Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1495092
5 2 P E R S P E C T I V E | M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 2 3 A League of Their Own is the story of a group of women bonding and forming a team that can play together…and win, but the series has a very different focus from the much-loved 1992 film. It explores the stories of players living and hiding as queer people, with the constant fear of being found out, and stories about the oppression of women, expected to be only wife and mother. The production tells stories of Black women whose aspirations are dismissed, and the Black community subjected to daily casual, ingrained racism. Most of the series would not have been possible to put on the screen thirty years ago At my meeting with Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson, the creators, and director Jamie Babbit, we were definitely on the same page about our viewpoint and the characteristics of the world—that it was based in naturalism and all of the detail, texture and density that implies. And that 1943 in America was a time of privations great and small—things being hard-used, aged and scuffed. The real beating heart of this show is about letting the characters understand their possibilities, believe in what they can do, and giving them a chance to go do it. The reality of the scripts, showing gay relationships and Black-white relationships, as well as deep, Black female friendships, were a touchstone for the design. The design team wanted it to be a very real world that's layered, worn, used and lived in. We didn't want it to look glossy. We didn't want any rose-colored glasses. The reality in the scripts was the measure for how we built the world. These are stories whose urgency has not faded…they resonate today. The conversation about verisimilitude is always so enlightening because it answers a myriad of design choices—the overall look and feel, and a host of specifics, like texture, color, sheen, aging, fabric, wall treatment. For naturalistic drama, the design is an endoskeleton that supports everything. Research offers a vast number of options. The choices made created this specific world; certain A N a t u r a l i s t i c R e t e l l i n g o f a F a m i l i a r S t o r y A L E A G U E 0 F T H E I R O W N B Y V I C T O R I A PA U L , P R O D U C T I O N D E S I G N E R A. BEYER FIELD GRANDSTAND RENDERING BY ALEKSANDRA LANDSBERG. B. BEYER FIELD OUTFIELD FENCE. GRAPHICS BY EVAN SCOTT. A