Orlando Shakes Board Meeting

Posted on by Thor

Jim Helsinger, the Artistic Director at the Orlando Shakes (812 E. Rollins St., Orlando, FL), invited me to give a brief 10-minute presentation at the Orlando Shakes Board meeting that showed some of the creative process involved in each season’s posters. It was exciting to share a bit of the creative chaos that transpires every season.

I prepared 10 slides (JPGs) that showed all of the versions of each poster that were used as the concept for each poster evolved. Some slides had just 4 versions of the poster while others had up to 10 different concepts.

The meeting was tightly packed with budgeting and marketing presentations, so I didn’t want to run overtime. With the 10 slides I had just 1 minutes to discuss each poster evolution. This is something I do here on Analog Artist Digital World each season anyway. I show all the ideas that didn’t work, before showing the final poster concept.

With Stuart Little I pointed out that the first pass at the poster was just something to get the conversation started. I did another version with Stuart in the port hole of a boat and then one with the cat dominating the scene. When the cat was pushed further into the background the concept allowed Stuart to take center stage.

With Hound of the Baskervilles the challenge was to make it clear that the show was a comedy. I first pass was quite dark with a huge demonic dog hidden in the trees while a silhouette of Sherlock was looking through his magnifying glass. A second pass had Watson and Sherlock seated in the same forest. I realized that Watson has a bigger role in the mystery than Sherlock. I put another dog in a golden frame. That dog was once again too dark and menacing. When I replaced him with a smiling rottweiler and had Watson looking through the magnifying glass with a huge magnifying glass and Sherlock looking quite perplexed. The comedic aspect seemed clear to me.

With Fat Ham I just had to switch from the nightclub dance mode I adopted in the first tow passes at the poster and instead focus on the picnic in the backyard. With Shakespeare’s As You like It I tried about 10 different concepts before settling in on female lips and a mustache. I had seen an image of a lipstick kissed onto a sheep of paper and to me that pattern looked like trees in a forest. It is an abstract though that came after many far more literal passed at the poster design.

With Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors there were tons of passes at the poster because I had worked on it for two seasons. Concepts started with a full cast and over time the challenge became figuring out how to depict a vampire smiling. Any time a vampire smiles it doesn’t come off as comedic, it comes off as menacing. Clattering toy teeth were an obvious work around to let people know this was a comedy.

Come From Away also had many passes before setting on a final poster image. It is about planes being diverted to land in Nova Scotia after the 9-11 attacks in NYC. Many of the early designs had multiple airplanes lined up on the runway. But that isn’t what the show is about. It is about how people come together for one another in an emergency. The challenge was how to depict a welcoming community. Orlando came together to embrace love and strength after the Pulse Nightclub massacre.  The concept that worked showed multiple hands creating a heart shape with a bright sunrise glowing in that heart shape. I had seen this symbol of the heart so often after Pulse, and I finally embraced it for the poster concept.

Richard III was a rare case where I did four concept and one hit the mark perfectly. In that poster, Richard’s hand rises from inside a crown and it scratches three bloody trails onto a white wall.

With A Christmas Carol I got to point out how I had created a poster design for the show 4 different times. This time I resisted showing a large cast and instead just focused on Scrooge walking down a dark London street while it snowed. That simple image allows the viewer to decide who Scrooge might be on that dark evening walk.

With the Children’s show Corduroy, I sketched a Teddy bear sitting on a shelf. He seemed sad, which he was since he had been abandoned there for so long. The show, however, is very finny and comical. The poster needed a verb. I did two passes with a girl hugging the bear, one was realistic and the other cartoony. In the end the concept that got accepted showed Corduroy reaching for a button which had popped off of his green overalls. That button was his quest for the entirety of the show. He wanted to look good to the little girl would return and bring him home.

Last I got to share a sketch of the recent production of Henry VI: The Rise of Richard which I had done on location in the theater. I have been doing a location sketch like this every day since January 1, 2009. Of course I sketched the board meeting itself. I only had an hour while subtracting my presentation time. I had to work fast. The sketch is rushed and not as complete as other sketches I have done, but it isn’t the worst thing I have ever done, so I accept what it is and move on to the next.

Fat Ham at the Shakes

Posted on by Thor

Fat Ham is a serious yet humorous one two punch based loosely on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The play is set at a barbecue in the backyard of a southern suburban home. Juicy is visited by the ghost of his dead father. This visitation reveals that Juicy’s father was murdered by The Rev who is Juicy’s uncle and now set dad. After the murder the Rev made his move to win his brother’s widow Tedra.

Juicy’s friend Rabby was the first to see the ghost. The ghost rose from the beer cooler set at the front of the stage. The ghost had a mission which was to convince his son Juicy to avenge his murder. Juicy however resists this long history of violence in the family. He wants to find happiness while embracing his queerness. His identity isn’t found by throwing a good punch but by accepting the flaws of the family around him and finding where he belongs.

Others at the back yard BBQ also are coming to terms with their queerness. It turns out that Opal likes woman and Larry who arrives to the BBQ in a marine uniform wants deep a heart to be softer than the soldier he was trained to be. Each must find their way despite family expectations.

When I started this sketch, I thought a lighting tech or sound person might be working the board at house right. No one ever set up a that station. All the cues must have been locked in place. The set looked very much like the others sets I had seen for Fat Ham. In an interview I saw, James IJames the show’s author said that the set was very much like the backyard where he grew up. It is an unassuming setting where very heated family dynamics play out.

Unlike Hamlet where almost everyone dies, the  ending of this play celebrates acceptance and joy found despite the arrogant pigeonholing of gender. Larry the marine is seen resplendent like a phoenix rising from the ashes. The family finds joy in their imperfect world. I left the theater feeling a creative spirit can still bloom in this jaded and imperfect world.

Fat Ham is being performed live at the Shakespeare Theater through March 29, 20206. Trust me this is a show you do not want to miss.

Fat Ham Final Poster

Posted on by Thor

The final pass at the Fat Ham poster features the “to be or not to be” moment from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Granted there is no mirrored skull or crown in Fat Ham, but it allows for anyone to know that the play is an homage to Hamlet. I switched from depicting the glamorous lighting of the finale of the play and instead focused on depicting the back yard barbecue.

Juicy (Je’Shaun Jackson) fills in for Hamlet who is visited by the ghost of his dead father and tasked with killing his father’s brother who is the one who murdered his dad. Juicy however, has a pleasant disposition an couldn’t hurt a fly.

Juicy performing Karaoke fills in for the famous To be or not to be monologue. Juicy sings Creep by Radiohead. IT starts off awkwardly but the slips into a dream sequence in which Juicy fells completely in control of the world around him.  It is at first humorous and then gloriously empowering.  It shows a creative and expressive individual embracing his uniqueness and taking flight.

The final poster had to embrace lightness rather than the dark to be more successful. There are so many moments of absolute joy and humor in the play and that had to overpower the dark themes. The photo taken for the theater program slipped back towards the darkness of reflecting on mortality. Juicy wears a black turban head wrap in the Orlando Shakespeare Theater production and it is an awesome replacement for the crown. I wish I had thought of it when I was working on the poster.

Costuming was by Jos N. Banks who also played Larry in the production. Larry shows up to the barbecue in uniform. This crisp militaristic uniform defines how he is seen by everyone. The Rev (Essex O’Brian) respects a man who has killed others. When Larry is alone with Juicy, he expresses a desire to be more soft and caring.

By the end of Hamlet almost everyone has died including the protagonist Hamlet. Fat Ham turns that ending on it’s head, deciding to celebrate acceptance and inclusion with a rousing and glamorous musical number. Chandeliers drop down from the ceiling and the lighting turns hot and exotic. Queerness is celebrated like a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Fat Ham runs through March 29, 2026 at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater (812 E. Rollins St., Orlando, FL 32803). Ticket prices range from $70 for the A signature series seats to $48 for the C signature series seats. You don’t want to miss Fat Ham.

Fat Ham Theater Poster Second Pass

Posted on by Thor

For the second pass at the Fat Ham theater poster for the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, I tried the classic Hamlet pose of holding a skull while debating existence. In this case I used a mirrored skull but ultimately such a scene does not happen in the play. Fat Ham is a modern take on Hamlet staged at a southern back yard barbecue.

A difficulty in depicting the cast is that the poster is painted long before any auditions. In this play, Juicy (Je’Shawn Jackson) steps in for Hamlet but he embraces his fabulous self. There is less self reflection and more yearning for being somewhere where he can be openly accepted for show he is.

In this painting I had not yet resolved the back hand holding the skull. The shakes decided to use this concept for the theater programs by posing the actor holding a mirrored skull in a photo. In this painting I had the rest of the cast dancing in the background, which is similar to the karaoke scene in the play. The trouble with their poses is that they could be dancing excitedly or in pain. The dancing and dark theatrical lighting had to go.

Since the concept was not accepted, I never polished the details of the painting. This is like a thumbnail concept sketch, but I find it just as convenient to work full size to explore ideas. This season I worked the thumbnail ideas at ¼ size, and I found it was easier to crank out more possibilities.

In Fat Ham Juicy is visited by the ghost of his dead father and he is tasked with avenging his death. The Rev (Essex O’Brian) is the brother of Juicy’s dad and he murdered Juicy’s father. The Rev then immediately made moves on his brothers widow and married her. Juicy is to kind of a soul to murder his uncle. But when his uncle chokes on some BBQ he refuses help from his nephew who could have saved him with a Heimlich maneuver. The uncle’s refusal to accept help is what killed him.

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, pretty much everyone dies including Hamlet. Fat Ham uses the familiar Hamlet plot as a framework to explore themes of Black masculinity, queerness, family trauma, and the cycle of violence, ultimately subverting the tragic ending with a celebration of joy, love, and self-acceptance.

This celebration is what I wanted to express in the painting for the poster, but I think I missed the mark. I needed to do another pass that focused more on the everyday aspect of a family BBQ in the deep south.