Tony Award-winning set designer Richard Hoover has designed sets for Broadway productions, Hollywood movies and Michael Jackson videos. So what made Hoover, a multimillion-dollar-budget designer, take on a small-stage project like Keith Huff’s “The Bird and Mr. Banks”? Being a fan of the playwright, for one thing. “I’ve known Keith for several years. I saw a play of his in L.A. Keith called me and I’m doing sweat equity because I love his voice, and I love Chicago. I’m doing this to support small theater.” According to Hoover, creating an effective design on a small budget was a challenge, but the bigger challenge was the lack of space. “The play has many themes in it, and the space has very little room—so we had to come up with a solution to keep it in the space.” What he came up with is what Sharon Evans of Live Bait Theater refers to as “a cube that rotates.” “It’s a four-sided box, and the four sides function as the separate psychological functions of the piece,” Hoover explains. “It’s a tiny little thing, but I think it works. It really comes down to transitions and whether it works with the play.” Hoover intends to see for himself at the play’s opening, which is this Saturday at Live Bait Theater.
