THE NIGHT THOREAU SPENT IN JAIL - WCT - Article

 The newspaper article above appeared the week THOREAU opened at Century II in Wichita. It contains the usual amount of fanciful reporting which I had already become used to and would experience again during my career. While it was true that WICHITA COMMUNITY THEATRE typically employed what is refered to as a "Box Set" for it's productions ( usually a room with 3 walls and standard furnishings fairly realistically represented ) there was nothing even remotely revolutionary about the minimalist approach I employed for this play. In fact the authors JEROME LAWRENCE and ROBERT E. LEE called for a simple and uncomplicated staging with only needed props employed.

What I am actually painting in the photo above is a 20" X 30" piece of clear plexiglass using the brown paper template shown here. Using stained glass paints for tinting the plex, I created what amounted to a large slide which could be inserted in a lightbox. This would "project" the image of a tranquil pond onto the cyclorama which backed the stage setting. Combined with the painted groundcloth, an illusion of the famous Walden Pond was created over the entire stage at key moments during the play.