Sweat

UNC School of the Arts 
Winston-Salem, NC
Set Design by Jessica Trementozzi

This production was put on in the fall of 2020 during the COVID 19 Pandemic. Production of shows at UNCSA underwent major adaptations to allow us to remain in person as much as possible in order to hone our craft.

Sweat was produced in a black box style and then filmed by a major film crew to be streamed for live audiences at a later date. As a hybrid of film and stage with an unmasked cast, this production had many unique challenges. One of the things that we had to incorporate was the tracking of props so that they did not change hands. Each cast member was given a color and every prop that they interacted with was marked distinctly with that color. We also had hand sanitizer stashed everywhere, and food and drink was strictly banned. I worked with Jessica to make sure that these safety elements could still work in the world of the play. In our shop of 28 plus artisans, we had to enforce distance measures as room capacities to safely build the props needed. Tech was also limited to only necessary personnel and divided into zones, which meant I could not touch the props or stage until all of the actors were gone for the day.

Most of our major projects were the objects that were rigged onto a grid. We made custom dimmable “neon” signs for the production that could be entirely controlled by the lighting board and also lacked the hum that comes with standard neon signs. We also created a billiard light to hang down over the bar, and a cardboard pool table. It had to be cardboard due to the weight constraints of the grid, and the fact that it had to be lifted by one and at most two people because of the safety measures in place.