Play at Work

Carol North in Set Up, Metro Theater Company, 1981

Play at Work: The Story of Making Set Up
By Carol North, Metro Theater Company Former Artistic Director
January 2021

Metro Theater Company’s original work often sprouts from a provocative “What if…” question. Beowulf (1990) developed from asking, “What if we made a small, chamber piece from a towering epic?” Playwright José Cruz González wrote Earth Songs (2005) in response to our wondering, “What if we made a Winter Solstice piece, performed with an intergenerational cast of actors, dancers, and musicians gathered to celebrate the big, big mysteries?” Stuff (1994) was a wild experiment to see what would happen if we tried to make a theater piece with no words. The production was such a hit that we asked Christopher Gurr to create More Stuff six years later.  Both pieces toured internationally.

That creative impulse goes all the way back to MTC’s founding in 1973, when Zaro Weil and Lynn Rubright said to each other, “What if we started a touring theater company for young audiences?” Their penchant for bold dreaming paved the way for all of us who followed. In my first season as artistic director, I wondered, “What if we invited a visual artist to create the starting point for our next production?”

Leila Daw was teaching at SIU-Edwardsville. I loved the floating installations she had created for MADCO (Mid-America Dance Company) and was struck by the dynamic interaction between her work and the choreography. When we approached her about creating a visual piece for MTC, she was intrigued by the challenge we posed and asked if she might join us for a day of touring to better understand how we operated.

Leila climbed into the van with us at 6:30 am for a full-day immersion in MTC’s work. As Leila watched, we did what we did every day. We unloaded. Unpacked. Assembled the set and props. Pre-set everything for the start of the show. Coordinated post-performance workshop schedules with the principal. Warmed up individually. Warmed up as a group. Vocalized. Sang through the music. Changed into costumes. Got ready for the performance. Did the show. Changed clothes (again). Taught classroom workshops. Took down the set. Packed it up. Loaded the van. Leila was watching everything and writing copious notes in her journal.   

Later, Leila told us how much she had learned about our operational efficiencies and the time constraints we faced daily. She saw the need for a self-contained production that transformed the school space during our performance yet left no trace when we packed up. She was particularly fascinated by what she observed as we unloaded, unpacked, and set up. Students were captivated by our work – the unloading, carrying, unpacking, building, and assembling the set and props. That work was the inspiration for her proposal: Leila wanted to design and build an entire modular “world” – set, props, and costumes – that we’d assemble during the unfolding action of the play we’d create around her concept and materials.

It was not at all what we expected, but we jumped at her idea. 

Leila’s set was comprised of hand-crafted ladders, crates, wooden struts, mountain climbing ropes and carabiners, pulleys, casters, wheels, axles, nuts and bolts, and four solid, 9’ beams. In addition to the hard materials, Leila made six large fabric panels that functioned as potential clues, maps, blueprints.  Four were on canvas, the other two on gossamer tobacco cloth. Each was an exquisite, layered painting. The costumes were ordinary work clothes: painter pants, overalls, shirts, jackets – saturated with intense artist dyes. We’d all wear regulation hardhats, of course. Each character had a soft-sculpture lunch box and a bright red scarf.

The story we developed was lean on dialogue but filled with Steven Radeck’s wonderful music, mostly sung acapella. The plot revolved around characters who show up on a new work site, but then aren’t sure what to do because no one is in charge. Though the site has lots of stuff to build with, there is no plan. Left to their own devices, the six construction workers dig in to figure out what might be done with the materials. They find strange maps with information that says, “You are HERE” and “X marks the spot.” But where is X?

They investigate possibilities with the materials. They assemble things that work. Other efforts fail. Laughter can be a weapon, even when we don’t intend it. Feelings are hurt. Who bears responsibility for that?  Work evolves into increasingly imaginative play. A highwire act in a Circus Big Top. A pirate ship.  A spontaneous puppet show with gloved hands. Finally, they discover a massive blueprint that just might lead to something if they can figure it out. The blueprint is actually a diagram for assembling a tensegrity structure. When the ropes are attached to the ends of the beams in a very precise way, and the final line is tightened with the aid of a double pulley, the structure rises from the floor. Throughout the assembly, all six characters sing a 6-part rhythmic chant that rises with the structure.

Finally, in a thrilling moment that no one could have seen coming, the structure is complete. It stands on its own yet seems to be almost alive. Touch one side, and the other responds. Push it gently, and it rolls over. It pulses!

The magic of this stunning theatrical surprise had nothing to do with smoke and mirrors. It was the result of Leila Daw’s carefully engineered and beautifully fabricated materials. Our part each day was the real work of precise assembly – work that our audiences were part of in real time. All the pieces came together, quite literally. 

Set Up inspired young people to see how work and play collide when we dig in to explore multiple possibilities. They witnessed the messiness of collaboration and saw results that knocked their socks off. “What was that thing you made?” they wanted to know. Their curiosity opened the door for all kinds of learning about dynamic structures: suspension bridges, geodesic domes like our Climatron at the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Gateway Arch that is designed to move. And then, by extension, the dynamic push/pull of long-lasting friendships, responsive communities, democracies.

Leila Daw gave us much more than a set. She gave us a springboard.