Really Rosie

By Maurice Sendak
and Carole King

Produced: February, 1984
Bridgewater State College
Director: Lee Dunne
Scenery: Arthur Dirks
Facility:Campus Center Auditorium
Notes:

It was difficult to spring from Sendak's drawings for this production, with his tendency to avoid vivid color and his focus on somewhat nightmarish creatures. That influence was limited to a full stage painted backdrop from one of his illustrations in "Wild Things". To keep the production imaginative the director asked that the set be a collection of giant colorful blocks that could be transformed into the various settings for the action. Of course, that means understanding the settings in order to develop the best pieces for them.

The challenge was to create large pieces that could be managed quickly and easily by one or two actors at will. Rigid foam insullation was not yet a common builder material. We used layers of 1/2-inch hexcell (honeycomb) cardboard with a few internal plywood braces, covered all in muslin.

The reds and other colors in the production were much brighter and clearer than shown below.