MY 3 ANGELS Wichita Community Theatre 1981

I designed sets and costumes for the WICHITA COMMUNITY THEATRE from 1980 to 1983. We used an old synagogue as our workshop stage in those days and performed a 5 play season in the 600 seat theatre which was a part of the Wichita Convention Center dubbed "Century 21" which was beside the Arkansas river directly downtown.

The first show I designed there was MY 3 ANGELS by Samuel & Bella Spewack ( the movie version called WE'RE NO ANGELS starred Humphrey Bogart ).

The play takes place behind a general store in French Guiana around 1900, so I incorporated large bamboo supports and interwoven matting to give the set the exotic flavor required. This was counter-pointed by the provincial style furnishings which the family would have brought with them or had imported from Europe. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a large quantity of silk flowers to populate the garden seen through the gates at stage right, augmented by two palm trees that we built from scratch out of carpet tubing and oiled paper leaves. Details such as these and the shop wares glimpsed through the doorway at center and on either side which give a set "depth" and believability.