I seldom get really good show photos (largely because I am a terrible photographer).
But here are some lovely images taken by Sally Jinks of my recent show - written by Brad McEntire and produced at Tarrant College SE - Que sera, Giant Monster.
Rush. Rush!!
To catch Que Sera, Giant Monster on stage at Tarrant College SE.
It's been a long, long, looong time since my last post.
Since the end of the Before Times and then the Pandemic lockdown I've suddenly gotten busy with theater set design again (woohoo!) and have been mentoring students and, obviously, haven't felt the need to write much. But all my original reasons for blogging remain... so I'll try to get better about posting.
So we'll see.
This week's "busy" was cranking out - as fast as possible - two sets of construction drawings for one show in Fort Worth, Stage West's production of Handle With Care, and a production of Ebenezer Scrooge in Carrollton for Pocket Sandwich Theatre. This is my first design for this beloved theater institution! and their first show in their new theater space. This is my first chance to design this evergreen Christmas classic so I'm excited. Also under development is a new work Que Sera, Giant Monster at Tarrant College SE which will open in November.
Busy!
Between my last post and this one was a whole show, Founders, Keepers, at Echo Theatre. Here's a quick pic:
Sorry... it's been a crazy Spring. But the big message here (the reason I'm finally posting) is:
Go See The Shows!
I have two shows onstage at this moment: Into the Breeches! at Stage West in Fort Worth and Hi5 at Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas. If you're within driving range of either or both, they're worth seeing.
Hi5 is a collection of brand new short plays: wild, weird, moving, funny, thought-provoking.
More posts soon, now that I've cleared my board of three plays and a fun mentoring gig.
Theater biz is looking up!
I have a new show to design, this time for Echo Theatre, In A Word by Lauren Yee, opening March 18th. So... I need to hurry up, huh? My first discussion with the director is this evening. Meanwhile, I've been reading and rereading, and noting. There might be a few little scribbles happening...
And I'm starting that student mentorship. First meeting - due to covid - was virtual, but it's face-to-face tomorrow morning at what will feel like dawn. (Extra coffee please!) A rush hour drive to Fort Worth? It seems against the theater ethos doesn't it.
One of the first things we'll do is discuss the script for Stage West's upcoming play, Witch. Here's a coolo play poster for the 1621 Restoration play upon which it is based.
Well... when it loads it will be....
Dance cards were a thing a lady used to have at a ball - a charming little booklet with an attached dainty gilded pencil to mark down promised dances and her gentlemanly partners.
I've always kept a scribbly, scabby version of a dance card myself, to remember what shows I've promised to design, for which theater group.
Well, I did until covid.
Today (while updating my theater how-to book Alice Through the Proscenium, watch for this new expanded! edition's publication date) I happened to need to refer back in time, to see what shows I was juggling in 2019-2020. After I remembered that I had a little black book, found it, and blew off the dust, I saw... well, the perfect illustration of just exactly what covid did to the schedules of every theater artist.
Here's my dance card for 2018 and 2019:
Here it is for 2020 and 2021:
That's what covid was like for me and for most of us for those two years.
The first meeting of Stage West's theater design apprenticeship isn't until Thursday, but I spent this morning setting up a Discord server to act as our classroom / treehouse. Our first meeting will - thanks covid! - be virtual, so we'll get to use this treehouse immediately. My fingers are crossed that this will be an easier, friendlier virtual venue than, say, Zoom. (Don't we all hate Zoom meetings by now?)
The photo above is from a Dallas Museum of Art show that I said I'd report back on... Too late now! But I will just say that museums are one of the few outings right now that are, generally, less crowded and feel safer - go mid-week or early in the day if you can. (Don't we all need to get out the house?)
BTW the architectural art exhibit "For a Dreamer of Houses" was fascinating. You can get a good idea of it HERE virtually. The neon house Rubber Pencil Devil by Alex da Corte was cool, but my favorite environment was Francisco Moreno's Chapel. A wonderful, intricate, evocative neo-Romanesque barrel-vaulted chapel - of plywood - completely covered with graphics... as if a 12th century monastery chapel got anachronistic tattoos. Some of them inked by Titian...
DMA show "For Dreamers of Houses" - photos by Clare Floyd DeVries
Anyway, get out however you safely can and see stuff and learn stuff!Washing dishes today, I scrubbed at the cookie jar we keep on the top of the cabinets. Being architects, our cookie jar is, of course, an architectural one... a white china replica of Andrea Palladio's Villa Rotunda.
I'd never noticed before - not while studying the drawings, not while visiting the building in Italy - but Palladio couldn't quiiiiite get enough headroom for his spiral stairs under his perfectly 4-way symmetrical roof design. He had to cheat a bit.
Look at the cookie jar roof!
Proof! Proof, I tell you! Even a genius struggles with getting the roof to work!
(Not that you can see his little oopsie in real life... and that's all that matters. Remember that!)
