To my great surprise, Walt (the director and frequent collaborator) wanted to do a horizontal poster from the get go, which in my world, NEVER HAPPENS. Whenever I bring up the possibility I always get the "but, the people who hang the posters say that's a little difficult." You never want the limitations on your creativity to be determined by someone else's one-time, minor inconvenience. So it might not mean much to you, but to me, this was like your dad handing you a cold one when you're 17.

Like my Shakespeare at Sunset posters, I wanted to portray a "Labute event," rather than elaborate the concept of each show individually. At first I had a unique, glyph-like type treatment for each show but even that was all but abandoned.

I decided early on that a "Labute event" would be a dirty, dirty thing. I think of Labute as contemporary theatre's abstract expressionist. He's all machismo and broad strokes, and his work attempts to expose the deeper elements of the American psyche. I liked this painterly approach, I think it gives the poster a more textured and varied look than I usually go for.

It's also been fun to play with the review quotations in my CSU posters. These used to be things I would try to hide along the edge of another element, keeping the balance of an already-pristine layout preserved - but lately I've been inclined to let them have their own weight and presence. These elements, on their own, can participate in the balance of the composition. It's more fun that way.