Whip It!

This week, the scenic artists have been working on the many translucent drops for our upcoming production of "The Tempest." Designed by Dan Ostling (who also designed our wonderful play "The White Snake" a new work with Mary Zimmerman), the drops seem to convey frantic motion, a desperate need to escape. These drops are beautiful and have been super fun to paint. We've employed a number of techniques, but our favorite has been the "buggy whip" technique. Our Charge Artist Gabriel Berrera invented this technique by tying a string to the end of a short bamboo, dipping it in water, and whipping the drop repeatedly to get that graphic, sketchy quality shown in the elevation. We made a fun video below to demonstrate our technique: