{"id":132713,"date":"2022-11-08T09:55:24","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T14:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=132713"},"modified":"2022-11-08T09:55:25","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T14:55:25","slug":"a-touch-of-philly-comes-to-wright-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2022\/11\/08\/a-touch-of-philly-comes-to-wright-state\/","title":{"rendered":"A touch of Philly comes to Wright State"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pam Lavarnway, professor of theatre design and technology at Wright State, worked with her students to transform the Festival Playhouse stage in the Creative Arts Center into Philadelphia for Wright State Theatre’s production of “Sister Act.” (Photos by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

Wright State University looks a little like Philadelphia in November, thanks to Pam Knauert Lavarnway.<\/p>\n

The transformation of the Festival Playhouse in the Creative Arts Center into the City of Brotherly Love is for \u201cSister Act<\/a>,\u201d a musical comedy based on the hit movie of the same name.<\/p>\n

Produced by Wright State Theatre, \u201cSister Act\u201d opened on Nov. 4 and runs through Nov. 20. Tickets can be purchased online<\/a> or at the Creative Arts Center box office between noon and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall suggestion is of an urban environment in the late 1970s,\u201d said Lavarnway, professor of theatre design and technology<\/a> and set designer for the production. \u201cIt\u2019s the story of a church that\u2019s not doing well, and through this wayward person who\u2019s taken in by the convent, she rejuvenates the choir and the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery show has its projects that are fun to work on,\u201d she added. \u201cThere\u2019s the church. And we\u2019re recreating brick, and there\u2019s graffiti. \u2018Sister Act\u2019 takes place in a gritty neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lavarnway teaches and is hands-on, joining her students in turning the stage into Philadelphia. She has designed and painted scenery on more than 70 productions over the last 31 years at Wright State.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in my blood,\u201d she said. \u201cYou get a rhythm for a process on a show, starting in the initial stages, speeds up, then the nitty gritty of painting the set and leading up to the opening. It\u2019s that whole rhythm that gets into your bones as someone who does theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that drew me to set design and keeps me loving it is that every six weeks or so you create a new world for the story and the characters. That means I get to research a place I\u2019ve never been. I\u2019ve done fantasy sets that don\u2019t exist anywhere, then I get to do a police station in Philadelphia. Not only that, I get to travel in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lavarnway shared an insight into a design career that could\u2019ve been. \u201cAs a kid, I thought I wanted to become an architect. In fourth or fifth grade I\u2019d be bored in class, so I drew plans of houses,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

But then she thought about dealing with corporate clients or homebuilders and all the necessary things to make such places workable or livable, and the life of an architect \u201cwas not that appealing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She shifted the focus of her love of design.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn theatre, I could design places for make-believe people and for telling stories,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s this journey that these characters are on and I get to tell it by designing the set the characters are on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lavarnway\u2019s journey began in her native upstate New York, then at Boston University. \u201cI was always into art and painting and drawing, then I found out about set design,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After earning her undergraduate degree in fine arts, she worked professionally in theatre for a few years, then returned to Boston University for her master\u2019s degree and back to being a scenic artist.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

“Sister Act” is the final show for Pam Lavarnway, professor of theatre design and technology, who is retiring after working on more than 70 productions over the last 31 years at Wright State.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI was painting and working in a professional scene shop eight to 10 hours a day, and it didn\u2019t feel like it was completely fulfilling. Then I became interested in teaching,\u201d she said. \u201cI had some really great teachers who were inspiring, and I really liked the university environment. The thing with freelance designing is that there\u2019s a constant turnover of who you work with. In a university theatre department, you have colleagues you get to develop relationships with and work with over a period of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

She landed a job at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where she met a theatre staff member. A few years later, in 1991, the two of them were working on a set late one night and she told him about a job opening she saw at Wright State. What grabbed her attention was \u201cthe ad mentioned it had a huge new scene shop.\u201d He said, as Lavarnway recalled, it sounded like a good program and she should apply.<\/p>\n

She did, knowing precious little about Dayton. But on her visit, she said, \u201cI really liked the people and the quality of the work they were doing.\u201d She got the job.<\/p>\n

That fellow theatre staff member joined her at Wright State a year later \u2014 and became her husband, John, the prop master of the Wright State Theatre Program.<\/p>\n

Wright State\u2019s theatre design and technology program was very strong before Lavarnway arrived and has always had high expectations and high standards, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a history of doing high-quality shows and training at a high level. We have a record of successful grads,\u201d she said. \u201cThe students who get through and graduate usually have a really good work ethic, then they get the skills and succeed when they leave here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSister Act\u201d is the final show for which Lavarnway will be a set designer as a Wright State faculty member. She is retiring at the end of the semester. She is focusing not on that but on what she and her students are doing \u2014 designing a place \u201cthat really resonates and gives the audience a special experience. Hopefully, that\u2019s what we do at Wright State.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pam Lavarnway, professor of theatre design and technology, oversaw the transformation of the Festival Playhouse stage into Philadelphia for Wright State Theatre’s production of “Sister Act.” Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":132721,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,729,2037,2023,4859,725,747,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-around-campus","category-arts-scene","category-faculty","category-fine-and-performing-arts","category-home-news-sidebar","category-liberal-arts","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132713"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132737,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132713\/revisions\/132737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}