THE GREAT GATSBY AT WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY, 2025
Director: Mark Liermann | Scenic Designer: Atlas Zager | Scenic Charge: Andrea Imsland
The mermaid was taken from WMU’s storage, but needed its tail to be resculpted, as it was crumbling from age. Joint compound and cheesecloth were used to build the tail, and then it was sanded smooth. When repainting it after the repair, a base coat of brown was used for dimension and a metallic gold was applied as a highlight. Some patina was added to the base of the sculpture, matching the colors to what had been painted for its previous use. For final aging, a dark brown was sponged into crevices.
The painting was a recreation of a painting with some small adjustments noted by the designer. It is painted with house latex paints on masonite.
Much of the painting work in The Great Gatsby was gold art deco geometric detail on constructed pieces. Lots of time was put into measuring patterns and intentional linework in order for these details to look crisp and uniform.
The faux stained glass window’s design was cut with grooves using the CNC. The grooves were then filled with black hot glue to imitate lead between each panel. To achieve the texture of stained glass, Rosco Crystal Gel was dyed with leather dye and sponged onto the plexiglass to maintain transparency. A scenic water was used to stain the framing of the window box to match the architecture of the existing windows they were placed into.