Set the stage: Grad student hones his skills during theater residency

For someone with a fine arts background, perhaps the most difficult part of theater comes long after the velvet curtains swish shut and the applause fades to a distant echo. The set pieces you spent so much sweat building and refining meet inglorious ends — cannibalized for the next show, wrenched apart, stripped, discarded.

“When you create a painting or drawing, it’s your baby. When you’re painting on something out here, three to four weeks later it’s in the dumpster,” explained Clarence Hause, a second-year graduate student in Binghamton University’s theatre program. “It’s having to learn to let go. When the show’s done, it’s done.”

Hause expects to complete his master’s degree, with a focus on scenic design, this fall. It will be his second graduate degree; he already has a master’s in fine arts from Brooklyn College, and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Binghamton University in 2014.

Early this year, he had the opportunity to travel to Houston for a residency with Binghamton Assistant Professor of Theatre Laura Fine Hawkes, scenic designer for Stages Repertory Theatre’s production of The Fantasticks. The show, which opened Jan. 24, marked the grand opening of the company’s new theater complex.

Starting in the fall, Hause worked with Fine Hawkes to build part of the three-dimensional scale model of the set, which was then sent to Houston as part of the scenic build package. From Jan. 5 to 13, he then functioned as Fine Hawkes’ assistant and witnessed the design process firsthand, from meetings to construction and tech rehearsals.

Hause didn’t just observe, but took part in hands-on set dressing, painting and prop creation. He helped create portable gardens attached to rugs, the large sails that represented the passage of time and a music box with filigree and mirrors. Staining materials, glazing and texturing the floor — bit by bit, The Fantasticks’ fantastical setting took shape.

Days were long, sometimes starting as early as 7 a.m. and stretching until past midnight. That’s not uncommon; the sheer number of hours required to mount a production such as The Fantasticks is both exhaustive and exhausting, and can be compared to team sports, Fine Hawkes acknowledged.

“Oh my God, is this something I really want to do?” Hause asked himself during the long stretches. The answer was yes, and he found inspiration in his fellow crew members during the intense days.

“They were on crunch time because they had just moved into the building. The amount of time that they would put in was just amazing, and they were still enthusiastic,” he recounted. They loved the theater, they loved to be in there and they love their job.”

In fact, that drive and team effort are part of the draw, even for experienced designers. Fine Hawkes said her most cherished moments come during the last phase of preparation, during the scene fabrication and technical rehearsals.

“Everyone is dog-tired and as a result the entire team is a bit slap-happy; production elements are cut and added at the speed of light every day as we work through rehearsals and evaluate what is working in real time; the spark of magic is palpable; everyone buys into the chase,” she explained.

When his trajectory in fine arts began to shift toward performance and video, Hause decided to take a few classes at his alma mater; he lives in Binghamton, and remembered the strength of the University’s theatre program.

He decided to stay for a graduate degree — even taking an extra semester to pursue his thesis. The original plan was to design an actual stage show, but the coronavirus pandemic prompted the theatre program to restructure its season. Instead, during his last semester he will work on three shows simultaneously: two main stage productions and one conceptual, he said.

The experiences he had at Binghamton University proved useful for his Texas residency, from model-making class to working in the scene and costume shops, he said. Supporting roles are key to the success of any performance, and Binghamton University’s Theatre Department has helped Hause advance his knowledge and skills.

“If you don’t know how to do something, they will take the time and explain it to you,” Hause said. “Everyone that I’ve dealt with in classes has been fantastic and super-supportive.”

As his mentor, Fine Hawkes has played a lead role in his development as a theater professional.

She willingly shares the breadth of her own experience, which spans the country and includes designs for everything from dramas to musicals and operas, he said.

In turn, Fine Hawkes appreciates Hause’s attention to detail and his work ethic, she said.

“The opportunity to have him join the journey to actualization on the ground in Houston this January proved so fruitful,” she said. “He embraced a new team dynamic and the professional pace, rolling right into the series of challenging tasks at hand.”