NOVA'S SHADY GROVE Inspiration

I've been asked how I come up with the concept for my set designs. They are  driven primarily by the action required in the play first, followed by any creative impulse I might feel is appropriate.

This was a no brainer really...the actual bar on Lake Worth was dripping with the kind of Texas Roadhouse atmosphere that people of a certain lifestyle are all too familiar with. Since it was the inspiration for the play I felt that I should do what I could to recreate the space as accurately as possible, with the aforementioned side murals to add a touch of surreality against the hyperreality of the setting and it's fixtures.

The photos I took on our visit out there that day in february 1987 will give you an idea of what I was working from in designing NOVA'S SHADY GROVE.