Door Shakespeare

For the past handful of days I, along with Nick Neal and Drew McCubbin, worked with Door Shakespeare in Door County, Wisconsin.  I would have blogged each evening, but I had no internet access, so this will cover all of my time in Door County.

June 1:

Drew picked me up from my home and we made our way to Sister Bay.  There, we met with Michael Brandt and our three contacts with Door Shakespeare: Amy Ludwigsen, Danny Junod, and Jason Economus.  Nick Neal would arrive the next day.  After settling in, we sat around the kitchen table and went over the planned schedule for our time there.

June 2:

Our first day in the space at Bjorklunden in Baileys Harbor.  In previous years, Door Shakespeare had their seating risers in a straight line, facing their previous staging area.  This made for difficult viewing for folks at the extreme left and right ends of the house.  For this year, they decided to use the space behind the risers instead, with a nice big tree as a back center point, and perform in a thrust.  So we needed to re-position many of the risers.  Some of them were not utilized at this time.  When they were where we wanted them, we needed to build new legs for some of the platforms so that they would sit level.  While I helped with this task, Drew started laying wood chips to create the play space.  We began work at roughly 10 am and ended somewhere between 4:30 and 5, with a short break for lunch.  Nick arrived at around 11 pm.

June 3:

For the first half of the day, Nick, Drew, Michael, and myself worked with Jason in going through their prop barn/workshop, pulling virtually everything out to be evaluated.  Things were separated into three piles: things to keep, wood to dispose of, and other trash.  Once everything was sorted, Jason and I moved everything being kept back into the barn, making sure to leave enough space to maneuver.  We also put together their big sign to place out near the highway, for cars to see as they pass.  After breaking for another short lunch we returned to the space, with Michael and I working on leveling the risers and Nick and Drew continuing to mulch the space, voms, and placing some wood stumps.  Amy and Danny set us up in the dressing room/green room for the rest of our time there.

June 4:

For the first half, the four of us were tasked with burning the wood we were getting rid of, so we had a great bonfire in a pit over near the shore of Lake Michigan.  Jason returned later to inform us that with the risers in place, they were well short of what they wanted for seats.  So we went back to the space to determine what could be done with the risers remaining.  It was decided that an additional row of seats would be added to the left and right sides, adding 20 seats.  Michael and I began work on this while Nick and Drew handled other tasks.

June 5:

This became our last day.  Michael and I finished work on the risers, and the four of us dismantled the old stage from what was now behind the seats.  Once that was dismantled, the lumber was taken to the workshop, and Nick and Drew covered the space over with wood chips.  We finished up just after 2 and made our way to the Door Shakespeare office, gave our goodbyes to everyone, and began the long drive back to Ames.

If I left anything important out, hopefully Drew or Nick will fill it in, but I believe I got it pretty well.  Working on this was fantastic.  Amy, Danny, and Jason were wonderful people, very welcoming and open.  The amount of work we did in such a short span of time still amazes me, and I was there doing it.  I truly hope that I'm able to make it up there again to see the shows.