Welcome!

Greetings from John Malinowski, lighting designer for New Rep's production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile. I'll be blogging here.

What a wonderful play Steve Martin has written and I can't wait to help bring it to life on the stage in Watertown at the Arsenal Center for the Arts. Danny Gidron, the director, Cristina Todesco, the set designer, Frances McSherry, the costume designer and I met a few weeks ago to brainstorm about the world of a bar in Paris in 1904, which is where Steve Martin set his play.

We decided that the specific period of Paris in the 1900s is a spark that ignited the playwright's imagination. The world of the play is much bigger than Paris in 1904. Steve Martin has imagined a bar where Picasso and Einstein might meet. What would they talk about? What sort of conversation could a brilliant artist and a brilliant scientist have in Paris together? What do they have in common?

I have not seen a production of this popular play, but after hearing the premise of Picasso and Einstein meeting in Paris, I was intrigued. I read the play fresh and open minded about what encounter Picasso and Einstein might have in the mind of brilliant comic.

I'll leave this entry here, where I began several months ago. A script in hand, the famous names etched in my mind, and a modern day comedian bringing them together.

The possibilities put a smile on my face as I sat down to read the script for the first time.

Please come back soon and share my journey.

- john malinowski