Blog Archives

The Gospel According to James: Indiana Repertory Theatre

3/26/2011

"In 1930, James Cameron and Mary Ball emerged as the sole survivors of racial crimes in Marion, Indiana. Teenagers when the crimes occurred, they look back on those events and their lives in this World Premiere work commissioned by the IRT. As their past and present lives intermingle, Cameron and Ball discover that their remembrances of that day differ even if their experiences were the same – challenging us all to wrestle with the tensions between memory, history and redemption."
-from IRTlive.com

This show was elegantly designed by Linda Buchanan and featured 10 textaline panels (painted with two overlapping stencils of trees to create this eerie and yet homey forest background) a blue woodgrained plank floor (which ombred out from center to black) and an ominous metallic doorway and furniture.

This show was a lot of fun to do. It had some elements that I really enjoy along with a few challenges (which are always exciting). Firstly, the tree stencils. How to make 2 different 8x25' stencils, how to hold together a design that doesn't overlap or connect, and where to store these massive things?
Our team pulled together coming up with inventive solutions for each.

We Made the stencils out of mylar (which by the way, gives you one nasty paper cut). Once the trees were cut out and only the negative space was left, we glued tulle to the back to keep all of the pieces togeather.

We cut each 25' stencil into three pieces and framed them on the sides with a piece of 1x1. The top and bottom were given an overlapping section and guidelines to insure lining up perfectly each time with the squared outside edge and the other stencils.

We also added metal loops to the ends of the wood handles so that the stencils could be out of the way when not in use, hang to dry and not take up much space. We lovingly called them the "bunny ears."