‘Street Scene’ is a two-act opera, written by Kurt Will in 1946. It takes place on the doorstep of a tenement on the East Side of Manhattan on two brutally hot days in 1946. The story focuses on two plot-lines – the romance between Rose Maurrant and her neighbour Sam Kaplan, and on the extramarital affair of Rose’s mother, Anna, which is eventually discovered by Rose’s irritable father, Frank. The show portrays the ordinary romances, squabbles and gossips of the neighbours, as the mounting tensions involving the Maurrant family eventually build into a tragedy of epic proportions.
Our production was directed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones, with design by Adrian Linford and Lighting Design by Charlie Morgan Jones. As a member of the Technical Stage Department – and as Head of Flys and Automation – this show presented a number of challenges. Most evident was the scale of the set; a tenement block over three floors – one descending into the basement of the stage – a raked upstage area, and a practical garage door. All of these elements combined to create a set that was visually spectacular, but difficult and heavy to assemble on stage, resulting in this allocation testing everyone’s technical ability, as well as their abilities to work under pressure and remain self-motivated.