All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the publisher.
Catalog design and production: Brad Peatross, School of the Arts, California State University, Stanislaus
Catalog printing: Claremont Print, Claremont, CA
Catalog photography: courtesy of the artist
Photographs included are used under the permission of the artist.
ISBN: 978-1-940753-26-3
DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD
Occasional Designs represents a wonderful chance to view the work of my collogue Eric Broadwater. Eric is our Department of Theatre’s resident Scenic Designer. A highly accomplished designer, artist and educator, Eric brings to us some of the most incredible sets that I have ever seen. Over the past few years I have had the pleasure of seeing many of Eric’s sets here in our Department of Theatre and I am constantly amazed at the magic he seams to perform in the ever-changing sets. This exhibition gives us a view of the work that most theatre patrons never get to see and shows the many talents that Eric has as a scenic designer.
I am very excited to be able to be part of this exhibition and to be able to share Eric’s work for others to enjoy.
I would like to thank the many colleagues that have been helpful in presenting this exhibition. Eric Broadwater for the chance of exhibiting his brilliant work, the School of the Arts, California State University, Stanislaus for the catalog design and Claremont Print and Copy for the printing of this catalog.
Much appreciation is also extended to the Instructionally Related Activates Program of California State University, Stanislaus, as well as anonymous donors for the funding of the exhibition and catalogue. Their support is greatly appreciated.
Dean De Cocker,
Director, University Art Gallery
California State University, Stanislaus
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
“A stage designer is, in a very real sense a jack-of-all-trades. He can design fireplaces and bodices and bridges and wigs. He understands architecture, but is not an architect: can paint a portrait, but is not a painter: creates costumes, but is not a couturier. Although he is able to call upon any or all of these varied gifts at will, he is not concerned with any one of them to the exclusion of the others, nor is he interested in any one of them for its own sake. These talents are only tools of his trade. His real calling is something quite different.
He is an artist of occasions.”
—Robert Edmond Jones
Theatre is the art of storytelling and my art is a small part of a large process which begins with a script and a director’s vision. It is the words and ideas of others that drive the shape of my work. With parameters dictating the needs of a specific story, presented in a specific space, told a specific point in time; the theatrical designer brings their own thoughts, ideas, and aesthetics to a production. These ideas are discussed with the director and adapted, revised, and manipulated. Once the designer and director arrive at a design that meets the needs as set forth, the designer must be able to communicate the particulars to those who will produce the actual set itself; the Technical Directors, builders, painters, and other artisans. Through these communications the designer’s ideas are further discussed and revised to meet space, budget, and resource requirments. This is the heart of the theatrical process…collaboration.
No theatrical artist lives in bubble. The design process can be long and requires many skill sets; drawing, painting, modeling, drafting, engineering…patience.
This collection represents, with a few exceptions, only part of the theatrical design process. These images and models are the rendered final ideas of the collaboration between the Designer and the Director and not necessarily the final output that appeared on stage. As such they incorporate the needs of the director which, in discussion, can range from very specific to very vague. Therein lies the art; the ability to interpret another’s words, the playwright’s and the director’s, into a visual image that defines the needs of a specific occasion.
DESIGNS
1. Buried Child, 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: I want something skeletal. My Take: The internal structures “bones” and other architectural elements of a house,but thrown together and disjointed like a pile of old bones.
Romeo & Juliet, 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: The fights are the most important thing to me, I just want an interesting place for the actors to fight. My Take: Inspired by old Errol Flynn movies I incorporated a lot of platforms to create interesting up-and-down fight choreography. Also I tried to keep a little of the style of renaissance Verona.
2.
3. Child’s Play, production photo, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: Even though it is modern it needs to feel like a gothic horror piece
My Take: Classic gothic architectural elements mixed with contemporary set dressing of a northeastern prep school.
4. Cloud Tectonics, 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: I need to see Los Angeles burn…Also the bed needs to magically float in the air. My Take: A classic Echo Park bungalow with looming projection screens with a variety of images that set up the destruction that was happening outside of this “safe environment”
to
and
5. A Flea in Her Ear – Act I, 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: This is classic French farce, placed in the 1960’s. I need a lot of places for people
run on
off stage. My Take: An apartment with classic 1960’s modern styling and seven different entrances inspired by the original Pink Panther movie.
6. A Flea in Her Ear – Act II, 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus My Take: A brothel with classic 1960’s modern styling and seven different entrances inspired by The Madonna Inn.
My
Classic Mediterranean architecture, inspired by the terraced cities built up the sides of the hilly Mediterranean coastline
7. Twelfth Night 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: Clark Gable, Majorca, 1930’s
Take:
8. Madame Butterfly, 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: Classical Japanese…make it pretty
My Take: Inspired by ukiyo-e, Japanese block printing I created portal that highlight the rising sun. I also create a series of shoji screens that could panel open and fly in and out to suggest changes in time and place.
9. A
Night’s Dream – In the City, 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: Starts in Athens, but I don’t want Greek columns, has to be grand but then turn into a forest, but I don’t want a forest, but I want places for fairies to hide and look down on humans. My Take: Inspired by the architecture of Frank Gehry I wanted a magical place the would be nonspecific but still let us know when we went from a city to a forest.
10. A
produced
but I don’t want Greek columns, has to be grand but then turn into a forest, but I don’t want a forest, but I want places for fairies to hide and look down on humans. My Take: Inspired by the architecture of Frank Gehry I wanted a magical place the would be non-specific but still let us know when we went from a city to a forest.
Midsummer
Midsummer Night’s Dream – In the Woods, 11”x17” digital print,
at CSU Stanislaus Director: Starts in Athens,
11. Julius Caesar, 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus My Take: Post-modern industrial tyranny
12. A Comedy of Errors, 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: The scenery has to reflect 9 different locations. Oh, and how about in the 1960’s My Take: A nonspecific “cityscape” inpired by Martin and Rowan’s Laugh-In with panels and doors that would slide and move to suggest a change in setting.
13.The Glass Menagerie, production photo, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: I don’t know, do what you think works…seriously that’s what he told me. My take: This play is presented as a memory of one of the characters, so using period appropriate architecture and style I wanted to fragment the set to suggest memory is not always how we remember it and details fade over time.
14. The Voice of The Prairie, 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: Me. My Take: Jumping around 8 different locals and 2 different timelines, I took inspiration by Norman Rockwell to try and capture the overly romantic memories of the American Midwest.
My Take: The etchings of prisons and ruins by Giovanni Battista Piranesi inspired the shape of the set and I used a lot of rust, rot and ruin to symbolize the decay in Macbeth’s soul.
15. Macbeth, 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: Just ugly …like Macbeth
16. Julius Caesar, 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: Contemporary demagogy…the idea of politicians as celebrity.
My Take: Inspired by the fascist architecture of EUR in Rome I wanted to create a place where people could hide around the perimeter of the action to plot and scheme. Mix that with a lot of rock concert lighting.
King Lear, 11”x17” digital print, produced at CSU Stanislaus Director: Stonehenge…but you know…not Stonehenge My Take: Although the standing stones were as inspiration for the shape of the monoliths this is a play about the descent into madness. I was inspired by the surreal photomontages of Scott Mueller to paint an impending storm that merges with interior castle walls.
17.
18. The Tempest, 11”x17” digital print, produced at the Sacramento Theatre Company
THE MIKADO
If You Want to Know Who We Are 11”x17” digital print produced
The Mikado, Overture 11”x17” digital print produced at Townsend Opera
at Townsend Opera
If You Want to Know Who We Are 11”x17” digital print
A Wand’ring Minstrel 11”x17” digital print produced at Townsend Opera
produced at Townsend Opera
I Am So Proud 11”x17” digital print produced at Townsend Opera
On a Tree by a River 11”x17” digital print produced at Townsend Opera
SCALE MODELS
Buried Child, 3/8” scale model produced at CSU Stanislaus
Machinal, 3/8” scale model, produced at CSU Stanislaus
Sincerity Forever, 1/4” scale model produced at CSU Stanislaus
The Crucible, 1/4” Scale Model Concept Art
Twelfth Night, 1/2” scale model produced at Sacramento Theatre Company
To Kill a Mockingbird, 1/4” scale model produced at Sacramento Theatre Company
WRECKS
Wrecks, written by Neil LaButte and directed by Jason Gerace, is a one-act show with no scene changes. These images reflect my design process. Starting with the first image as a preliminary concept dictated by the script, the scenery goes through many incarnations until the director and I come to a design that we feel best tells the story.
Wrecks, design process concept art
8 ½” x 11” digital print produced at Profiles Theatre, Chicago
design process concept art
Wrecks,
8 ½” x 11” digital print produced at Profiles Theatre, Chicago
Bottom: Wrecks, final design
8 ½” x 11” digital print produced at Profiles Theatre, Chicago
CURRICULUM VITAE
Eric Broadwater
http://www.BroadwaterScenic.com
EDUCATION
2006 MFA – Scene Design Pennsylvania State University
2001 BFA – Scene Design Southern Oregon University
2001 Internship – Scene Design Studio Oregon Shakespeare Festival
ORGIZATIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Member – USITT, US Institute for Theatre Technology
Member – KC/ACTF, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival
PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS
2016 USITT Scene Design Commission, Juried Poster Session Presentation
“Developing Scene Design Renderings form 3D Digital Models”
2015 USITT Scene Design Commission, Juried Poster Session Presentation
“Open-Source Software for Digital Theatre Designers”
Article published in Theatre Design & Technology.
“A Fully Integrated Digital Design Process for Scene Design”
2014 USITT Scene Design Commission Juried Poster Session Presentation
“A Fully Integrated Digital Design Process for Scene Design”
2013 Presenting at USITT Conference.
“Integrating Hand Drawn Scenic Elements into Computer Generated 3D Environments”
2006 “Introduction to Photoshop for Theatre Design” Workshop Presentation, KC/ACTF Region 4
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
2011 Set Design for “Debris” – KC/ACTF National Festival Selection
2011 Set Design for “Debris” – KC/ACTF Regional Festival Selection
2007 Excellence in Design – North Carolina Theatre Conference
2006 Achievement in Excellence (Design) – Pennsylvania State University College of Arts & Architecture
2001 Angus Bower Award for Design – Oregon Shakespeare Festival
2001 Schneider Merit Award – Schneider Museum of Art (Southern Oregon University)
SCENE DESIGNS
2016 The Lion, Witch ,and the Wardrobe Palo Alto Children’s Theatre, Phineas McBoof Palo Alto Children’s Theatre
The Super Cilantro Girl LightBox Theatre Co.
To Kill a Mockingbird Sacramento Theatre Co.
Two Gentlemen of Verona CSU Stanislaus
James and the Giant Peach
The Reluctant Dragon
The Fantasticks
Elephant & Piggie
Twelfth Night
2015 Constellations
Of Kites & Kings
BFG
Vinegar Tom
Bunnicula
Palo Alto Children’s Theatre
LightBox Theatre Co.
CSU Stanislaus
Palo Alto Children’s Theatre
Sacramento Theatre Co.
CSU Stanislaus
Sacramento Theatre Co.
Palo Alto Children’s Theatre,
CSU Stanislaus
LightBox Theatre Co.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Redtwist Theatre Co.
Brementown Players
Sleeping Beauty
Alice in Wonderland
King Lear
Julius Caesar
Junie B. Jones
2014 A Year with Frog and Toad
A Flea in Her Ear
I and You
Twelfth Night
Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse
Dead Accounts
2013 Wrecks
Art of Murder
Cloud Tectonics
Scapin
MacBeth
2012 Angels
The Shape of Things
Opus (Remounted)
Carmen
Comedy of Errors
Sukie and Sue
Mikado
2011 Opus
Buried Child
Romeo & Juliet
Madame Butterfly
Voice of the Prairie
Romeo & Juliet
Palo Alto Children’s Theatre
Palo Alto Children’s Theatre
Palo Alto Children’s Theatre
CSU Stanislaus
Sacramento Theatre Co.
Palo Alto Children’s Theatre
Palo Alto Children’s Theatre
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
Palo Alto Children’s Theatre
StepUp Productions
Profiles Theatre
Fox Valley Repertory
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
Redtwist Theatre
Townsend Opera
CSU Stanislaus
The Blank Theatre Co.
Townsend Opera,
Redtwist Theatre,
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
Townsend Opera
CSU Stanislaus
Townsend Opera, 2010 Debris
The Frogs
Tape
Inherit the Whole
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
Duel Theatre
Mortar Theatre Co.
CSU Stanislaus
2009 It’s a Wonderful Life
Machinal
Child’s Play
2008 A Christmas Carol
Crimes of the Heart
2007 Glass Menagerie
Trojan Women 2.0
Lend Me a Tenor
2006 one Star
Rounding Third
The Rivals
Translations
2005 Dracula
Twelfth Night
The Phantom Tollbooth
Beauty and the Beast
Zoo Story/Sandbox
La Traviata
Apassionada
Paquita
2004 Pavilion
A Winter’s Tale
Harvey
Androcles & The Lion
Ghosts
Mercy Seat
On the Verge
2003 All My Sons
2002 Brigadoon
2001 Macbeth
The Crucible
2000 The Mikado
Top Girls
On the Verge
1999 Medea
STAGE DIRECTION
2012 The Shape of Things
Voice of the Prairie
COSTUME DESIGN
2016 The Super Cilantro Girl
The Reluctant Dragon
2012 The Shape of Things
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
CSU
CSU Stanislaus
Northwest School of the Arts
Pennsylvania Center Stage
Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania State University
AK Theatre for Young People
AK Theatre for Young People
AK Theatre for Young People
AK Theatre for Young People
University of Oklahoma Theatre
University of Oklahoma Opera
University of Oklahoma Ballet
University of Oklahoma Ballet
University of Oklahoma Theatre
Gameliel Theatre Company
University of Oklahoma Theatre
University of Oklahoma Theatre
University of Oklahoma Theatre
University of Oklahoma Theatre
University of Oklahoma Theatre
University of Oklahoma Theatre
Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania State University
Southern Oregon University
Rogue Valley Opera December
Southern Oregon University
Southern Oregon University
Southern Oregon University
CSU Stanislaus
CSU Stanislaus
LightBox Theatre Co.
LightBox Theatre Co.
CSU Stanislaus
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
California State University, Stanislaus
Dr. Ellen Junn, President
Dr. Kimberly Greer, Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs
Dr. James A. Tuedio, Dean, College of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Department of Art
Dr. Roxanne Robbin, Chair, Professor
Dean De Cocker, Professor
Jessica Gomula-Kruzic, Professor
David Olivant, Professor
Gordon Senior, Professor
Richard Savini, Professor
Martin Azevedo, Assistant Professor
Daniel Edwards, Assistant Professor
Dr. Staci Scheiwiller, Assistant Professor
Meg Broderick, Administrative Support Assistant II
Andrew Cain, Instructional Technician I
Jon Kithcart, Equipment Technician II
University Art Gallery
Dean De Cocker, Director
Nikki Boudreau, Gallery Assistant
Special Thanks
T o my wife Junko, Sage and Mina for putting up with the long, weird hours of a theatre artist.
To Jason Gerace for always giving me an opportunity to get out of my bubble.
To Michael Laun and Sacramento Theatre Co. for given me a shot after four or five cold calls.
To Clay Everett and Bo Henry for facilitating some odd requests.
To Dan Carlgren for being there all the way from the beginning.
To the CSUS Art Department faculty for considering what we do here in the Theatre Department worth putting in a gallery.
To the CSUS Art Department and CAHSS staff for helping to actually catalog, promote and put the work in a gallery.
