Henry VI posters

I love Shakespeare. For a few years now, I have been reading all his plays with the goal of creating a poster for each. It has been a challenging process. With Henry VI part II I started figuring things out. In act 2 scene 3, after Gloucester is found dead, Suffolk is accused without evidence. The Earl of Warwick gives the following reason:

Who finds the partridge in the puttocks nest

But may imagine how the bird was dead,

although the kite soar with unbloodied beak?

Even so suspicious is this tragedy.

This image of the kite hovering over a nest struck me. It seemed to say so much more than just the murder of Gloucester. I replaced the puttock's nest (a bird of prey like a kite) with the crown to emphasize the idea of the impending coup. I chose the black-winged kite because of the blood red eyes gave the illustration a more menacing foreboding appearance. From there, it started to click as I read more. For consistency among all the History Plays I would keep the crown and the Background the same. Then I would change the things around the crown depict something about the particular play. For Part I the War of the Roses started. For Part II, I referenced a line from Queen Margaret comparing Edward, George and Richard to wolves. In each poster there is also a small amount of red to depict the battle for the crown.

Now that I have a format for the Histories. I have a plan for Richard III and I will need to go back and read the prior plays to determine what to do for them.

This is also part of my current 100 somethings project to create 100 play posters.

 

Starting a New 100 Somethings

A few months ago one of my past theater directors reached out to me and other friends and cast members to do a 25th anniversary reading of Charlies Aunt. We did a performance via zoom. It was a joy to work with these people again. Many of us had not worked together in years.A month later we did a reading of Present Laughter by Noel Coward and A week ago I had the pleasure of reading the part of Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey.

I have fallen in love with this play and now have added Elwood as one of my dream roles. Others include King Arthur in Camelot, Charles Condomine in Blythe Spirit, Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, and The Narrator from Into the Woods.

While Doing these readings, I was inspired for my next 100 Somethings project. I am going to illustrate and design 100 Play posters. I currently have a list of 55 plays and musicals (Including all the Shakespeare plays) that I will work on over the next who knows how long. I am not putting a deadline on this. I am counting the poster for Henry the 6th part 2 as my first.

Harvey, the Pulitzer Prize winning play of 1940 is the 2nd of 100.

Up next is Charlies' Aunt.

If you have any play suggestions, send them my way.

Personal Project: My Shakespeare Series, Henry VI part II

A few years ago, I set a goal to read all of William Shakespeare's plays and do an illustration for each. 

In Henry VI part II act 2 scene 3, after Gloucester is found dead, Suffolk is accused without evidence. The Earl of Warwick gives the following reason:

Who finds the partridge in the puttocks nest

But may imagine how the bird was dead,

although the kite soar with unbloodied beak?

Even so suspicious is this tragedy.

This image of the kite hovering over a nest struck me. It seemed to say so much more than just the murder of Gloucester.   I replaced the puttock's nest (a bird of prey like a kite) with the crown to emphasize the idea of the impending coup. I chose the black-winged kite because of the blood red eyes gave the illustration a more menacing foreboding appearance. 

To date I have read King John through Henry VI part II in order of the sequence of their action. It wasn't until reading this one that I came up with my first image. I think I will have to go back and review the others again for more ideas.

Seeing your work

It is always a mixed bag of emotions when you see your work in public. For me it is humbling, a little embarrassing, and exciting. I see all the mistakes and all the problems, but it is there in the public to be seen in all it's awkward glory. This was taken at the Vermont Children's Theater this last weekend.

Some one at the theater also took my logo design and made a no smoking sign. I think whoever did it did a wonderful job keeping the same look and feel.

Annie

With school out, I know have the opportunity to work on illustrations for this years Vermont Children's Theater productions. After many iterations and concepts for Annie, I felt it best to go simple and iconic with this poster. After a search on the internet, I was surprised that I could not find anyone that had done this before. I also felt I did a good job of infusing a bit of my style into Annie.

This was a bit of a flash back for me as I played FDR in my high school production of Annie. This year my youngest son is in the production. We do not know what role it will be yet. Performances are on June 29, 30 and July 1 at 7pm.