Women in Theatre

I've been invited to sit on a panel discussion of The Designers! :

Monday, February 6 at 7pm at WaterTower Theater.

Tickets can be purchased online HERE or you can buy at the door.  To quote:

"The objective of the Women in Theatre panel series is to explore challenges, issues, and opportunities women working in the theatre face. This year's panel features Leann Burns, Clare Floyd DeVries, Sylvia Fuhrken Marrs, Frida Espinosa Muller, and will be moderated by arts journalist Lauren Smart. Each of the designers will bring personal insights, from a uniquely female perspective, about their experiences navigating the often challenging world of theatre."

Come on by!  Lighting designer Leann Burns and I recently completed WaterTower's production of Silent Sky, which turned out well.  (We're probably going to sit on its stage.)  A great chance to hear about Design Life - with whatever special viewpoint female designers may bring to it.

I'm curious myself to find out.

Coffee Klatch

Every so often it's really nice to get together with colleagues.

Today it was coffee at the main Half Price Books coffee shop with a couple other set design enthusiasts.  Between us we had a variety of design backgrounds and experience levels - stage, architecture, interior design, graphics, student, professional, part-time, and full-time.

Some of the stories were pretty funny.

It's a great way to shop talk, swap ideas and helpful hints, complain to someone who'll understand, and just generally kick our (paint-y) shoes off.  The best and most hilarious story had to be cleaning-up-a-spilled-gallon-of-paint-ten-minutes-before-the-audience-is-seated.*

Plus I got some good technical suggestions for pulling off my next design.

My suggestion for you, Dear Reader?  Find some friendly colleagues you can coffee klatch with.

I've used this image before... pretty sure it's public domain.

*  Hint: it takes 2 pieces of 2x4 and a bucket of saw dust.

Some Days...

As a designer you just want to say, "That's the way I drew it because That's the Way I WANT It."

Sigh.

Wise to find a more graceful phrasing.

The alternate (equally maddening) situation is, "I want it that way and so - look! - I drew it that way."

Naturally, as I wrestle with a couple shows where I'm NOT saying either of the above, it is today that I am introduced to a company that offers pre-designed theater shows.  Rather like an architectural plan shop, the places that offer those send-away-for plans for ski chalets and kit-houses in the backs of magazines.

Buy a pre-designed show and change anything you like 'cause the designer doesn't know or care.

Though this horrifies me as an architect, it makes some sense since most folks really only want a roof - many buildings just want to be buildings, not The Art of Architecture.

A catalog kit-house, public domain image Wikipedia

But ALL theater production is - by definition - trying to be Art.

Sigh.