As the Charge Artist, I’m responsible for budgeting, sampling, and executing all painted scenery for a given production.

Next to Normal

Scenic Design: John Ferry

Lighting Design: Dominic DeSalvio

The design for Next to Normal was fairly straightforward with our major scenic element being a 20’x80’ curved drop upstage of the physical scenery. With an average crew of 5 painters a day (most of whom hadn’t painted drops before) it became a great learning opportunity to paint. The real fun came when it was installed on a curved pipe (spanning 16’ of depth) and working to ensure it was pulled taught.

Other scenic units worth mentioning included: making a cheap lauan floor and 3/4” ply stair units match a hardwood finish, finding a way to tweak the color of a fake grass, and patching wall seams in space to ensure seamlessness under any lighting.

Peter and the Starcatcher

Scenic Design: Rachel Miller

Lighting Design: Jada Hutchinson

Peter and the Starcatcher posed a lot of individual challenges. There were three major scenic units; the scaffolds (which were textured and then painted and sealed), the deck floor (which was treated similarly to the scaffolds), and the ground cloth (which was painted to look like a breaking tide). The scaffolding units were repurposed from a past show, the flooring was pulled from stock, and the ground cloth was repurposed from an old drop, meaning 90% of the square footage I was responsible to texture and paint was “free” and my initial budget simply wouldn't do. I found that accurate and well documented sampling and estimates with contingency was the best way to prove my case in gaining the funding I needed to efficiently paint this show.

This show was being produced at the same time as a larger opera, so the crew I had to work with was fairly small (3-4 painters) but the work we were able to get done was impressive. By the time we were in space, the paint department also took on some of the set dressing by making and installing about 600 air dry clay barnacles and adding flecks of “gold leaf” shellacked tinfoil in the water and on the deck.