By Emi Gruender
If you managed to catch this year’s production of Footloose!, you may have seen the gorgeous backdrops both painted by hand and projected onto the screen in the back. From Bomont’s charming Burger Blast diner to the lively BBQ Dance Palace, Footloose!’s scenic designer, Holly Williams, depicts each scene with a piece of art that could rival Van Gogh’s. Joining us as the Artist of the Issue, Holly gives us some insight into her background and her creative process.
Holly is a senior here at Westmont High School, is 18 years old, and is a proud student-to-be of Loyola Marymount University. To start off the interview, Holly tells me that she’s been doing art since she was in the first grade, and has been interested in theatre since the third. When she was younger, she used to perform as an actor in elementary school plays, but since she started high school, tech has been her primary focus. Recently she played The Hummingbird with Troupe 2904 in Edinburgh in Jeff Bengford’s original production, The Birds. However, for the majority of high school, she has always specialized in scenic design, dabbling in lights or electricity occasionally.
“As a scenic designer, do you have a favorite set of a Broadway show?” I asked her. She thought about it for a second, and then promptly answered, “Rent! You know, the set with all the bars and scaffoldings.” She also told me that she loved the set of Beetlejuice, because all-purpose sets are her favorite type. She prefers one highly detailed set instead of several smaller moving pieces. She explained that the paint style of the set of Beetlejuice was magical and not too realistic, perfectly encapsulating the “Tim Burton mood”.
“If you could design any show, which one would you choose and why?” To this, Holly enthusiastically answered, “Be More Chill, for sure. There are so many fun things to do with the set.” She went on to say that Off-Broadway shows are usually really low budget, but with a high school theatre budget, she would have the freedom to “do her own thing.”
To finish off our interview, Holly shared that the time commitment for the theatre tech program is insane. When I asked for elaboration, she continued that her schedule during a show usually consisted of 15 hours in a standard week, in addition to 6 hour rehearsals on Saturdays. The full rehearsal schedule of a Westmont show usually lasts 3 months, so one can imagine just how many hours techs sink into each production.
Holly is undoubtedly an extremely talented and hardworking artist, evident most recently in her work in Footloose! Even though she is not pursuing scenic design in college, she hopes to keep it on the side as an interest.