Mother Courage & Her Children

This play by Bertolt Brecht is famous enough that it often goes by its 'nickname', MOTHER COURAGE.

Antaeus approached me via Frier McCollister, a producer with whom I've worked with often here in L.A. (and attended high school with back in Evanston!). They had already decided they wanted something bold and dramatic; the final product borrowed heavily from the work of old German and Russian propaganda posters.

I especially love the stark, simple graphic of Anne Gee, the actress who played the title role. It adds so much without detracting from the simplicity of the graphic.

Dark Rapture

While it's great to be able to blue-sky it every once in awhile, one of the things I love about doing work for 99-seat theater is that its smaller-than-small budgets force me to find really creative solutions to all kinds of problems.

In this case, I used stock photography from popular site iStockPhoto.com, then manipulated the type and logo for a great, mysterious effect that's still starkly simple. (I'm big on keeping things simple-probably all those years of Big Guy Ad Clients asking for 47 points in their :30 commercials.)

There Will Be Penetration

This girl had the biggest pair of cajones of any client I've ever had.

A (very) pretty girl, Kathryn Fiore not only went along with my suggestion that we crop her from the chest to her high-heeled toes, she applauded it.

Of course, nothing was gratuitous: both the unusual cropping and the bold, process colors (CMY&K) were there to mirror her forthright manner with all her material, whether sexual or political.

Personally, I found her political views more startling than her salty language (I've been, um, known to use a swear or two in my day), but she wanted to draw attention to herself, and this flyer worked hard at doing that.

Lobster Alice

Sometimes an actor will be cast in a play or film that already has an image, but not one that really features the actor in question.

For this play about Salvador Dali's time with the Walt Disney studio, actress Dorie Barton wanted something that she could send to her mailing list that both piqued people's interest and featured her more prominently than the theater's graphic.

Bravely, she agreed to go with my idea to give her a crazy, Dali-esque moustache. And wisely, as it turned out: she got a tremendous response with the card, and with the kind of people she wanted to connect with: them what 'got' it.

The Blacks

Genet's classic play is as much of a startling spectacle today as it was on its American premiere back in 1961.

I went back to the old Chautauqua/spectacle type of showbills and updated it with my favorite color, deep orange, to get the point across.

Many times a client will be initially dismayed when they see what graphic wonders I've wrought on their behalf. We all want edgy work that looks just like that.

The problem is, if it looks just like that, by definition it isn't edgy. I always tell my clients that if they aren't a little bit surprised or even scared by what I give them, I haven't done my job (or they aren't letting me do it).

Either way, my advice to you is (a) find a designer you trust andthen (b) let him/her do what you hired him/her for.

Pentecost

David Edgar's play about art, upheaval and our common humanity is literally a cacophany in parts. Over two dozen characters speaking almost as many languages for just over three hours.

It's also a mystery, wherein an ancient fresco that may be the bridge between ancient and modern times, East and West, is uncovered throughout the course of the play.

This graphic was a collaborative effort on many levels. Various cast members wrote out the play's title (or a word close to it) in their native tongue. One of the cast members posed for the picture, which our scenic designer, the brilliant Jason Adams, snapped for us.

And the whole thing was developed under the watchful (yet encouraging) eye of Evidence Room Artistic Director Bart DeLorenzo. He, along with Ken Roht and Robert Guillory, are most responsible for my development as a graphic designer.

Route 99: Orange Star Dinner Show

The fourth installment of Ken Roht's wildly popular holiday extravaganzas, ORANGE STAR featured an honest-to-cowboy Western dinner theater show, complete with four-course meal.

If you have never had the good fortune to see a "99¢ Show," try to picture this: a cast of anywhere from 25 - 50 people decked out in Mardi Gras-worthy regalia crafted entirely from objects sold at the 99¢-only stores, performing original songs and dances in a full-blown, 75 minute, gonzo-fest musical, and you'll start to get the idea.

This show is by far the most fun to see, perform in and be involved with of any theatrical piece I've ever worked on—and I work on plenty.

And as I've mentioned elsewhere, Ken Roht, one of the premiere theatrical geniuses of our time, is largely responsible for my getting into design in the first place. So when Ken calls, I answer.

The Skin Of Our Teeth

Most people remember this play (or Thornton Wilder's other output) from high school productions. Let's face it: OUR TOWN may not be easy to do well, but the scenic requirements are on the light side.

This production took a very Wooster Group approach - more of a deconstruction of SKIN than anything else - that really got at the heart of the play and made it feel very fresh and immediate.

Artistic Director Bart DeLorenzo came up with the image of the milkman, and let me run with it. We were both pleased with the outcome, which did very well for us in creating interest in the production.