Another play of mine won a major theatre award, and got staged.

I’d come up with my usual plain and simple poster design.

In this case, given that the play was a nasty sexual comedy of manners, culminating in extreme violence, and overlaid with cooking instructions - I chose a simple image of a cartoon heart, with an arrow sticking out of it, and blood pooled beneath it.

The titling nicely placed inside the ‘heart’ image - and then my name in the usual hand lettered case, above it.

Nice and simple.

Given the big award win, and the widespread publicity around it, this minimalist approach didn’t fit with what the director wanted (he was probably right).

So my minimalist design got used, but overshadowed by a pretty awfully chosen font, to advertise the award at the top of the poster, which made everything a little over-balanced.

It was designed initially to have those simple elements - my name and the image (including title) - and then a suitable type of font for actor/director/venue below the main elements. It ended up looking rather messy, and I always winced slightly when I saw the poster.

And the bottom of the poster also uses a stodgy kind of font choice for the the actors and location. (This is the Grahamstown Festival poster).

Great production though. It scared people nicely. Always fun to do, and it rarely happens in Theatre - to try capture that brooding, looming menace which is more or less normal in horror films, but not often experienced in theatre, unfortunately.

 

 

 

Another poster was created, after the play had got sponsorship.

I didn't have anything to do with the design of it. When I saw it I winced a little, for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, I'm not exactly sure what the poster content has to do with anything in the play.

The colors, I think, were chosen because they were pretty much the South African Breweries own colors - and they had sponsored the poster.

Its raggedness comes from living in my garbage bag 'library' in my closet, for so many years.

And then, good grief - the poster spelled my name wrong -  with a 'Z'. (Note the none-too-carefully redone 'S' over the original 'Z' ).

Ouch.

Still, the production itself was deliciously done, making a nasty and funny, gooseflesh-raising play that dealt with a whole bunch of issues. It hit wonderful notes of sheer horror, that I don't think have been seen much, in Theatre.

I'm sitting with a bad video version of it. If I can give in to my inner geek, and work out the format technicalities, and eliminate the shaky camcorder aspect, of the visuals, and improve the audio, I might put chunks of it up online, in the 'Movies' section.