Playing marbles

If you give an artist a paintbrush…

She’ll paint things–

Like pillars made out of pine. She’ll paint them to look like marble.

And if she paints the top-

She’ll want to paint the bottom.

Before the brushes are cleaned, she may as well paint other things–

Here’s a panel with an Elizabethan-inspired sign of the zodiac.

I’m a Pisces and I like a short walk to the pub–Pen Austin

And another…

And more still, until all 12 signs are ready to be put in the heavens above.

To fix them in the heavens above, they’ll need to fashion a frame for the panels.

And the panels will need those painted pillars to bear the weight of the heavens.

 

 

If you make the over and above, you’ll need a stage below on which humans may do their business on this mortal coil.

So, with a little help, the New Napkin Stage is raised by the players.

Their leader will need a proper vantage from which to view the proceedings.

He’ll gain a balcony.

But a balcony wants railings and railings want support.

So they’ll call upon a bearded joiner to turn 45 balusters on a spring pole lathe.

These are made from green oak, in the style of the sort turned by a German woman for Shakespeare’s Globe in London.

These, in turn, were made in the style of those wrought 400 years past.

She turned 500 or so.

Once the bearded guy takes his foot off the lathe and the balcony is set up, the other bearded guy can take it all in.

Things began to make sense.

Once the pillars are painted, the heavens secured, and the stage fashioned, the players and their leader will want to perform plays.

And if they perform, they’ll want people to come see them.

So they’ll plug their play and make room for everyone to come see it in a special place against a river in an old mill town.

Photo by John Riedell–http://heart-shaped-boy.com/

And some of the people will see the marble pillars and wonder how they were made…

If you give an artist a paintbrush…

FINE PRINT

The Worcester Shakesepeare Company’s production of Shakespeare’s, The Merry Wives of Windsor continues Thursdays-Sundays now through August 24th:  www.worcestershakespearecompany.org

Pen Austin is a plasterer/artist from Leicester, UK and Nantucket, MA. Her work is the best. Never challenge her to an arm wrestle, however. 

This year’s work on the stage builds on last year’s— for further info, contact MLB Restorations at 1 508 277-4468