This is my second year of formatting the athletic program for my daughter’s high school. I took it one step further this time and coordinated the whole fundraising campaign. The final result was an 80 page program and the funds to buy portions of new uniforms, varsity warm-ups, lots of big, fancy hair bows and a new cheer mat.
I am pleased with the outcome, both artistically and monetarily.
To try to come up with a poster and a logo for our fall show, The Wizard of Oz, I concentrated on the many iconic images from so famous a movie. The Wizard of Oz holds a firm grasp on the American culture; I found I needed to make a list.
I knew I wanted the background to be a nice deep Oz green. And the typography was easy, too. Somewhere online I read that Patrick was similar to a font used in Baum’s books.
I had a pretty long list of possible images. After working through a few, I decided I couldn’t decide. So I narrowed it down to 12, then shaved that down to 10. (A Glinda based one, and one with Toto in the basket didn’t make the cut.) The order is based on when they appear in the script.
One friend whose opinion I respect didn’t care for my use of white space, but the woman who owns the art gallery in Old Town Manassas did. She gave me a lot of praise, took the ones she liked best, and called me an artist. As one not usually too terribly affected by flattery, I have to admit she made my day.
My younger daughter auditioned with the theater company that shared the space we had used to perform our spring show, and as a result, that directorial team saw the sets I had designed for You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. After my daughter was cast in Vpstart Crow’s A Princess and a Pea, it only took one rehearsal for me to be asked to paint a backdrop. I knew my life was crazy, but I said yes. I about fell over when the day came to load the sets and I saw that the backdrop was 12 feet high and 20 feet long.
Once I got about half way done, I went home wanting to start over. But I have already invested about 7 hours, and I really didn’t have the time. The hours involved may make it seem otherwise, but I worked fast. I got the whole thing done in about 15 hours, over the course of three days. When it was finished and the lights were on it, I was much less disappointed and was glad I had worked through my doubts.
Now the mattress were another matter. It was dress rehearsal, and the production team was still without a believable set piece. I knew I was to be at the theater the entire next day, since I was already there producing a children’s day camp. I volunteered to come up with–well–something! I ended up running to the fabric store for a couple rolls of batting, and ripping my daughter’s old bedding into shreds. I had a piece of plywood cut to wedge between the two mattresses of a bunk bed, then stapled the tops the strips of fabric width-wise. I tucked the batting in, fold the bottom under, and pushed in a couple more staples. I was done by lunch.
Did it look like 27 mattresses? No, not to anyone over five. But I did hear a little girl exclaim as the stage hands pushed it out, “That must be HEAVY!”
It’s been forever, I know. You’re probably sick of my reason…I have been busy. Just so you don’t think I am full of excuses, let me try to explain.
In the past four months:
Even with all that, I can say I probably COULD have blogged. I certainly had a lot to write about. But last April I got serious about finally sticking to an exercise regimen. I began running every day, and I have to be honest and say that hour replaced the hour I would have otherwise spent writing. I feel great physically, even with the little voice of guilt telling me I should carve out time to Design Strategies.
Who would have thought it would take 45 minutes, 2,000 questions and 2,000 dollars to order seven interior doors?
I don’t consider myself a working mother. After having no paycheck for 12 years, it is still hard to identify myself as someone with a job. Even though I get dressed and go out the door every single day. Sometimes not acknowledging the fact that I work bites me in the behind. Like today.
It is nearly the end of the school year, and my oldest is on an exam schedule. She only had to go to school for two hours today. My husband was able to take her, but I needed to pick her up. Sure, no problem. I will just run into Precision Doors, which is on the way home, and place the necessary order. I ran in, all right. But it was over an hour before I walked out.
My client and I needed to purchase seven interior doors, each with a different set of measurements and use requirements. Lounel Barnabas was wonderful at helping us sort it all. But in the meantime, my phone was vibrating all over the place with text messages from my daughter wondering where I was. Due to the jacked up schedule, her friend needed a ride as well. I thought I had a perfect solution. Since they were together and it wasn’t yet raining, I suggested they walk to Starbucks and wait for me there.
That didn’t go over well with my husband. He left his work in the middle of a meeting, and drove from Ballston to Woodbridge to pick them up then promptly drove BACK to work.
I’m thinking he’s going to struggle a bit with the fact that she will go away to college in one short year. And I can only hope he didn’t buy his wasted gas at BP…
It’s been a few weeks, and I don’t think better photos are just going to miraculously appear so I am going to just have to post what I’ve got.
You probably already know that I have found myself with two jobs. If I can even call my second a job, for don’t you have to actually earn some money for what you do to be called a job? Otherwise, isn’t it actually called volunteering? I teamed up with my friends Kye-Won Kopko and Doug Burney to give Northern Virginia an alternative children’s theater company. We successfully completed our first community-wide musical a few weeks ago. And by successful, I mean our ledger ended in black.
When I work on a show, I can’t just produce. I have to get my nose into the Design of the show. I obsess over the LOOK. I insist that the PR material, the sets and the costumes complement the tone of the script. You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown was an easy show to clarify stylistically. I drew the sets based on a rather obsessive study of Charles Schulz and his style.
Thanks to one amazing woman, Carol Hostetter, and her husband, Joe, I am very proud of the way the sets turned out:
If I get more photos, I will add them. Next time I will be sure to take some of the stage lit but without actors.
I know it’s been awhile. Since I’ve been gone :
Pictures of all of the above starting tomorrow….
Schools are out this week for Spring Break. And typical for the last week of March, it is dark, gloomy and pouring rain. My children are home but asleep right now so I am experiencing that calm and quiet when most sounds are muffled by the clatter of the water running through the gutters.
The week will be ridiculously busy. We have rehearsal every afternoon. I need to visit the construction site to view EFIS color swatches and to take some measurements so I will need to do that early in the day, but after the DC morning rush.
I’m going to try schedule some time to run over to get photos from two ongoing projects to post, since I will have little time to write.
My husband was nice enough to run an errand for me today. He is picking up the poster I created for the play I am producing. Just like always, my interior design skills seem to translate into graphic design ability to the lay folk.
To be honest, I enjoy a rendezvous with Photoshop. Just not yesterday, when my computer decided to stage a mutiny. I wasted four hours I did not have waging war, but I thanks to Google, I was victorious.
Here is the poster. I have scheduled Friday for driving around town hanging them. If you click on it, it will bring you to a larger image which will allow you to view all the details. Maybe you can catch a performance?
When I design sets, I am really picky about color. To a ridiculous degree. The color scheme of a production is really important to me. I obsess over every shade and hue, and I want the costumes and print materials to coordinate with my master plan. When I produced The Wizard of Oz, I wouldn’t allow one speck of blue anywhere. Dorothy’s blue gingham dress than distinguished her as an outsider.
I suppose set design gives me a chance to produce the over-the-top interiors I could never do in real life. The exaggerated qualities needed for the stage are so unlike my actual interior designs. …And crazy is expected in theater, so I get away with it…
I spent the evening studying three years worth of Charles Schulz’s strips. I want our set to have the same quality as his signature style of cartooning.
