Marc Camoletti's farce Boeing Boeing posed an interesting design problem. Although the story takes place in a living room and only has six characters, the action requires them to enter and exit quickly through seven separate routes: the front door, three bedrooms, a bathroom, the kitchen, and the dining room. To make it even more interesting, the very small theatre had seating on three sides, and the shallow, two-level raised stage area was permanent.

Because there was very little wall space available, and to avoid having seven doors lined up next to each other, I eliminated three of them, although I kept the locations. The front door was off a small foyer up stage center, invisible, but there. The kitchen (USL) and dining room (on house right) were in the vomitories. That left only three bedrooms and the bathroom to have visible doors on stage. Then I wrapped the walls around the permanent raised area, mirroring the steps as much as possible.

Due to the limited budget, all the molding on the walls, as well as the paneling on the doors, was painted. The hardwood floor and rug were also painted.

The end result was a set that allowed for all the required quick entrances and exits in a very small space.

Altarena Playhouse, Alameda, CA