 Greetings and welcome to Behind the Curtain. Here on Behind the Curtain we're going to look at the world of community theater. I'm your host, Susan Harrington. Today we are being joined by John Pease. John is a director, an actor, and a set designer. Welcome John. Thank you for having me. Well, I'm so excited for you being here. I want to not ignore the other things that you do, but primarily today, for this visit at least, talk about your set designing. So in your, in theater, what is your interpretation of the role of the set designer? The set designer, his role is to create the playground that the actor wants to play on and also what the director has in mind in his vision. I take that and then I translate that by reading the script. I look at it. I come up with ideas and I pass it before the director. I want to make sure that he is happy with the design and he can use it to stage his show, how he sees it. Great. Did you say this in college? No. I don't know. I've just been mostly an artist myself. I always liked colors. I always liked design. I've always liked that aspect. I like all aspects of theater, acting, directing, you know, and design. And it is very relaxing for me to do that and people are like, what do you mean? I just, isn't that like, you know, hectic or whatever? Yeah, it can be, but it's also very rewarding to me. So your process, which I think you've already explained, once you've been assigned the show is to make it what the director is looking at. How does, or how will or how could, how the actors play into that? Well, I also want to make sure, you know, they're comfortable with the space, too. You know, I found it odd when I first started doing sets that sometimes the directors were just like, oh, do what you want. Do what you want. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. And then, you know, when you do that and then later on, you know, I don't like it. That's why I was asking you before. You know, but with actors, it's really mainly, I want the director to be happy. And then from there, I take it. And then the actors usually adapt to their environment that they're on. You know, I've never really had problems with the actors, you know, with the set, you know. But the directors, you know, sometimes you need to really push them for their point of view. And you also need to know certain things. You know, like if you're doing a thriller or something or some sort of mystery, you know, is there hidden pathways? Is there something funky that needs to be on the set? You know, like a knight in armor that moves or something. All things like that you need to take into effect because you need to incorporate that into your design. So it's extremely important that you read the script. Because you have to adapt it. You know, they have pictures in the back, you know, of sets. But that's not the exact same space that you have where you're working. So you need to work with your director and say like, you know, this aspect of this won't work here. We can't just set it up. You know, you can get lucky sometimes with single set. You know, just like, oh, this is the living room of the house. And that's it. But if you have multiple locations, you've got to really figure that out. Like when you did T for, what was it? Not T for two. No, key. T for two. That was just, well, no, it wasn't more than one set. But when you did the odd couple, that was just one set. Yeah. Okay. So that was, now, okay. So you had- Yeah, key for two was a single unit set. Oh, okay. I thought- It had the bedroom and then the living room. Okay. Yeah. So you designed the set. You had to think about the director, what he or she is looking for. Yeah, his vision. And then the actor. But what about the sound people and the lighting? Well, you work together. At least, you know, I would. You know, I, you know, you're talking as set design, but as a director, I have my hand in all of those things. So in order for the set to work perfectly, we all need to work as a team. It's a collaboration. It's not a dictatorship. You know, and you need to like, so this is what I'm thinking of doing this for the set. Will that work? Can you light that area? And do colors, and do you also have to keep in mind what colors to or not to use? Yeah. Like, you know, a lot of people say green is a horrible color to use. But you can use it if you use it properly, you know, because green absorbs more of the light and it has a tendency to make it look dark. But if done correctly, it looks beautiful. Okay. I know that, obviously, that you direct and you act, but do you have a favorite kind of a set to design? That's hard. I do like to do, and I haven't had the chance since I've been up here, but to do like mysteries or like thrillers. One of my favorite sets I ever got to do was on Long Island when I lived on Long Island, and we did Frankenstein. And I got to do this set. I told the director, I said, this is what I want to do. And we did the sets in all sepia tones, browns and burgundies, deep colors. And when we did that, we made sure when we worked with the customer that the costumes didn't have those colors in them and that when they came on the set, they would pop and their colors would be vivid against the backdrop. And when we did that too, when we did the laboratory where the monster was, the effects of, what do they call those, where the lightning goes between, was phenomenal. And that was one of my favorite sets. It really was. It was just, I would love to do that up here again. Okay, so what are some of your favorite shows? And I think that might be different than what kind of sets you'd like to design. But that you have done up here and you've done many. Because I know the first thing I ever saw you in was Don't Dress for Dinner at AFD. And then another was Last Night at Ballyhoo at QP. So are you talking about as a performer at what I've done? No, but I mean, when you think about QP's set, you know, that used to, that was formerly originally a two-room school house and they don't have, they don't have flies, they don't have really wings. And it's more of a black box type. But at AFD there's a proscenium stage with a thrust. And so I just didn't know, do you prefer working with designing sets that do or don't have thrust? Or would you prefer a black box or? It doesn't matter for me where, what theater outlay, layout has. If I like the play, and that's another thing, you have got to like the show that you're doing. Because if you don't, it's going to show. Because when you like something, you pay attention to the detail, you pay attention to it working properly. Just all those aspects of it, of design and dressing and everything. And you want it to look, when you're into it, you're on the team and you're participating at 100%. And that's really fun. But also too, I like it when I have a difficult space. Arlington is a difficult space. People are like, oh no, it's a proscenium. It's not wide, it's deep. And that's hard because you have your sight lines. And everything goes, you know, you can't have like a really go really deep. And I had a great set designer for me when I did the odd couple there. And him and I worked and we made a Manhattan apartment in there. Oh, I thought you designed that set. I designed it with Chip, Chip Sheeranen. Him and I worked on it together. I told him, this is what I kind of think. Can I do that? He was more familiar with the space than I was because he had built sets in there before. But he helped me. It was my design in his. And it came out really good. I wanted to move in. But yeah, it was really, really nice. That was a challenge. It was fun. So what were some of your favorites? I may have asked this, but maybe asking it differently. Some of the shows that you have designed sets for, what were some of your favorites? Not that, you know, whether it was a good show or not. You mentioned one before, key for two. I was the director, but I was also working this set with Donna. And that was one of the few shows that you could look at the back of the script and look at that design and put it in the space. And it worked. And, you know, one of the big things we have is doors in small spaces like that. So we got to use our imagination. We used a pocket door instead of a regular opening and closing door. We had it slide. It saved room. We eliminated one door. You know, you hear it, you hear the doorbell ringing, but it was down the hall. So there was another door eliminated, you know, things like that, you know, and it's fun. But key for two was one of my favorite ones because it looked so good. And by the time I was done and, you know, we try things. And we had Donna Corbett was helping me and she was the main lead on the set build with Hugh on that. And we ended up trying to use wallpaper and we put it up and were like, mm, didn't work. So when we're thinking and I came up with the idea, I'm like, wait a minute. Let's get keep the wallpaper because it's got a great design, but let's put a sheer over it. And so we took shears, cheap $2 shears that you could get from building 19, which is gone now. And we took it and we stapled it all across the back wall of the bedroom and it looked like a French bedroom by the time we were done with it. It looked really nice and that was fun. Well, I was going to say your pre-show music, this kind of sounds silly, but your pre-show music and your intermission music that was great on that piece and I think that it helped kind of get people into the mood of it and stay there, which enhanced I think the set. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I picked that music. I know you sent me a copy of it. And I jokingly said, can I have a copy of that? And you said, yeah, sure. And you sent it to me. Oh, wow. It's wonderful. Now have you replicated? I think you did key for two somewhere else. Did you? Okay. Yeah. But and that was tricky because that was Winchester, right? Yes. And then they're gone. Yeah. But this and their set was that in the church rectory and it was that sense. Did you take that off the stage and put it on the floor? No. I'm trying to remember. No, it was all up on the procedure. Okay. It's small, but it worked. We did it. Yeah. Do you like repeating shows designed? I do. I do. I like that. Like I've done that also with a musical comedy murders of 1940. Oh, okay. You know, and it's always different. It's never the same thing. It can't be, you know, but the set when we did the set for musical comedy murders of 1940, which I had given Katie some pictures of. You can see when we did it, it was done in two dimension cause QP space is so small. You couldn't have a full bookcase. So we took it and we painted. And like, you know, in that show, it was a lot of fun. That show too. That's another one of my favorites that we did because they were able to make the bookcase slide or open to reveal a doorway or this hidden tunnel or whatever. It was a lot of fun. And but it was done in two dimension. And when you look at it, it looks like a real bookcase. But you know, but you can tell it's painted, but still it worked really, really well. Wow. And then I did it up at Concord. I was going to ask you. And he, wow. Alan Bentley. Alan Bentley. Yeah. We bow to Alan Bentley. He's a phenomenal set builder. Yeah. And he did that. He did the upper portion of the set like a Tiffany lamp. It was gorgeous, gorgeous set. Gorgeous. Wow. Yeah. It's fun. Because I was going to ask if you've ever done anything at Concord. You know, women, they have that huge set. Yeah. Stage, I mean. That huge stage. There's a lot to. Well, thank God it was big because it worked. Yeah. Because there's, in the show, there's three hidden passageways. Wow. And it was like, oh my Lord. I mean, I've seen some amazing sets there, but I was just wondering, you know, but they've got all that space. Do you find it more challenging or less challenging? Well, it worked really well for musical murders. Okay. Because it was a cast of ten people and a large set. You know, but if you have a show that's smaller and supposed to be intimate, me personally, I would, sorry, I hope I didn't touch the mic. I would shrink it, you know, bringing black curtains on the side, you know, because there's a certain shows that are intimate. Yeah. And to help that, maybe even bring it forward. Yeah. You know, it depends. You know, but that's, again, that's where you work with the design team, with the director, and you help them. Sometimes you have a huge input as a set designer. It can really change the vision that the director had. Lately I've been asked to do this, and so I'm wondering, have you ever worked with a dramaturge? No. Okay. Do you think it would be more helpful or more invasive to work with a dramaturge? No. I think it's, a dramaturge, I think, can help you with, especially with period pieces. I was going to, yeah. And, but even, you know, even now, certain things, you know, like, that they didn't have that style back then, and that doesn't look right. And, you know, when you have a, you're doing a 1940s plane, we have a 1980s couch, and it, you know, doesn't work. I went to see a show with a friend because our co-worker's nephew was in it. And we're sitting there, and she starts rumbling and grumbling, and I said, what's the matter with you? She goes, they didn't have those kind of tuxedos back there. And I said, what? Now I wouldn't know, but she's a costumer. She was a costumer, and she says, you didn't have tuxedos with stripes down the legs. I went, okay. And then she said, that woman's gown is too far off the ground. It should have been this. It should have been that. See, there's those things that I think, you know, our folks know, and the general public doesn't. So then again, we look for certain things, and we're very particular, and it's important to us to be right on the money. Well, you know, I've never worked with a dramaturg, but I will tell you, I research my period and everything. And it's great that if I had somebody to co-work with that or, you know, assist me with that, that would be awesome. I would love to work with somebody like that. And then like, especially colors, you know, certain colors weren't used in certain periods, you know. They existed. Yeah, and were used in this way. And what I think about is when we moved to Upstate New York when I was little, I think they had, they were stuck in the 1950s. And every house we moved in had this pink and like aqua colors from the 50s that were in, almost every house we were in. And so, you know, when you're doing shows, when they think of 50s, I think of that. You know, but you research, and these are the colors that you, you know, you work with. And if you have a set with a color that wasn't really popular, it doesn't look authentic. The other thing too is when we did fences at folks, and they make this comment about things, everybody in the cast, almost everybody in the cast was much younger than this period. And we had to explain to this one girl what a hot comb was. We told her how black people used to do their hair back then. She went, they used to do what? You know, she couldn't believe it, but it helped to explain so that she could understand even though it didn't happen on stage. So that's why I was wondering if, do you primarily as a set designer, and maybe as a director, just look at the furniture and what would be on the set and the props, and maybe the set dressing, or do you also investigate or investigate things that were happening during the period? Well, yeah. I mean, if, historically, if you're doing a piece in that period, will the news affect what was going on back then? Will that news from then affect that period? Or whatever, that's a different side, but like politics in one way, you know, it affects the class that they were in. You know, low class, upper class, middle class, you know, that affects your design of what you would pick. You know, you're not going to put some really expensive piece of furniture in somebody's house. You know, an example for me would be if you were doing Brighton Beach Memoirs, and how she always polishes the table, you know, that would be something that was handed down and heirloom, and you know, that would be an important piece of furniture. And especially, doesn't she talk about it in the play? Yeah, she talks about it in the play. You know, that is something, too. And that's another reason why you need to read the script. Yeah. You know, in certain things. I know, when we did at festival with Footlight Club, we did Raising in the Sun, and we had the, this is what we used to do. I saw that. The old adjudication form, where they each came out individually. And each adjudicated to a person who said, well, you know, a colored family wouldn't have, because that's back to the reference, they were referred to as colored, not negroes or blacks, or African-Americans, a colored family would not have pots and pans that were that shiny, that looked that new. And each of them said that, and my co-producer was going, like, keep talking about the pots and pans. And I said, yeah, but listen to what he's not saying. And she was like, oh, he's talking about the pots and pans. Well, first off, they each caught that. And we wound up winning the whole festival, you know, all those awards. But, and I said, think about it. And they even made a suggestion, okay, you aren't necessarily going to find old pots and pans. So someone said, take some Vaseline and hit them with some Vaseline, and the light hits them differently. And they look older. Well, even hairspray, too. Yeah. You have spray, as long as it doesn't damage the thing. Yeah. The surface. You know, but I mean, it, that's old part of, you know, designing this set and then the people dressing this set are one and the difference sometimes depending on the company. But when I build the set, I'm thinking about where the pieces would go and what they would look like and what they should, you know, like, oh, if the TV is supposed to be 1950s, where is it going to be? Because it's smaller or bigger. You know, it's all sorts of different things like that. You know, and where things go and how large they were back then and the difference, you know, you know, even hardware of, for doors and things, it's all different as time periods go by. There's a lot to think about in that. Yeah. Because what I was going to say too is, is granted, you know, and I'm saying, I'm using the word just for a reason. You're just the set designer. Then there's someone who's just doing set dressing and someone else, I mean, who's just doing prompts. Is, do you feel some, and there's some way that you can, you should or maybe should not interject your suggestions? Like you were saying, because of something, you know, they didn't have those kinds of things, or as Judy would say when it came to costumes. They didn't have stripes down their tuxedo legs, you know. Oh, when I'm doing that, I have a hard time not being vocal about it. Right, you John. No, I mean, because like you said, just like you're raising in the sun, the shiny pans, you know, some people, oh, they'll never notice that. No, maybe not all of them, but some people will notice. And when that happens, when something like that happens, when you see something and you think about that for that moment, it takes you out of the moment of the play. Yeah. It takes you out because you're creating an illusion. Yes. You want that illusion to be perpetuated. And, you know, attention to detail like that really, really is really important because not everybody will notice. Exactly. I mean, for us and our family, where we have our shows adjudicated, we had the Footlight Club took, all my sons took it off the stage and down on the floor. And I knew one of the adjudicators who was coming was Jennifer Lavin Howard. And, you know, Jennifer's a costume person. And I happened to look down at my lead female and I said, wait a minute, she had on the same style shoot, but they were different. They were the exact same color. The heel and everything was the same. I don't let people know when we have a adjudicator coming. I had her down in the costume when we were tearing through the boxes. I said, you either find the left one to that or the right one to the other. It doesn't matter. I go, yeah, it does because I knew Jennifer would have seen it, but someone else might have. And so that's why, you know, that's why I was asking. I just look crazy on the woman for a few minutes. Like it is. And like I said, it's really important, you know, because when that happens, it takes the person out of the moment. Yeah. And, you know, you, the director, all your crew and everything, you're all working and you all, you know, I would never be with somebody and say, oh, your opinion doesn't matter. It does. If you know something that I don't know and you see it, please tell me. Yeah. Please tell me. Yeah. Yeah. It just, it's not a dictatorship. It's a collaboration. Yes. Okay. Well, then I'm going to ask you one last question. You sure? You always have another question. I know. I'm such a fibba. Well, this is my last question. Oh, yeah. What advice would you give someone who wants to become a set designer? And I'm saying, I know we've discussed a number of things, but how would you let's say consolidate it or give it synopsis to, you know, Joe Schmo or Jane Schmo wants to become a set designer and you would tell them. If, you know, if they were going to do it like in community theater for the first time, you know, go and check out your space that you're going to be doing it in. Look at it. Look at the measurements. See, you know, like the advantages or disadvantages of the space, just like in Arlington. Everybody's like, oh, it's deep. That affects your sight lines. Look at stuff like that. QP is like a diamond. You know, there's advantages and disadvantages to that. And also, if you were going to do a piece, research the furniture and all the things that go windows, doors, in that time period. And now this day and age, it's so much easier than it was when I was younger. You know, the Internet is loaded with stuff to show you. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've just gone in and gone. 1950s house designs or, you know, living rooms and just getting pictures and everything and colors, 1950s colors and stuff like that. And then also, if you're going to do that, you know you're spaced, do your research and read your script because people talk about where they're living in it. They talk about, you know, certain things like, oh, this board here, creaks, you know, just know what is required in the script for your set. Great. Okay. I think that's really, really important. Thank you for joining us, joining me here behind the curtain. I'm Susan Harrington and my guest, our guest was the fabulous John Pease. Thank you, John. You're welcome. I really appreciate it. Oh, I'm glad. On the first episode of Behind the Curtain.