Painting for One
by Hank Greene
Directed by Chad Rabinovitz

In The Box Entertainment
Performed entirely on Zoom
February 9th - February 20th, 2021
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Video Design: Brian Nappi
Scenic Design: David Wade
Lighting Design & Production Management: Erika Johnson
Sound Design: Brandon Reed & Stefanie M Senior

Cast:
Andy: Mike Nappi
Sandy's Sandbox Vocals: Rachel Dilliplane
Painting For Two Vocals: Trish Hausmann
Voice of Laura: Nicole Bruce
Voice of Diane: Kate Braun
Voice of Commercials: Marcus Kearns
Voice of Frank: Ben Smith
In the fall of 2020 as many theaters are attempting to figure out how to move their seasons online, a collaborator and director I've worked with in the past, reached out to me about a new adventure he was embarking on. Rather than performing the typical play readings on Zoom that most people were doing, he decided to dive headfirst into creating a new form of online performance. Combining Zoom with interactive technology, Chad transformed his home theatre Bloomington Playwrights Project into a multi-media studio by the name of In The Box Entertainment completely decked out with green screens, video cameras, and sound equipment. Anyone who purchased tickets would be mailed a physical box that contained props to allow them to interact with the show as it happened on Zoom. The show would also be sold to other theatre companies to present as part of their season as well. The production would be performed live every night.

Bringing me on as the sound designer, I worked with Chad and the rest of the production team to create this new interactive performance involving a blend of live acting, recorded video, and called cues. Ranging from reinforcement for our sole actor into the Zoom feed, creating soundscapes, underscoring, adding sound to video, and providing mixing and audio restoration for guest performances in between scenes. Playback was vastly different from just the typical QLab setup. It involved a mixture of QLab, Wirecast, blending cues in both programs separately, and sometimes together. This blend into both programs was dependent on the complexity and need to allow the entire production to be run by a single operator and stage manager.

It’s time for Andy and Laura’s Painting for Two – the BEST paint-a-long instructional show on public access WBPP! By signing up for this week’s show, you’ve received your canvas and paints in the mail, and you’ll be following along with Andy and Laura to make it a masterpiece in a night where wine and canvas meets live theatre. One small change: Laura isn’t here. She’s gone. But… Andy’s here, live… from the living room they once shared… and he’s ready to make this blank canvas into a stunning piece of art with YOU! Also, due to budget cuts, we may need him to host a few more shows throughout the evening… also the future of the station may be at stake. But… it’ll be fine, right? Yeah… yeah it’ll be… fine…


​Painting for Two

Our Zoom audience gets their introduction to the WBPP show Painting for Two as we hear and see a low budget PBS styled intro. We meet Andy and learn how our co-host Laura has unexpectedly left the show and Andy leaving him alone to host a painting show without knowing how to paint. We slowly start to see the mental degradation of Andy as he learns to process grief while carrying on with the show.

Right away we get the PBS inspired aesthetic with the musical introduction and video (recorded in Indiana and sent to me for mixing). We also see and hear video overlays layered with sound design to help transition us into and out of the scene. Andy then cuts to a pre-recorded segment of him painting with the audience on Zoom, that was also sent to me for audio cleanup and mixing. We purposely went with a Bob Ross aesthetic and went without any additional underscoring.


​Sandy And Frank

Later Andy learns that due to food poisoning the rest of the show's on the channel have called in sick. Leaving him along to host every single show for a fundraiser to keep WBPP running. All while learning to deal with the loss of his relationship.

​After a brief live section of Andy overlooking the shows he suppose to help host, we cut to a pre-recorded video of him hosting both Sandy's Sandbox and Frank's Finished. A Sesame Street styled musical intro I arranged with the vocal styling of Rachel Dilliplane takes us into Sandy's Sandbox. Sandy's dialogue is all voiceovers that a person operating her puppet mouthed in time with in the recording. We then cut to Frank's Finished a cooking show that goes horrible wrong for Andy. Music was royalty free and picked out by me to help convey that Frank's show is quirky and eccentric. Frank's graphic overlay is layered with a voiceover to sound over the top mixed with a sound effect of flames to match the video.


​Diane Richards

After hosting the first few set of shows Andy tries to take in callers to help raise money for WBPP. He gets a call from Diane Richards that doesn't go quite how he expects.

This segment is a great example of an actor performing live with interactive media and recorded voiceovers of Diane. All the video overlays have additional sound effects layered in through Wirecast that allowed for easy operation for our single operator. Diane's lines were played via QLab and were cue'ed in response to Andy's timing to feel natural.

Shoutout to my Associate Sound Designer Stefanie M Senior for helping me with the vast amount of overlays in this segment.


​TV Parody

Having gone the entire fundraiser without raising a single penny. Andy throws a last ditch effort of hosting the remaining shows on WBPP in rapid succession in hopes that convinces everyone to donate.

​We go from a live segment with interactive media design (all designed with the assistance of ASD Stefanie M Senior) to a pre-recorded video. This video is meant to be a spoof on various television and Internet shows. Stefanie and myself teamed up to layer in music and sound effects that helped conveyed the original vibe of the show we are parodying without directly copying them. Stefanie handled the music and selected sound effects, while I provide the rest of the sound effects and mixed the final video you hear here.