I regret to report that I am leaving the Indiana Repertory Theatre, which I have come to call home.  I will miss all of my dear friends and co-workers and know that they will continue to passionately create and bring the stage to life.  The IRT will always be one of my favorite places to ever have worked, and deserves to be counted among the best in the country.  Every single person who works in that building puts their soul and energy into their part of the process.  They are a well led, well maintained and well run machine.  They are a team in the way so many companies try so hard to be.  I had so much fun and was given so many opportunities to create and grow.  What a fulfilling experience!  I learned such a great deal, especially from Claire, and I can honestly and wholeheartedly say that I am a better painter and person for my time spent there.   I wish each and every one  all the best, and I hope that our paths will cross again. 

I have accepted a position at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as a Scenic Artist, and while it pains me to say goodbye to my friends at the IRT, I look hopefully to the West, and proceed to pack up the covered wagon.  

After so much hard work, we have all been super excited to see Dracula open.  As we all know, light really makes a set come alive!

Below is a shot of the Lucy suite:  

The puppet as it rises in front of the full moon, complete with glowing red eyes.  

The puppet unfurls! 

And here comes a batwing!  

Lucy's Tomb!

And here is the coffin complete with painted crest washed up on the rocks.  

Below are some additional shots.  Click to enlarge.  All of these and the above photos are courtesy of Julie Curry Photography. 

Of course, I HAD to make opening night cupcakes! 

Inspired by Dracula, I made these uber-cool vampire bitten cupcakes.  

They were filled with strawberry filling - so they bled when a person bit into them!

Made from scratch!  

I even made a gluten free batch, which I liked even better than the traditional recipe.  

Delicious!  Just ask Leah Busse!

The IRT has a really cool policy of allowing the audience to come up on stage after the opening night performance to take an up-close look at the set.  Staff members from each department hang out and wear their name badges so they can answer any questions.  

Master Carpenter Betty Rupp answers questions about the finale trick coffin.   We should have started charging people to get their picture taken in it! 

People love it, and so do we~!

People were even allowed backstage so they could see and touch all the other cool props and set pieces.

This is opening week, and all the departments are putting together their finishing details.   The picture on the left is of me electro-pouncing the emblems for Dracula's coffins.  

But, the major accomplishment from over the weekend is the completion of the big rock piles that Dracula's coffin washes up on at the end of the show.  


Below you'll see some process shots of the coating of the rocks.  We used a glue and old black scrim in place of cheesecloth.  

We were all glad to be done with foam.  

Especially Jim!

Here is one of the finished rock piles.  

The scrim glue is icky and hugs are a real threat!

Here are the rocks under light and with the coffin in place.

Here I am painting in the crests on the coffin lids, making them look old and worn. 

Below are the finished crests.  The one on the left is on a real cedar coffin lid, and the one on the right is on the fake wood coffin I painted.  

Jennifer Owen, Properties Master works on some of the special effects for Dracula's death. Including blood on the knife for the beheading of Dracula, and the puff of smoke as they drive the stake through his heart, leaving only ashes. 

Plugging away at tech rehearsal! 

 

Sunday was going to be Jim's birthday, and since we had to  work on Saturday, I thought it would be nice to bake a little something.  Jim LOVES cheeseburgers, and everybody loves cupcakes.  So, inspired by the book "Hello Cupcake," I decided to make a cheeseburger cupcake.

The cupcake itself was the bun, iced and sprinkled.  I dyed coconut shavings for the lettuce, cut up banana Laffy Taffy for the cheese, and the patties were Thin Mints!

I was a little worried about the combination of flavors, but I think he liked them!

If I were to make them again, I would try to find flavors that worked better together.  Although finding candy that looks like cheese is extremely difficult.  Maybe I would work with it, make the patty a plain chocolate  cookie so the whole thing would have a "chocolate-covered banana" feel.  
I would also use a garnished toothpick to hold the whole thing together.

Cupcakes have become insanely popular in the last few years, and I, for one, am glad of it!  

It's crazy what people have come up with!

I ended up finding several other recipes for hamburger cupcakes once I started doing some research.  But, all in all, mine didn't turn out that bad.  You live, you learn and then you use the internet.  

I have been painting so many coffins as of late, I've been joking that I should start a custom coffin painting business. 

I thought I'd call it Faux Ever-  "It's not forever- It's Faux Ever!" 
You buy the cheap coffin of your choice, and I'll paint it to look like whatever you desire!  
Marble?
Mahogany?
Even a landscape if you're a nature lover.

Inspired by this funny idea, I did a little research on the subject and found some hilarious, and ridiculous results: 

A company called "Creative Coffins" will print pretty much anything onto cartonboard and fold it into a box for you. 

And I do mean 
ANYTHING. 

They do have a "natural" section where they show marbles granites  and woods, even wicker and gold!  But that was the least surprising of all the designs.  You can get a leopard print coffin, a Doctor Who themed coffin, Countrys' Flags, even a Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band themed coffin.  But this is one of my favorites that this company offers:

There were fancy, well-crafted wooden pieces. 

There are companies that make custom coffins in the tradition of Ghana, making one's final resting place a tribute to the person's life and passions. 


Even if that passion is airstream trailers.  

And then, of course, there is "Crazy Coffins" ...

Then there are the people who make furniture and other things out of "recycled" coffins (whatever that means).  

To the right is (yes, it IS what it looks like) a stripper pole and catwalk made from a coffin which can be purchased for 2995.00 USD. 
Or, you can purchase the "do-it-yourself" plans for $59.95 if you want to put a personal touch on it.  

Here are some other wild and crazy and sometimes pretty sleek looking coffins I found in my search.  
Also included is a list of links to additional interesting sites.
 
It's a crazy world we live (and die) in!

This week, I have been painting three more coffins for our production of Dracula.  These coffins are all supposed to look exactly the same, so the audience can recognize it as "Dracula's Coffin" though each is used for a different effect throughout the show.  

There is the regular coffin, a box that just sits on the ground, the coffin that looks like it has washed up on the rocks, and a trick coffin.  The third is a coffin that sits upright.  The lid swings to the side and Dracula's clawed hand reaches out.  

The first two were built out of planks of cedar.  I came up with a faux stain and some washes to help these look like the research:

The third coffin however, was built out of sheets of luan.  It needed to be textured and painted somehow to look like the above stained wood. 

Starting as a plain grey box, I grained it into planks using a texture of the famous scenic recipe, and flocked it with sawdust.  

After the box looked like wood, I then treated it as I had treated the cedar: using the faux-stain and the washes.  

Here is the end result:

On the right is the lid from one of the actual cedar coffins, and on the left is the painted and textured box.  

Shop Foreman, Leah Busse takes the peek-a-boo coffin for a test drive. 

Scary stuff. 













Below are some detail shots.  Click to enlarge.

Meanwhile, Jim has been carving up giant piles of rocks for Dracula's coffin to wash up upon.  

Here Jim displays the rough mock-up of one side of the rocks.  The coffin is there in the center.

Here is Jim softening out the edges into the rock's final form.

Tech time!