Designing Salome: Set and Costume Designs by Thomas Woodruff
January 11 - April 23, 2002

Thomas Woodruff was born in New Rochelle, New York in 1957. He received his BFA degree from Cooper Union, New York in 1979. Over the last 20 years, he has participated in over 20 solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions. He currently heads the illustration department at the School of the Visual Arts in New York.

Hawaii Opera Theatre commissioned Woodruff to create set and costume designs for its production of Richard Strauss’ Salome, part of HOT’s Wanton Women 2002 series. The opera is based on the Biblical story of King Herod, John the Baptist and Herod’s sensuous stepdaughter, Salome. Set during a bacchanalian party, the narrative unfolds as Salome falls for, and then is rejected by, an imprisoned John the Baptist. Her furious reaction to this rejection sets into motion a tragic and irrevocable series of events.

This exhibition includes Woodruff’s initial design concepts, drawings and watercolors on paper, as well as a scale model of the set design for the Salome production. The works on paper represent Woodruff’s original concepts for the production’s set and costumes for the leads of Salome, Herod, Herodias and St. John the Baptist, as well as for the ensemble of other roles.

The opera is set in an overgrown, wilted garden of hybrids. Woodruff states, ”The plants as well as the people who have cultivated them have all been manipulated and controlled to grow in certain ways. An oversized spider’s web above the garden refers to the wild beast of nature, always ready to undo what man insists on manipulating.”

The costumes for Salome are based on this floral theme as well. For example, panniers on the dress for Herodias (Salome’s mother) represent the petals of a giant Venus Fly Trap. Each costume is similarly festooned with cut flowers, chosen to symbolize each character’s personality.