Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2006 - 57

As You Like It
by William Shakespeare, 1995, Huntington Theatre, Boston, and Pittsburgh Public Theatre,
directed by Edward Gilbert. Marjorie B. Kellogg (sets), Mariann Verheyen (costumes), Dennis
Parichy (lighting).

PHOTO BY CHARLOTTE WALKER

A Forest of Arden made up of various and sundry separate realities, the reality of mirror in the back, the
realty of twigs and trees grabbing at everything, and then the architecture in the middle.

leg-like drapery protuberances march upstage. It is reminiscent of the wings-borders-drop arrangement of one of those
still-intact eighteenth-century private European theatres. A
raked wooden floor and even a "tragedy carpet" add to the effect. In this little theatre, Kellogg offers a another piece of theatricality: the back wall of the room is scrim, and when
Dinesen, in her mind, is in Africa, it is lit from behind to reveal
a bright African landscape. The designer of the real makes the
real disappear with one of the most basic stage illusions.

Romance and Opulence
With A Christmas Carol for the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre
in 2003, Kellogg may have gotten the "romance and opulence"
she aspired to in 1984. "I thought it was amazing I had gotten
this far in my career without doing Christmas Carol," she said
recently with a laugh. An annual tradition since 1976, the production plays in the elegantly restored 1895 Pabst Theatre
seating 1,800. Its Baroque interior features an Austrian chandelier and a proscenium arch crowned with a seven-foot high
statue of Apollo between the muses of Drama and Song, all
highlighted in gold leaf. "It's so gorgeous," Kellogg said, "full

THEATRE

DESIGN

of crystal and velvet." So it might have been with some irony
that she and director Joseph Hanreddy, working from a new
adaptation by the director himself and Edward Morgan, set out
to create a spectacular that restored the social commentary of
Dickens' story that usually gets left out. "Poor people and bad
housing and poverty and starvation," Kellogg said, "and a chorus of bedraggled London masses."
To tie the flow of scenes together, Kellogg suspended a
Victorian iron bridge across the stage between towering stone
stanchions. "Joe specifically asked for that," she said, "he
liked the idea of crossing the bridge." Ironwork arches recalling Victorian rail stations curve above the bridge. The ironwork and towers provide a practical portal behind which to
slot exterior drops. They are also a decorative motif unifying
various interior scenic units: Scrooge's doorway, Scrooge's office, his nephew Fred's house, Bob Cratchit's house, the
schoolhouse, Fezziwig's warehouse.
As they discussed the design, Hanreddy and Kellogg
talked a lot about the differences between the eras of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. "We wanted to really, really
soften Christmas Past and make it beautiful and nostalgic and
sweet, and make Christmas Present straightforwardly the London of Dickens, and Christmas Future to be sneaking its way

TECHNOLOGY
SPRING

2006

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2006