The Artist’s Voice night class began work on sets for the upcoming drama production, Museum, on Wednesday, Oct. 15.
The play, written by Tina Howe, is centered around several contemporary art pieces, which the Artist’s Voice students will be spending the next three weeks creating with the help of James Linnehan, a Berkeley City College art history professor.
The artwork featured in the play is being made in the unique style of three different fictional contemporary artists.
According to Linnehan, the audience’s perception of the artwork is an integral part of the plot, influencing their investment in the play. The audience will be encouraged to walk around the set and view the art before the play starts.
“Instead of just coming into the theater and sitting down in their seats, they are going to be actual gallery viewers,” Linnehan said. “They’ll be looking at the work and examining it and looking at the titles, just like they would be doing in a real museum.”
The play will be performed in room 306, which has been transformed to resemble a black box theater. This smaller theater will have seating around the edges of the stage, and the walls will be blackened.
Students in Artist’s Voice began the first character’s project by setting out large wooden panels and using a glue-like primer technique called gesso to create texture on the boards. Gesso patterns ranged from swirls to ridged textures.
Others worked on the second character’s project, using glue guns to assemble sculptures made of feathers, faux fur, shells, branches, and broken apart plastic Halloween skeletons.
Although projects connecting Redwood’s art departments are infrequent, the teacher of Artist’s Voice, Karen Meadows, thinks that more projects of this nature may re-occur in the future.
According to Linnehan, there are discussions about further integrating Redwood’s photography classes into the current project.