west uptowner

walk home by the freight tracks, originally uploaded by trevorsc.

It's coming to the end of my week on the edge of Northern Ontario. I haven't had any time to actually see much of the place.

The show I am here to work on is a David French play, "Of the Fields, Lately" -- a one location, four scene piece that could be very kitchen sink. Brenda, my director, doesn't want to go into pure realism, so the set and lighting design is based on making everything look like a sepia photo. I'm here to do lights. Our challenge is that sepia is an ink, not a light. But I'm quite pleased with what we've found, going with angles that mimic the natural lighting in the "house" as opposed to washes.

Sudbury: yesterday it was warm enough to snow, not that I saw too much of it. We were in the theatre again, working through the play in a big dark room. A taxi driver told me that Sudbury once held the distinction of having the country's best-dressed teenagers. This was in the time before malls and colour TV, when the city was more purely a mining town, and when the mines closed at the end of the week there was nothing to do but get dressed up and go out dancing. At the time there were more millineries and men's clothing stores per capita then anywhere else in the country as well.

This has since changed, of course.

When I had arrived I was a bit surprised at the drabness of the city, but after a light dusting of snow the magic of a winter city crept into many of its alleys and corners.

# posted by trev @ 5:40 p.m.