RED

RED by John Logan is about the abstract expressionistic artist Mark Rothko and his studio. A young aspiring artist Ken is hired to help with the extraneous work around the New York City lower East side studio. The story takes place in the late 1950’s in a reconfigured gymnasium. The inspiration for this design was his artwork themselves. His work was honest and open ended, with Burts of color and blackness taking over, the creation of his work was based on his fear of death and darkness inevitably taking over his life. I wanted to go full realism with this concept piece to show a distant contrast from his work and his world. There was a slight abstraction with the black outlining the set, In the show he becomes darker and lets his ego take control. The black represents reality creeping inside his mind. The project was a thrust theatre space which was a challenge with staging but meant that I needed to play with angles and bring the action down center more. The reality of the studio is necessary for this show because he is constantly live painting onstage and stretching canvases. There are hints in the text of his actual working environments based on Rothko’s real life journals, his dislike of natural light and unconventional painting techniques. The design encompassed his world and the way he saw art through color blocking and his response to commercial art.