SCENERY PAINTING FOR THE AMATEUR MUSICAL THEATRE and PANTOMIME
TITLE - "PORTIA'S LETTER" - AN EASTER PLAY - page one
Designed - Brian Willis
Scenic Artists - Colin Hompstead
Performed by Carrickfergus Performing Arts Group at Carrickfergus Grammar School, County Antrim, April 2005

My friendship with Colin Hompstead goes back many many years. He and I built the sets in his garage for the 1971 production of the Gondoliers. (opens in separate window) Over thirty years later - doesn't time fly when you're enjoying yourself? - he asked me if I would design a couple of scenes for a local group's Easter play, which he would then paint. He told me the settings he needed and the rest was up to me, with one proviso: - he was going to paint these scenes on 10 feet tall by 5 feet wide sheets of honeycomb plastic-faced sign boards which would be butted together. So he wanted the joins to be hidden within the design. Colin writes "The two problems I found with these plastic boards were – they needed to be primed to give best paint adhesion, and they tended to be affected by any breeze when in place on the wall."
PILATE'S OFFICES. Pencil treatment sketch for a backcloth 25 feet wide by 10 feet high. Figure for scale
Mosaics on the walls either side. The leaded lighted windows to have different coloured glass which is 'projected' onto the steps. A dark room with light flooding onto the steps and reflecting up onto the wall. Stairs lend a sense of mystery - wonder where they lead to?

TRIAL OF JESUS (25 feet x 10 feet - figure for scale) A "big" area in which people can gather. Fire braziers mounted on the square pillars reflecting up onto the curved roof beams. (Should be round pillars but square ones easier to paint!) Three crosses and a village outside. Dramatic (Purple?) curtain to the right. Pillars reflected on the marble floor.
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