David P. Gordon

David P. Gordon

Check out the link above to hear my latest creative endeavor.

I am the host of the Represented Podcast Network's newest segment OUT OF SIGHT.

On my show, I interview the artists, designers and stage managers who make Philadelphia theatre come to life. It's a behind the scenes peak into the minds of those who create amazing theater but who never receive a round of applause for their work. Those folks who remain "out of sight" in the wings either imagining the world of the play or running it once the show opens. I will feature all types of professionals working in the field and look forward to picking their brains. If you want to be interviewed, just email me at christopherhaig@yahoo.com

My first segment is with the amazingly talented and prolific scenic designer, David P. Gordon. It was an absolute treat to have a sit down with David and hear about his process and experiences. Enjoy!

Next up will be local lighting designer, Andrew Cowles. If you haven't worked with Andrew yet, you will. He is a busy busy man.

The Credeaux Canvas

It's been a long time since I've blogged...must have been busy.

With Jesus Christ Superstar wrapped, I focused on my next prop job, Theatre Horizon's THE CREDEAUX CANVAS by Keith Bunin.  http://www.theatrehorizon.org/

What a fun show to prop. Right up my alley. The play takes place in an East Village artist's studio.  Winston, played by Andrew Kane, is a painter working on his thesis and navigating the manic-depression of his roommate Jamie, played by Chris Bresky.  Jamie's girlfriend, Amelia, played by Clare O'Malley, serves as the wedge between the two men. In a small but pivotal role, Susan Giddings rounds out the stellar cast as Tess, an art collector and socialite misled by Jamie into the possible purchase of a Credeaux "original" actually plagerized by Winston.  It's an intense show that blends artistic philosophic rhetoric and complicated sexual relationships quite well. Director Matt Decker nailed this one, as usual, and gathered an amazing team of designers and crew to create an intoxicating theatrical experience.

The joy I had as the Prop Designer on this show was creating the world of Winston's art studio.    Set Designer, Maura Roche, created a claustrophobic world of grimy, paint splattered and dirty brick walls, covered in sketches, paintings, canvases and pictures torn from art books.  Below is the scale model designed and constructed by Maura:

As you can see the place is a bit of a mess.  Creating a "mess" can be a real challenge as a designer.  As the Prop Designer, one of my favorite jobs is set dressing.  The script calls for all manner of art supplies, materials and artwork.  Maura and I went through countless art books and magazines to find the right pictures that Winston hangs on his wall.  I was able to procure all of the art supplies, materials, paintings and sketches through the generous donations of several local artists and the Greater Norristown Art League, who are also presenting an exhibition of their members' works in the lobby of the theater during the run of the show.  http://www.gnal.org/

One of the challenges of this "mess" was maintaining actor safety.  There are two fight sequences and the area of these had to be strategically clear while not appearing clean.  Another, and perhaps greater challenge, was the easels used in the show.  We have two: one which Winston paints on (seen in the model above) and the other a display easel that is brought on with the infamous Credeaux canvas.  Finding the easels was hard enough, but being able to clear sightlines was the real challenge.  To allow actors to be seen while viewing a canvas on the display easel downstage, I had to cut the legs down (we went inch by inch until we found the right height - only took about 7 tries).

Finally, the bane of most prop designers' job - consumbables.  This production calls for edible muffins and a ton of beverages - coffee, vodka, orange juice, Maker's Mark... To defray costs, we received a generous donation from Wegmans.  After a day of shopping, I brought over 30 muffins, 4 gallons of apple juice, 2 gallons of orange juice and enough food dye to make "coffee" to the theater.  And that was just the first food run...

If you are able to catch this one, it is well worth the trip to Norristown.  The show runs through April 30th!

Below are some pictures of the finished design and set dressing in more detail:

 

MMM...Brains

As promised, here is the second installment on my prop work for Plays & Players' production of A NEW BRAIN by William Finn.  Last week I discussed the food I created for the show.  This week, it's all about a brain.  Gordon's Brain specifically.

Director Daniel Student explained his vision to me at our first meeting and I was both inspired and challenged at the same time.  Basically, we needed a head that would house a brain that would have pieces of paper inside of it which represented all of Gordon's songs waiting to be written. After some brainstorming (haha), I presented him with a design and the pictures can tell the rest of the story.  It was a lot of fun to make and I'm happy to say Gordon's Brain remains one of my favorite props to date.

 Gordon's head was made from a styrofoam wig

  form that I split in half and shelled out to hold Gordon's Brain.  

Above, the raw brain before cooking and then after it had hardened and was painted with a red base coat. 

 

The holes in the picture to the left housed the rolled up pieces of sheet music that Gordon handed out to the other characters as seen in the photo at the bottom.   





  It came onstage as part of a full body replica of Gordon being wheeled in on a gurney so I tried to make the head form look as much like Brendan Norton as possible.

Magnets were added to avoid the head opening accidentally and a twine hinge was placed on the back of the head to keep it as one unit once it was opened. 

Here we see The Doctor (Joe Sabotino) explaining to The Mother (Susan Johnson) how a shunt was going to be used to drain fluid from Gordon's brain. 

Gordon pulls the songs literally from his brain.

Brain Food

Recently, I had the fortune to be asked to come aboard the creative team mounting William Finn's musical, A New Brain at Plays and Players in Philadelphia. The production was directed by Daniel Student, set designed by Andrew Thompson and I had help on props from Jacob Riley. Daniel is a director with a wild imagination and his vision for this production was bold. The props were a definite challenge as the musical mostly takes place in a hospital where a semi-lucid composer attempts to write his greatest songs before dying from a brain disease. It's actually a lot funnier and uplifting than it sounds. There were the usual medical props required: IV stands, x-rays, gurneys and medical charts. All of which were hard to come by, but there were also some specialty items that needed to be created, which gave me the chance to flex my creative muscles. I'll talk about the brains in another post. Today: FOOD.

Three items of food appeared onstage - baked ziti, a goat cheese salad (no cheese) and scallopini (oh - and a diet coke). Since the food was rushed around on a tray by a frenetic waitress during a fast-paced musical number and seen onstage for less than five minutes, Andrew Beal, like all good Production Managers, requested we avoid real food to cut down on costs and save pre-show food prep time. I was happy to oblige and created the items out of simple materials pulled from around my studio and the theater; a bit of foam from here, some fabric from over there, a bit of sculpting and painting and done.

Baked Ziti - To create the baked ziti, I carved a piece of foam to shape, painted and sprayed with a glaze finish to give it that moist look. The green garnish is a piece of dried latex paint found in the shop stuck on top. The whole piece is glued to the plate for ease of movement.

 

Goat Cheese Salad - To create the goat cheese salad, I cut up random pieces of green fabric found around the studio and hot glued them to the bowl. The croutons are simple pieces of the same foam I used on the ziti.

   

 Scallopini - To create the scallopini, I cut out a thin layer of cardboard and glued a few smaller strips of cardboard to the top. Then I wrapped the whole thing in masking tape and painted to look like cooked veal. The garnish consisted of round balls of foam painted green and glued to the top to serve as capors and the whole thing is drizzled with a thin line of orange acrylic paint. Mmmmm... During the previews, Daniel said he couldn't really see what was on the plate from farther back in the audience, so added another piece of dried latex paint to the dish.

  

Oh & a Diet Coke - Luckily, we had this plastic cup in stock that already had bubbles in it. By adding a few squares of brown gel (graciously donated by lighting designer, Joe Glodek), a pipe joiner for weight and a straw to the inside of the cup, the drink was complete and looked great onstage.

Design Presentation to the Cast of Superstar

    The design presentation to a cast and crew is always one of my favorite events during the course of a production.  As a set designer you get a lot more time than you do as a prop designer (if you get any at all), so it is the best time to get a lot of information to the team.
    Last night, I met the entire cast of Jesus Christ Superstar (well, actually, Jesus wasn't there, but I digress...).  What a talented and super interesting group of actors...so many great stories were told as we all got to know each other. Kudos to director Linda Hunt for leading us in that "get to know you" exercise.  One thing I love about community theatre is that everyone is in it for the same reason.  Just for the love of it, for the fun of collaborating and creating together and putting on an amazing production.  We all know there is no money, fame or awards attached to this work, it's purely for the enjoyment we each get from the process.

    So, I got to show the cast my Google SketchUps and thought I'd share them with the faithful followers of my blog (heehee, I think its up to one whole follower now).  In any case, I enjoy writing my thoughts down here and keeping a journal of things.
    Note in the pictures how the two set of steps change from scene to scene.  The entire set is stationary except for these two step units and some furniture.  Working closely with lighting designer, Brian Mahoney, we plan to make these various stage areas really come to life as unique locations when filled with actors and props (and maybe some cool special effects too).

Enjoy my SketchUps!


High Priests configuration - the moving staircases create a pyramid for the priests to stand on as they look down upon JC and his followers.  This is one of the most open layouts as the entire cast comes onstage for the Hosanna number.





The Temple configuration - In this scene the steps are moved side to side and placed dead center for JC to enter the Temple all mad and righteous.  He's got plenty to be mad about too!  Look at those skanky 80's girls dancing in the corner and that cock fight being waged upstage and is that girl holding a scarf or some kind of organ...don't get me started on the guys on the pillows.  I do love Google SketchUp for the cast of characters you can download into your sketches.



The Last Supper configuration - The Last Supper opens Act II and I really want to give the feeling that we were inside a secluded space that served as a home base for JC and his apostles.  To do this, I designed a canopy that cuts the stage in half both sideways and front to back.  The fabric will have some translucency when softly lit from above.  We'll also be adding small lights to the lowered deck by JC's feet in this pic.  These will cast a candlelight mood on the inside of the canopy and allow us to play with shadows.  The beams used to hold the canopy will actually be real tree trunks roughly 4" in diameter, untreated and set into holes in the stage.  Pillows and mats will be made of burlap and other woven fabrics. I'm contemplating bringing the two moving step units to each side of this canopy to further enclose the scene and give the apostles some more sitting options.

Superstar research

While looking for images of the building materials of the 1st century, I came across the following images that spoke to me. 

I like the size and texture of these stone blocks. They would work in the two large columns that flank each side of the stage.  These columns will be twelve feet high and three or four feet thick, with staggered sandstone blocks.  These will be textured through a treatment using both paint and sawdust to give them a rough finish that will catch the light nicely.  More to come on the columns later...

 This painting shows Jesus with his earthly father Joseph doing carpentry.  I like this image for the wood in it, both the wood they are working and the natural piece of wood holding up the overhanging roof.

This image is a good one to see the smaller size blocks used in construction of houses.  Probably not right for the palace and high priests' locations, but would work along the front of the stage.  Perhaps in showing the progression of masonry and carpentry from the front of the stage to the back will mirror the power of the people versus that of the authorities.

Jesus Christ Superstar - Set Designs

Currently, I'm working on a scale model and Google SketchUp of my Jesus Christ Superstar designs for Narberth Community Theatre's production running this March.  Linda Hunt is directing and had a lot of great ideas for the show but wanted to keep it simple...I tried.  I swear I did, but the more I came up with the more she loved.  So as the TD/Master Carpenter said at the last production meeting, "It's going to be epic!"

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to document the final design process and set build along with other fun things. There will be some puppetry, a sort of rock climbing wall, a hanging Judas and of course, the requisite crucifixion. Oh, boy!

Check back soon for sketches, photos and more! For info on the show check out NCT's website: http://www.narberthcommunitytheatre.org/