CAPTION CONTEST for Yuri's Night Painting

Yuri's Night Countdown: T-Minus 37 days

I think I need your help with a caption for the painting I am planning for Yuri's Night. Well, to be fair it is not really a "caption contest" per se...What I need is something snappy to be put on a sign in the painting. Here, check out the watercolor sketch first:

The Skeleton and the Visitors Watercolor Sketch
Watercolor on Paper 5"x7"

Okay, so the gist of the painting is that we are on a planet in the future, and that the robot in the smokey bear hat is showing some younger robots an ancient archaeological site with the skeletonized remains of an American astronaut, while the wreckage of his rocket looms in the background. So, the help I need from you is: what should go on the sign in the lower right? I have toyed with these answers, perhaps they will inspire you:

• Ancient Archaeological Site
• National Park, Mars
• 00101001010001
• Extinct Meat Based Life Form

I don't really have a prize to offer, its more of a cry for help...I look forward to your answers in the comments...

The other thing that has taken up most of this week has been the painting (and completion!) of the "Springtime for Hitler" drop. Unfortunately, I cannot show you the whole thing because the producers wont let me...but here is a small element to whet your whistle:

This weekend is the G40 Summit in Crystal City...you should really try to make it out to what can only be called a "mini artomatic" (I'll have four pieces hanging on the 8th floor)....the opening is this Saturday...Check out this Link for more info

I'll see you next week, where we will celebrate the "less than a month" Countdown to Yuri's Night...

44 Days left in the Yuri's Night Countdown...

T-Minus 44 Days Until Yuri's Night

We have had another breakneck week with Yuri's Night...but I wont bore you with details...I'll wait until March 10th for that (one month to go by then)...The only thing I will say is that you better get your tickets now because we are likely to sell out (plus you will save $ if you don't try to buy them at the door...) Click on the Yuri Logo above to get linked to the party website

High Fidelity has been open for a week, and the reviews are good! Check out DC Theatre Scene's review of High Fidelity or the fact that Metro Weekly Calls my set "...Incredibly Clever..." Scenery Appreciation Night is still set for this Saturday 2/27...but I think that the show might be sold out!

We completed the Producer's "Little Old Lady Land" drop this week...here are some tease shots from the completed drop (the producer said that I shouldn't post the finished product on my blog...so by giving you a peek I am being naughty)

Roosevelt smiles down on the old ladies...

...And it looks like Estelle McSherry is in for $50,000.00!

HIGH FIDELITY OPENS, YURI'S NIGHT and LITTLE OLD LADY LAND

Landless Theater Company opens their second show in the SEASON OF THE DAMNED, High Fidelity. If you are a frequent reader of BTT, you know that we like to present scenery appreciation nights for landless shows during the second week of the run...so, without further adieu, I would like to announce that:

Scenery Appreciation Night for High Fidelity will be on Saturday February 27th! (Type "Jared" in the vendini discount code box for your SAN discount!)

And, here is just a tease of the set design, for those of you who cant wait until next Saturday!
I guess its about time to institute the Countdown to Yuri's Night Clock again:

T-Minus 51 days until YURI'S NIGHT!

Tickets are now officially on sale at WWW.OUTOFTHISWORLDPARTY.COM

The other development this week was that I solidified the design for Producers "Little Old Lady Land" Drop:

Little Old Lady Land Drop Painters Elevation
Photoshop and Pencil

In fact we have started painting it already...we are painting over the "jukebox" from Bye Bye Birdie, which is causing some slight complications. The jukebox was a purple arch that went around the cut opening of the drop. Purple is a notorious color for bleeding through whatever you paint over it (and it is doing exactly that right now) so, my workaround is to make a "cheque rainbow"...The concept, for those of you who are not familiar with the show, is that Max Bialystock is sleeping with all of the little old ladies in NYC in order to get them to become investors in his show. So, naturally, the backdrop for the scene is of springtime in central park, except everything, much like the fabled tootsie roll disorder, looks like money!

Question of the week: should I post progress shots of the backdrops for the "Springtime for Hitler" scene, despite having large swastikas on them?

SNOWBOTIC APOCALYPSE!

Only historic snows could have stopped IT'S ELECTRIC! from happening...So, we have decided to take another swing at opening the show in early March. Details will be passed along as they come into the newsroom here at BTT HQ. (of course the snows couldn't stop Matt and Dana from getting married...congrats!)

But, it occurs to me that you haven't seen the other two paintings in the show yet...so, here they are (photographed poorly to incentivize you into coming to see them in the flesh)

The Birdman and the Magic Cow
Acrylic on Canvas, 24"x20"

The Genius and the Dandy
Acrylic on Canvas, 24"x20"

One of the good things to come out of the snowpocolypse is that KT and I made huge strides on Yuri's Night. We are planning to have the official announcement of all artists and performers (and some surprises...psst, don't tell anyone...moonbounce!) in the next two weeks! I guess I will start the official Yuri's Night countdown clock next week!

IT'S ELECTRIC! and REEFER SCENERY APPRECIATION NIGHT

I'm as excited as the jerk in the photo above that tonight is Scenery Appreciation Night for REEFER MADNESS! So, if you know what's good for ya, you'll come on down to tonight's closing weekend shows! You can get tickets at the door or from the Dominion Stage Website.

This weekend I will be gearing up to finalize the last two paintings I am creating for It's Electric. What's It's Electric, you ask? Here's the flyer:

Chris Griffin curates a Robo-Art Show featuring the works of local artists Michael Auger, Jared Davis, Todd Gardner and Steve Strawn. The opening reception is Saturday, February 6th from 7:00 - 11:00 PM. There will be 'botting poppers Gwo and Frequency and DJ Anne Dreud (yep, rhymes with Freud) will be spinning! Please come and boost your "arti"ificial intelligence!

The deets:
It's Electric! Opening Reception
Saturday, Feb. 6th 7:00 - 11:00 PM
The Electric Maid
268 Carroll St., N.W. (a short block from Takoma Metro)

I will give you loyal BTT readers a sneak preview of one of the three pieces in the show:

The Devil and the Broken Man
Acrylic on Canvas, 24"x20"

I don't know why blogger seems to make this image much darker than any other program does...so, you will just have to come see it with your naked eyes in order to get the full impact!

The build for High Fidelity has just started, and I have progress on a major piece of the scenery to share...Its a counter for the record store "Championship Vinyl" that figures prominently in the show.One of the good things about High Fidelity is that it is getting a lot of good buzz. We already have been getting previews from the likes of DCBroadwayWorld.com DC Broadway World previews High Fidelity

REEFER REVIEWED, HIGH FIDELITY AND PRODUCERS BEGIN

Its been a busy week, which has been made even more frantic due to the illness. I speak of the illness that gripped the cast and crew of Reefer Madness...which eventually caught up with yours truly (and currently running its course through KT!) and knocked him out for the better part of the three day weekend. But I'm all better now, and I have good reviews of Reefer to share with you. First you might check out this favorable review in the Gazette from Monday. But really, you should read the one in the Washington Post because it specifically mentions the scenery:

Jared Davis's scenic design makes economical use of the Lee Center (sic) stage with vertical flats festooned with comic book graphics and inventive, movable set pieces allowing rapid scene changes.

While it's not gushing, its an honor to be mentioned...even if they did get some of the facts wrong (its the Gunston Theater 1, not Lee Center...and I don't usually make my last name plural by adding a second "S" after the apostrophe...)

Anyhoo, you should start making your plans for next week's SCENERY APPRECIATION NIGHT for Reefer Madness on Friday January 29th. Get your tickets Here

We are leaps and bounds closer to announcing a venue for Yuri's Night...Fingers crossed!!! I will announce it as soon as we have confirmation (perhaps as early as Monday!)

The illness this week was not just me, KT and the cast of Reefer...it was also the Isuzu. I spent precious time getting the darn thing fixed (the headlights were not coming on at night and it was badly in need of new rotors) And the worst part about the whole thing is that they never really did anything to fix the lights...they started poking around and they magically started working!

I whipped up a logo for the upcoming Landless Show HIGH FIDELITY:

Yeah, its a bit cheesy and old school...but hey, so is the show! You can see the graphic in action on the Landless Website. I also made major headway on the set design for High Fidelity:It may not look like much right now, but trust me, this is going to be one rockin' show! I'll start building sometime next week, so you can expect more pictures soon.

The other leap forward this week was for Arlington Players production of Producers (which opens the week before Yuri's Night!) I started trying to unscramble the crazy set changes in that are called for in the script, and I began to make initial sketches...Here's a sketch of the office of Max Bialystok:

As you can see, this sketch represents only about a eighth of the show...in any other production this would be THE set...Anyway, expect way more of this show to pop up on BTT between now and April!

I almost forgot...this week the WATCH award nominations were announced and I was nominated TWICE! Overall The Arlington Players Follies was nominated for twelve WATCH awards:

Outstanding Set Design in a Musical: Jared Davis

Outstanding Set Painting in a Musical: Jared Davis

Outstanding Set Construction in a Musical: Bill Wisniewski

Outstanding Set Decoration and Set Dressing in a Musical:

Outstanding Costume Design in a Musical: Grant Kevin Lane

Outstanding Makeup Design in a Musical: Avery Burns

Outstanding Hair Design in a Musical: Bette Williams

Outstanding cameo in a musical: Kathleen McCormick as "Buddy's Blues Margie"

Outstanding Choreography: Christopher Dykton

Outstanding Music Direction: John-Michael d'Haviland

Outstanding Direction of a Musical: Christopher Dykton

Outstanding Musical: Follies - Arlington Players

REEFER MADNESS OPENS FRIDAY & More Epic Science Fiction Watercolors

In honor of Reefer Madness opening on Friday, I am going to announce Scenery Appreciation Night, three weeks ahead of Schedule. Friday the 29th of January will be Scenery Appreciation Night for Reefer Madness! I haven't completely ironed out the details on the SAN discount yet, but if you are interested in coming (and getting the discount) just drop me an email. If you are willing to pay full freight (which you tightwads should anyway!) You can go to the Dominion Stage Website for tickets.

When I wasn't engaged in the final push to get Reefer Madness on stage this week, I was plugging along on my Epic Science Fiction watercolor sketches. I completed three more this week, and I think I am nearing the end of the "watercolor sketch" phase of the process. So, perhaps one or two more, and then I will pick the best 4 to turn into full fledged paintings that will be exhibited in It's Electric on February 6th!

Genius and the Dandy
Watercolor on paper 10"x8"

When I made the Genius and the Dandy I stepped back and realized that I had unintentionally made something eerily similar to the "Androids" of Andrew Wodzianski...But, I must confess, it is my favorite so far...Its not going to be very much fun to paint, because it will require me to have lots of precision in order to keep the clean, late 60's British talk show look...(I also chuckle when I see the punch cards!)

Prophet of Doom and the Visitors
Watercolor on paper 10"x8"

This is perhaps the most heavy handed...or, really I should say its going a long way for a joke. But when I was presented with the Prophet of Doom and the Visitors, it was hard to find someone or something that was as "prophet of doomy" than Al Gore...I also get a kick out of robot dolphins (there is some spooky stuff out there if you google "robot dolphin", trust me)

Minotaur and the Old Man
Watercolor on paper 8"x10"

I was kinda stuck on this one for a while, and while I think that the resolution isn't perfect, its pretty close. I didn't want the "old man" to be a steampunk robot, because that seems too obvious...so, I started thinking about what would be "old" to a robot. Well, it wasn't too long before I started thinking of video games, and what game would fit a minotaur really well? Perhaps one with a maze? So, a 3-d Pacman world was a good fit. I have been trying to make these paintings about the environment that they are in just as much as the characters. So, a "Tron"-like setting was a good fit...The technical problem with this watercolor (remember these are just sketches!) is that there are a lot of straight lines in the electronic world. So, if I am to render this as a painting, I will probably need to find some mechanical way of reproducing the background.

The thought has crossed my mind to take these sketches out of the sketchbook and frame them individually for the show (instead of choosing 3-4 to make into paintings) What do you think? Should I choose 3-4 and paint them larger? Or should I spend the rest of the time I have making a bunch more watercolors?I have about 30 pairings of epic archetypes total, so far, so I could add quite a few more...but realistically, I could churn out about 3 more per week...getting about 8 or nine more...I'd be interested to hear your opinions on the matter in the comments or email...

EPIC SCIENCE FICTION WATERCOLORS!

Chris Griffin, (no, not the Family Guy character, you cretins) who is ever the busy bee, has seen fit to include me in a small group show at the Electric Maid in Takoma Park. Its going to be a robot-themed show called "It's Electric". I will have some paintings there hanging next to the work of Todd Gardner, and Steve Strawn. The opening will be on Saturday February 6th, 8-11pm.

Unfortunately, I don't have any robot paintings on hand (they sell like hotcakes, and the last ones I made went for stocking stuffers) but I have decided to take up the challenge to make more Robots! Its actually kinda fortunate, because I was already gearing up to make some Science Fiction paintings for Yuri's Night. You see, I came to the realization that Science Fiction is best when it is telling an epic story. Star Wars is a prime example. It is well known that George Lucas was highly influenced by Joseph Campbell's "Power of Myth" Books. The epic story, with its archetypal characters and universal themes is what made the backbone of Star Wars so strong. Not long ago, I decided that I wanted to incorporate this idea into my Science Fiction paintings. So, with this Robot show coming up, I began to implement the plan. First I decided on some of the archetypal characters (e.g. the hero, wise man, sea monster, etc) and then I started pairing them off in order to see what sort of pictures were inspired by the combinations...I did some quick sketches, and then started a watercolor sketch in my sketchbook as a study for what might become a final painting. The first of these pairings was The Birdman and the Magic Cow:

The Birdman and the Magic Cow Watercolor sketch
Watercolor on Paper, 10"x8"

Since I am working towards making paintings for the Robot show, I have been doing my best to make all of the roles robot-oriented. I don't know why this was the image I saw when I put these two characters together, but somehow a winged cereal eating robot on a craggy planet, getting his milk from a giant flying robot cow just seem right...

The Devil and the Broken Man Watercolor Sketch
Watercolor on Paper, 10"x8"

This paring seemed to me like an obvious one, because you can always link the Devil to temptation, and temptation is how most people become "broken". In epic terms the "broken man" is the private detective who is too drunk to take the case, but sobers up just in time to solve the crime...perhaps someone like Han Solo, who has lost (perhaps never had) his idealism...but in this interpretation, the robot in the sidecar is more like CP-3O in Empire Strikes Back, being toted around, literally in pieces, by Chewbacca. I allude to the sin/drunkenness by having the robot arm in the basket holding a liquor bottle, but that might be too heavy handed. The Devil as "trash picker" is appealing for the obvious reasons, but I particularly like the glee (and style) with which he is willing to facilitate the removal of the broken man...

We have been doing a full court press on the space search for Yuri's Night...we might wind up with a very swanky event this year...stay tuned...

This week has been crunch week for Reefer Madness. You can get all sorts of cool insights on the show from Dominion Stage's Reefer Madness blog. Be sure to check out the videos of work in the shop...there are some really cool time lapse videos of the scenery being painted. I'll announce when Scenery Appreciation Night will be next week!

Stocking Stuffers and Reefer Progress (good riddance 2009!)

Wow, its only been two weeks and yet it seems like much longer since I posted. Its kinda funny reading the last post because it feels so "pre-blizzard 2009"...Ah, those were more innocent times...

The snowpocolypse did not diminish the amount of work to be done, just the number of days that said work would be done in the scene shop. So, I was able to plow ahead on the preliminary designs for Producers...it is all in the very early stages right now, so there is not much to share, but at least we have weighed anchor and are sailing in a direction...

A few days before Christmas Haze called me and asked if I would make some "stocking stuffer sized" paintings for Trish. So, naturally, I obliged. He gave me carte blanche...so I hope that she likes Robots, monkeys and the occasional dinosaur.

Stocking stuffer paintings for Christmas 2009
0110010!, Fire Breathing Robot, Aviator Monkey
4"x5" each, Acrylic on Board

After Christmas I hosted Scenery Appreciation Nite for Carrie Potter and Christmas Twist. Thank you all for coming out. I know that many folks were away for the holidays, so hopefully there will be a few more attendees for High Fidelity in February...

KT's parents were in town for the better part of this past week...its always a good thing to see them around the holidays, and I think that they really like it here in DC

In an effort to make up for the shop being closed, we have started to hit the Reefer scenery hard this week. Tonight, we finished the "propaganda panels" that are the "legs" for the show...

Reefer Madness the Musical, "propaganda panels"

This show loads in a week from Friday, so I should have some decent photos for you next week (and perhaps a Scenery Appreciation Night date) so, Stay tuned!

All in all, I don't think I have the energy or brainpower left to analyse the past year...lets just say that I am extremely hopeful for 2010! Happy New Year!

Scenery Appreciation Night Announced!

I dont normally wait until Friday to do my weekly blog entry, and the fact that I am writing just a few hours away from the SNOWPOCALYPSE has given me a weird sense of impending doom...lets just hope that is not my final entry...

Its true, I've officially announced the Scenery Appreciation Night for both Carrie Potter and the New Moon Prom and Christmas Twist. I will be hosting a double feature (seeing both shows) on Saturday December 26th. So, please email me if you wish to attend (I will hook you up with a special "SAN" discount!)

I have some lovely pics from last weekend's Santarchy I'd like to share:

Yours truly, moments before the Santas stormed the Washington monument...

KT as Rude-olf

Apparently we need longer arms for shots like these...

Santa rocks a man-purse in front of the Department of energy...

Unfortunately, I was only able to finish one painting for the Dirty Show application on Tuesday. So, I sent Sweet Science through the interwebz to be exposed to a jury of sickos in Detroit...I hope that they find the dirtiness that I originally intended...

Sweet Science
Acrylic on board, 16" x 20"

lastly, I've been in discussions with some of the tilted torch folks about a show that they are putting on in late March called Illuminopolis...its going to be an all "lights, fire and glow-in-the-dark" themed show. They asked me to work on a backdrop for them...here are my initial thoughts in sketchbook form:

CARRIE POTTER and CHRISTMAS TWIST OPEN!

You are the type of kid that wanted to open his Christmas presents the second they appeared beneath the tree, aren't you? If you are one of those kids, then you are positively going to be tortured by the gift ArtbyJared is going to be giving you this year. Cant wait, you say? You wanna know right now? Okay, but it will spoil the surprise if I tell you...Okay then, here you go:

December 26th.

That's right, December 26th is going to be an extra special X-Mass-ey DOUBLE FEATURE heapin' helping of Scenery Appreciation Night! Landless has cooked up two lovin' spoonfuls of Holiday goodness, Christmas Twist and Carrie Potter at the New Moon Prom...and I am hosting almost FOUR HOURS of wall to wall Christmas frakin' cheer! So, get your tickets here before they sell out!

I like how the 26 is right below "Naughty"...

Dont take my word for it, check out Christmas twist in the Express!

What can you expect to see when you come to Scenery Appreciation Nite? Well, you've seen the design for Carrie Potter...but I don't want to give too much away about Twist, so I will only share with you the design for the backdrop:

"London" Backdrop for Christmas Twist
12'x12' Painted Muslin

I wanted this backdrop to double as part of Carrie Potter (you know, that part of town in the potter universe that is in that magic alley?...) but they get to Hogwarts pretty fast in the script, so it will just have to serve as a Dickensian backdrop of olde London Towne....and no, you cretins, that is not the US capitol building...its St. Paul's...you know, Christopher Wren...but it is good to know that could double for a particularly quaint part of Southwest DC in a pinch...

Slowly but surely progress is being made on Reefer Madness...This week has been largely about creating the "anti-marijuana propaganda poster" style flats. Here are some examples of the designs thus far:

DS Right Color Sketch US right Color Sketch

These babys are 14' high and 4' wide...so hopefully they will make the right statement...

And Finally, I have a progress report on the Dirty Show entries. I started to work in earnest on the Sweet Science painting...Its translating relatively directly, but I have been trying to concentrate on making it sorta "ashcan school" because of the boxing theme (and, for that matter, the horror theme of a re-animated "bride of Frankenstein" zombie) So, what you see here is a "knocked back" version...i.e. I painted the whole thing and then did a transparent burnt umber glaze to make everything darker and unify the whole painting...so this should be the darkest it will ever be...all that's left is doing all of the highlights!

Progress on "Sweet Science"
16"x20" Acrylic on Pannel

One of the joys of being in a time crunch is that I seem to make some of my best work when I am procrastinating (or watching paint dry). While I was waiting for the first coats of paint to dry on Sweet Science, I knocked out this little guy with the leftover paint in my palette. I kinda like him, and is certainly a good start for another (non Dirty Show) daredevil monkey painting...

Rocket Monkey
10"x8" Acrylic on pannel

Dirty Show? I'm not Dirty, am I?

I've decided that, yes, indeed I am dirty. Well, dirty enough to submit some new work the the Detroit Dirty Show. So, I spent the turkey day weekend musing about what sort of work I would enter into a Dirty Show. As you may have surmised from the shows title, its intended to be a bit blue...but my work has never really been that, sexual, per se...and I imagine that the sort of thing that would get into the dirty show is really dirty. So I will have some competition with some real sickos out there...

I thought it over and decided that it would be best if I continued on with the Daredevil Monkeys theme, this time putting the little brutes into dangerous situations involving women. What sort of situation would a daredevil monkey be in? Well, of course Fearless (the monkey with the Stars and Stripes helmet) should be demonstrating that he is indeed fearless in the face of danger. He needs to wrestle women. Preferably naked women. and for good measure, lets make them reanimated zombie type women. Check out the resulting watercolor from my sketchbook below:

Watercolor sketch for Detroit Dirty Show submission #1
(Working Title: The Sweet Science)
Watercolor on paper, 4"x6"

I know, its kinda bizarre...but it feels kinda right too...I am not entirely happy with the composition so far, so I made a few tweaks in photoshop that should carry over to the final painting:
After Compositional tweaking...I made Fearless smaller in relation to the woman to make her more menacing...and I also put them toe to toe, so that he looks like he is looking at her more...

I made another sketch that is less realized than the previous one, but I think it will be a funnier painting in the end. I thought that the next contender on the fight card could be a truly zaftig beauty...How is Fearless going to get out of this one?

Watercolor sketch for Detroit Dirty Show submission #2
(working title: hide the monkey)
Watercolor on paper, 4"x6"

I would be able to show you more progress on these if it were not for the fact that I have spent the last few days finishing the Carrie Potter and Christmas Twist scenery! So, I will have photos for you next week, as well as the schedule for the next "Scenery Appreciation Night"!

November is the slowest month....

November is always the slowest month for me. It's right after the Halloween party, and everything just seems to creep along. I guess its because people are anticipating the hectic pace of December that makes things seem to be on the slow creep. Personally, I cant seem to do half of what I want, even though I have twice the time to do it in!

I've started the designs for Carrie Potter at the New Moon Prom, and A Christmas Twist (the two holiday offerings from Landless Theater Co.) but I only have the design for Carrie Potter on hand (remember that whole half the stuff in twice the time thing?)

Carrie Potter At The New Moon Prom set design
Pencil and Photoshop

Since the Halloween party I have needed something to obsess over, so I have decided that its never too early to start working on YURI"S NIGHT!!! So, I have started working on some graphics for our preemptive "save the date" campaign.

This one is my favorite, because it is, well, AWESOME! But KT says that it's too busy...

So, we are working on a simpler and more sloganey sorta thing:
DC's Other Space Party...whaddyathink? I don't want to appear to be in competition with Goddard, but lets face it, they have a monopoly on all of the real space stuff in the area! We have to let people know that we are different and have something else (other than hardcore science) to offer...I call this one the "vomit comet" version...I like it because it feels like the type of good time you would have in the zero G test flight...not that we are offering any zero G test flights at the party (like some other Yuri's Nights) but it just looks like a good time to me!

What do you guys think of the new slogan? I would love to hear any suggestions...

Halloween Aftermath, and REEFER MADNESS white model

I would say that I am mostly recovered from the Halloween party. Its been a week and a half, and the house is 90% back to normal...Most of you are Facebook friends with me, (if you aren't, then what are you waiting for?) so you have probably seen most of the party photos there. But in case you haven't seen them, I have re-posted some of them here:

Photo taken from the upstairs porch of the Kraken at the end of the night...

Fishing for Booty...

When the cops showed up...SYKE! its just our neighbor (who is really a cop...)

Audrey shows her assets to the angler fish...

The Deep Sea Diver and Vampirate are unafraid of the scary clowns!
(okay, perhaps just a little)

So, once and for all, THANK YOU to all those who attended. It was a really great party, and I cant wait to do it all again next year!

Since there is no rest for the wicked, the strike for Evil Dead was scheduled for the day after the Spooktacular...It was rough (Mad props go out to Pete the Spyder!) but we survived...to commemorate the strike, here's a picture of the deadites being sucked back into the hell from whence they came:

Photo Credit: Amanda Williams

Also, since I didn't blog last week, I can report that Hope Operas is now in the history books! It was a really great series for lots of great causes, and it seems that it had some big fans...like, Fred Schneider of the B-52's...

I have also made significant progress on the design for Reefer Madness the Musical. This show's design process has been more about model making than drawing so far, so what I have to show you are a couple of shots of the white model in its very early stages:

Reefer Madness White Model
Paper, Foamcore, Mixed Media 1/4"=1'

The base set for the show consists of luan borders that are painted like 1930's anti-marijuana propaganda. There is a projection screen above the band USR that is masked out to look like its the smoke from the giant doobie on SR. (the band is roughly represented in purple) The rest of the set pieces will roll on and off from the wings. One element I am particularly excited about is the giant Tiki/Hooka that will be used for the orgy scene:

Orgy scene set piece, Tiki/Hooka.

The full cast is on during this scene, so I have added six hoses for them to dance with. The tiki will have smoke coming out of his nose and mouth, a silk flamepot on top and with have an articulated mouth so he can sing the chorus.

I should have the design finalized right after Thanksgiving, so stay tuned!