The Best Man

First off, let’s keep our thoughts and prayers with those dealing with the effects of Hurricane Sandy.

 

So … In case you hadn’t heard, it’s an election year …

 

Gore Vidal’s The Best Man is on my list of must do shows. (Rather, must direct shows.) I had planned on blogging about this long before I knew the show was revived on Broadway. The cast is a dream: James Earl Jones, John Larroquette, Eric McCormack, Candice Bergen, and Angela Freakin’ Lansbury! The run was extended, and John Stamos stepped in for McCormack. (But it's now closed.) 

 

I had one rule … No red, white, and blue. This is black and varying shades of grey. Doing the standard red, white, and blue, I felt, was an easy out. I wanted the look of a newspaper ad. The first step was finding a large swatch of empty space in a real newspaper. I wanted the bleed-through from the other side to serve as part of the background. After scanning said swatch, I lightened it up just a smidge, but still keeping the bleed-through.

 

This graphic is 11”x14”. If I were actually doing this show, this would go on an 11”x17” sheet of paper. The remaining three inches at the bottom of the page would contain dates, location, theatre company, and other pertinent information. And you can carry the newsprint down the page by simply stretching it vertically. (Since it’s the background, you really don’t need to worry about distortion. It’s not a big deal.)

 

Finding the images was a real chore. Fortunately, I found some in the public domain: wide shots of a political convention, plus a nice close-up of delegates; a 48-star flag, and the White House. After cropping and arranging, I ran them through Photoshop to give them that vintage newspaper – halftone – look. This is important. You cannot adjust the image size after this is done and expect consistency, you’ll ruin the overall effect. (Trust me, I know this firsthand.) If you watch The Good Wife, pay attention to the title credits; it’s the texture of the Julianna Margulies photo that inspired me.

 

The font is from the Gothic family. Lots of newspapers back in the day used a variation of this for headlines.

 

Like I said, it’s an election year, and I don’t care what your political leanings are, but vote and allow those who don’t agree with you or may not look like you to do the same.