While watching the Ottawa Little Theatre production of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, I was transported in time back to my childhood growing up in the sixties. This was partially due to the subject matter of the play, the costumes, and a set that looked remarkably reminiscent of some of my relatives’ homes circa that era. This week we are speaking with Rachel Hauraney who was successful in creating a wonderful homage to the groovy sixties era, a time of peace, love and the Civil Rights Movement.
For the past four years, Rachel has worked as a destination services coordinator. As she describes it, she is not a travel agent, but is responsible for organizing the travel and living accommodations of high-level executives moving from one city to another, both domestically and internationally. Her clients are from all over the world in the fields of big business and professional sports. Her company works very closely with the clients to prepare them for our culture and especially our climate as was the case of certain individuals arriving from Africa for the first time in the midst of one of Ottawa’s famous challenging winters.
Rachel has degrees in journalism and social work and has written for newspapers and worked as a contractor in the construction industry which came in handy for her future roles at the OLT.
Her first stint with the OLT was in 1997 on the set of Towards Zero (our second of three productions of the play). She was acting in an Orpheus production when she heard from another cast member that OLT was looking for some volunteers. At 17 years old, she had to ask where the OLT was in fact located. Upon hearing it was close to the Byward Market, she thought “I am not sure if my parents will let me go downtown”. Well they did and thus started a long relationship with the theatre.
She tried her hand at acting and after a less than stellar read-through with an unrecognizable British accent, she embarked on a career in behind-the-scenes production where she has worked on wardrobe, set design, props, and crew on a total of 23 productions to date. She would like to point out her admiration for the actors and, although she is not one of them, huge kudos for the time and commitments that they put into the task.
How does one even start designing a set for a play? Well classic scripts often have a design provided by the publisher which gives a good idea of the original production. This is merely the launching point because directors and designers have their own ideas; the OLT stage may not accommodate the size, and the suggested construction may in fact be cost-prohibitive. Rachel tends to take a team approach, meeting with all members of the production team in order to get everyone’s vision, and with Tom Pidgeon and Dave Magladry to get the input from those who will ultimately be constructing the set, purchasing materials and taking into account the safety of the performers on stage.There are certain musts (both artistically and for safety) and the rest is up for negotiation. I asked Rachel who is the most important person in the decision-making process and her answer was an emphatic, “Everyone!”
In the OLT production of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, there is a projection of the Golden Gate Bridge on the upstage wall. This shows that the action takes place in San Francisco, and that the parents are well-off, living in a beautiful home with a stunning view. It is alluded to in the script quite a bit and serves as a metaphor for what is happening in the house. It has been used in many of the other productions of the play .
Some OLT designers use maquettes, which Rachel does not, as a relatively new set designer with no training.” A maquette (French word for scale model, sometimes referred to by the Italian names plastico or modello) is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture. An equivalent term is bozzetto, from the Italian word for “sketch”. A maquette is used to visualize and test forms and ideas without incurring the expense and effort of producing a full-scale piece. It is the analogue of the painter‘s cartoon, modello, oil sketch, or drawn sketch.” Other people use Sketchup which is a software package (shout out to Bob Hicks who is giving a Sketchup course – stay tuned!).
In terms of the furniture selection, well it’s off the warehouse to see what’s available. Whatever is selected is delivered by Technical Director Tom Pidgeon and modified as required. Case in point, the sofa and chair on stage may look familiar. They are actually borrowed from the red and black furniture in the Green Room (yes, it’s called the Green Room even though the furniture is red!) and have been reupholstered in grey and elevated on a riser to give them a modern 60s funky look. Rachel has found ways to be mindful of budget and still create an attractive look that conveys the time and place.
The mother in the play runs a high-end art gallery. Each month we showcase the work of our very own family of OLT artists. Why not combine the two? That is how Gerry Larocque came to be displaying some of his paintings on the set walls as well as in the foyer.
Rachel is always fascinated by the level of collaboration and artistic ability of everyone involved with the OLT. She mentioned an important scene in a previous production of Ripcord (I was involved as crew chief coincidentally) where the interior of an airplane appears on stage within one minute followed by a parachuting scene. She really admired the orchestration of the set changes in that show. It was reminiscent of a Super Bowl half–time show set-up.
She wants to thank everyone who helped her on Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and she hopes that the audience will truly enjoy her vision of 1960s San Francisco as it appears on stage.