Ending of our production of Lysistrata at Mountain View College.

My set is almost finished. Tomorrow will be my last day to work on set.  Had a great time on this one. 

My friend and mentor, Clare Floyd Devries, has a lovely article about her.

By Lauren Smart
Dallas Observer

Over her oven, Clare Floyd DeVries affixed a "Mrs. Lovett's Pie Shop" sign. She's a far cry from the cannibal baker in Sweeney Todd, it's just a souvenir from one of the many sets she's designed.

"I do actually make meat pies," she laughs. "Probably not the same kind though."

DeVries is one of Dallas' award-winning designers, who's earned a reputation for the detailed, elaborate sets she's created for nearly every theater in town. She's currently an artistic company member at Kitchen Dog Theater, where you can see her most recent design work in Gidion's Knot, a new play by Johanna Adams opening Thursday April 3, about the school system and freedom of expression.

"For Gidion's Knot, we wanted to achieve uber realism," she says. "So the set is a replica of a classroom, but everything is purposeful, so paying attention to the details will pay off in this one."

A professional architect, DeVries hadn't given the show's design a second thought until she and her husband were attending a community theater production and she began to nitpick the set. "Of all the things that were wrong with the show, the set was the worst," she says. "So I thought, I could do this."

Yesterday I painted my Lysistrata set and then had a production meeting with our master projectionist.  Today I painted the set for several hours.  My friend came up to help me marbleize some platforms, took a little tour of the space (crawled 30 feet above the stage and 10 feet below the stage).  Later on tonight I drove to another theatre and had a production meeting for a show opening at the end of July.  In the next few week I will have another production meeting for another show opening at the beginning of August. 

This set is starting to take shape.  Tomorrow I have to wash (paint with water) tons-o-yards of muslin (50 yards). 

I woke up today with this in my inbox today!

"You have one of the top sites on Pinterest!"

More pictures on my set being built for Lysistrata. 

What have I been doing lately since my last post?  Painting my current show, Lysistrata.  The scenery is big and 90% of it is entirely custom.  My build crew is amazing, couldn't be happier.  The red drop below is made of muslin and painted to look like a curtain.  Click a picture below to enlarge.