Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar: Chicago, Sept. 12-23, 2024

Copyright © 2024 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

My return from the UK on August 12 was relatively uneventful – at first. Sadly, four days after my return I became quite sick – a sore throat quickly became a severe respiratory infection. Although I never tested positive for COVID, this particular illness confined to me to bed for over two weeks.

That is the reason why there was a flurry of posts about my UK trip mid-August. Researching a handful of English scenic artists and historic venues prevented me from worrying about all of the projects that needed to be completed by Sept. 12.

The initial delay had started well before my departure to the UK. In June, our basement flooded (water heater burst – destroying the flooring in our master bedroom, laundry room, and my research office). Thankfully, nothing of consequence was damaged. However, this unfortunate event caused a series of delays, each one falling like a Domino.

Despite the ongoing delays and my continued illness, I still had a show to finish in August, an annual family trip (Labor Day weekend), and a 31^st wedding anniversary (Sept. 11).

Thank God I paint fast. 

I only had one backdrop left for Tamerlano (Haymarket Opera Company, Chicago), but it was a complicated composition with lots of ornamental detail. As my illness dragged on, it became a guessing game of “Can I paint this drop in — days?”  In the end, it took me three partial days, and I felt horrible with each brush stroke. The only thing that would have made this worse is if I had been painting in the Continental method. Fortunately, I was using a motorized paint frame. That meant I could minimize my overall movement.

Here is a picture of the finished Tamerlano backdrop (front and back). It was painted with distemper paint (pigment paste and diluted hide glue), and designed to function as a translucency, so it could subtly “glow” upstage.

On Sept. 12, 2024, I drove to Chicago with a carload of scenery for Haymarket Opera Company’s fall production Tamerlano (George Frederic Handel, 1724). The production was scheduled to coincide with the 300^th anniversary of the premiere.

As noted on their website, Haymarket Opera Company takes its name from both Chicago’s Haymarket Affair of 1886 which gave focus to the world-wide labor movement, and from the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket District of London where Handel produced his Italian operas. Their website states, “Haymarket Opera Company contributes to the diverse and culturally vibrant artistic community of Chicago and the Midwest through the historically informed presentation of opera and oratorio from the 17th and 18th centuries, including many Chicago and U.S. premieres. Since its founding in 2010, Haymarket has offered more than 30 productions using period instruments and historically informed staging conventions, shining a spotlight on many lesser known but quality pieces by a wide diversity of composers, sung and played by a combination of international stars and top regional talent.”

My earliest conversations with Haymarket Opera Company in 2021 discussed the creation of a stock scenery collection. Our intent was to slowly build scenic stock, one show at a time. The scenic design for L’Amant anonyme (June 2022), established our stylistic approach and paint medium.

We agreed that all the shows would be painted with distemper paint (picgment paste and diluted hide glue), as it truly supports the metamorphic nature of painted illusion for the stage.

I have continued to enlarge Haymarket’s stock scenery collection over the past few years with classical settings for Poppea (September 2022) and Egyptian décor for Marc’antonio e cleopatra (June 2023).  Tamerlano (September 2024) combines elements from each production, while adding Eastern tapestries and an Eastern courtyard setting to the stock.

For example, painted ornament was added to six Poppea wings, functioning as a unifying element between the newly-painted Tamerlano draperies with previously-painted L’Amant anonyme tapestries. New elements for this production include a backdrop, top border, two side wings, two tormentor covers, and four rolling profile pieces.

Haymarket Opera Company uses the Sasha and Eugene Jarvis Opera Hall at DePaul University. This building was formerly known as the School of Music Concert Hall, located at the south end of the Holtschneider Performance Center. It was recently renovated, reopening during the pandemic in 2020. Bad timing, as stag-house issues really were not identified until well after the install, when pandemic-related restrictions were lifted.

The auditorium, however, is perfect. The 160-seat house creates an incredibly intimate space for Baroque opera.

The stagehouse is a very challenging space, and I constantly curse the theatre consultants. Scenery cannot travel out of site, the wings are less than 6’-0” wide, and every line-set is motorized.  There are only a few open lines. For substantial set changes, soft goods are rolled and tied to battens, then slowly lowered during intermissions

 All difficulties aside, the Jarvis Opera Hall is a stunning venue to visit and watch a production. Tamerlano opened on Thursday, Sept. 19 and closed on Sunday, Sept. 22. A short run, but each performance was sold-out, and the show was recorded.

As each Haymarket opera loads in easily, and without substantial notes, I have ample time to explore Chicago during the day. My adventures always include a dear friend – Chicago Lyric Opera charge artist, Brian Traynor. In the past we have visited cemeteries, history centers, and historic buildings.  Last year, Traynor introduced me to Bernard Loyd and we visited The Forum in Bronzeville (a neighborhood on the south-side of Chicago). On July 18, 2023, Brian Traynor sent me a photograph with the text, “Guess what I’m looking at.” It was a Sosman & Landis signature on the corner of a, 1897 drop curtain.

I examined the drop curtain in person on Sept. 28. 2023. CLICK HERE for my full post about out visit. Our visit last year was documented by Block Club Chicago journalist, Jamie Nesbitt Golden, and photographer Colin Boyle.  CLICK HERE to read her Block Club Chicago article. 

This scenery collection was also the topic for my article published in Die Vierte Wand #012, entitled, “A Forum for Progress.” CLICK HERE for the full issue.

Traynor and I returned to The Forum this year on Sept. 19, 2024. I was supervising the proper rolling and storage of the Forum’s scenery collection . This meant removing the hardware and battens, then rolling and encapsulating each scene.

For the first time, this process was documented by someone other than myself. Asia Taylor brought in her film crew in to document the project. Taylor previously produced and directed a short film that gives insight into the history of Forum Hall. CLICK HERE to watch her short film.

She is also one of the storytellers for Build Bronzeville. Build Bronzeville is comprised of five closely-linked initiatives that merge social, economic, civic, and creative approaches to achieve comprehensive community development. It is using the historic neighborhood’s unique assets to restore commercial activity and revitalize area through entrepreneurship, cuisine, exciting events, and beautification.  

Prior to Traynor’s departure, he passed along a gift from his mentor, Jim Maronek – scenic fitches once used by Thomas G. Moses (1856-1934) and a package labeled “Open at your own risk.”

My research and career has circled around Jim Maronek for over three decades. It was his stewardship of many Thomas Moses artifacts made so much of my research possible.

Maronek who retrieved several of Moses’ artifacts when the family home in Oak Park sold – including an electric theatre model that is now part of the Sosman & Landis Collection at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas – Austin.

I have visited the Oak Park home of Thomas and Ella Moses several times. I also make an annual trip to Graceland Cemetery where Sosman & Landis are buried. These moments really help energize my ongoing research.

In 2023, Traynor and I stopped by Moses’ Oak Park home to meet to the new owners; they had contacted me when the property changed hands. I first visited the home on July 19, 2019, on a return trip from the East Coast. CLICK HERE for the post about that visit. The new owners are now collecting Moses’ work. Here are two of Moses’ paintings again hanging in the Oak Park Home

There were two other items on my agenda for the Chicago trip – visits to the Newberry Library and the Palette & Chisel Club. It was not until the fall of 2023 that I realized that both were located less than three blocks south of my hotel.  While walking to the Newberry to pick up my reader’s card, I passed by the Palette & Chisel Club building. Amazingly the gates were open! A new exhibit with works of was on display.

I have written quite a bit about the Palette & Chisel Club over the years. Founded in 1895, the Palette & Chisel Club was an association of artists and craftsmen for the purpose of work and study. The organization’s members were reported to be “all wage-workers, busy during the week with pencil, brush or chisel, doing work to please other people” (Inland Printer, 1896). But on Sunday mornings, they assembled for five hours to paint for themselves.

Many Sosman & Landis scenic artists belonged to the club, including Thomas G. Moses who joined in 1906. That year, Moses wrote, “I joined the Palette and Chisel Club at the Chicago Society of Artists.  I don’t know why, as I had so little time to give to pictures, but I live in hopes of doing something someday, that is what I have lived on for years, Hope, and how little we realize from our dreams of hope.  As the years roll by, I think one’s whole life is one continuous dream, unless we are wonderfully gifted, and fame drops on us while we sleep.” In 1906 the Palette and Chisel Club, the group consisted of sixty local painters, illustrators, and sculptors. On Jan. 6, 1906, the Chicago Tribune reported, the Palette & Chisel was “primarily a working club, being the oldest organization in the west” (p. 2).

The year before Moses joined the Palette & Chisel, the members purchased a summer retreat near fox lake. Initially, artists and their families camped in tents. In 1907, Moses wrote, “June 1^st, I made my first trip to the Palette and Chisel Club camp at Fox Lake, Ill.  Helped to put up the tent.  A new experience for me, but I enjoyed it.  I slept well on a cot.  Made a few sketches.  A very interesting place.  I don’t like the cooking in the tent and there should be a floor in the tent.  I saw a great many improvements that could be made in the outfit and I started something very soon.”

The next year, Moses gifted a house to the group. In 1908 he wrote, “I bought the portable house that we built years ago and at that time we received $300.00 for it.  I finally got it for $50.00, some bargain.  It cost $25.00 to remove it and we will put it up at Fox Lake in the Spring.  It has been used in Forest Park all summer to show The Day in the Alps.”

In 1909, Moses painted a view of the new building. It was gifted to my by his great-grandson, Stu Nicholls, in 2017.

In 1906, the club maintained a permanent exhibition in the clubrooms on the seventh floor of the Athenæum building. The group moved to 1012 N. Dearborn Street in the 1921. In the 1920s Moses submitted several articles to the Palette & Chisel Club newsletter. His series “Stage Scenery” started in September 1927.

After entering the building, I wandered about the main floor, recognizing artworks by several familiar names. 

Then I followed the signs to the office in the basement. It was time to contact someone and share the information that I have gathered over the years.  The basement office had a lovely mural that documents the history of the Club.

By the end of the weekend, I met with the current president, Stuart Fullerton, and applied for membership. The Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Arts is an amazing resource for both emerging and established artists. The membership benefits, even for those out-of-state like myself, are quite impressive. They are part of Open House Chicago on October 19, 2024 . If you are in the area, I strongly encourage you to stop by.

Upon my return to Minneapolis, I hit the ground running. Yesterday, I finished painting the scenery for my next Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Co. design – The McAdo (a Scottish Take on The Mikado). It opens on Nov. 1. 2024, and runs for four weekends. CLICK HERE to order tickets.

Here is a sneak peak of the scenery.

I am returning to work on my upcoming book series – Sosman & Landis: Shaping the Landscape of American Theatre.

Have a great fall!