Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1474575
The furniture throughout Oliver's is intended to be a little threadbare, and, for the most part, stolen. As the design team selected pieces for the apartment, we were assuming most of it was taken from his various theatrical successes and failures. From the ornate piano, to the Louis XIV dog bed, to the clam-like dining room set from his notorious flop Splash! The Musical, if it wasn't stolen, it wasn't staying. In addition to this detail, Rich Murray added thirty half-empty teacups, which I clocked in the hours before the set was to open. I pulled him aside and asked what was up with the teacups that were suddenly, obviously, EVERYWHERE. Rich told me that Oliver was so scatterbrained that he would invariably make a cup of tea, misplace it, and, rather than find it, ust make himself another one, and on and on. This was something we had never discussed, but is a great example of how much thought and consideration Rich put into creating character and backstory in his decor. I knew about a Tempest in a Teapot, but hadn't imagined the Temperament in a Teacup. What makes this apartment most special to the Art Department is what we all brought to the set personally. Set decorator Rich Murray, Art Director Jordan Jacobs, and I were all theater graduate students at different times in our lives, and we A B C