from the lot back to Tyson. Don't even think about renting any truck shorter than 24 feet. Once upon a time, we could fit our whole building onto one truck, but for the past several years, two trucks have been required, with little room to spare. One covered truck and one stake truck make a good team, because there is now a guy at Tyson with a fork lift who can put whole piles of flats onto a stake truck. Sometimes we have been able to get very good deals on truck rentals because someone knew someone. Automatic transmissions are very desirable. Be warned that finding people to drive the truck is non-trivial given the age requirements. * Scaffolding. Experience shows that you want at least this much: 10 sections (a section includes two frame pieces, two cross braces, four connection pegs, and four pins), 4 sets of wheels (4 wheels and 4 pins per set), 14 platforms (one per section plus one more at the top of each tower), and at least one set of levelers (4 to a set). OSHA requires that you also get 4 sets of guard rails, one for the top of each tower, but you won't use them. Have it delivered to the lot and picked up from the lot if it's not too expensive, otherwise think hard about how you're going to arrange to have an empty truck available to transport it yourself. Sometimes we've made deals with other student groups needing scaffolding shortly after the carnival, so that we would just give it to them and they'd return it later. * Chairs. We usually rent 90 folding chairs from ACME. About 70 go in the audience, and the others are used for the band, light/sound booth, on stage, and behind the building for the cast to sit on. Historical note: During the first four years (1987-1990), we rented a generator to provide power for the first two or three days of lot week, until the electricians had supplied power to the lots. Then we bought our own 3500W generator (with generous assistance from CS40) and used it for the next six years (1991-1996). But happily, for 1997, they ran permanent cables and installed permanent outlets on the light posts, so we'll never need to use the generator again. What should we do with it? Tech Hints ========== Techniques ---------- To run cables along walls and beams, hammer staples into the wood, then attach the cables to the staples using zip ties. Don't run audio cables near power cables, because they pick up the 60 Hz buzz. Put colored electrical tape around the bottoms of the hand-held mics so the sound operator in the booth can tell them apart. Use colored electrical tape and/or small colored zip ties to color-coding the ends of cables, which helps in locating the opposite end of a cable after it's been strung. Have a long lightweight pole handy during the performances for resetting the circuit breakers on the dimmer packs. Equipment --------- The South Forty Facade owns the following tech equipment: * Light board. Don't lose the paperwork, which includes the user manual and the name of the company to contact for repairs or replacement. * Dimmer packs. We have three packs each with four 1200W dimmers, from the same company as the light board. * Small fans for cooling the dimmer packs. We should get larger ones, because the dimmers often overheat anyway. * Cables. Lots, but not necessarily enough. Make more as needed. The light cables have Edison plugs and stage-pin sockets, so you need lights with stage-pin plugs. * Light bars (6), and chains for hanging them (maybe only 8 chains). * Light box. Custom-made box on wheels for storing the light board, dimmer packs, cables, and chains. * Short threaded pipes and flanges. We used to have two of each, for making a short light bar stick straight out from a wall, but one or both may be lost. These are also good for hanging extension cords in the closet. * Breaker box. Make sure you have enough circuits. Each dimmer pack needs two 20A circuits all to itself. * Low-tech light board. Wall switches and outlets on a piece of plywood, used for controlling the house lights and auxiliary circuits like an "applause" sign or a mirror ball. Eric labeled one of them "the Slick circuit". * Christmas tree lights. These date from Movin' Out (1987). Todd Thuma bought every string in St. Louis with the idea that if the building sucked we could camouflage it with a whole lot of lights. We did eventually line the whole building with them and then had dozens to spare. The building still looked decrepit. * Electronic MIDI drum set. This was made by Brad Nemer and Ken Krieger for Modern Art (1992) to allow the volume of the drums to be decreased. Supplies -------- The tech folks need to maintain supplies of the following items, which can be obtained at Home Depot (except for the stage pin connectors): * Cable ties. Also called "zip ties". * Staples. Big ones meant to be hammered into wood. * Power cable. Romex is cheap, but it's a pain to work with, and shouldn't be re-used. Get 12 or 10 gauge stranded 3-conductor cable. * Edison connectors (i.e. regular power plugs and sockets) and stage-pin connectors (both male and female). For making and repairing extension cords. * Electrical tape. In a variety of colors. * Electrical boxes, outlets, switches. The ones intended for outdoor use. * Wire nuts. Various sizes. * Machine screws that fit electrical boxes, outlets, switches, etc. There is one diameter (???) and threads per inch (???) that they all use. * Batteries. For flashlights and for wireless mics during the carnival. You especially don't want to run out of the latter. Tools ----- These tech-related tools can be obtained at Home Depot: * Slot screwdriver. Unfortunately, electrical equipment always uses slot screws. * Large wire cutters and/or lineman's pliers. * Needle-nose pliers. * Wire strippers. * Hot-wire tester. For checking to see if a wire is hot before you touch it. * Flashlights. For hunting for things in the light/sound booth during the show. Rentals ------- Reserve the rental equipment early. Plan to pick it up on Wednesday and return it on Monday. Consult past records to see where we've rented from before, but be open to other possibilities. Cost is important, but so are service and reliability. You don't have time to deal with their mistakes. * Lights. Some are made to be hung near the stage (ellipsoidal???), some far from the stage (parabolic???). * Followspot. * Extra bulbs. They do burn out. * Gels and gel frames. * Sound board, amplifier, speakers, audio cables. In addition to the two main speakers, get a monitor speaker so the band can hear itself. * Color changers? We've been using them for the past several years, but they're a pain because they require a separate light board with a CRT and its own cryptic interface. We used to just have some dedicated red lights and blue lights, and maybe purple lights. Maybe that's a better way. * Wireless microphones. A clip-on mic for every cast member would be nice, but way too expensive, so the cast must learn to project their voices. We usually use hand-held mics for songs (three or four shared) but it might make for a better performance if the cast could just sing loud without a mic. Investigate this. * Fog machine, mirror ball, TV monitors, projection TV, other effects. As needed. * Intercom? We had one for Hard Time allowing the band, light/sound operators, and backstage to communicate during the show. If it's not too expensive, it might be worth getting.