Behind the Poster: 'In Masks Outrageous and Austere' "In Masks Outrageous and Austere," the final full-length play written by Tennessee Williams, is a darkly comic, highly theatrical work about a wealthy woman named Babe Foxworth who gets kidnapped by a mysterious corporate entity. The premiere production of the work - it's never been produced for the stage - begins performances next month at Culture Project. Shirley Knight stars as Babe, and David Schweizer directs. The poster for the production - a jolting image of a woman with what looks like a face of broken mirrors - was designed by Noah Scalin, owner of the design firm Another Limited Rebellion, based in Richmond, Va. Mr. Scalin recently spoke with ArtsBeat about what inspired the design. Following are excerpts from the conversation. Where did this idea come from? It's pretty jarring. David, the director, said, "This is not the Tennessee Williams you're used to seeing." That really opened up a big door of creative opportunity. People know Tennessee Williams's early stuff. But this is different because it's his last piece. Some of the words that came up were sexy, mysterious, surreal. It's about this wealthy woman and this love triangle she's in and this world that may or may not be real. There's a lot to say and I can't tell the whole story. It's about drilling down to the essence. Why the mirrors? We got into this idea about surface, reflection, refraction. The production is going to have a lot of literal reflection in the show. I wanted to avoid a literal interpretation of the word "mask." I wanted more of a metaphorical mask that is being literally represented to go along with the reality and non-reality that's happening in the show. We came down to this concept of having a mirrored face. Everything is turned on its head. From a distance you can see a face, but up close it's just these panels reflecting choppy water. There's a mystery and intrigue built into it. There's a lot going on in this show, and I wanted to give you a hint of how unusual it is. The image reminds me of Leigh Bowery, the performance artist-club kid who used to apply all kinds of crazy things to his face. Were there other artists you looked to for inspiration? The artist that got brought up was Hieronymus Bosch and his "Garden of Earthly Delights." There's no literal connection there, but that got me thinking of something more garish and unusual. How did you find someone to sit for this? What kind of makeup work did you have to do? I assume this was done with a real model and not in Photoshop. I had to find a woman that represented Shirley Knight without being her. I found a model that fit the bill and who was comfortable with having pieces of mirror glued to her face. It's actually mirrored plexiglass. Real mirror would be sharp. But I still wanted the illusion that it was something really dangerous to put on someone's face. I took a mask and drew on it to figure out how many pieces I would need. Then I sawed the plexiglass into pieces. It's attached with spirit gum, a classic tool used to apply different makeup effects. They were put on as a puzzle that I made up as I went along. That's her own hair and pearls. The implication is that she's either wearing a low-cut fancy outfit or nothing at all. Did the pieces come off easily? It basically just peeled off. It wasn't too nightmarish. It was faster coming off than going on. The model deserves a lot of credit, don't you think? Who is she? Her name is Susan Nolan, a local Richmond woman. She's a friend of my family's. I saw her at an art opening and she looked the part. I asked her if she'd be O.K. having me glue mirrors to her face and she said yes. I can't believe I had the chutzpah to do that. "In Masks Outrageous and Austere" is scheduled to run from April 5 to May 26 at Culture Project.