Building the Shows

Scenery for the two productions was built and painted in the Scene Shop of the Johnson Fine Arts Center on the campus of Northern State University. A little less than a week before the first performance, the company of ten loaded the sets onto a borrowed trailer and transported them the 60 miles to Fort Sisseton.

Loading in Aberdeen
Sunday, June 25th

Unloading at Fort Sisseton

Preparing the Stage

Approximately six years ago the Park Service built a 32' wide by 20' deep platform stage at the north end of the South Barracks. This small stage has been used by the Britton Community Theatre for their annual performance of a melodrama during Fort Sisseton Days. The company spent most of their first day at the Fort preparing the stage for performances. They repaired and repainted the stage floor, hung a blue sky drop upstage, and installed permanent masking flats on the sides of the stage.

Setting Up Plaza Suite
Monday, June 26th

After Monday afternoon's rehearsal of Sylvia, which is performed on a nearly bare stage, the company assembled, for the first time, the much more complicated box set for Plaza Suite. Because the two shows are being performed in repertory, the set will have to changed at the end of each performance.

Photos copyrighted © 2006 by Larry Wild