Stage and Shop
In the Clubroom, A Little Night Music Director Harold Jurkiewicz restaged the Armfeldt dining room scene. He basically “opened it up” by creating wider spaces between the players. In the scene, the principal characters sit at a dining room table facing upstage (away from the audience.) As they carry on their conversation, they turn, leaning out and back, to speak to one another. The twists and turns of the back and forth movement is fun to watch. There are some hilarious spots in their scene, perhaps caused by a little too much imbibing from Madame Armfeldt’s collection of fine wines.
During the dinner, there is also a waltz to one of Sondheim’s gorgeous melodies. The dancers were choreographed by Janeen Bodary, the Assistant Choreographer. And, while waltzing about the dining room, the characters discuss their plans for the weekend.
Jurkiewicz also blocked the remaining scenes in the show which include a “hanging,” a game of Russian Roulette, and a sense of coherency. In the final scene Mark Byars, the Liebeslieder singer who opens the show with a vocal warm-up, ends the show plunking the final note on the piano.
Meanwhile, in the auditorium and shop, work on the set pieces continues at a rather frantic pace. Scenic Designer Jennifer Maiseloff is madly making and painting trees that will move on and off the stage in a variety of scenes. Others are carving the Armfeldt mansion cut-outs from pieces of foam-board. And Gordon Mosley is like a man possessed building the vintage touring cars for the show.
Mosley is an Honorary Member of the Guild (continuous membership for over 25 years) and a member of the Dearborn Theatre Hall of Fame. He is a Master Carpenter and seems able to magically create wonderful things out of wood. Both Fredrick and Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm drive cars to the weekend in the country, entering from opposite sides of the stage. Mosley is creating those cars.
In the photo you see Mosley sitting in one of the cars. He’s worried that he might not be able to get it off the stage, much like Henry Ford couldn’t get his first car out of the building in which he built it. That’s Scenic Designer Maiseloff in the background working among the trees.
A Little Night Music opens on Friday, April 26 at The Players Guild of Dearborn. Click here for more information and to buy tickets online.