"Playbill" is the fancy word for a poster for a show. Basically, when you walk by the movie theater and see the posters for the movies featured at that theater, you are looking at playbills. They give you information about the actors, writers, times and dates. Some playbills are iconic; when we think of Gone with the Wind, we instantly see in our minds' eye Clark Gable with Vivien Leigh in his arms, in front of a background of flames. Playbills give information about the show, but also set the tone for what to expect. Will this show be funny? Serious? Light-hearted? Dark? Is it a western? A mystery? A romance? A tragedy?
Usually, for a community theater group, not much goes into designing the playbills for our shows. The theater company provides us with the images, sometimes even telling us what colors are allowed on the poster, and tell us what text we are required to use and how big the names need to be. But now...
we have a show that has NO images, NO requirements, NO playbill whatsoever! We are the designers of the very first Five Children and It musical playbill ever!
My husband, being a graphic designer once-upon-a-time, took the reigns on this. We knew we wanted color, magic, fanciful things. We also knew that many people were not familiar with the original story; it is considered a classic, but it is old and British and so not very well-known. So my husband chose images to represent elements in the story: the country cottage, the sandpit, the various wishes. And the only hint of the mysterious sand-fairy is the "V" in the logo. We also needed to put the time and place and ticket info (of course), but more information about the origin of this new show. Hence, the words "based on the novel by" and "a new musical by." His final poster is eye-catching and fun! And next weekend, our CYT actors will put these posters up all over our valley's downtowns!
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