The really early years: The Hot l Baltimore, which I designed while I was close to done in college, so fall of 1989?  It was a good learning experience, even if it was learning that I hadn't learned enough!  The point behind the mural was to illustrate, briefly, the progress of railroad locomotive technology in conjunction with the spread of the rails across the United States.  I have no idea if anyone got that drift.  The director wanted the set in an "alley orientation," so the front desk (seen here) was stage right, while at stage left was a grand staircase leading up and off.  A great drift of crappy goldenrod-colored carpet dominated the center.  Oh, I had some grand plans for this set, but we didn't have the money (or the expertise, really) to pull it off.

     (Above and following) Dracula at East Carolina Summer Theatre (1992; Greenville, NC); Robert Alpers design.    Bob Alpers got a great deal on several full bolts of burlap just before the summer's season began, and so the most of the sets were Hollywood flats with burlap covers instead of muslin or some other fabric.  Which made for an interesting painting surface.  Dracula utilized a number of sliding or pivoting pieces, so that within major walls were panels that moved out of the way to reveal rooms.  At that second floor center, for example, the walls split and revolved left and right to show a bedroom (with striped wallpaper!), while immediately below, the wall slid away to reveal Refield's cell.

     That center bottom wall also had a second, smaller sliding panel built into it.  In some scenes it showed the cross (above) while in others it was a bookcase (below).  Yep, the crew had their hands full on this one.

     At the time of my employment at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, there were children's shows mounted for touring in the fall and the spring.  During the 1990-91 season, the scenic charge, Dex Edwards, also designed those touring productions, of which The Velveteen Rabbit (following) was one. {A}

     Seen above is the set in its "child's room" orientation.  

     To emphasize the idea of the story being told at a child's height, the set was done in forced perspective in two directions: to a point some forty feet overhead, and also forty or so feet upstage.  The character of the Boy who receives the eponymous rabbit was cast with an actor who stood shy of 5 feet tall, while the Nanny stood 6 feet in her stockings and got two inch heels on her character's shoes.  When the Boy was on stage, the Nanny and the set looked really tall.

     Of course with two vanishing points, doing wallpaper involved a lot of gridding and transcribing a cartoon into some really weirdly squashed and stretched forms (below) which really doesn't show given where the photos were taken from -- so hey!  It worked!  Actually, as I recall, almost no one really noticed.

     When the bedroom turned around, the set showed the garden, with both painted foliage and some applied artificial greenery.  The wallpaper pattern in many places became a foliate profile.

     You'll have to ask me to tell you the flying rabbit story.  It's too long to transcribe here.

     The wallpaper pattern, in progress (above).  The cartooning was executed by us scenics laying on the floor with our reference images and a handful of pencils, carefully translating over the course of many many hours.  This design was actually early, which gave us time to schedule in cartooning before the rest of the shops got started on the show.

     The forced perspective also meant carving foam into architectural shapes (as above) since standard millwork just would not work!

     Besides the African masks (as seen on the Theatre Work Home page) we also carved other things, like a head and a hand (above) for an Alliance Theatre studio production of Ibsen's Ghosts (1993); Dex Edward design.  I carved the head and painted both, which stood in the entryway to the "basement" studio at the Woodruff Arts Center.  The upraised finger of the hand was positioned in front of the lips of the head, to indicate "silence" (or perhaps "shush!") to the incoming audience. {A}

     Dex Edwards also designed a production of A Christmas Carol (1996); Virginia Stage Company (Norfolk, VA). The conceit of this show was overtly presentational, so built elements resembled an abandoned Dickensien theatre space.  While Scrooge's headstone (left) appeared very solid as it towered over his cowering figure, it later fell - or floated - over, revealing that it was only a Broadway-style flat of wood frame and muslin construction.  The detail is all paint.

     Twice while I was employed there, Virginia Stage Company mounted touring productions, one of which I designed: The Oldest Story Ever Told (above and following) which brought together several abridged versions of stories most people would recognize as the Cinderella tale (at least I think that's correct).  The basic "Cinderella story" existed in the Mediterranean, Africa, South Asia, and China in many different forms, and those "non-European" foundations were the jumping-off point for this script which included musical segments.  

     As the tour would be conducted without benefit of a truck, the entire show needed to fit into a couple of vehicles, which required the set be able to break down into compact pieces-- so I went with the pipe and drape idea.  

     The design draws on historical models of cultural imagery, which I wove together to represent the different settings.  

Photos: R. Jake Wood, except for {A} those taken at the Alliance Theatre.  Again, my apologies for not having the name of the carpenter who took those.

    THEATRE WORK: AT THE SHAKESPEARE