Art, Interupted

As folks may know, I have an amazing job where I run the scenic painting studio for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, California. We build massive, ambitions stage sets for the shows we present.  My team is in charge of all the surface treatments of the scenery we put on stage.

This includes so much more than just painting.  We might find ourselves helping to build trees, by coming up with techniques for attaching foliage to custom-built structures.

Or we might be tasked with making brand-new beautifully built steel grates look old and crusty.

This is just the first layer in this process. We applied a primer to the steel our co-workers had welded into gates, then applied lots of gloppy texture, and then painted on multiple layers of paint.  The goal was to make something newly-constructed look like it had existed for decades.

We often find ourselves with the fun task of replicating a very heavy material out of something more suitable for use onstage.  In this case, we were making cinderblock/breezeblock out of wood.  We sprayed a heavy texture onto dozens and dozens of sheets of quarter-inch thick plywood and painted to to look like painted cement.

Our goals was to pre-paint all of this material before it was cut apart and assembled, so that we wouldn't have to jam our hands and paintbrushes inside of hundreds of cramped boxes.

This project, the scenery for our production of School Girls, or the African Mean Girls Play (designed by Jason Ardizzone-West, directed by Awoye Timpo) was a massive project.  I had a large team working on the scenery, and we were scrambling to get everything finished in time.  I'm proud to say that my team more than rose to the occasion.  They textured and painted acres of scenery in record time. They did beautiful work, and were absolute darlings to work with.

We installed the truly gigantic scenery for this show, and commenced onstage rehearsals. 

And then the thing we'd all been dreading happened.

The mayors and civic leaders of six Bay Area counties put us under mandatory lock-down to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.  It was the right thing to do, but it was devastating for everyone who'd worked on this project.  We did one run-through on Monday afternoon, and then we all walked away from the theater and each other.  We took refuge in our homes, and tried not to fret about what the future might hold.

All around the country, performing arts venues and other arts organization closed to protect the public health. Gathering in large numbers was unsafe.  We needed to slow the spread of this disease.  

Artists suddenly found themselves unable to work.  Nobody had any idea when or if things will return to normal.  It was and remains such an unsettling time.  

But artists are nothing if not creative and adaptable. We're finding ways to share our work online.  We're looking for ways to make up for lost revenue.

So, if you possibly can afford to, consider making a donation to your favorite arts organization.  Berkeley Rep has moved its annual fundraising event online this year. The scenic construction and painting crew is one of the fundraising teams.  I know things are terribly uncertain for everyone at the moment, but could you consider making a small donation to supporting the work of artists in the Bay Area?  It would mean a lot to everyone on my team.  (Click here for more information.)

Thank you.