Treehouse Troupe

Treehouse Troupe 1997 and 1998

Bowling Green State University’s Treehouse Troupe, established in 1979, is still active as of this writing. the troupe consists of a group of undergraduate students, usually under the direction of two graduate students, under the overall supervision of a Bowling Green State University faculty member.  Each spring two shows are produced, one for younger audiences (K-4) and one for older audiences (grade 4 and up).  The shows are then toured two days a week to northwest Ohio elementary and middle schools.  Running time is generally twenty to thirty minutes for the younger audience and less than forty-five minutes for the older.  Often both shows and a series of workshops are performed in the  same venue before loading out and driving to a second venue on the same day.

THT Shows usually play in school gymnasiums, cafeterias, or auditoriums.  There are very real time constraints inherent in performing and offering workshops in two separate venues on the same day.  These facts, along with limitations in personnel and travel space offer both director and designer some challenges. The group tours in a van with a small trailer and without any crew.  A graduate student or the faculty supervisor are present on every trip and help with load-in and load-out, but the space and time for scenery and technology are limited to what six or seven actors and a driver can set up in the limited time available.

In addition to directing The Invisible Hunters, I designed the scenery for the 1997 and 1998 Treehouse Troupe seasons.  Both years were centered around a PVC framework that supported painted drops.  Each show required a radically different look and feel from the scenery. In 1997 The Invisible Hunters, for younger (K through 4) audiences was set in a village on the Rio Coco and Falstaff and Friends  in a sort of indeterminate library / study space that “just happened” to include the makings for a pseudo-Shakespearean stage complete with an inner-beneath.  The drop used in the former was burlap erosion cloth over an old black scrim.  The latter required a painted muslin drop.

I designed Treehouse Troupe ’98 using a different configuration of the same structure.  Johnnie Faustus required a number of minimalist settings, hence a non-objective backdrop. Turto and the Hare required a “cartoonish” drop representing several different locales visited during the famous race.

_Turto and the Hare_, 1998. The drop is supported by a pvc framework. See drawings.

_Johnny Faustus_, 1998. The drop is supported by a pvc framework. See drawings.