Friday, September 02, 2011
When the Color Is Primary
NYTimes.com: BLOOD. Cherry. Brick. Sangria. With so many shades of red on the color spectrum, what’s a poster designer to do with a show called simply “Red”? Almost 30 regional theaters faced this question when they put John Logan’s drama, about the Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko, on their 2011-12 schedule. (The show was a hit on Broadway last year, winning six Tony Awards including best play.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Very interesting to think of how a regional theatre, or rather two dozen regional theatres, can take a recent successful broadway show, and make it their own. Seeing every company's approach with the promotional material was fun. I have never seen someone lay it all out like that before, and enjoyed this NYT piece. It sort of reminds me of class projects here: When we do a class design or something, everything comes from the same world, but seeing a dozen different approaches is fascinating!
I agree with charles. It was really cool to see how some of the designers went completely minimalist, choosing to show only a few colors and the name of the play (similar to how the Broadway production did it), whereas others included a figure, or even actors. In my opinion, the most successful covers were the simplest, but again, I enjoyed reading the designers' justifications for each one. Now i'd be excited to see any of these regional productions and see how the director's take relates both to the art, and how it differs from the production I saw.
I find poster design fascinating. A poster defines what that production is trying to accomplish. Subconsciously, a show is flavored by its poster.
It's so interesting to compare each production's poster. Just based on the posters, I think I would most like to see the Arena Stage, and the Goodman Theatre's productions.
This artwork is not only fascinating, but a perfect example of how posters do have the ability to be alluring. Each company's unique take on the production can be discerned from within them. The justifications are all unique and all bring something to the table - bringing forth the idea of there being more than one way and no right way. I would be interested to see any of these productions, both for what they are as art and in seeing how they are carried out differently from the original Broadway production. It is this kind of intriguing and beautiful theatre that I would love to see even more of in the commercial world.
This also reminded me of our class projects, everyone is faced with the same task of creating an image to capture and evoke interest in a story. For each establishment, with different teams, styles, and experiences, created a different image that all accomplish this task. I think each image has a particular strength and I could not choose a favorite even if I wanted to. It is nice to see that these regional theatres can take a broadway hit and pull it into their own yard.
It's neat to get to see how the same root concept can be represented in so many different ways. I wish I could see a comparison of show publicity images for more shows than just RED, I'm curious about how those designs vary as well. The Goodman Theatre design looks quite cinematic and eye-catching, but I also like the out-of-focus look of Cleveland Playhouse's design.
I like that although they were all different the shade and hue of red that was used in all but Cleavland's was very similar. It shows very clearly how important color can be in displaying meaning. I agree with Becca that it would be interesting to see the differing designs and direction for the shows as well as the posters and advertising. I think there should be more comparative pieces like this. I think it would encourage designers and directors to take more risks and be more original in their portrayals of a show instead of what happens so often when future productions just replicate the Broadway version as close as they can.
Post a Comment