UMKC Theatre students draw inspiration from visiting artists

Listen to the full story on KCUR-FM’s website.

For the past 16 years, University of Missouri-Kansas City graduate students in Theater Design have participated in an intensive professional training exercise called a charette. Visiting artists from the profession come to the university to encourage and critique the students, who are given five days to design the set, costumes or lighting for a production that will never really open.

This year’s visiting artists were David Gropman and Karen Schulz Gropman. David was nominated for an Oscar last year for his production design of the film “Life of Pi.” The pair recently collaborated on the film “August: Osage County.”

For this charette, the students designed and prepared for a theoretical production of the play “Hairspray.” The Gropmans had a unique perspective on the students’ work – in 2007, David did production design for the film remake of “Hairspray.”

KCUR-FM is a service of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.