BWW Exclusive Blog: CLYBOURNE PARK Behind the Scenes: Day 4 (Part 2)

BroadwayWorld.com welcomes Clybourne Park to the Broadway neighborhood by offering readers an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek as the play gets ready for performances. Through this unprecedented access to the fascinating creative process of technical rehearsals, students from Fordham University will keep BroadwayWorld.com readers in the loop through daily updates and photography. Log on to follow along as this Pulitzer Prize-winning play moves into its new Broadway home and literally gets built from the ground up.

When I arrived at tech on Thursday afternoon, the cast and creative team were working on the final scene of the play. That was the first day with the set and costumes for Act 2. The difference between the set and costumes in Act 1 and Act 2 is like night and day, more exactly 50 years. The set for both Acts has the same structure, where the stairs are, where the doors are, and where the windows are, but everything looks different. The walls are covered with different wallpaper and graffiti; the door to the basement has fallen off its hinges; the front door was wood and is now metal, and the large trunk that fell down the stairs looks like it aged 50 years, covered in rust.

Overall the set from went from a lovely, well kept home covered with furniture and moving boxes in Act 1 to a run down, destroyed, bare house with very little furniture in Act 2. The final moment of the play is a flashback to the characters that lived in the house in Act 1 (Bev and her son Kenneth). Dan, who also plays the role of Russ, Kenneth’s father in Act 1, finds a letter in the old trunk. When Dan begins reading the letter we are merged into two moments in time watching Kenneth write the letter as Dan, 50 years later, reads the letter. When Kenneth turns on the radio the flashback begins. We can tell that is it is a flashback because of costumes, lights, and sound. Because the entire cast plays two different characters in Act 1 and Act 2, the costumes are crucial in identifying which character the actor is playing. In the flashback, Bev and Kenneth are wearing 1950s clothes cueing the audience that we are looking into the past.
The lights become a more blue color and are lighting just the actors rather than the whole room like in the previous moment. Bev’s and Kenneth’s voices have a more echoy sound, known as “reverb.” The song on the radio is an old song from the 50s. The last words of the song, the last words we hear in the play before blackout, are “It’s too soon to know.” When Kenneth was writing the letter is was too soon to know all the problems with his family and who would want to move into his house 50 years later.

Speaking of not knowing, the audience will have no idea how the set goes from Act 1 to Act 2 during intermission because a large black curtain will be flown in, covering the stage. But I got to see the secrets of the set change from Act 2 back to Act 1. One might ask how do you change wallpaper on a wall in a 15 minute intermission, the answer is you change the wall completely. That’s right, there are two completely different sets to show the aging of 60 years on the house. The crew has to plan every inch of backstage to be able to store the second set and give actors and crew enough room to walk. When the crew started the change over to Act 1, the crew was putting set and props from Act 2 on the stairs no big deal, and then all of a sudden a giant ladder, probably 20-25 feet, came flying in on a rope. Ladies and gentlemen, I saw a ladder fly today. And when they are done with the ladder, it goes flying back up via rope.

But that’s not all that amazed me during the set change. There is one wall that stays onstage during both acts but has different doors and windows. How you ask? They pop out of the wall. The crew popped out the windows from Act 2 and popped in the windows for Act 1. Removable windows, who knew that was possible. All I know is that I cannot wait to see the invited dress on Saturday!

By Ellen Goldberg, Fordham University Class of 2013, pursuing a B.A. in Design and Production.

Photo Credit: Ben Cohen/Givenik.com