Meet the Staff: Creative Director Michael Guy

MEET THE STAFF Michael Guy CREATIVE DIRECTOR

by Audrey Rowland

Over the years, many of our audience members have gotten to know the actors, front of house staff, and box office representatives whom they see and interact with on a regular basis. Through this magazine feature and our online blog (trinityrep.com/blog), we’ll introduce you to some of the staff whose behindthe-scenes work is also critical to what makes Trinity Rep your home for dramatic discoveries. Michael Guy is the creative director at Trinity Rep and has worked here for over 45 years! A native of Colorado Springs, CO, Michael studied painting and printmaking at Rhode Island School of Design. After being hired as Trinity Rep’s receptionist right out of college in 1975, he also worked as a scenic artistic and props artisan at Trinity Rep while gradually taking on graphic design duties for the theater starting in 1980. His role as creative director includes creating the show art you see on posters, as well as supporting the marketing, education, community engagement, and development departments. He also mentors a graphic design intern each year and maintains the company’s archives. In addition to his work at Trinity Rep, he is also an artist whose work is shown at Woodman/Shimko Gallery in Provincetown, MA. While at Trinity Rep as the 2019-20 Season marketing intern, I sat down with Michael this

spring, so we could all get to know him better.

Audrey Rowland: What does it mean to be the creative director at Trinity Rep?

Michael Guy:

As creative director, I’m responsible for all of the graphic design, the printed materials, and maintenance of the visual branding. I also create assets for social media. Another part of my job is overseeing the graphic design intern, who assists in everything I do and who does the marketing materials for Brown/Trinity Rep and for some of Trinity Rep’s educational programs. It’s remarkable to me that I became the graphic designer at Trinity Rep — almost by accident, I’m doing exactly what I did in high school when I was on the school publicity committee and active in the drama club. AR: You’re also a painter. How would you describe your art? MG: I do realistic art, for the most part. I like figures, I like people. Outside of work, I do my own painting, usually of men at the beach. I paint either in oil or egg tempera. AR: Out of all the artwork you’ve created for Trinity Rep, do you have any personal favorites? MG: There are posters for The School for Wives (1990-91) and Rebecca (summer, 1990) that I’m very proud of. Nowadays, using computers, you know what your art is going to look like exactly

when it’s printed. Previously, I couldn’t count on the print coming out the way I wanted it to. So even though those posters aren’t perfect, they represent a lot of thought and a lot of figuring out. AR: Speaking of art designed specifically for the theater, talk to me about the mural you designed for the lobby. MG: In 1983, Adrian Hall, the artistic director (1964-1989), wanted a mural for the upstairs lobby and asked me to do something. I thought about it for a long time and composed it in my mind. I wanted it to be pictures of things you could find on a Trinity Rep stage. Music scores, an old sink, raw wood, spilled paint, actors, fabric, vegetables. There was an American eagle carrying carrots. There was a television. A few years ago it was replaced with an extensive display of amazing productions photos curated by our wonderful production photographer, Mark Turek. AR: What’s a piece of trivia about Trinity Rep most people wouldn’t know? MG: There are two seventh seasons. One

day, I was going through old subscription brochures and I noticed that there were two different brochures for season seven for different years. Adjacent years, consecutive years, but different. I think that, in season seven, they decided not to count that first season of plays before Adrian Hall was artistic director, and instead to start counting with his first season. Or someone made a mistake! AR: If you could give a TED Talk about any topic, what would you talk about? MG: It would be about looking at the

Cabaret

book by joe masteroff • music by john kander • lyrics by fred ebb

based on the play by John van druten and stories by christopher isherwood broadway production directed by harold prince • produced for the broadway stage by harold prince

directed by curt columbus • sept. 11 – oct. 11, 2009 tickets start at just $10 • (401) 351-4242 • www.trinityrep.com

201 washington st. • providence • ri • season sponsor

rachael warren photographed by mark turek • design & illustration by michael guy trinity repertory company

decisions you make in life through the eyes of Ebenezer Scrooge. A little bit like “What Would Jesus Do,” but I would approach decisions like this: is the choice you’re making one that Scrooge would make in Stave One or Stave Five? You have these five levels of decisions you could make, ranging from despicably greedy and self-serving to generous, humanistic, and socially responsible. I think that Staves One through Five should be a way you could organize decision-making in your life. I can’t always live by it, but I keep it in mind. AR: Do you have any secret or hidden talents? MG: I was once a bad tap dancer. At RISD, a friend organized big shows twice a year. I was Uncle Sam with 40 Statues of Liberty tap-dancing around me one year. I made giant foam rubber costumes of Martians and food and undersea creatures that we would dance in. We had a lot of fun. AR: If you could go back in time and give one piece of advice to yourself as you were just starting out, what would you say? MG: I used to have a tendency to make snap judgments as to whether or not something could be done. People don’t want to hear that. Bosses don’t want to hear, “I can’t do that.” I learned that if you look at challenges as interesting puzzles to be solved rather than problems that can’t be solved, then you’ll have a better attitude towards work and getting things done.

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