THE WIDOW 2018

Client: Garland Civic Theater

Date: January 2018

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Art Direction, Set Design, Painting, Sculpture

Catherine, a beautiful young model, is offered a photographic assignment in a remote Victorian mansion in Wales. The house is owned by an American woman, whose son has arrived from New York to spend his last few weeks of life in his ancestors' crumbling family seat. Ghosts, unexpected love connections, insane in-laws, unplanned pregnancy, and ritual sacrifice, this play has a lot going on.

 I planned the set in a muted color pallet with accents of acid green to play up the horror aspect. The house in which the play was set was supposed to look decrepit and nearly abandoned. I painted each of the spooky portraits, and added a few dusty still-lifes and a bunch of empty frames to play up the creep factor.

 The director wanted a series of ghost tricks to happen during the play and the doorway with the arch had a fake wall behind it with a two-way mirror and lights to cast the ethereal image of a dead woman during the first act.

I wanted the set to have a bunch of different levels to it to better separate out rooms and represent the mansion they were supposed to be in. It worked well with the strange stage shape and limitations of the theater.