OK, you got us. It was Michael Harada, who created the masks -- along with the sets -- for Windward Community College Players' production of Bertolt Brecht's "The Good Woman of Setzuan." The director is Ben Moffat.
"Ben has a lot of experience working with visual artists, and I guess he just thought of me when this project came up," said Harada. "The point of the play is varying degrees of human-ness, and all of the principle players wear masks."
"One of the characters is human; the others have compromised their humanity; the play is them moving closer to humanity," said Moffat. "So, it's an emotional evolution in masks.
"We looked to Chinese opera as an influence and design criteria, but that was just a starting point. As the style evolved we took liberties with it. There's Japan in there, and Indonesia, and Bali -- all in the paint and colors and design."
The actors have to use their bodies more when they're masked, said Moffat.
"Their physicality must be very clean, and naturalistic at the same time. Like coaching choreography," he said. "Some of the actors like the masks, others don't. And they can limit your sight lines, because the eyeholes are so small. Like blinders. Little things, like trying to put your foot up on a bench, become a hassle."
"Usually, we use papier mache, but lately I've been using a neoprene latex material from Chicago that air-dries into something quite tough and flexible, and it takes acrylic paint really well. It sets up like 'slip' in ceramics in about four hours, then we pour back the excess. We haven't had one fail yet."
This is pretty cutting-edge technology for community-college drama, but Harada's been riding that edge for a while. He first worked with Moffat in a dance production at Mid-Pacific Institute, and got his foot in the door by blurting out that "the dancing was great but the visuals sucked!
Theatrical design work is exciting for Harada, 40, because he can work in every stage of the piece -- design, test, construct, performance. He pays the bills primarily by fabricating "industrials," exhibits for conventions and seminars by multinational corporations. "They pay well enough that I can do small jobs for guys like Ben.
"I saw a David Hockney exhibition at the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art), and it featured his maquette designs from a theater piece. They were like paintings in 3-D, and I thought, what a wonderful thing to do!" Harada said.
"It made me want to do more work like that. Plus, I like the sensation of painting on walls. I did art-painting for a while -- it was a real interest -- but tying that into theatrical design was the key. Instead of a flat, one-on-one experience when you're viewing a painting, doing a play is like capturing a moment of time. Like bringing a painting to life.
"When I was a kid, my sister was taking dance at the university and I'd have to wait for her at Kennedy Theatre. I thought, no way! Too hard! I'll never do theater. Ha! Well, here I am. I must like being sleep-deprived."
What: "The Good Woman of Setzuan"