Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1514626
had learned something new about my very own neighborhood. After a time, I was able to secure a meeting with Bayard's partner, Walter Naegle, who still lives in the unit. By then I had done enough research to glimpse the eclectic nature of Bayard's collections of art and antiques but was thrilled and humbled to now sit in his apartment surrounded by it all. These are the substantive and sometimes quirky finds in the scavenger hunt of details that help to describe a human being. (I once asked Jack Kevorkian if he drank coffee—just to get to his details. Would he have a coffee pot? His answer: "Decaf is for pussies.") Outside of Bayard's apartment, a version of which we would construct and decorate on stage, the details of the film were centered in the world of the burgeoning civil rights movement. The script was largely intimate and interior—brilliant people sitting around tables debating how to change the nation for the better. Most of the film takes place in New York, though we couldn't afford to shoot in New York—always a disappointment. I was tasked to figure out which city would replace it, having enough of the resources to replicate it. Atlanta, Baltimore and Boston all seemed wrong for what the script called for. We had made Ma Rainey in Pittsburgh, and it kept nagging at me. The production had transformed a corner for 1927, framing out the next block because it wasn't right for the period, but it would be perfect for 1963. We had also dressed an empty house as a lobby and tearoom for a Black-owned hotel—but I knew exactly which angles we had NOT seen and realized it could be just as good redressed as a Harlem brownstone. (And I already knew the load in...) There was a great empty period office location I'd discovered in my last week of shooting that went on the list, and I couldn't help but selfishly remember the most excellent Re-Use It salvage center that I knew would be a gold mine once again. Pittsburgh was chosen, as well as, obviously, Washington, DC. I also knew I had a talented and loyal crew in and familiar with Pittsburgh. They had done such excellent work on Ma Rainey that I knew I could count on them again. James Truesdale returned as Supervising Art Director and I elevated Set Designer Travis Kerr to Art Director. I had a trusted local location manager James Mahathey and construction coordinator Louis Taylor, who'd also built my prison tunnels for Escape at Dannemora. Scenic April Freeman had overseen brilliant brick fabrication on Ma Rainey and returned on my promise that there would be fewer bricks but more pickle-backs. (I lied about the bricks.) She teamed with scenic charge Julie Chill and her great crew. Amy Wells is a set decorator A. PENN SOUTH HOUSING COMPLEX. NYC LOCATION PHOTO. B. BAYARD RUSTIN'S NEIGHBORHOOD AT 23RD AND 8TH AVE. ILLUSTRATION BY JOANNA BUSH. A B