Steve Patmagrian: Making the Scenes

Talk about the guy behind the scenes — Steve Patmagrian creates the scenes. His skill set recalls the riff in Johnny Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere.” In Patmagrian’s case, he’s been a set designer, stage manager, sound and lighting technician, event planner, videographer, technical director and combat instructor. New Atmosphere Productions, Patmagrian’s studio and special events production company, had a 25-year run staging imaginative happenings for Sarasota Film Festival, Mote Marine, Historic Spanish Point, Sarasota Memorial Hospital and other area nonprofits, while simultaneously creating custom props and sets for local theater companies at a moment’s notice. As a freelance creative consultant, Patmagrian is still making scenes. Most recently, he was part of the creative team that reimagined the Broadway Bar as The Starlite Room. Here’s what he’s imagining now.

How did you get started on your artistic path?
I think it was my destiny, although I rebelled against it. My father was a musician and a conductor. My mother was a true Renaissance woman who taught art at the Ringling College of Art and Design for more than 20 years and also created her own art. So, I grew up in an artistic household with a home art studio.
Like most kids, I resisted going into the arts, but for some reason I volunteered to do set work for the Players in my first year of high school. I stuck with it on every show straight through graduation, after which they appointed me designer and technical director. I wound up going to art school and majored in interior design and space planning. I couldn’t escape my destiny.

What has been your most satisfying gig?
They’re all satisfying, but the top would have to be working with Larry Barrett on his recent production of Firesign Theatre’s “Nick Danger Third Eye,” which was a brilliant parody of film noir and 1940s radio crime drama that we staged as a live performance at the Powel Crosley Estate. I did the sets, handled the lighting and the sound and helped refine the whole conceptual frame of the show — pretty much everything except the words. Larry listened and treated me as a creative collaborator, not just the nuts-and-bolts guy. The whole process was an all-time career high.

What does a technical director do?
What’ve you got? I’m a Jack of all trades and a master of none. As a technical director that’s a plus. In an ideal world with an ideal budget, you work with experts, each with his own highly specialized knowledge. But the theatrical world is often less than ideal. When the experts aren’t available, you’re the expert.

Set designers and technical people tend to be the overlooked talents of theater. How does it feel to be the creative guy behind the scenes?
It feels great. I don’t have a burning desire to be on stage. I’m content to set the stage.

New Atmosphere Productions had a warehouse resembling Citizen Kane’s (or the Addams family’s) basement. You could find every set or prop imaginable inside. How did it feel when you finally sold everything?
Ah, to dismantle the creations of 25 years was bittersweet. Every drape, oversized fish and gigantic head had its own story to tell.

What was the most challenging prop or set piece for you?
That’d have to be a 16-foot diameter giant octopus that hung over the dance floor at Mote Marine’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” fundraiser.

What are your thoughts about local live theater?
We’re so lucky in Sarasota. There’s such a wide variety of live theater, not just one production of “The King and I” and “Brigadoon” after another. We’ve got the black box productions at Venice Little Theatre and the Players; Manatee Players has its amazing new facility at the Manatee Performing Arts Center; Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, Florida Studio Theatre, the Asolo and the Asolo Conservatory continue to take risks; we’ve got a great improv scene — I could go on, but there’s just too much to get into it. People should really discover it for themselves. I hope everybody gets a chance to go to the theater in Sarasota. It’s not an elitist thing.