These posters, commissioned by Concordia’s Theatre Department, are a combination of two ideas: describing the plays in terms of basic shapes, and including a hands-on approach in some matter. The mostly primary colours (CMYK) reference the theatre department’s desire to go back to the basics of theatre. The tree itself represents the department’s desire to grow and branch out in order to try new approaches to theatre, as well ties into the plays themselves.
In the The Seventh Seal, one of the iconic scenes involves a character dying by falling out of a tree that he had climbed in an attempt to escape Death. In the Jingju poster, the cherry tree is referenced: it is iconic of Eastern culture. The tree trunk, featured in the season’s poster, represents the life of the theatre department in which these two plays (and many more) will stem from. Additional posters in the series could feature different parts of the main tree and different shapes and colours.
The shapes also hold meaning: the squares of The Seventh Seal poster represent the squares of the chessboard being used in the game between the knight and Death. The circles of the Jingju poster represent the circular fluid motion of the moments present in Chinese opera, the circular flow of the sleeves in particular. The triangles of the season’s poster represent the directions that the theatre department wishes to take.
The tree was created using an original paper collage created by me.