GCU Today Magazine - November 2017

GCU MAGAZ I NE • 23 Rodriguez described the set, inspired by the Palace of Versailles, as where “deconstruction and asymmetry connect.” Senior James Coblentz, props designer, suggested putting a different feather duster – one a powder puff on a stick, another elaborately fluffy, yet another a single feather – in the housekeeper’s hands each time she appeared. Coblentz crafted as many as six such tools. Adams scrupulously researched hair-and- makeup trends under the reign of King Louis XIV. As late as rehearsals in early October, he could be seen perusing makeup-application videos on YouTube. Views of twomain characters For the character of Orgon – the wealthy head of household whom the hypocrite Tartuffe plans to defraud – Adams proposed “a fantastic mustache and eyebrows.” One hairy eyebrow could be askew. “I wanted to show him as a very intelligent human being – but he’s gullible, he’s able to essentially sign away his life to a man he shouldn’t trust,” Adams said. Pensis warned against making Orgon seem too foolish. “I don’t want him to be laughed at,” Pensis said. “Orgon has to be an attractive man.” As for Tartuffe, Pensis said, his inner scoundrel should peek through. “It’s a practiced look so that he looks pious when in fact he is not,” Pensis said. To help attain that look, senior Marija Petovich, costume designer, dressed Tartuffe in a long, dark, green waistcoat – but then added mismatched buttons. Rodriguez’s scenery included hanging large, green-and-gold windows on each side of the stage leading up to an even larger door – built by students from beams of hollow steel – in the center. “The doors are the biggest, most eye-dropping piece on the stage,” Rodriguez said. “People will be on the edge of their seats wondering who is going to come through them.” Of course, at one point it was Tartuffe. “When Tartuffe enters, he will cast a long shadow,” Bybee said. “His site color will be green because he’s greedy, he’s a thief.” Other lighting was intended to illuminate the extraordinary wealth of the family. “I want it to look so grand that the audience knows that they – the family – have a lot to lose,” she said. Harkening back to the relatively mum start of preproduction, Symington encouraged the designers to practice putting zest into presentations. “For the Kennedy Center, you have to be excited,” Symington said at one meeting. “It’s a sales pitch. Something like a thesaurus is your friend. “It’s not a tomato,” he added. “It’s a vine- ripened, locally sourced, organic tomato.” Every detail on the costumes worn by Orgon (Cameron Cluff, left), and Cleante (Jeremy Carr) — from their embroidered shirt cuffs to their silk cravats — is true to 18th-century France.