Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2011 - 22

Steve Wing, Matt Gibbons, and Ryan Luwe hang
lighting equipment.

William Bloodgood checks on the
assembly of the exhibit he designed.

While most of the equipment was in
place for the January meeting, the
full tech of the exhibit would have
to wait until Prague, when all the
sound, video, and projections would
be completely finished.

attention and time as the cheesecloth can be harder to attach than newspaper. Again, the walls were placed on sawhorses and gallons of donated
scrap paint were used to glue the cheesecloth onto the bricks and into the
mortar lines. As soon as a wall was covered, but before the paint was dry,
sawdust was spread lightly over the surface where another coat of paint
was added to secure the shavings to the bricks. The final effect was one
where the newspaper served to soften the edges and mimicked years of
buildup as a surface treatment, while the sawdust and cheesecloth created
a rougher quality that created a visual as well as a tactile façade.
By Thanksgiving, and in the midst of a snowstorm that dropped our
chill factor to minus 30° and left us with a foot of snow, the walls were all
textured and the exterior paint treatment started with a three color grey
blend for the mortar lines, graduating from dark to light up the structure. The bricks were also a three-color blend, but were scumbled onto
each individual brick. It was the next step, aging of the structure, where
20

theatre design

& technology

2011

Video projectors are focused on one wall.

the scenic artists really starting having fun. The exterior needed to show
all the signs of age and deterioration that can occur on brick walls in a
crowded city over their lifetime. Our artists began with three different aging glazes over the entire surface, concentrating from the top down and
creating effective moisture damage, drips and grime. A moldy green glaze
was applied at the bottom of every wall which showed the age and deterioration from groundwater, roads, sidewalks, animals, and whatever
else might have wandered by our building. Off-white glazes were added
to parts of the building next, mimicking the efflorescence that occurs on
masonry structures. Finally, the step our artists were truly looking forward
to, was to add graffiti to the building. The designer had provided great images, research, and ideas for the graffiti, and Johanna Josephian and Alessia Carpoca began cartooning out all the art, including the iconic Shepard
Fairey painting of President Obama. Once the shapes were cartooned, air
sprayers were used to apply the latex paint, and after a week of "tagging,"
we had an aged, textured, realistic warehouse sitting in our shop. While
we are all happy with the final look of the painted surface, the real reward
came during the PQ. Visitors were constantly touching and inspecting the
bricks, as if they had to try and confirm whether or not it was real, then
taking photographs of many details. But the most photographed object
at the entire PQ, (in my estimation), was the Shepard Fairey painting.
It seemed as if everyone wanted to photograph that wall, either waiting
patiently for the aisle to empty so they had a clear shot, or posing their
entire group in front of it.
The structure was completed by finals, and in mid-January, in a
very snowy winter, eighteen individuals flew to Missoula to begin the

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2011