This past Wednesday, Maytag Virgin began play at Florida Studio Theatre’s Keating Theatre, as a part of the company’s Summer Mainstage season. The play, written by Audrey Cefaly and directed by Kate Alexander, FST’s Associate Director at-large, is a southern love story that focuses on Lizzy Nash, a spunky high school English teacher and her new next-door neighbor Jack Key, a high school physics teacher. Both Lizzy and Jack have lost their spouses and although they seem to have nothing in common, their close proximity forces them to reconcile with their growing feelings for one another.

The stage is bookended by Lizzy and Jack’s houses and takes place in the character’s adjoined back yard - the character’s only real common ground. “The houses are very much meant to be a reflection of the characters. Lizzy’s house and backyard are a lot more livelier than Jack’s and much more lived-in versus Jack's is more subdued and closed off - a lot of the stuff with him resembles that of a man still moving in whereas Lizzy’s is someone who has made the space her own,” says scenic designer Pedro L. Guevara.

The challenge of creating a space embodied a modern, southern town, but also personified two distinct characters was no easy task. “The only stage direction was: ‘set in a fictional town in the South’. I wanted to emulate the architecture of these southern towns, which seemed to be a mix of Craftsman and old Gothic-Victorian - creating the sense that these houses have definitely been lived in,” says Guevara.

Guevara, who’s based in Louisiana, began the process by creating a model of what the set might look like to show Kate Alexander. “We as set designers have the tools and abilities to bring the director’s vision to life. For this production I used a combination of model-building and Photoshop - it was the easiest way to show Kate the two houses and then digitally overlay the strategic clutter that was going to live on stage overtop the model,” attests Guevara.

Florida Studio Theatre, 1241 N Palm Ave, Sarasota, 941- 366-9000

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