September 24, 2005

From Imagination to Creation - The power of collaborative art

As the director of a theatre department at a small schol, I'm often a bit of a one man show. Sure there are volunteers a-plenty, but they generally just follow orders and carry out the details I convey to them. I have found one guy, however, who is a dream come true when it comes to production needs. He's a retired fireman who builds my sets for me. And God bless him! The first image you see here is the crude sketch I give him, for our production of Dial M for Murder and the following two photos are what he comes up with.

It is truly thrilling to see something that's in my brain become concrete and tangible. It's the buzz that keeps me going. You'd think I'd want it to turn out exactly as it is in my head, but I've found that every ounce of talent added to the process brings forth nuances and complexities that I love. It's that ole' one+one=three of collaborative art.


1 comment:

MLE said...

Very excellent job ending up with the set you envisioned--a very rare thing to be sure. My parents (Rob and Gayle) told me about your site--it would be excellent to share ideas! I'm currently in the stressed-out phase of costuming and "propping" for A Midsummer Night's Dream which we will be performing on Nov. 3-5. Theatre in a gym squeezed in between volleyball and basketball season, 100 kids wanting to be involved, and a fundraising committee who wants to do a dinner between our Sat. matinee and eving show who thinks our choice of play is "uninteresting" and could hurt their turnout for the dinner. Life in a Christian school. Anyway, I'd like to keep seeing what you are working on! I currently have a few pictures up myself. Emily Bosscher