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Spinning a magical web

At this show, the man behind the scenes makes the world go round.

By BARBARA FREDRICKSEN
Published February 13, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Brendan Fitterer] Ton Hansen, right, stands on one side of the set he designed at the Show Palace Dinner Theatre as owners of Sal Sessa, left, and Nick Sessa sit on another side beside the dividing wall. The turntable spins smoothly on casters, allowing Hansen to house three sets on each revolve.

HUDSON - Long before a dancer lifted a foot ...

Long before a singer trilled a note ...

Long before an actor spoke his lines ...

That's when Tom Hansen sat down at a computer to figure out how to set up and change out nine large, complicated sets and create hundreds of light configurations for 18 different scenes during the musical Victor/Victoria at the Show Palace Dinner Theatre - all without any long blackouts to kill the mood of the show.

"This show was a monster," said Hansen, the scenic and lighting designer for the theater. In fact, he said, it's the most complicated and difficult challenge he's encountered in more than a decade of designing sets. One scene, for example, has two large hotel suites with beds, bars and sofas side by side that has to be switched to a glitzy Parisian nightclub in one minute, 20 seconds.

It couldn't have been done on the small stage without a huge change that Hansen made to the theater last August: two movable "revolves" set into circles 12 feet wide cut into the stage floor about 8 feet apart. Each turntable is divided like a pie into three "slices" and moves on about $600 worth of casters on a narrow track underneath.

Before the show, each slice of the pie is set up as a different scene by stagehands Tom Jones, Britt Rish II, Katie James and Susan Haldeman (yes, the same Ms. Haldeman who played Vera Charles in Mame and dozens of other roles).

When the cue comes from stage manager Todd Eskin via closed-circuit microphone, a stagehand pushes each turntable one-third of the way around so that a new set faces the audience, while another stagehand rolls down one of the 10 painted backdrops snuggled against the low ceiling between the new sets to complete the scene.

Actors pitch in to set up additional pieces in the sets and help secure hinges, latches, latch cleats and other rigging.

"The (stagehands) earn their money and then some," Hansen said. "This is the toughest crew show we have ever had."

The makeover of the Show Palace's stage started several years ago when Hansen built two small, permanent stages out into the theater at either side of the main stage. For Victor/Victoria, four of the scenes take place on these side stages.

The innovations were necessary because of the tiny storage space above and around the Show Palace's small stage. There's only 13 feet of offstage space at stage left and 6 feet at stage right to hide unused set components between scenes.

The painted backdrops and sets can't be lifted out of sight between scenes, as they are at larger theaters, because there's no "fly space" above the stage. In fact, the stage is only about 9 feet tall, which means the backdrops must be on rollers tucked between the lights, and the set pieces must be pushed and stacked together on the sides like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Just as daunting, most Broadway shows are written so that minor scenes are performed on the stage's apron (the space between the front of a curtain and the audience) while major scene changes are made behind the curtain.

The Show Palace's stage has only about 18 feet of usable depth - about half the size of a standard stage - and an apron only a couple of feet deep, so there's no room for those little scenes. This means that each set must be completely changed out for each scene.

Now, on with the show

The sets are done, the costumes pressed, the actors ready, the audience in their seats and the house lights are down.

Backstage, Eskin sits on a small platform overlooking the back side of the stage sets, a computer monitor and a television screen on a shelf in front of him casting a greenish glow on his face. Slightly below Eskin, dozens of singers, dancers and actors dash back and forth to be in place when the stage lights go up for Victor/Victoria.

Eskin, the show's director and production stage manager, is the one who holds the switch to those lights. The TV screen shows him when people are in place, even during blackouts, when he switches the screen to "infrared" mode. The computer monitor has a line of numerical light cues that show him which button to push to get a particular combination of stage lights.

Every actor and stagehand, the music director and the sound controller (the guy who turns the actors' body microphones off and on) depends on the cues Eskin whispers into his backstage intercom microphone to know when to go into action.

Click the lights 10 seconds too soon, and the audience might see performers dashing across the stage to their places or a stagehand lugging in a sofa for the next scene.

Click them on 10 seconds too late, and the audience members start squirming in their seats, wondering what has gone wrong.

Indeed, 20 seconds can make the difference between appreciative applause and derisive laughter.

"Todd has the most stressful job in the show," Hansen said.

Out front, though, the audience has no idea how everyone behind the scenes is scrambling to make sure the magic spell of the stage is never broken.

If you go

'Victor/Victoria'

Where: Show Palace Dinner Theatre, 16128 U.S. 19, Hudson

When: 1:15 and 8 p.m. Wednesday; 1:15 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Doors open at 6 p.m. for evening shows and 11:30 a.m. for matinees for buffet and cash bar.

Tickets: $42.50 for dinner and show, $31.45 for show only; ages 12 and younger, $24.95 and $19.95, all plus tax and tip. Call 863-7949 in west Pasco; toll-free elsewhere at 1-888-655-7469.

[Last modified February 12, 2007, 22:39:00]