A Gift Rendering

I was asked recently to donate a rendering of The Playboy of the Western World as a gift for a valued contributor to our department. I made a copy before (reluctantly) releasing it.

Here it is:

Playboy Opens! And Closes.

The Playboy of the Western World opened Feb. 26th and had a successful run at the University of Alabama. I have some early photos from our photo call:






Now I'm taking the design to competition at SETC in Chattanooga and USITT in Houston. The next production I'm working on is Disney's Beauty and the Beast for Red Mountain Theatre Company

Playboy Tech Week Continues

It's only a few more days till The Playboy of the Western World opens at the University of Alabama Theatre Dept. Here are some pictures from the Tech Week process.

02.18


Still some painting to do at this point, and rehearsal furniture is still being used for some pieces.

02.21

Set dressing and lighting are being added in. Some lovely cues from Bill Teague, our lighting designer. The forty foot expressionist painting turned out pretty well for the show.

02.22

More set dressing arrives, and the cues get even better.

The costumes are being added next. Stay tuned for the final product!

Playboy Build Update

Playboy of the Western World has been moving along in the shop at UA...

2008.01.22

Painting the Wall with joint compound to resemble plaster...

The rake installed, with some of the rehearsal furniture...
2008.02.15

The SL window in the process of getting painted...

The door is coming along...
The bar is finished.
Close up of the roof beams we installed.
The planked flooring is being installed.
The set (so far) from a distance.

A Forty-Foot Expressionist Painting.

We're in the process of building The Playboy of the Western World at University of Alabama right now, and one of the first things we've been working on is the drop inspired by Jack Yeats "Returning from the Bathe at Mid Day" See us in the progress of painting it below!


I'm glad many of you have been enjoying the new portfolio! More images to come...

Playboy of the Western World - Rough White Model Shots

The rough white model of the Playboy set, in quarter inch scale, with the drop flown in.

Playboy of the Western World - Final Sketch before Model, and a new drop painting

The largest rendering I've ever done - this one was 18"x24" Already some parts of the design have changed a little. The thatch above the beams and the tree SL are being cut. The fireplace is going to change to a look that makes a better use of negative space. The SR door is going to move a little bit upstage too. It occurs to me that since we are using a rake on this stage, the terms "upstage" and "downstage" actually mean what they did originally!

The ground row has turned into a full drop now. Here is the first version I've come up with for that.

Painting Sketch for Playboy of the Western World's Ground Row

Here's a quick stab at painting the ground row for Playboy. Inspired in palette and style by the great Irish expressionist, Jack Yeats. (Specifically, the painting "Returning from the Bathe, Mid-Day," see the painting online at http://www.crawfordartgallery.com/Paintings/JBYeatsBathe.html)

Playboy of the Western World - Second Round of Sketches

First of the second round of sketches, with groundplan...

I tried a few different things with this iteration of the design. I made the roof beams slightly smaller, added some thatch to the roof, and did some more suggestive things with the profile of the back wall. I also added a tree SL and put a window in the back wall.

(In the sketch, i've moved the SR table. )

The Playboy of the Western World - Image Research

Once again, this image research predates the process sketches for Playboy that I already posted, but I thought it important to post this anyway.

This collage contains a variety of imagery that make up our approach for the play, including work by Jack B. Yeats, an Irish expressionist who was friends with J. M. Synge. Other artists that influenced the design were Sean Keating, Walter Frederick Osborne, Frank Mckelvy. I've also included some photos I took, as well as selections from the various stock photography agencies (listed below).

The image that most influenced the design process on this show is "Returning from the Bathe, Mid-Day," by Jack B. Yeats, and you can find more information about the artist at
The Crawford Art Gallery

Note: I do not own the copyrights to some of these images, which come from iStockphoto, Getty Images, Corbis, Google Images, and various online galleries and museums. They are for research and in no way am I representing them as my own work.This constitutes fair use. If any trouble comes about because of this, I will simply take the images down.

The Playboy of the Western World - Belated Sketch Notes

Finally, some notes to accompany the two sketches from this post.

Both sketches employ the use of a raked deck, and theatrical gauze or scrim for the house's walls so that the Irish country side - wild, passionate and luxurious - can be seen at various points of the play's action, depending on how it's lit. However, the second sketch suggests this better and is also better suited to this approach.

The first sketch has more interesting angles to it, but this conveys a twisty-ness and mendacious quality. Although the play does contain some lies, e.g. Christy's bravado over the supposed murder of his father, the director and I felt that this was not the main theme of the play. The open, straight forward, rough and simple lines of the second sketch are more suited to the open and plain (if vigorous) nature of the play.

In both sketches, the fire is given a very prominent position, emphasizing the theme of fire in the play. Christy Mahon is burned by a turf log from the fire shortly before coming into his own as a man, which suggests the fire is a transforming influence. The play also takes place in the fall, a season that blazes with color.

The heavy roof beams create the sense of confinement, when the scrim wall is lit from the front, and can be reduced to silhouettes when the scrim wall is lit from behind, which dramatically opens the space. We wanted the space to blossom when Christy arrives, the Playboy of the Western World, and shows the residents of Mayo of the wild passionate possibilities in their lives.

After meeting with the director today, some more sketches will follow.

Here's the show blurb from the University of Alabama:

The Playboy of the Western World
by J.M. Synge

Synge invites you to visit the coast of Ireland and experience rural life in the early 1900s. Christy Mahon, a stranger in town, has arrived at Flaherty’s Public House, proclaiming he has killed his father and fled his former life. For the locals, this story rings of excitement, adventure, and enlivens their otherwise dull and dreary world. They relish in Mahon’s story and even Mike Flaherty’s daughter, Pegeen, seems to have fallen for his adventurous charm. But when Mahon’s past catches up with him, will the locals still embrace his heroism or leave him stranded?

Playing at Gallaway Theatre at the University of Alabama

February 26 - March 2, 2008
Tuesday - Saturday at 7:30pm
Saturday and Sunday at 2:00pm

You can buy tickets to the show online at:
http://www.as.ua.edu/theatre/calendar.html

The Playboy of the Western World - Preliminary Sketches Round 1

Here are two of the preliminary sketches for the next show I'm designing, The Playboy of the Western World. I'll add some more notes on the design at a later time.