Month: March 2025

Copyright © 2025 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

I spent four days in Columbus, Ohio, last week. The trip was sandwiched in between load-in and tech week for the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Co. production of Patience. The trip also fell between the opening and closing of my son’s first high school musical as a performer. Aaron was cast in the role of Nigel Bottom for Armstrong Highschool’s production of Something’s Rotten.

My journey to Ohio was for three specific projects:

1.) Documenting an 1883 historic scenery collection in Fort Recovery.

2.) Teaching a paint lab class at USITT (United States Institute of Theatre Technology) in Columbus.

3.) Photographing the birthplace of Joseph Sosman in Chillicothe.

It is hard to pinpoint the highlight of my trip, but documenting the Sosman & Landis scenery is certainly close to the top.

Prior departing for Ohio, I recognized that my journey would be fueled by coffee and chaos. I took a very early flight to Columbus and immediately headed west to Fort Recovery. Morvilius Opera House steward, Lorri Kaup, picked me up from the airport and we began our two-hours drive.

Our drive passed though farmland, a picturesque rural route reminiscent of any midwestern drive. Fields are mostly dormant now, but dotted with both wildlife and live stock. We were extremely fortunate that the weather cooperated throughout most of our drive. However, a series of incoming storms on March 5 provided me with ample resources for future painting projects. Here are a few scenes from our trip back to Columbus.

My Fort Recovery project was to document the scenery collection and stage of the Adams Opera House (now known as the Morvilius Opera House), as well as lecture about the cultural and historical significance of the venue. That evening, I was scheduled to give a presentation to members from the opera house board, placing the original scenery, stage machinery (grooves), and lighting system (gas) within the context of local, regional, and national histories.

Kaup and I had worked together for over a year. Last summer, she even attended my scenery preservation workshop at the Theatre Museum of Repertoire Americana in Mount Pleasant, Iowa – http://thetheatremuseum.com/.

In Iowa, I instructed students in the cleaning and minor repair of painted settings. Richard Finkelstein was also on site at the time, documenting my process and artifacts throughout the museum. He later created a virtual tour of the Theatre Museum of Repertoire Americana.

Richard Finkelstein and Jenny Knott joined me in Fort Recovery on March 4. We met at the opera house, then headed to document scenery in an off-site storage facility. Jenny was on her way to USITT where we were scheduled to teach the Paint Lab class “Foliage and Flowers: A Lesson in Color and Speed.”

In Fort Recovery, Jenny and I photographed details and painting techniques, while Richard focused on the larger compositions (working his photographic “magic” once back home).

Much of the Morvilius scenery is currently stored at the Kaup’s warehouse where Lorri is not only cleaning the painted compositions, but also repairing some of the damaged fabric. Once the wings and shutters are cleaned and stabilized, I will be back to address paint preservation and other conservation tasks.

Here are a series of photographs from our site visit. Unless noted, all the images below were taken by Richard Finkelstein. Please credit his work if you use any of the images.

To be continued…