2017-2018 | artwork spotlight | the christians and the lonesome west

It's time for another Artwork Spotlight! Every season we work with fantastic local artist Emily Cooper to create artwork for our shows that is evocative and thoughtful. These complex images have a lot to them, so we like to share a bit of the backstory for how we came up with them. Today we'll dig into the artwork for THE CHRISTIANS and THE LONESOME WEST.

THE CHRISTIANS is about a conflict that arises in a church. While the disagreement in THE CHRISTIANS is about heaven and hell, the heart of the play is about the conversations that arise in the community as a result of this shift. We wanted the image to show both the heaven and hell dichotomy as well as the community conflict.

What Emily brought us was perfect - the chasm between people, and depicting them in black and white, shows that the sense of division, and yet they are still turned towards each other, in conversation. Have a look at the heaven and hell imagery for some beautiful detail work!

THE LONESOME WEST tells the story of two brothers who, to put it lightly, just can't get along. Their anger at each other and the world bursts out in a host of unhealthy and violent actions. Yet, the play is a comedy (a very dark comedy, but comedy nonetheless.)

The image Emily created for us does a beautiful job of showing the combativeness between the brothers, as well as their environment. Their home is rundown, full of trash, and a few items that become important in the story, such as the Catholic figures.
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