They were looking for art students from APSU to help do the scenic design for the production. Fellow professors Patrick Gosnell and Rachel Bush and I decided to team up and round up a team of students to tackle the job. Having a background in theater design, I took the lead communicating with The Roxy, meeting with the director Tom Thayer and director of development Ryan Bowie. They provided me with a rough set plan, which I mocked up in 3d on the computer and gave to a design student to do some concepts in photoshop.
We had hundreds of fun flyers and leaflets created by several design students to wallpaper the set with. I supervised some scenic painting of bricks while we wallpapered and spray-painted graffiti on the entire set from top to bottom. I came back a few days later to lay down some concrete floor painting to finish it all off.
It was a lot of hard work and fun, and I'm very proud of the awesome work from the students! They all seemed very proud as well. I think it was a great chance for them to work on a collaborative project and see their work in a new venue.
It was also great to get the chance to work with The Roxy and return to my theater roots again. Hopefully this will be the first of many collaborations!
