The 'Victor/Victoria' Set

When I was a kid, about age 7 or 8, we'd often play next door, where there was plenty of spare, scrap lumber. We assembled cabins from bark-covered planks out behind the main house. The cabins were small, even by kid standards. Sometimes we made two-story cabins. Some were furnished with bookshelves, scraps of carpet, and makeshift chimneys, where we'd cook white-bread toast over open flames. We organized the cabins into a township we called Farmsville. Nighttime fires of mysterious origins destroyed many of the small cabins, but nevertheless, we had a lot of fun!

When I first heard of Dave Lack's vision for Runaway Stage Production's 'Victor/Victoria' set, it all seemed rather abstract - actually, totally abstract - but the set apparently had two levels, with the upper level dedicated to the bedrooms. I was reminded of the cozy, rough-hewn two-story cabins of my childhood. I grew nostalgic for Farmsville.

After this weekend, helping the RSP crew bring Dave Lack's vision into existence on the stage at the 24th Street Theater, it is clear that Dave has never heard of the cozy Farmsville-scale of community development. Instead, the scale of the architectural work taking shape is Brobdignagian. The question now is whether there is enough room left to dance......

Maybe the decor will help with the coziness - bookshelves, scraps of carpet, and makeshift chimneys....