ABOUT THE PLAY
With government leaders getting poisoned left and right, the Tasters have an important job — eating delicious, gourmet meals and then waiting to see if they die. When one rebellious taster goes on hunger strike, the reverberation of her choice threatens to disrupt the order of their world and change the course of history. Equal parts Hunger Games, The Handmaid’s Tale and Food Network, Meghan Brown’s darkly funny, sharp new play explores the nuances of political resistance, self-interest and individual action taken to create hope in the face of hopelessness. It begs the question: when forced to choose between our ideas, personal safety and the wellbeing of humanity at large – what do we do? A play for the foodie and revolutionary in all of us.
PRODUCTION PROCESS EXAMPLES
COSTUME JOURNEY
Take a peek inside the director & designer’s collaborative process
The images in this slideshow present a glimpse into the journey that Harri Horsley, costume designer, and I went on to bring the characters in THE TASTERS to life. From mood boards and research to the final looks on the actors, we worked closely together to make sure that each costume element communicated the story to the audience.
DESIGN PRESENTATIONS
To prepare this production design update presentation, I met with each designer (costume, lighting, scenic, integrated media, and sound,) to discuss the story we were telling through these design elements. We made choices based on what would most effectively and powerfully convey the story to the audience.
GRAPHIC DESIGN AND PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
I worked with visual artist and graphic designer Court Rogers and production dramaturg RJ Mungia to develop “propaganda posters” for the Great Leaders’ Regime to be used in a guerrilla marketing campaign around the theater and on campus. Together we imagined the imagery that would be used within the world of the play and brought it to life to create hype and intrigue around the production.
Here’s the process from inspiration and research, to drafts with notes, to the final versions of the posters in action
First draft: This was a terrific start, but I was eager to incorporate the word TASTER into the language, and to activate the slogan so the viewer is being prompted. I also asked whether we could make the person in the image look like the actor, Vivian Gonzalez, as a foreshadowing to the live production. Court took these notes beautifully in the final draft, (right).
Final propaganda poster: Here, my notes were beautifully integrated. The viewer is directly prompted to “BE A TASTER”, bringing them into the world of the play before the performance ever begins. The overall tone of this poster is darker, and also uses a fork for the food, as the actors would do onstage in the production.
Below, you can see the finished posters and the people who made our lobby and guerrilla marketing campaign a reality!
Director’s InterviewS and promotional videos
CREATIVE PRODUCTION TEAM
Director: Kristen Osborn
Cast:
Vivian Gonzalez
Avery Brooks
Chloe Whitehead
Mahagany Adair
Dominic Gross
Scenic & Projection Designer: Zoey Crow
Sound Designer & Co-Composer: Jeffrey Levin
Costume Designer: Harri Horsley
Lighting Designer: Ron Collins
Intimacy Director: Andy Grapko
Dramaturg: R.J. Munguia
Assistant Director: Yusef Dixon
Composer: Lina Breining
Stage Manager: Cal Blackstock
ASMs: Lauren Murel & Rylee Vines