I'm now a scenic designer...apparently

[proud gonzo]

Wednesday night i was cleaning the house and packing to come back to kansas. GHP called and said the opera in wichita needed help painting sets and wanted to know how soon i'd be back in kansas.

I packed everything as quickly as I could and left norman at 9:45 p.m. I got back to Wichita at 12:30 and headed to the concert hall at 10 a.m. thursday morning. GHP took me into the room where they were working on the set and showed me a piece of crap set--three panels with arches cut into them with styrofoam "stones" glued around the arches and painted red and white. There were also "stone columns"... cardboard pipes cut in half. The set designer was completely incompetent AND left town.

This stuff should have all been done weeks ago. The set had to be moved onto stage TODAY, and nothing was finished. My job was to make it not look like crap. Keep in mind, my only painting experience is the stuff you guys have seen. I work on a canvas about 20x24" and usually have a month to do it (and get paid for it). This was a set 30' wide and 8' tall.

I grabbed some brushes and smeared some paint on the columns all willy-nilly and then moved on to salvaging the rest of the set. I fixed the stones around the arches and then took a risk... the other guys working in the room stopped what they were doing and stared as I approached the tan wall with a 3" paintbrush full of dark brown paint. I attacked the wall and made some freaky jagged lines. Then I grabbed some light tan and highlighed some stuff and one of the guys, all shocked, says "that might actually work".

I took a break, went to lunch with GHP, and when I got back the guy in charge of the opera was so impressed he declared me "Master Scenic Artist" and decided I was in charge of all the painting and set work.

A little while later they showed me the REST of the set... three more pieces and a ****load of rocks and they started planning how i needed to extend the pieces taller and make them all match and look like rocks on a beach and on and on. and I'm thinking "oh ****, what did I just get myself into?"


So yeah, that's just the start of it. I guess the summary is that I just painted an entire opera set (minus backdrops and some props/rocks) in two days. And i'm supposed to be there all through the production next weekend AND the guy wants to hire me for the summer. I'm not sure yet if i'm willing to deal with them all summer.

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

:les: YOU'RE HIRED WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT, BEYONCE!

[SteelClip49]

As long as you are inside and not sweating outside then that should be ok....then again, seeing it for myself might voice a different opinion. Hell, I wouldn't mind driving up there myself and lending you a hand but I have to take Spanish and Algebra in the summer to officially finish up my degree....which means you get to have all the fun. Good Luck.

[Tailwind]

Does it pay well? It could be fun if you have more than 2 days to do the sets.
If they get to dickish you could always wear earplugs. :P

[proud gonzo]

As long as you are inside and not sweating outside then that should be ok....then again, seeing it for myself might voice a different opinion. Hell, I wouldn't mind driving up there myself and lending you a hand but I have to take Spanish and Algebra in the summer to officially finish up my degree....which means you get to have all the fun. Good Luck.yeah, i've been sweating in a big concrete room underneath a building. lol.
and there are plenty of people around who could help, but there's nothing they can really do to assist. Most of what's been necessary is painting things artistically, and I'm the only one available who can do that...and i can't really instruct someone else how to do it when there's so little time. The work itself wouldn't be bad if it wasn't for the disorganization and micromanaging from the powers that be.


Does it pay well? It could be fun if you have more than 2 days to do the sets.
If they get to dickish you could always wear earplugs. :Ppay well? I'm lucky if it pays at ALL.
and it WOULD be fun if i had more than 2 days.

[Tailwind]

Just okey-doke em when they try to tell you what to do...and then do whatever you want. :D That's what I usually do.

[SteelClip49]

free opera tickets perhaps.

[proud gonzo]

that'd be great, if my parents and I didn't already have tickets to the opera. :O

[47straight]

Wicked cool, PG!

Sometimes, experience is no substitute for pure raw talent. :)

No telling where this might lead you. Sounds like a typical accidental discovery of a good match of skill and task.

Pics, please? I'm always impressed with set design and how certain elements just "work."


OH. I can offer advice on the micro-managing. Make the pay scale proportionally incremental with the amount of continuing involvement. Or plan for it to happen on the very last 2 days again, giving them no time for such tomfoolery.

[Chuck Bao]

Agreeance with 47straight. That is something quite cool to put on a resume.

Of course, you need pics and you need to post the pics here.

[olevetonahill]

You go Punkin
May we see Pics ?

[12]

Good job, PG!

Wichita has an opera market?

[StoopTroup]

I think you should take the job...contract it out and keep the profits.

That's just me though. :D

[proud gonzo]

Wicked cool, PG!

Sometimes, experience is no substitute for pure raw talent. :)

No telling where this might lead you. Sounds like a typical accidental discovery of a good match of skill and task.

Pics, please? I'm always impressed with set design and how certain elements just "work."


OH. I can offer advice on the micro-managing. Make the pay scale proportionally incremental with the amount of continuing involvement. Or plan for it to happen on the very last 2 days again, giving them no time for such tomfoolery.no, the problem with the micro-managing is not that they're having me do more things but that they don't trust people to do their assigned tasks. And there ISN'T a pay scale. I'll get a stipend of some sort, probably depending on the guy's mood at the time when he decides to pay me.


Agreeance with 47straight. That is something quite cool to put on a resume.

Of course, you need pics and you need to post the pics here.Yeah, I think it'll look really good on a resume. I actually want to try to get a job as an apprentice set painter for Music Theater of Wichita next summer (because they do AMAZING work)


Good job, PG!

Wichita has an opera market?well, they have an opera. it hasn't been around very long.


I think you should take the job...contract it out and keep the profits.

That's just me though. :Dthe painting job will be over as of next weekend--this is the last show of the season. so I'm not sure what the guy would want me to do over the summer. Probably writing things. he said something about me working in tandem with GHP (which is a scary thought. I mean, that ought to be up there on the list along with don't feed them after midnight and don't cross the streams.)

but anyway, i might agree to work a couple of days a week.


I do have before/after pics, but i still have about two days of detail and touch-up work to do on props and small set pieces after they get the lighting cues all figured out. So I'll post pictures later in the week.

[proud gonzo]

an angry. i has it.

[SoonerInKCMO]

Fired already?

[Beef]

You need to save some time this summer to paint the masterpiece I'm about to commission you to paint.

And don't take any **** from people who aren't paying you.

[NormanPride]

Seriously. If there is no monetary reward for working, do whatever the hell you want, when you want to. Do not let those bastards get you down, because you rock.

[proud gonzo]

oh, at this point i think the only reason i didn't quit at about three different points today was the fact that i hadn't gotten to the really awesome set pieces that will TOTALLY kick *** when i finish them in the morning. I want pictures of those thangs for my portfolio. Awww yeah.

but no, I didn't get fired. I'm doing a lot of smiling and agreeing and then totally doing whatever I want.

oh, and Beef--I will have PLENTY of time to do a commission for you. Let me know :D

The guy in charge of the money is VERY appreciative, though, and he HAS promised me a stipend of some sort. So I'll get something for it...so long as I can keep from chewing out his wife before then.

[Tailwind]

Just give her hell...after you cash the check. :D

[proud gonzo]

that's okay. Yesterday we had an interesting phone conversation...and I told her that some of things she had on the list she gave me were not my job. She didn't like that. She thought I was being petulant...I'm glad she caught that. So she stopped calling and pestering me and today informed me that from now on she'd communicate with me through the stage manager and the assistant director. awesome! that means I don't have to put up with her, and she won't get chewed out by a tiny blonde girl. So it's better for both of us.

word got around and her husband (they're both in charge of the opera) came downstairs today and said "please don't quit on us". He's been thanking me all day.

Some good has come from all of this, though (aside from my totally kick-*** set). The maintainance people working in the building are all my friends now. So are the stagehands. And in another week or so I'm going to start apprenticing in the paint shop for Music Theater of Wichita. BWAHAHAHAHA. awesome.

[proud gonzo]

ugly, grey, foam rocks BEFORE:
http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/792/p1010173hl6.jpg

weird iceberg looking pillars BEFORE:
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/1460/p1010175vx1.jpg

funky-looking set pieces BEFORE:
http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/9852/p1010176jf3.jpg

AFTER adding foam and paint:
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/383/p1010180pp4.jpg

funky-looking other set piece BEFORE:
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/9457/p1010177jy3.jpg

weird set piece AFTER foam and paint:
http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/4648/p1010182bl5.jpg

ACT I: the Pirate King's entrance
http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/9669/p1010190sl9.jpg

http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/5244/p1010200tg2.jpg

ACT II:
http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/2600/p1010205id2.jpg

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/8961/p1010211ey4.jpg

The Major General has recently bought an estate and therefore the ancestors whose remains are in the chapel... these are closeups of the crypts after i painted them.
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/4859/tudorvj0.jpg

..."In this chapel are ancestors: you cannot deny that. With the estate, I bought the chapel and its contents. I don't know whose ancestors they were, but I know whose ancestors they are."
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/2058/yorkwv5.jpg

one crypt is whitewashed over and painted with the Major General's name "Stanley".
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/3919/stanleyay0.jpg

[Mjcpr]

I can tell that boat isn't real.

Also, does this mean Stanley is coming back?

[proud gonzo]

I didn't paint the backdrop. A crazy Bulgarian man did.

[Tailwind]

Nice job!

[Chuck Bao]

I'm like totally feeling it. Wow! I'd buy tickets to see that.

You are the best rock designer, PG.

[Chuck Bao]

Okay, besides God Almighty, of course. He did rocks on some of the planets really, really well.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

Okay, just got back from Australia...

Not to cast a disparaging comment on the fine recovery effort...

Spinal Tap anyone???