The Dallas Opera 2021-2022 - The Barber of Seville/The Pearl Fishers

25 THE BARBER OF SEVILLE | THE PEARL FISHERS STAFF SPOTLIGHT: DREW FIELD After 30 seasons with The Dallas Opera, Drew Field takes his final bow. What is your job title and what does that entail? At the moment, I am a seasonal Technical Director. I semi-retired at the start of Covid, giving up my position as Director of Production, and have essentially returned to the job I had when I started in September 1992. My mother used to ask me what I do, and I finally told her that I couldn’t explain it. In many ways, the job entails ensuring that every company member who is working with the stage has what they need to produce the opera. It involves drafting how the scenery fits on the stage, how we logistically get two or three shows into the theater at once, determining how the pit will be laid out, planning out the cuing schedules, making sure we have enough crew, working with directors to think out what is possible and what is not, how donor tours can be interfaced with crew calls, establishing camera placements for simulcasts, and so much more. How did you start in this field? When I was a student at the Yale School of Drama 47 years ago, I technical directed a production of Peter Grimes . That led me to the Santa Fe Opera where one of the staff, when hearing me whistle Tosca while walking to the canteen, told me I was an “opera lifer.” Then and there I coined my motto: No pit, No Drew. I have worked Opera or Musicals ever since. What does your typical day look like? When producing on the stage, I get to the theater about 6 a.m. and do email, payroll, and develop the work list for the day. The crews usually start at 9 a.m. and we spend the day until 6 p.m. hanging lights, assembling scenery, focusing lights, developing the cue sequences with the director and designers, shifting from one production to another, and setting up for the evening’s rehearsal or performance. We break for dinner at 6 p.m. and return at 7 p.m. for a rehearsal or performance which, for the crews, usually ends about 11 p.m. I repeat this daily until the show closes. What has been your favorite production so far? It’s hard to pick one, so how about two? For comedy, John Copley’s amazingly witty The Barber of Seville with John Conklin’s Rene Magritte themed designs. For drama, our production of Joby Talbot and Gene Scheer’s Everest directed by Lenny Foglia; a spectacular, brilliant, moving piece. Any special moments you look back on and think “wow?” Several, actually. One was not in Dallas; it was taking a bow on the stage of the Bolshoi with Sarah Caldwell. Here in Dallas, a “wow” moment was watching Elaine McCarthy’s astral projection animation of the Pequod morphing out of the night sky as the overture to Moby-Dick was played. And last but certainly not least, watching our production of Tristan und Isolde which started out as a semi-staged concert, but through the efforts of clever director Christian Räth and projection designer Elaine McCarthy, became a spectacular production which was the biggest bang for a buck that I have ever seen on an opera stage. After all these years, there must be a “crazy opera story” you can share. The night I fell into the pit. During La traviata’s final dress rehearsal with an audience, I was in the house on the house left side. While the concertmaster was tuning, I reached over the pit rail to hand someone a stand light. The rail collapsed pitching me and the rail into the violin section. And in Santa Fe, when I was running a costumed a vista scene change in Falstaff …the snaps on my period britches broke and they dropped to my ankles as I stood center stage facing the audience. I pulled them up, tipped my hat to the audience, and exited stage right. Working nearly 50 years in the production of Grand Opera has been a grand adventure. Opera has taken me all over the country and much of the globe. I still marvel at how a lad from Detroit, Maine, population 700, ended up trodding the boards of an opera stage. Drew Field retires from The Dallas Opera after The Pearl Fishers . •