Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1531774
stage with lighting equipment, and can rent theatre costumes from an Upstate costume shop. The film recreates Breakin' the Mummy's Code, a time- traveling musical comedy, written, designed and directed by Brent Buell, which premiered in 2005 at Sing Sing prison for three nights only. Grounding our set design in Brent's original drawings and being playful and method in the ways the sets were originally conceived, we created an ocean for pirates by yanking a giant plastic sheet up and down, made a skull for Hamlet out of paper towels, nautical ropes out of newspaper. Our main set elements were light and simple two-dimensional cutouts, painted with the honesty of outsider art. We introduced an oversized bed sheet as a backdrop that caught light beautifully and set the mood by turning orange for hot Egyptian desert sunset, purple for the night at Hamlet's graveyard or blue for an endless sky above the ocean. It is just a piece of gel on a lamp and a cloth, but it drenches the theatre space in colors unseen in the day-to- day life of a prison compound. The film was also able to be so method because the Art Department was lean and wonderful. I was lucky to have Art Director Jacob Harbeck and Assistant Art Director Michael Harbeck, insanely talented brothers with remarkable work ethic. Aside from their film work, they both came from a E theatre background in New York, which made all of Sing Sing's Production Design such a home turf for them. Omar Egas, a sensitive multi-hyphenate and owner of one of the coolest clothing brands in New York, Staff, not only built theatre sets, but patched together and sewed miles of pink stage curtain, its color inspired by the walls of the facility. (It was originally stitched together with dental floss at the real Sing Sing.) Set dresser Michael Kwedar, aside from his sharp creativity, saved so much of my sleep time with his genius optimism and solutions. The film itself is like a familiar, but magical forest to me. Every viewing uncovers a new layer of the film and of my heart, proving time and again the depth and grace of Greg's direction. Pat Scolas painterly cinematography on 16mm film makes this movie look timeless, almost like a dream. And a dream it was. To be a small part of this production is forever the honor of my life. ADG D. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM SET AT BEACON HIGH SCHOOL. SET PHOTO. E. SKETCH OF A SET PIECE BY RUTA KISKYTE DONE IN PHOTOSHOP AND ILLUSTRATOR. BUTTERFLY CUTOUT OF CANDY FOIL FOR A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM FOREST SET. F. PROCREATE SET SKETCH OF A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM BY RUTA KISKYTE. Ruta Kiskyte, Production Designer Jacob Harbeck, Art Director Omar Egas, Michael Harbeck, Assistant Art Directors D F