Painting for Penzance

The Tacoma Multi Stake Cultural Arts Committee presents:  The Pirates of Penzance.  I got to do some of the set painting.  (Yay!)



My contribution was the big scenic backdrop, and these plywood rocks.    (That's Fiona's library in the background, which was not part of the production--they just hadn't moved it off the stage yet.)



Anne Marie helped out a couple of times.  That green grassy stuff in the background was done by another girl that came to help one day, but it just wasn't working so we ended up changing the whole thing.



This was during the time that my camera died, but Anne Marie got a couple of pictures for me on her phone.   "This is my brush!"



I was still working on the rocks right up until the day of the first performance. You can see the rocks on the backdrop, too. The whole thing was very rocky. (And that backdrop was crazy... it ended up being way more complicated than it should have been, and cost Anne Marie some late night sewing hours.  My part with the painting was relatively straightforward!)



They had seven performances over two weekends, and it was just fabulous.  The house was packed (I heard from many people who enjoyed it so much they went back and saw it a second time).  Patrick Watson as the pirate king really stole the show, but the whole cast was amazing. There was a brief incident during opening night when the Major General's mustache fell off in the middle of the song, but they handled it with panache and some hilarious ad-libbing.  There's a video clip here.  The funny part starts about halfway through. 

Working on stuff like this is always fun.  It's just so cool to see it all coming together and then see it in the performance.