Introducing JUST SO STORIES’ director…and family!
Introducing…..a familiar face, in a new role! Lorraine Knox is certainly no stranger to all for One. She first appeared as Abigail Adams in our productions of American Primitive (2004 and 2008). Our audiences have also seen her as Madeline in Women of Lockerbie, the Great-Grandmother in The Princess and the Goblin, and most recently as Mrs. Johnson in last season’s The Music Lesson.
This season I am thrilled to have Lorraine as our guest director for The Just So Stories. I knew Lorraine would bring a fresh creative vision and energy to this piece. What I did not expect was that she would bring her entire family with her! Here is Lorraine’s own explanation of how this show has become “A Family Affair”:
“As most of you know, putting a theater production together is never a solo effort. Even if the show only has one person in it, it is still a collaboration with a director and designers, as well as the crew that runs the show. The Just So Stories is no exception to that rule, and when deciding who some of my collaborators would be, I did not have far to look. For me, it was just smart to keep it in the family.
My daughter Sophie is an artist, currently in her freshman year in the art department at the University of St. Francis. When I came up with the idea for the actors to wear headpieces, Sophie was naturally my “go to” person for designing and creating those headpieces. So, for the past few weeks our house has been a workshop for cardboard animal heads, with the number of heads growing almost daily. Fortunately we just moved, so there is a large supply of cardboard at the ready. Soon we will have the whole Just So menagerie ready to papier mâché and paint.
My three sons are not designers (yet), but they will also be contributing in some way. Two of them have already helped scavenge some of the wood for the set from afO’s storage trailers, and they will likely contribute muscle when the headpieces and set pieces need to be moved to their new home for the run of the show.
There are other designers/builders who are contributing their time, talent and creativity to help The Just So Stories be the best show possible. It could not be done without any one of them. I just wanted to share a little about the ones that I like to keep close to home.”
