New Poster Design - Dancing at Lughnasa

This is a poster I designed for Seanachai Theatre's production of Dancing at Lughnasa.

The Revenants Is Over

Laura Hooper and Brian Amidei in The Revenants

WildClaw would like to thank everyone who came to our latest production, The Revenants, by Scott T. Barsotti, as directed by Anne Adams. And thank you to Rich and everyone at Angel Island Theater for being such great hosts.

The Revenants Poster

I just completed the graphic for our upcoming zombie play, The Revenants, by Scott T. Barsotti. The show opens April 20th, 2009 at the Angel Island Theater in Chicago. This intimate, dare I say, claustrophobic production will be directed by WildClaw company member, Anne Adams.


Poster by Charlie Athanas

Making the Dorian Gray Paintings

I was commissioned to create the infamous changing painting for the Lifeline stage adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray. It was directed by my pal, Kevin Theis, adapted by Rob Kauzlaric, had scenic design by Tim Burch, and lighting design by Kevin D. Gawley. All of them played a role in making the paintings transform onstage. The play was a raving, critical success and I was very proud to be part of the production. As noted in an earlier blog entry, the paintings themselves (which didn't have an off night or a great night, they were the same thing every night) got reviews that ranged from "a sensational canvas" to "the worst thing in the play".



Regardless, folks seem to like the "How Did They Do That?" stuff I put up here and now that the play is over, I thought I would let folks who didn't see the play, see the paintings. I have decided not to show how we made the paintings change in real time. As fun as it would be, it would also ruin the magic AND we're using the same technique in WildClaw Theatre's "The Dreams in the Witch House" to great effect (people have no idea how we're are doing this). That show is still running until December 21st (Go see it!)

So, for those of you who slept through high school English, the painting in this story magically transforms to show the effects of age and life while Dorian Gray remains forever youthful in person. The director wanted the painting to show a more violent vehemence than just decay and age. Now - here are the paintings (Dorian was portrayed by actor, Nick Vidal):


Nick Vidal as Dorian Gray (Photo © 08 Suzanne Plunkett)



First I laid out a grid and sketched in Nick's image on three canvases. After getting a sketch I liked on one canvas, I transferred the image to the other two canvases with tracing paper. There needed to be an initial painting, then a trick one that transforms in real time, and a final painting showing the ultimate effects of Dorian's actions at the climax of the play. The first painting is revealed upstage, very close to the audience. It was then moved up to a second stage platform downstage away from the audience. A curtain was placed over the framed painting as it was placed on the wall. Later in the play, a second transitional painting replaced the first.




Paintings 1 and 2

I worked in parallel on paintings one and two since they needed to look very similar when the second on is revealed from behind the curtain. These were done in acrylics since time was of the essence. I had planned on doing the final painting in oil, but time didn't let that happen. In fact, I delivered the last two paintings in their final form about 15 minutes (maybe 10) before the start of the first preview performance. I'm sure I added way too much undue stress on Cortney and Kim.


Background Test

The image above is actually a photo of the painting with a Photoshop background test to see how to put the darker shades into the background. One of the decisions that had to be made was how much detail to put in the painting. I opted to leave the background clean of imagery to allow the audience to only focus on Dorian's image. It fit with the style of the time period, so I got away with it. One of the issues with theater work is making sure the folks in the back row can see what you are trying to achieve. This can lead to a simpler, sometimes "cartoony" image, but if half the theater can't see your clever painting techniques, then it's not doing it's job.


Final Version of 1st Dorian Painting

The image above is the final version of the first painting the audience sees in the play. While I love the reference photo, reality is that the character is wearing a pin-striped suit and a detailed vest. These added time to the painting, to put it mildly. Below is a detail from this painting.




Transition Painting

This is the transition painting. You can see the areas that get ripped out to reveal a glowing, raw interior to the painting, much brighter than what you see here. Amazingly enough, under the stage lights, prior to the intended reveals these areas didn't show up at all.


Final Painting

And this is the painting that ultimately shows the violence inflicted on Dorian and his victims. Ripping away at the painting by the ghosts of Dorian's victims was the director's choice to show the ravaging effects on the painting. So this one had to reflect the tears in the transition painting before it.

And that is almost the whole story.

Making of The Dreams in the Witch House Poster

When I started this blog, it's intent was to expose my creative process as I wrote my vampire story/play, The First Fear. (More on that in upcoming posts.)

During the making of the play The Great God Pan earlier this year, I documented that play's poster design process pretty thoroughly. Now that The Dreams in the Witch House is up and running and getting good reviews, I thought I would expose the guts of that poster. (Go see the play!)

The play's director and adaptor, Charley Sherman, wanted the poster to feel dark with blues and grays and the feeling of metal to express the city of Arkham. Arkham is H. P. Lovecraft's infamous city of nightmares where the play takes place. I had done a teaser graphic that was photo manipulating via Photoshop filters, but it was a rush job and not what I wanted ultimately.


The Dreams in the Witch House teaser graphic

So when it came time to produce the final graphic, I pulled several photos I had taken at various places and chose three to work with. I often pull from my random photo files to either place them into designs completely unrelated to the topic or to use as reference for a drawing. I learned from Sparth (one of my favorite concept art artists) at the Massive Black Revelations Symposium this past January in Seattle, that he does this all the time in his concept art designs. He will even take old finished concept art pieces and use them for textures and design elements in newer pieces.

Here are the three photos I choose to work with:


A cool dilapidated iron fence in my neighborhood


A view from inside Northwestern Evanston hospital


A church steeple down the block from my house

I combined the three of them in Photoshop layers and composed and cropped to get this:



I used the Plastic Wrap filter on the two non-steeple photos and adjusted Levels on all of them to get the contrasts I wanted and the textures suitably creepy.

From there I started playing with some type ideas for the title -


In the end, I realized that something needed to be in this landscape and I initially had a hooded, vague shape with a rat's tail sticking out from the cloak to hint at the character, Brown Jenkins. After showing it to the director, we realized that it wasn't strong enough and I went to a clearer rat image. This turned out to be for the best, because rats play a large role in the play and Arkham. After hours of trying to find the right way to fit in Lovecraft's name and his very long story title, this is the final image for the poster:


The Dreams in the Witch House poster graphic


Poster detail

Killer-works Review of The Dreams in the Witch House

"The Dreams in the Witch House is spectacular, in the old school, carnival funhouse sense of the word.

Do you like your theatre eerie, gory and surprisingly witty? Enjoy your protagonists pale and plagued by witches? Your good guys questionable (to say the least), and your bad guys such gibbering maniacs that the word "bad" no longer applies? The Dreams in the Witch House has it all. Plus The Necronomicon. Which is just cool. "
C.S.E. Cooney - Killer-works.com

Arkham Awaits

Big begins building

Today we erected the set for H. P. Lovecraft's The Dreams in the Witch House at the Athenaeum Theater. Tech week has officially started. Platforms have been hoisted, screws tightened, paint flung. We open next Sunday, November 16th and run through December 21st.

Get your tickets now for WildClaw's most ambitious show. Centerstage has already called it a Must-See Show and Fangoria is telling you to obey that impulse and see it.

Here's what they said about WildClaw's The Great God Pan earlier this year:

"If this is the WildClaw standard for horror, we’ll gladly be horrified again"
-TimeOut Chicago

"Fantastically executed"
-Killer_works.com

"It delivers the guts and gore you crave and you may actually get blood splattered on you"
-The Chicagoist

"Spooky fun in the vein of the classic Hammer Films thrillers of the 1950s and '60s"
-Chicago Reader

You probably heard that Deathscribe was a blast. So what are you waiting for? Arkham awaits.

Dorian Gray Portrait Reviews

This is why I love theater and don't take bad reviews* to heart. My job is to make the director I am working for happy and if I can achieve that, my job is done. That said, I recently did a project for Kevin Theis and Lifeline Theater, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Great project, great director, great design crew, great theater company.


Detail from Dorian Gray Portrait for Lifeline Theater

I was hired to create the portrait of Dorian Gray. A fun, but daunting project as Kevin wanted the painting to change in front of the audience in realtime during the show. He also had a different take on the final portrait than the norm. (See Ivan Albright's painting in the Art Institute of Chicago.)

The production itself has gotten rave reviews. These excerpts that refer to the work I did. Keep in mind that they are all looking at the same paintings and the same play.

“The conceit in Wilde's tale is that Dorian never grows visibly older. Instead, the scars on his soul pile up on the surface of the grand portrait (a sensational canvas by Charlie Athanas) painted in his most golden young manhood.”
Hedy Weiss – Chicago Sun-Times

“The picture itself is often done up as a boring portrait that rarely reflects Wilde’s own description of its beauty, so it is refreshing to see not only how much that the picture looks like an idealized version of the lead character, but that it is done up in a neo-Impressionistic style reflective of its era. And though the transformations themselves happen through sound effects while the painting is usually not visible, the climax and final portrait will not disappoint.”
Dennis Polkow - New City

“This is a tough work to stage theatrically—for one thing, you need a kind of magic portrait that ages every few minutes—and Kevin Theis’ production laudably keeps things deft and simple. And the trick portrait, which was designed by Charlie Athanas, is a wild-looking affair even if it doesn’t change as Wilde intended.”
Chris Jones – Chicago Tribune

“Technically this production is superior to most… The special effects are particularly well-done, conjuring up eerie environments, and ghostly images and causing the portrait's--and Dorian's--deterioration right before our eyes… As an adaptation and as a unique work of art, this is a must-see event.”
Colin Douglas – Centerstage

“Kevin Theis’ fast paced staging on Tom Burch’s two level set with terrific lighting from Kevin D. Gawley (including some amazing effects on the Gray portrait) produced work filled with mounting tension that builds into a scary gothic horror tale.”
Tom Williams - ChicagoCritic.com

“… its only major flaw is Charlie Athanas’s titular portrait (deformed in the story by Dorian’s sins). It’s an unintentionally hilarious dead ringer for the Crypt Keeper.”
Zac Thompson – Time Out Chicago

“The one off note in the whole production is the portrait itself, which is way-too-ugly pop art cartoon than fits the Victorian-era drama of which it is the centerpiece. When the fully "uglified" picture is revealed at the end, I found it a struggle not to laugh aloud. It is a lot more Mad magazine than Oscar Wilde. It is most definitely not inspired by the famous Ivan Albright 1943 vision of Dorian Gray one can see at the Art Institute.”
Jack Hafferkamp – Edge Chicago

*I came to Chicago in 1981 to act in a play. The Reader review for that production ended with the sentence - "Stay away in droves." I was prepared for Chicago theater reviews from then on.

Deathscribe October 6th

On October 6, 2008, WildClaw Theatre will premiere an annual event known as Deathscribe. It is a festival of juried entries for ten minute horror plays to be performed as radio plays with foley in a live theater setting. This year it will be at the Music Box theater.

Fangoria did a nice write-up about it.

WildClaw

The Great God Pan has completed it's run. For a first production of a new theatre company it was an unqualified success. Thank you to everyone who saw the show and to the many, many folks who helped behind the scenes.


Striking the Pan set. Michaela is on the ladder cleaning blood off the walls.

It has been a smooth venture of creativity, problem-solving, passion, and fun. It's been nice to work on a drama without the drama. Hats off to Charley Sherman for creating an atmosphere to work in that invited collaboration and gave people room to breath and grow.

The Final Four - Pan Performances That Is

What do you mean you haven't seen it?!

Okay, it's now or never. There are four more performances of The Great God Pan at the Athenaeum Theatre.

Don't be one of those folks who asks us if we videotaped the show for everyone who missed it.

We didn't.

"This is a major achievement as a piece of horror theatre...engaging and scary"
-ChicagoCritic.com

"fantastically executed"
-Killer_works.com

"It delivers the guts and gore you crave and you may actually get blood splattered on you"
-The Chicagoist

"spooky fun in the vein of the classic Hammer Films thrillers of the 1950s and '60s"
-Chicago Reader

The First Fear Lives

It has been an exciting 2008 so far. I started with ConceptArt.org's Revelations art orgy in Seattle, did 8 large paintings and a big sculpture for the play, we opened The Great God Pan, in connection with that I interviewed Clive Barker and seem to be starting a biz relationship with Weird Tales magazine. Sue had her baby! We got a visit from Donna. The Devil's Candy Store is ramping up again. And...

I'm back on The First Fear story. I have a beginning, middle and end. I have a cast of characters and I have scenes. I have themes and character arcs. I will soon have sketches and dialog. All the research and all the sketching and thinking and writing came together this weekend.

What did it? Imagining how I would do it as a play in a little blackbox theater with a small cast and limited resources. The blessing and the curse of a comic book is it's limitless potential. You can have millions of characters, endless scenes, thousands of costume characters and it can go on for decades. A two hour, low budget play is quite another story. I've always worked better under restraints (or is that - in restraints?) and thinking this way is just what I needed.

more soon...

My WildClaw Interview with Clive Barker

Tuesday I had the good fortune of interviewing Clive Barker for the WildClaw Theatre website. Always charming and an effortless interview (you just sort of mention a subject and Clive is off and running), Clive was gracious enough to talk to me during a very hectic schedule. He is a creating machine. You can read the interview here.



Clive helped us out with an interview before when Steve Pickering adapted William Gibson's Burning Chrome. He interviewed William Gibson for our Chrome website and the two of them went on for one and a half hours. It was great.

My thanks again to both authors for supporting the arts at all levels. I was a fanboy before I met them and I'm still a fanboy now.

Killer-works and The Great God Pan

"Fantastically executed... It would be impossible to tell the story literally from Machen's text, but Charley Sherman (adaptor/director) does an excellent job of creating a narrative flow that makes sense. Lighting and sound skillfully move you around the stage, help set the tone and punctuate the moments of tension. The acting is also of high caliber and the female leads Lily Mojekwu (as the many faces of evil) and Michaela Petro (as Mary) are particularly captivating."
-Jude Mire, Killer-works(for full review)


Lily Mojekwu in The Great God Pan


Michaela Petro in The Great God Pan

ChicagoCritic.com

Another review is in for The Great God Pan. This one is from Tom Williams of ChicagoCritic.com.

"Recommended

This is a major achievement as a piece of horror theatre...(a) well acted and eerie work (with terrific lighting by Paul Foster with outstanding mood setting sound design by Adam Kozlowski), delivers Machen’s relatively unknown work quite effectively. This production of The Great God Pan is an outstanding evening of horror/mystery theatre. Chicago needs a “horror theatre” and Wildclaw Theatre sure makes an impressive debut in that realm.

Let me state that The Great God Pan aptly explores the nature of evil and the search for evil’s true identity that unfolds with several unique twists. This major work is engaging and scary. The low budget production delivers several well-time moments that make you jump out of your seat. Tom Hickey, Lily Mojekwu and Peter Corey were terrific. Kudos to Charley Sherman for attempting and succeeding with a complex horror classic. I await more."
- Tom Williams

2 for 1 Student Tickets For Pan -Thu & Sun

2 for 1 tickets for students for Thursday and Sunday performances of The Great God Pan. Now you have no excuse not to see horror theater in Chicago. If you get scared during the show, you'll have someone to hold onto.

Red Orchid Theatre's FATBOY

Go see Steve Pickering in FATBOY at Red Orchid Theatre. It's loud, nasty, raucous entertainment, performed with panach and grace in sweaty fat suits. And if that ain't Chicago theater, I don't know what is.

But see The Great God Pan first, damn it.

The Great God Pan Opens!

If you're in Chicago come see us. We opened our stage adaptation of Machen's The Great God Pan and the show is off and running. We've gotten a couple of reviews so far and both are good:

"If this is the WildClaw standard for horror, we'll gladly be horrified again."
-Kris Vire, TimeOut Chicago

"Our take: next time you're in the mood for a spine-tingler, put down the Netflix and give this play a shot. It delivers the guts and gore you crave, and you may actually get blood splattered on you. Score."
-Ali Trachta, The Chicagoist


Tom Hickey, Steve Hersen, and Michaela Petro

Come see us at the Athenaeum Theatre. It is rip-roaring horror in a blackbox theater Chicago-style. All the info you would want is at our WildClaw Theatre website: http://www.wildclawtheatre.com

Hephaestus at Lookingglass Theatre

For my birthday, Julienne got us tickets to see Hephaestus at Lookingglass (check out the promo video). Great show! It has been extended until March 9th so get your tickets if you haven't seen it. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to be sitting onstage watching a Cirque Du Soleil show, this is your chance.

Plus, Hera and Aphrodite are as beautiful as their namesakes and they kick-ass.


Lijana Wallenda Hernandez as Hera (Yup, those Flying Wallendas)


Anya Stankus is Aphrodite (Yup, Hula Hoops)

Painting and Sculpting

I have been painting and sculpting this week. Acrylics and plaster. I haven't done that since 1978. And then it was mostly oils. Much fun. Big challenge was to produce these images in the manner requested by the director. Not my style, at all. (The paintings, not the taking direction part.)

I would show you more of these pieces, but they are part of The Great God Pan set and I wouldn't want to spoil any surprises (just yet.)