High Society images
With quite good cast participation—more about that in a moment—we got two of the four pterodactyl scenes laid out and painting well begun. At left you see Jace grinding away at the floor while Karen puts on fine touches. They had just finished the "growies" on these units. (One of the invisible faces will show a swimming pool apron, possibly with lifeguard stand, while the other will give a neutral look for most scenes in the show.)
The high schools here have contributed a lot to the production even though they have no explicit link with it. Harriet's students from Central have shown up in force, Nikki and Hank and Jace in particular, and she's prepared them well. They can assemble scenery and then paint it, all while sniping at one another without pause. Cedar sent us Claire, who is supplying kid sister Dinah (in the show) with teddy bears and also using her employee discount at the party store to bring in crepe paper streamers for the wedding scene. She promises to get those little unrolling honker thingies for the band to blow, too. This would have been a far less colorful project without the input from the schools.
(You'll get a view of Hank on the next page.)
I had an unbelievable piece of luck with the scenic painting of the Lords' mansion. The photo that turned up is perfect as to size and proportions. Nikki and Dina took a copy with an overlaid square grid and transferred it to the three Upstage pterodactyls, then we began to paint. And paint and paint. It was not finished on Sunday, but you certainly can see how it's going to look when the windows and landscaping come in. Nice place, but it must take a lot of staff to keep up.
In keeping with the principle that every set has its own story, we spent part of the weekend discussing what should go at the peaks of the many gables. Seems the Lord family of Oyster Bay, Long Island, made their fortune in ducks. (Before they paved the place, its farms were renowned for a great delicacy, the Long Island duckling. No one under the age of 30 has ever heard of Long Island duckling, I am distressed to learn, though many are up on their molluscs.) Seth and Willie's papa got in on the ground floor and rode the fashion through the nineteenth century, and now both sons live in spacious mansions. With tiny ducklings on the roof instead of gargoyles.
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