86. Romeo and Juliet set
Emulsion paint to various walls scenery flats and reversed carpet to floor
Tads Theatre Toddington, May 2016
NFS
Having worked on some renditions of Sherwood Forrest and some castle scenes for the family pantomime the same director asked me back to help out on the next production:- Romeo and Juliet. I was offered the chance to decorate the theatre in the round and the balcony structure and movable blocks created by David Sachon.
The first stage was to photograph the area and create watercolour sketches to suggest three distinct styles. The first was the more classical look incorporating arches, while the third was a more abstract version using block colours and line drawing the detail. The chosen scheme was the “Romantic version” of modern Verona.
Much planning was required to achieve the necessary completed areas each day, and base coats were enhanced with detail layers on separate days. The piece took many weeks down in the cold theatre, but I am pleased with the result as were my acting colleagues and ultimately audiences. Judging by the hugs from the director, she was pleased too.
It was all a bit of a learning curve – with the embarrassment that the white painting to the carpet did not dry in time for one of our rehearsals- I should have realised that with the cold and the nature of the material that this could be an issue.
Although there were smiles all round, I’m not sure that I can commit to this level of work again. How to quicken the process I’m not sure. I guess a team of people to help with the block colour base coats, though I have a certain quality threshold that may be difficult to always achieve.
Tads Theatre Toddington, May 2016
NFS
Having worked on some renditions of Sherwood Forrest and some castle scenes for the family pantomime the same director asked me back to help out on the next production:- Romeo and Juliet. I was offered the chance to decorate the theatre in the round and the balcony structure and movable blocks created by David Sachon.
The first stage was to photograph the area and create watercolour sketches to suggest three distinct styles. The first was the more classical look incorporating arches, while the third was a more abstract version using block colours and line drawing the detail. The chosen scheme was the “Romantic version” of modern Verona.
Much planning was required to achieve the necessary completed areas each day, and base coats were enhanced with detail layers on separate days. The piece took many weeks down in the cold theatre, but I am pleased with the result as were my acting colleagues and ultimately audiences. Judging by the hugs from the director, she was pleased too.
It was all a bit of a learning curve – with the embarrassment that the white painting to the carpet did not dry in time for one of our rehearsals- I should have realised that with the cold and the nature of the material that this could be an issue.
Although there were smiles all round, I’m not sure that I can commit to this level of work again. How to quicken the process I’m not sure. I guess a team of people to help with the block colour base coats, though I have a certain quality threshold that may be difficult to always achieve.
