Opening for Collapse

Last night Collapse opened.  A successful (and quite funny) performance to a responsive audience, with the playwright, Allison Moore, in attendance.  The playwright was presented with the yellow roses of Texas at curtain call.  (It's still called "curtain call" even when, in fact, there IS no curtain.)  And there was a particularly lively after party!  (The Dogs can throw a party.)

Collapse, Kitchen Dog Theater production

See that brick wall?  Hand-carved from foam by moi, the set designer, aaand painted.

There's the loaner sofa. ($#%$ sofas!) And the painted tile tabletop.

HERE's the thumbs-up review in the Dallas Morning News.  Come join the party - see the show!

Art Break

One of the great advantages of designing a show for Kitchen Dog at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary is that you can take Art Breaks in the galleries.

There's a wonderful show right now with an installation by Eric Eley.  The artist's information talks about camouflage - which I understand - but I think his sculpture would make a wonderful set for The Tempest!  It's as if Prospero laid all his salvaged ship's rigging, and fishing nets perhaps, out to dry on those old fashioned umbrella-style laundry lines...  Fantastic!  Beautiful.  Casting fascinating shadows.

Photo borrowed from Eric Eley's website  

Come see this intriguing art show at the MAC and see Collapse too - opens Friday.

Ladder Work

Collapse is getting ready for Tech - in fact today is Dry Tech, when the director and lighting and sound designers talk through things.  So today I'm scenic painting fast-fast-fast.  The big item?

The big highway bridge.  There's an important scene on the bridge... so we've built one leg of it and hope to suggest the rest.

Which means that today I get to paint the 15' high bridge leg: some from on top, leaning over and down; some from the theater's lift (if I can get it over there); some from a tall ladder (if I can get help moving it); some from the ground using a roller and the longest pole; some while sitting on the ground.

Naturally this is not simple flat-color-painting like your living room wall - it needs to be rich and varied in color, attempting to suggest concrete.  So I'll be mostly scumbling, which is where you slap several shades of paint together to blend and modify them.  (More on scumbling HERE.)  Gotta run!

Sign How-To

One scene in the play Collapse, by Allison Moore, is set to the blinking light of a Minneapolis landmark: the Gold Medal Flour sign.  My set design for this show now includes several other signs inspired by local landmarks.

But how to build them?

The coffee shop sign was the simplest to build - a wooden board with a painted coffee-cup-n-spoon reminiscent, though not matching, one local spot and many other signs around the country from that era.  Easy: cut a board, trim it, base paint it, render a cup-n-spoon, letter it etc., then figure out how to hang it.

The sign with wavy "river" lines (inspired by a landmark property) was almost as easy.  Another board - almost 6' long - with painted lines and lettering.  This was harder though, because at almost 6' long it's difficult to keep lettering straight and keep waves from... going crazy.  So all this had to be drafted; then those drawings peeled off my board; the rear of the drawing blackened with graphite; then flip it, place it, and trace it onto the board.  Paint with a steady hand.  Last step - drill holes, attach clips, and install blue rope light so "waves" will light up.  The volunteers doing that work did a terrific job.

Looks cool!

The "FLOUR" sign?  I anticipated a horrible time cutting out letters, but got lucky.  The automated cutters used in frame shops to cut picture mats can cut letters too!  Letters turned out to be the easy part.  But then letters needed 1" diameter holes cut in them (with a drill bit) so light bulbs can be installed.  A metal-strut frame needed to be built.  Letters had to be mounted on the frame.  Then lights installed.  Later this week, I'll be figuring out how to make the raised rims or edge bands around the letters...

The audience will see cool, local-ambiance signs, but will have no idea how much work went into them.

Believed public domain images

Second Weekend of Collapse build

Everyone pitches in and helps.

Help!  Time to pack up these (almost) dry signs and go.

believed public domain photo.

Set Designer's Day, the Press, and Treasure Hunting

Always nice when a day starts with a photo of one of your shows on the cover of the Dallas Morning News' weekend Guide: a close-up of actress Molly Franco, who plays Anne Frank.  (Beautifully plays.)  So far both The Diary of Anne Frank and The Frequency of Death! are getting good reviews... and with those, a few nice mentions for their sets.  (I'll take "pretty spectacular" when I can get it.)  Deeper into the Guide is a nice shot of Frequency under "Hot Show of the Week."

(You can read DMN's online review of The Diary of Anne Frank  HERE.  And HERE's their review of The Frequency of Death.)

But no time to reread for me.  I need to hop into the car to make the visit with the scenic painter on The Secrets of a Soccer Mom that was supposed to happen yesterday.  It's even colder this morning!  Poor painter.

After that, a shopping trip to that favorite source for discount fabric, The Golden d'Or (which translates as "The Golden Golden").  It's having its annual HUGE SALE.  I'll see what treasure I can dig up!

Pirate treasure painting by, I believe, Howard Pyle, public domain

Later tonight is a run-through of Collapse at Kitchen Dog, followed by a really late production meeting.  So much for Friday Date Night, huh?

Radio Silence

Sorry for the sparse postings... I'm in the middle of construction drawings for Seven with One Blow: or the Brave Little Kid and, as soon as that ink dries, leaping into the same type of for-the-builder drawings for my B&W, The Frequency of Death!  In the holding pattern behind those are design sketches for The Diary of Anne Frank.  Then starting Collapse for Kitchen Dog.

Plus I'm writing on The Project.

I'm beginning to develop some momentum... but also an increasing terror as I begin to realize just what a HUGE undertaking I've undertook.  The illustrations alone...  Scary.

the Golden Mean proportions (and Fibonacci series) public domain image

But I do have a juicy post coming soon about my recent jaunt to Houston, where there was Art!  Architecture! and nearby Seafood!