Behind the Scenes: Week 1

We are feverishly working on our next production, SPIKE HEELS by Theresa Rebeck, and would like to bring you behind the scenes of what it takes for a new non-profit to mount a full scale theatrical production. If you continue to follow our blog, you’ll see posts from our designers, actors and production staff detailing what they’re working on, and their process from first seeing the script to opening the show on March 5^th.

Below you’ll see the first post of the many to come; a note from our director, describing to our graphic designer what the promotional artwork should express. This process is much trickier than one would imagine. Designing artwork that fully represents a play that the designers and actors haven’t developed yet is a challenging task. The director must rely on his or her understanding of the core themes of the play in order to work with the designer and achieve an image that describes the story in one glance.

We hope you’ll enjoy the posts to come. See you all soon!

Amber Fonseca

Marketing Director

“The play takes place in Boston and in the present day. When it was first produced, it was the 90’s when sexual harassment was a major subject in the news. I still think that harassment is important today, but I think what  may be more relevant at this ‘present’ time, would be the power struggle between men and women, sex as power, exploitation and objectification of women and manipulation of men through sex. I think in the current state of our society, sex plays a major part in the way people view the world, their relationships, and themselves. In a lot of ways it plays a role in the development of one’s identity.

 The tone of the play is comedic in nature; they use language to cut each other to the core. Moments of honesty and hurt are expressed in silence. My major objective in this production is to make it feel very current through music, lighting, and performance. The flavor of the play has a touch of edginess, raw nerve, high intellect, and pure human emotion.

 The play is really about the age-old struggle between men and women and in this case, it is the struggle between a woman and the two men who desire her. A lot of the story is a take on George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” which is the tale of two men who take bets on whether they can class up a poor cockney girl into high society by teaching her etiquette and how to speak correctly. This is an underlying theme in this play that holds true.

 The artwork will play a major part in ‘luring’ in very sophisticated audiences. The artwork has to be sexy, a little dangerous, but sophisticated in it’s presentation so it appears calculating rather than cheap. I have included several images in which I’ve categorized by imagery, fonts, and texture. I will make notations by each image in why I chose them.

 A launching point in regards to the imagery that plays to me is the use of female images and a use of ‘transparency’ or doubling of images to kind of express the ‘duality’ of men and women.  We originally thought about using photography of the cast, but I think it would be more powerful to use artwork and graphics to express that. I also feel like if we do use imagery of a woman, the composition of her body and structure can be a powerful notion. If she faces away from us it says a lot about her state. I also believe that the female body cut off in any form can reflect the objectification that exists in the play.

 In regards to texture, leaning towards a raw quality of material will keep it aesthetically appealing. On the flip side, keeping it really clean in regards to negative space and color can really emphasize the design. I think font is also an important part of the design. I like bold titles and also love the use of transparency. I have played with the idea of using an actual ‘spike heel’ shoe as the letter ‘L’ in the word ‘heels.’ It may or may not work.

 I think a ‘slug line’ can be an effective way of giving a viewer a taste of the tone of the play. We can play with this as we go along, but for now I think the company liked, “So you want to do it, or not?” This line from the play has a luring quality and has no apologies about what the play is about.

 Thanks in advance for all that you will put into this process.

 Cheers,
Ian”

IMAGERY

I like how the man faces away. He also has a shaded quality in his posturing. I think the swastika is effective in contrasting in color and giving an overall sense of what the film might be about.

I think this image is very effective in objectifying her. You can’t see her face, but she gives sexual energy in her gesture. The colors also give a translatable mood to it.  There is a luring element that is working.

I think this is a very simple approach, yet the partial face again gives some indicators. I think using just partial parts of a woman’s presence helps enhance the tone of the play.

I like the composition of this poster. The negative space helps you focus on content. The line down the middle and the break in the font at the bottom of “Brothers” is effective. I like how the positioning and placement of the actors gives you all the information you need to understand the relationships between them. This is an important element in our play. The ‘slug line’ on this poster is:  There are two sides to every family.

Here is a poster for a play in St. Louis. I thought it was very simplistic and the positioning of the titles is great. It tells everything in negative space and in color. I really feel like they nailed the schemes in this. Even the word ‘Sinker’ is appropriately cut off. Well thought out artwork.

FONTS

 I like the boldness of these titles. Not really into the font choice, but I like the idea that they have the titles right over her face. No regard for her in regards to the scheme.

TEXTURES

I just liked the raw quality of this background. May not play into our scheme, but if we did go with a textured look, this is nice.

I love the photo like quality of this and the alternative color and design of it. There is a bold attitude involved.

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