Academia Nuts images
This is how it looked during the run of the show. Stage Manager Justin is presetting some papers. The window at your left has nylon screen for glass. Outside the leftmost door is a vestibule, beautiful job of rag painting by Tom, which unfortunately didn't photograph well. The next door leads upstairs. Director Steve furnished many of the books on the shelves, including (envy) a boxed set of John Buchan's Richard Hannay novels.
The closet (narrow door) was a tiny triumph. All quite straightforward except that someone had the inspiration to hang a length of string right inside the door to turn the light on. The big front door had something like five locks. Once again, never explain: This professor has five locks on his door, but the disreputable Tammi gains entry with a hairpin. In this picture the fireplace is burning, of course.
The photos don't show the troublesome trick door. Allen's character goes offstage in Act 2 searching for a hidden manuscript. He comes back in carrying a door he's removed from the hinges in the former owner's workroom, and everybody goes to work to find the secret compartment he is sure it holds. I took an old beat-up lauan door, affixed molding to give it a near-paneled look, and sawed out one of the panels. Lauan doors, the kind they install in student apartments, are so sturdy because they are reinforced on the inside. With cardboard. So I removed some of the cardboard and used Velcro to secure the panel again. Allen used a screwdriver to prise off the panel and discover the secret of one of America's great mid-20th-century poets.
Academia Nuts was a highly successful show, well-performed to big audiences. The playwright, Gregg Kreutz, traveled from New York to see one of the performances. A real high for the cast.
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