Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1504681
7 4 P E R S P E C T I V E | J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 2 3 Early on, I knew I was going to get the freedom to interpret the script and that my team and I would really get to bring everything we had to help tell this personal story. Set decorator James V. Kent and I met often about this approach. As James explains: "My collaboration with Jonah is a very organic process. It starts with conversations about the script and story, the characters, and our different perceptions of who these people are and the world they inhabit… In some ways, this is an opera. It's a tragedy, an epic love story about two people whose lives were forever intertwined but who were doomed by their own flaws to ever succeed as a happy couple." We always kept the real, human relationship at the forefront of our design and decoration choices. Another department I don't often get to collaborate with is the music department, but that was another great resource of inspiration. Abe's scripts were so wonderfully written, and the interplay between the plot and the songs they were singing in each episode was sublime. If I ever needed to zero in or refocus on what was really happening in a scene, I could always play the songs that were in that scene or episode, or talk to Abe, John, Jessica or Rachel Rusch (music producer) about the lyrics or the story behind the scene. For all the creative builders on this project, this was a guiding light for where we were at in the story if we ever got lost. A. GRAND OLE OPRY STAGE. PRODUCTION STILL BY DANA HAWLEY. B. NASHVILLE RECORD STORE. SET PHOTO. C. THE QUONSET HUT RECORDING STUDIO. PLAN AND ELEVATIONS BY JERRY HALL. D. COLOR STUDY FOR QUONSET HUT INTERIOR BUILT ON SOUND STAGE IN WILMINGTON, NC. E-G. THE QUONSET HUT. PRODUCTION STILLS BY DANA HAWLEY. A B D C