Secrets are revealed, relationships are compromised and flamboyant couldn’t be funnier in a wildly hilarious and shockingly scandalous play.

I was the Scenic Paint Charge on this show. In this position, I was in charge of organizing the paint team, creating the samples of how to imitate the techniques on the rendering, assigning jobs and instructions of what to do, and communicating with the Designer and Technical Director, both in the person of John Burgess. My only job? Make sure the stage looked like his elevations. That’s all.

I taught my crew painting techniques we used to turn dreary wood into glorious marble from mines around the world. This was my first time juggling the pressure and contact time of Scenic Paint Charge for a mainstage show and – did I mention that I’m a college student? – a full-time class load taught by professors each convinced that theirs was my only class. However, after a successful, crowd-pleasing run (with no wet sets), our guest lighting designer mentioned to Burgess that I was a very effective leader, and pulled the crew and show together diligently. Telling me this, he then recognized my leadership by saying that he expected my level of work from a junior or senior, but not a sophomore, first-time Charge on a college mainstage show.

Columns

1. Stock up on your favorite tubular concerte-pouring forms
2. Scumble with lighter and darker colors to create contrast.
3. Use a sponge to add random yet organized spirals to increase the texture of the column.
4. Use a straight one-inch sash brush with white paint on one side and dark on either side to create the veins for the marble. Use three different colors: white, black, and a darker red color.

Pink Marble Floor

1. Roll a base coat of pink
2. Use a sponge roller to put down a darker pink, and then a white for highlight

Blue Marble Floor

1. Light and dark blue scumble
2. Wash of light purple—rag-rolled diagonally across board
3. Wash of dark blue and white to create marble texture with a fitch brush
4. Shake water over all, with a clean brush, to enable spreading of the paint to give it a more marbled quality

Textile Cutouts

1. Base with a dark brown
2. Sponge roll gold over random sections
3. Add light yellow and slight white for highlights on gold