A local theater company is staging Olive and the Bitter Herbs. I was asked to do caricatures of the cast for the poster. The poster design itself is by Ronna Rajaniemi, owner of Petaltail Studios.
Naturally you’re saying to yourself: yes, but what’s this sausage business?
It’s part of the plot: Olive, the main character, is an aging actress. Years ago, she made a television commercial for sausage. Her big line: “Gimme the sausage!” It was the high point of her career. No wonder she’s bitter and depressed these days.
The television set graphic seems to be the official logo for the play. It appears on the front of the scripts furnished by Samuel French, Inc., which licenses the play.
I thought I was being asked to do a color version of the television in the same style as the characters– so my original drawing looked like this:
The client ultimately decided to use the official logo, so I deleted the television so the
logo could be pasted in. This also required blocking in the rest of the middle characters’ clothing, which produced this rather odd-looking result:
I actually know 5 of the 6 actors in the play, and have seen them in numerous shows– which made this assignment a lot of fun.
How accurate are the caricatures? Here are corresponding photos of the six actors.
The show opens this Friday– time to fire up the grill and throw on the sausage! Here’s
the poster again:
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Are you a fan of community theater?
Ever done any acting yourself?
Are there any goofy TV commercials you still remember from years ago??
Hope you’ll leave a comment.
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