I'm pretty durn excited about this new opportunity! This July, I will collaborate with artist Val Cox to create the backdrop for the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble's second week of summer residency at the Southside's City Theatre. You can find out more about the July 13 and 14 performances by clicking here.
Below is a quick maquette the I made to begin to feel the space. The stage set will consist of (4) 20 foot by 42" and (4) 20 foot by 21" suspended panels. Not depicted below is the sculptural element designed by Val Cox that will weave its way amidst these panels to the floor. That's for a future post :)
I came up with a simple abstract design that signified the stages of emotional and spiritual development and the transitions between them that occur over the course of the human life span. The vibrant color blocks that ascend from the base of each panel represent our physical earthly nature (greens), our passionate emotional nature (reds) and our spiritual transcendence (blue violets).
I am excited to be working with master lighting designer Andrew Ostrowski, who will bring these panels to life throughout the performance, allowing them to change in response to the performance debuts of musical compositions by composers D.J. Sparr and Ivette Sperryman
Getting an idea of the transparency of the panels and the impact of back lighting. The mini prototype shows me that I'm going to need to make the transitions between each color striation very clean and solid!! I will also need to pay attention to brush strokes on the color blocks. This lead me to create a stylized mark to represent each color/development stage.