RMScenery Celebrates the Food Network's 20th Birthday

 It was a treat for RMScenery to work with the Food Network on their 20th birthday bash. We built a tiered cake out of TVs that aired classic clips of the company's shows throughout the night. Check out RMS's food carts in the first few shots of the video, too!

Two days after the event, the TV cake was repurposed for the New York City Wine & Food Festival’s Tacos & Tequila bash. Not a bad way to work with leftovers.

PRESS: Women or Nothing

RMS had the distinct pleasure of building the set for world-premiere of Ethan Coen's first full-length play, "Women or Nothing," at the Atlantic Theater. The comedy takes place in the "enviably chic New York apartment" of characters Gretchen and Laura. RMS took care of the structure, including the two windows at the back of the apartment which looked over a wide rainy street.

Image: showbusinessweekly.com

PRESS: Burns at Playwrights Horizons

RMS built the set for “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play”, a work written by Anne Washburn, which the New York Times called "downright brilliant".

 

We created a ship's cabin out of wood and steel--so it could roll off stage and fold up for storage.

 

For the entrance to a nuclear power plant, we made six-inch double-faced acrylic plexi blocks. Rather than buy plastic or glass tiles, the RMS team ripped sheets of acrylic into squares and carved tongue and groove joints to lock the blocks together, creating the illusion of individual panes.

The Simpsons-inspired painted proscenium.

NEW YORK MUSIC FESTIVAL

at The Signature Theatre. Another of our recent builds:

PRESS

Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812.

"Following its acclaimed, sellout run last fall at Ars Nova, the production has been given a stylish and sumptuous upgrade, and now comes with a full meal attached.

The show is performed in an elaborately appointed salon, with claret-colored velvet draperies and period paintings adorning the walls. Spiky candelabras modeled on the starbursts at the Metropolitan Opera twinkle from above. (Mimi Lien’s set designs form a crucial part of the mise-en-scène.) The audience sits at tables and banquettes clustered tightly together." New York Times

 

Photograph: Chad Batka

 

"The space, a 19th century-inspired fantasy embellished in red and gold by designer Mimi Lien, is spectacular." By Brian Scott Lipton of Theatre Mania
 

Photograph: Chad Batka

 

"Each scene takes you by surprise; each song takes you for a whirl. Inventive and thoughtful, knowingly sincere, this is theater like no other in New York. It grounds you and transports you at once, and leaves you beaming with pleasure."
"Space permits no more enthusiasm, except to say that this is a rare and marvelous event: amid the din of New York, an oasis of artful illumination." —Adam Feldman of Time Out New York

Photograph: Chad Batka

 

 

Photograph: Chad Batka



THE GREAT COMET

"Based on the scandalous slice of War and Peace, THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 is a heartbreakingly gorgeous and wickedly sharp theatrical event. By Dave Malloy,
Directed by Rachel Chavkin, Designed by Mimi Lien and set construction by RMS. In its smash-hit production debut at Ars Nova, THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 beguiled critics and was named one of the Top 10 Musicals of 2012 by New York Magazine, the New York Post and Time Out New York." - Ars Nova

 

LOAD-IN

TONY Cover?! What!

On the cover of Time Out New York's March  28-April 3, 2013 issue #900! And we just started building it... things just got serious. The pressure is on.

Inside the tent as the interior walls start to go up. Truss Rig by Sapsis. photo source: Ars Nova

Loading In the Set. Day One!

Tim and Derek getting their art on, hanging an endless amount of frames.

photo source: The Wall Street Journal

MOVING UP

Under the High Line in NYC. The new home of Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 for the summer of 2013.

 

Tent under construction at Washington St & 13th St NYC. We are building the stage and seating to fit inside of this future club.

Rocio Ramos Upholstery Inc. did an incredible job upholstering 200 ft of banquettes for The Great Comet. They worked around-the-clock to finish in less then two weeks.

Tech'ing the bar at RMS.

Grace Baxter's masterful gold leaf/patina stage floor.

The pulpit.

 

photo source: Ars Nova

PRESS

"The Dance and the Railroad", by David Henry Hwang. Produced by Signature Theatre Company

 

 

Photo Source: Mimi Lien

"The jutting copper-colored platforms that form Mimi Lien’s set for the Signature Theater Company revival of David Henry Hwang’s “Dance and the Railroad” provide a pleasingly serene vista for the eye. Cleverly echoing the Frank Gehry architecture of the Alice Griffin Theater, where the production opened on Monday night, the set’s soothing beauty is further enhanced by the shifting, multicolored lighting of Jiyoun Chang." Charles Isherwood, New York Times

Photo Source: Mimi Lien
Yuekun Wu, left, and Ruy Iskandar in "The Dance and the Railroad."


"Set designer Mimi Lien did a remarkable job creating their mountain dance studio. The angular crags of her set meld seamlessly into the wooden quadrilaterals that adorn the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre, giving the impression that the audience is in a cave, looking out on the action of the play. Jiyoun Chang's dramatic lighting design exudes the old west. As the men play upon the stage, their shadows dance against the rock face. Lien's set is not only beautiful, but practical, offering multiple levels on which the actors can play." Zachary Stewart, Theater Mania

Photo Source: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Yuekun Wu as a Chinese opera performer turned worker on the transcontinental railroad in the Signature Theater Company's revival of "The Dance and the Railroad," by David Henry Hwang.


"The simple but gorgeous physical production is a stunner. Mimi Lien’s abstracted mountain echoes the blocks of wood that decorate the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre, while Jiyoun Chang’s washes of color on the back-wall cyclorama frame Adrales’ adroit stage pictures evocatively. Jennifer Moeller’s period costumes sidestep stereotype, Broken Chord’s sound is happily unobtrusive, and Huang Ruo provides the plangent, haunting music." Erik Haagensen, Backstage

 



Photo Source: Joan Marcus



SUMMIT

"The Dance and the Railroad", performed at The Signature Theatre on 42nd street New York, NY

COMPOUND-COMPLEX

Tonight was the first preview of "The Dance and the Railroad" by David Henry Wang at the new Signature Theatre Company's  The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre.

Mimi Lien designed such an intricate set that all our engineering and rigging had to be drafted in 3D.

The set does not have one face on the same plane and has only one 90 degree angle. This is our first full stage set construction for Signature Theatre Company!

This was our longest build for the company to date, and the most complicated.

 

With crew of 8 skilled carpenters, each building complex flats for the same unit, the set went together seamlessly.

 

A LOVE LETTER TO PLYWOOD

NYC artist Tom Sachs recently had his installation SPACE PROGRAM: MARS shown at the Park Avenue Armory and some of the RMS crew was there to help set it up. But Tom's been up to more than just crafting missions to outer space. He created this video--A Love Letter to Plywood--which is, well, just that. Tom does a great job showcasing how incredible plywood is. Because really, where would theater and art be without it?

Tom, this video is great! Thank you for creating it.