Annie Get Your Gun

SUNY Cortland Performing Arts Fall 2018

Dowd mainstage Theatre

  Set inside a Big-Top tent, we witness a show-within-a-show as the performers of a travelling Wild West troupe recreate the story of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler.

For this design, Director Kevin Halpin and I wanted to capture the thrill of the Big-top rising up to kick off the show.  For this I designed shipping crates that would hide the circus tent. What appeared as an empty stage was transformed into a Wild West show before our eyes.  I also created large show posters, on which I painted the portraits of three of the main student cast members.  The rest of the world was created through crates and boxes that could be assembled to represent new locations. This was further aided by showcards that were painted with the locations name.

The shop staff and I built several “tricks” for the actors to perform that replicated the ones used by the real Annie Oakley.  We made a revolving “knife wheel” that an actor could strap into and be spun upside down as fake knives popped through the back and gave the illusion of knives being thrown into the wheel.  We also created a bicycle trick where Annie could ride in a circle and fire her Western pistols and pop balloons held be showgirls. For this we created a simple safety-pin, firing mechanism to pop the balloons when Annie shot at them.

  Annie Get Your Gun was a very paint heavy show.  This was used to try and capture the craftsmanship and artistry of a travelling show.  I created hand painted posters that were oversized to show the larger than life celebrity status and to accentuate the battle of egos between Frank and Annie.  I also hand painted nine pairs of location showcards to help the audience follow the story of Annie’s travels.  The entire stage floor was painted to represent the circular big-top arena as if we were in a tent with a dirt and straw covered floor.

To bring the storytelling and songs closer to the audience we designed a pasarelle, a platformed walkway in front of the orchestra pit which brought the performers right into the audiences laps.  To add to the nolstagia and add to the theatrical effect we created footlights which are floor lights covered by a clamshell that reflects light upward onto a performer.