West Side Story*

This summer I was charged with designing an In Concert show, which basically means minimalist costumes, sets, and props; full choreography, vocals, and script; and the cast never leaves the stage. The In Concert style and conceptualization makes accessible and realistic huge shows that would be otherwise too expensive to fully produce and allows them some artistic freedom that they might not otherwise have. As Artistic Director Jeffery Mindock would say, it's an experiment.

When he told us that his concept for this show was a contemporary representation of this classic story. He wanted these characters to live in 2017 the way that they traditionally did in the 1950s. As I read through the script a second time, I started thinking about urban decay and political graffiti. It was hard not to connect this story of ignorant adults and blatant racism to the ongoing discourse and problems in today's political and social atmosphere.

Much of my research was based on the idea of street art and political art as it pertains both to the story and today's political and social climates.

I developed with Jeffery the idea of a dollhouse set. We made eight identical wooden crates, like they might find in the drugstore or an alleyway, and covered them in both political and benign graffiti of all different types. Werner donated a brand new construction scaffolding, which, after appropriately taping over all the safety information, I coated with a heavy dusting of industrial strength black spray paint to create the aged, worn, muted look that eventually reached the stage. The scaffolding functioned both as the fire escape for the balcony scene as well as a wall in different scenes. I ultimately decided that the stage floor really didn't need some complicated texture to it. we painted it a flat gray as soon as possible and let the actors scuff it to death to give it character. It was simple and gave the appropriate idea that this area was well traveled for these kids, the only place they've ever known for some of them.

The real statement of the show was the back wall, which I designed to be meaningful on several different levels. The broken pieces where the plaster has chipped away to reveal brick indicates the racial divide and the broken plaster on the far left and right represent each group's unique problems, the way their worlds are falling apart. On top of that brick and plaster texture, I covered the wall with a modest amount of both highly political graffiti and some less aggressive street art. Many of my research images came from news stories about the hate crimes surrounding the 2016 election, and can be found here.

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