TxSF

Jimmy Humphries: Twenty Years a Texan

He’s often mistaken for a local, but Jimmy Humphries is only here for ten weeks each summer. A Professor at Wittenburg College in Springfield, Ohio, Jimmy Humphries has been a member of the Texas Shakespeare Festival for the last twenty years. “I’ve never spent a summer in Ohio, since I’ve lived there. I’m always down here.” He celebrates his birthdays at Lupe’s, he is a regular of Saturday night karaoke at The Back Porch and in his younger days could be seen cruising highway 31 on his motorcycle.



“Jimmy has held so many positions for the festival, he’s designed the sets for 42 productions, he’s been properties master, he designs the lobby displays, makes all the festival banners, been a painter, you name it he’s done it.” Artistic Director Raymond Caldwell comments fondly. He remembers meeting Jimmy at the Southwest Theater Conference in 1990, when he was looking for a designer for all four shows the following year. Humphries was still a professor at Texas A&M at the time, what stood out was his positive attitude and unique take on set design



“Most designers show you renderings, but Jimmy is master of building replicas sets. I was fascinated with them, the little 8 inch models, fully painted, it takes you back to you childhood, the tiny detail. When he came in to interview he was so personable, so likable, so unaffected, I thought ‘this is the person I want to come down’ and he started the following summer. We’ve had him back ever since.”




Fans of the festivals will recognize his set design work. His career has featured classics such as Comedy of Errors (1991) MacBeth (1995) Merry Wives of Windsor (1998) Julius Cesar (1991 & 2008) Twelfth Night (2008) as well as numerous children’s shows. “We knew we wanted Jimmy for the first year we did a musical, he has a skill for condensing down complex ideas,” remembers company manager John Dodd. “We mounted Man of La Mancha and it requires a draw bridge on stage, it was frightening to start with such a daunting task, but he pulled it off.” The set worked so well that it’s been adapted for at least two other productions across the country and Artistic Director Caldwell admits that he still has the model in his office. Originally the festival only planned to do a musical every other year, but the public demand was so great that they moved into hits like Camelot, My Fair Lady, and 1776 all designed by Humphries.



“His shows were always very fanciful, they had a fantasy side to it.” Remembers Alexa Duke, the festival secretary from 1996-2004, which was perfect for the 17 kids’ shows he has designed for the festival, from classics such as Beauty and The Beast (1993), Jack and the Beanstalk (2004), Rumplestiltskin (2002 & 2009) to original shows like The Adventures of Armadillo Al and the Kilgore Kid (1993) and the international premiere of The Magic Lotus Lantern (2008).
“Most scene design today is solving problems. We can all make it look pretty, but you have to be able to solve the problems. Our biggest problem down to solve before you even start the shows is considering how to build a stage that can be removed after every performance and reconstructed before each curtain. If you aren’t ready at 7:00pm to open this house, you’ve failed.”Humphries says with a laugh from behind his desk the Strafford Room at the Van Cliburn Auditorium.







This is the place audience members would recognize Mr. Humphries, from the festival gift shop, which he has run on and off since it’s inceptions 13 years ago. He remembers what it was like when it started. “We’d sell concessions during intermission, it was only two items; hazelnut coffee and cookie and not store bought cookies, Raymond would bake.” It’s hard to believe that this was the humble beginnings of the department that now raises 10-12% of the festival’s income. “Once I designed the sets, I had nothing else to do, so I would wear a vest and go out and sell cookies and coffee to people. Based on how I dressed is how we designed the uniforms for the front of house staff.” Little did he know that it would lead to him designing clothing for the festival, doing all of the gift shops ordering, designing the interior and exterior lobby of the theater for the next decade and painting the walls and windows with a view of Shakespeare London.





“It’s my 2nd family down here, I’m the oldest in my family, I never had an older brother to tease and I came down here and god gave me John Dodd to harass.” Humphries says with a grin. John reminds everyone that he is younger with a smirk and not as round as Jimmy or as short. Humphries a master of not only stage painting, but also pranks and portraiture. Once he tried to sneak John Dodd’s face into a painting of a giant rabbit on stage when the festival did Harvey in 2006. It never made it onstage, but John saw the painting and is remembered to have said “I am not amused…”


Jimmy has left his mark on the community of East Texas outside of the Texas Shakespeare Festival. He has been brought in to design shows for Longview Community Theater, Opera East Texas and was the designer for the New London Museum, which hired him based on his incredible work for the festival. “I’m really glad I was able to do that, because it really helped to show the community how to make the museum. It was their history and they brought in all the material, I showed them to put it together, how to mount and display photos, how to rotate pieces out, I designed the mural on the wall, really how to make it into something they could own and be proud of.” They brought him back in when they built an annex as well, which he was happy to do, calling this area of the world his second home.


“It’s fun to bring Shakespeare to East Texas, I consider this ‘arts missionary work.’ When I’m no longer walking on this earth, standing tall before the man I can hopefully say ‘I helped Raymond Caldwell bring Shakespeare to East Texas,’ and I might get a pass. Except for the times I bedeviled John Dodd, I’ll have to deal with that… maybe by that time those pages will be missing by then.”


Jimmy Humphries scenic design can be seen as part of the 2010 Texas Shakespeare Festival in their production of the classic fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, which runs July 20th-July 31th, shows at 10am and 2pm. Tickets are $7 and can be purchased through the festival box office. (903)983.8605 for more information visit www.texasshakespeare.com