THE SPITFIRE GRILL
The Spitfire Grill is an American musical with music by James Valcq with book and lyrics by Fred Alley, based upon a feature film from 1996 of the same name. Originally written to be set in the fictitional small town of Gilead, Maine, the musical was reset in the rural town of Gilead, Wisconsin. Both Valcq and Alley were Wisconsin natives and the musical received its premiere production at the Skylight Opera in Milwaukee, WI. The show was subsequently produced Off Broadway in 2001, garnering major awards and praise for its uniquely American blend of Folk and Bluegrass music woven seamlessly into the storyline and its major themes of regret, redemption and, ultimately, hope.
In conceiving this production, the goal of Mr. Keener along with Director Spiro Veloudos, Artistic Director of Lyric Stage, Boston, Ma., was to keep the production intimate, visually inviting and warm to the audience, as well as being functional for the necessary storylines of the musical. Intimacy, familiarity, warmth and fluidity became central to the focus of this scenic design.
The scenic elements of this production utilized the stylistic qualities and visual identity of American realist painter Edward Hopper. The look, feel and color palette of Hopper's work, such as his painting Portrait of Orleans, 1950, served as a touchstone and inspiration for this set design. Appropriately to the material of The Spitfire Grill, set in a forgotten corner of a once vital American small town, Hopper's work perfectly matched the "melancholy images of alienation in daily life. His stark urban and rural scenes are eerily realistic, depicting desolate structures and painfully isolated people."
The design choice of shaping the design to feature both an inviting interior and alienating exterior simultaneously served the needs and emotionality of the show well.
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