Moon Over Buffalo images
This was the first set Marisa designed, and she came out well. The set worked in this five-door farce without being over-elaborate. (Farces are informally classified by number of doors, the gold standard being Neil Simon's Rumors with seven. This Ken Ludwig property is not far below the top of the list.)
At left you seem to see a cannon aimed at stage manager Emily. Rest easy, the cannon is made of plywood and Emily is in little danger. The opening scene of the show is a beat from a notional production of Cyrano de Bergerac, the scene at the siege where Cyrano rallies his Gascon muskets. I was so proud of the little cannonball pyramid, which incidentally kept the whole affair from overbalancing and falling on its nose.
The photo at right shows Andy's railings. Andy likes people to think he is just a country boy who hacks things together, but he blew his cover on this project: The guy is a very fine stage carpenter. The railings were made of pieces reclaimed from old sets, and Marisa just hoped they would not fall down in a performance. What she got was nice solid-looking rails that helped define the elevated part of the set. The reason I took this photo from such a peculiar angle was to show you the right way to evaluate balustrades; it's the only way you can tell if the spindles are all parallel.
The image above is a view of the set (with cannon) a day or so before it was declared complete. Over at your right is a bit of battlement, also from the Cyrano scene, which hides an armchair that can't be moved in scene changes. Note the steel stage door at left―effect painting by Marisa herself―and The Table at center (painted white this time), making its first appearance in a season or two.
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