A Full-Circle Production

Set designer and faculty member John Paul and his history with ‘Two Rooms’

By Joe Tougas ’86

Overseeing the set design of the upcoming production of Two Rooms at Minnesota State University, Mankato allows faculty member John Paul to reflect on the pivotal role that play had in his career and the full-circle experience of working on it today.

The story starts in 1989 at the Cricket Theatre in downtown Minneapolis, a theater known for producing new works by contemporary playwrights. Minnesota native Lee Blessing had premiered Two Rooms in California, but later reworked the script and premiered a new version at the Cricket (now the Music Box Theatre on Nicollet Avenue).

Paul, a relatively new employee at the theater, served as technical director and recalls being somewhat in awe of Blessing, whose Broadway play A Walk in the Woods was nominated for both a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize.

Paul recalled Blessing being generous in several ways, including how he and his then-wife, Jeanne Blake, who directed the production, pitched in with the physical work needed to assemble the set. When it came time to publish the program, Blessing also listed Paul's name among the top credits.

"They typically list the director and designers. They don't usually put a technical director in there. So when we ended up doing this show, and I'm looking at the script, I'm like, 'Oh my God. My name's listed there.'"

Paul assumes it was because he agreed to essentially rebuild the stage to improve sightlines by a foot or two at the director's request.

"If I wasn't as naïve as I was, I might have said, 'I'm not doing that. We can't do that. We don't have time,' whatever. But I'm this naïve."

Paul went on to earn his master's degree in theater from the University of Minnesota. By the end of those three years, he had established connections that led to larger stage productions and a range of film work in Minnesota, including serving as assistant art director on Grumpier Old Men (1995) and Fargo (1996). In those films, he created mechanical drafting for scene construction.

From 1996 to 2001, he worked in Los Angeles with scenic production companies as an art director, design manager and in other roles. He also worked on commercials, including a pickup truck commercial directed by Ridley Scott of Alien and Gladiator fame.

"Most big-name directors love doing commercials because they're a shorter commitment, and they're better paying," Paul said.

While in Los Angeles, he served as set designer on a musical version of Reefer Madness that eventually moved to Broadway and later became a film starring Alan Cumming.

Since 2007, he has been a scenic design professor at MSU, teaching both introductory and specialized theater courses, from Introduction to Theater to advanced levels of set design. He also oversees set design and technical production for MSU's theater productions.

He's proud, he says, to be part of "the only program in the upper Midwest that has a full-service theater program, undergrad, grad, in all areas of performance, management and design, and so on."

"And I love teaching. I feel like, in many ways, I have the best job I could possibly have,” he says. “I get to do the drafting and things like that. I get to do really detailed stuff."

"Two Rooms" opens Wednesday and runs through Sunday.

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