Set Design - Black Stuff

 

Presented at the Kitchen Theatre Company as part of their Kitchen Counter Culture series. Ran for an extra slot of time than the normal KCC programs.


Fall 2005, Directed by Jesse Bush


Set Design by Rose A C Howard, Lighting Design by Soloman Weisbard


This was a fun piece, presented by Alexander Thomas and LeVan D. Hawkins. It is a two man show, co-written by the two of them, and has travelled the country. I did a very simple set design, on a budget, and only ended up using the back wall because it was a show in rep with a childrens show. In my original design, the side walls and the wall behind the audience was to have been painted with people in contour white lines.


All of the figures were based on a series of characters mentioned in the show. There was the 'Brother who just don't give a f**k', and the 'Uncle Tom', also memorably, 'The Supreme Being The Rapper'. There were many such stereotype characters permeating the script, much as they permeate the media. I chose to represent them physically, and they are all cardboard cutouts, a bit larger than life-size. They have a 'graffitti' feel to them, a rough quality. The show is a light comedy however, so they are colorful, and though one has a gun, none of them are particularly scary.


The jail door center opened out to form a white projection screen, where videos that the two had had made were projected onto.