Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1043753
D I E T L A N D | P E R S P E C T I V E 5 5 of New York so interesting, especially for night scenes. Before visiting the towers, I knew that if I eliminated the platform on the stage, I would gain four feet of ceiling height over the entire set. This would give the Daisy Chain offices the production value needed, not to mention the cost savings of not having to build a platform. But if I wasn't going to build the set on a platform, then I needed a device to stop the eye from seeing the stage floor or the bottom of the backdrop. In essence, I needed a rationale for building a parapet wall on the stage. Although the American Copper buildings were residential, they had no individual private balconies. At this point, I could have said OK, I'll cheat it—but I really wanted the audience to feel that Kitty's office was in those buildings. I went back to the location and asked the building manager what was on top of the skybridge. "A private terrace," he responded, "the only one." "Can I see it?" Standing on the twenty-seventh floor looking over the top of the skybridge, the Daisy Chain set came together in an instant. Kitty's office would be at this level, a private terrace with a green lawn just outside her window; and a copper parapet matching the patina and finish of American Copper would serve as the balcony to conceal the bottom of the backdrop. The Daisy Chain set would be on the stage floor with an extra four-feet of ceiling height gained by losing the platform. In the Dietland novel Sarai Walker writes; "On the twenty-seventh floor of the Austen Tower, I stepped off the elevator and walked down a long carpeted corridor. At the end was a floor-to- ceiling window, revealing the breadth of midtown E D. KITTY'S TERRACE. SET PHOTO. THE LOW STAGE GRID REQUIRED THAT THE SET BE PLACED ON THE FLOOR. THE COPPER PARAPET WALL SERVES TO HIDE THE BOTTOM OF THE PHOTO BACKDROP. E. KITTY'S OFFICE. SET PHOTO. TO BLOCK THE VIEW OF THE STAGE GRID, A TEN- FOOT OVERHANG WAS BUILT. TWO COPPER BACKING WALLS MIMICKING THE EXTERIOR FACADES OF AMERICAN COPPER FRAME THE VIEW. F. DAISY CHAIN HALLWAY. SET PHOTO. G. DAISY CHAIN RECEPTION. SET PHOTO. D F G