Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar: CITT, August 17, 2018
Rick Boychuk and I ventured with a group to the Hamilton Scottish Rite in the morning. About 45 minutes away from St. Catharine, the group on the bus survived navigating some unexpected obstacles on the way to the theater. A television series was filming outside of the Scottish Rite, so it caused a bit of a delay at first.
The Masonic scenery collection was produced by Volland & Toomey of St. Louis, Missouri, delivered to Canada in 1921. Like many drops, their were charcoal notations that listed the degree, description of the composition and delivery location. The delivery for this scenery did not note St. Catharine, just “Canada!” There were 23 scenes spread out over 84 lines with the drops measuring 24’ high by 37’-6” wide. Although the theater was hot an humid, volunteers jumped at the opportunity to operate the lines. It is always fun to see the delight of my colleagues experiencing Masonic stages for the first time, and yesterday was no exception! As a few of the scene painting students were also able to attend, it was especially satisfying to watch them see what we discussed up close. Every collection is unique and has some delightful characteristic. Unfortunately, this particular collection has had extensive repairs completed over the years, not all of which will contribute the the overall longevity of the collection.
We returned to the Meridian event center by noon for the membership luncheon and then enjoyed a variety of educational sessions in the afternoon. Rick presented about our latest discoveries in the world of stage machinery, including the development of two program documents that we are currently developing at Historic Stage Services. I also attended John Madill’s session “BOO! Part 3. Smoke & Mirrors: The Importance of Horror in the Development of Physical Staging in Modern Theatre.” This was a continuation for me as we chatted extensively about “Tippy” Cooke and vampire roles the day before during the expo. John would later receive the Dieter Penzhorn Memorial Award at the evening banquet. John and I were able to visit quite extensively this year as he took both the scene painting class and he has been following my blog. Another of the students from the CITT scene painting class at CITT also received an award; Esther Van Eek received the education achievement award. She is absolutely amazing!
Overall, it was a wonderful and informative day.
I simply learned more than I have the energy to write about this morning; I am sure a surprise to some!
To be continued…
