Scenic Painting Examples

On a rainy Saturday it seemed like fun to put up some examples of sets that were interesting paint jobs...  All shows that largely depended on scenic painting to make their point:

Taming, Circle Theatre - photo courtesy of Circle Theatre

This political comedy was all about wrapping everything in the American flag.  Fun to paint, it took the scenic painter and I two days to achieve (plus his day or so base painting blue).  The trick was scumbling everything very loosely and using cut foam "stamps" to make the stars.  The business of the design neatly hid the door where the bed slides out.  (See next to the bedside table?)

Taming, my photo

The next show I didn't paint myself, but a pair of scenic artists did a lovely job of realizing my art deco design in faux burl wood, mahogany, and gold.

Too Many Cooks, Circle Theatre

Below is an example of extreme teeny detail - just barely seen by the audience.  Here the hard working scene painter did everything but my tiny Delft tile decoration.

Lovers and Executioners, Circle Theatre

Opposite extreme!  Painting that took over and designed the whole joint.  Swingin' Sixties London, baby!

The Lucky Chance, or The Alderman's Bargain, Echo Theatre

BTW, another bed slid out of this set - from under those steps.  It too was painted with giant flag-itudeousness.  The colors, deliberately messed with, changed under different lights.

Below is a show that skipped color entirely, creating a world of grays...

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Fun House Theater and Film

Another Fun House production, Romeo and Juliet, used color to define the feuding families' territories: blue for Montague, red for Capulet.

Romeo and Juliet, Fun House Theater and Film

In this R&J, color was important and so was texturing... paint methods that emphasized the texture and variety of the faux stone and wood.  But below is an art deco world of radio where there is hardly any texture... and color disappears in favor of the B&W of old films.

The Frequency of Death, Pegasus Theatre

Even more removed from the everyday is this cartoon inspired TV game show set.  All in the design and painting...

Whatta Ya Think?! 

Realism?  It's the scenic painting - especially of that fieldstone - that sells the reality of this house in Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike:

Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, Uptown Players

Exaggerated, obviously faux, stone defines the next set, emphasizing the crazy unreality of its gothik/horror/comedy...

The Mystery of Irma Vep, WaterTower Theater

So let's hear it for the hard working, long-suffering, desperately important - nay irreplaceable! - scenic artist!  Whose work very often IS the set.  Cheers!

The Winter's Tale, Trinity Shakespeare and the noble Scenic Painter