Almost, Maine
I worked on poster ideas for John Cariani’s play, Almost, Maine last winter, the perfect season for a love letter to northern Maine. I borrowed a pastel background from another poster (Babette’s Feast) when I mocked up my sketches, which all involved a big night sky. The vignettes in the play involve two people connecting, with many of the scenes outside on a Friday night in the deep winter. I was inclined to add a moose in this one… The rough with the snowmobile got the go ahead. I did some research on Northern lights, which I only saw once in my life, when I was a child...
Read MoreThe Clean House
Between travels and a new book deadline, it takes a soggy Sunday to return to blogging. It’s a new season at Portland Stage, their 46th, in fact. For the fifth time, I illustrated the whole season of theater posters. The Clean House by award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl was tricky, as evidenced by the number of ideas it took for me to land the right image to suggest the layers of themes. The story revolves around Lane, a busy doctor whose marriage is in doubt, and her hired help, Matilde, a young Brazilian woman more interested in telling the perfect joke than cleaning. I enjoy the...
Read MoreThe Last Five Years
To those who know me, I’m a fan of bridespotting, a sport I coined living here on Peaks Island, which has become a wedding destination, like it or not. My rules are to 1) be uninvited and 2) not go out of my way and when I spot a bride, I post a photo. I’ve been married over 30 years, am a believer in marriage, weddings, and saying yes to the dress. So illustrating The Last Five Years poster for Portland Stage was an eager challenge. The script by Jason Robert Brown was confusing to me, though. The story between two lovers, Cathy and Jamie, arcs from beginning to end for Jamie,...
Read MoreSkeleton Crew
April has been busy, if not with actual spring. We made it to Skeleton Crew in it’s final weekend. If you missed it, I’m sorry for you! It was one of the BEST shows of a quite fantastic season at Portland Stage. A year ago when I worked on the illustration, I began with character sketches of the four actors. My preliminary sketches are not at all pretty. I’m thinking as fast as I can sketch. By award-winning playwright, Dominique Morisseau, the story is set in the break room of an auto making plant in Detroit. Faye is the veteran, sneaking smokes. Shanita is pregnant,...
Read MoreThe Half-Light
While feverishly working on next season’s posters for Portland Stage Company, I took a welcome break from my studio to see Monica Wood’s incredible The Half-Light on St. Patrick’s Day. A year ago I was doing the same mad dash to finish all the poster illustrations in less than two months. Portland Stage juggles many factors in choosing their season, not to mention the logistics of casting, contracts, and commitments. It means a killer deadline for me, too! I’d forgotten about all these ideas not chosen. The story involves Iris, a divorced secretary trying to find her...
Read MoreBeing Earnest
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple,” once said the legendary Oscar Wilde, a Dublin-born writer of poems, novels, and plays. When I began illustrating The Importance of Being Earnest for Portland Stage’s production, I was eager to tackle the Victorian era fashion. Aspects of dress, etiquette, and courtship were at the center of all my visual ideas. In my first sketch, I included a portrait of Wilde, as if he is serving up his witty farce like a confection. In others, I tried variations of figures, flowers, and romance. I couldn’t resist using a parasol as a...
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