Peyton Butler’s art of theater

Few students can find the time to do both drama and the visual arts, but Senior Peyton Butler has found a way to balance both in her life. This year Peyton will perform in Legally Blonde: The Musical in what will be her third year in theater. Simultaneously, Butler is taking AP Art with Mr. Shotola-Hardt, a rigorous full year course in which students create a portfolio to turn in to AP judges. Instead of keeping her two interests separate, Butler has intertwined her two interests, creating art inspired by her love for theater and art for the theater department: “ My art concentration is creating costume designs for different plays, either of my choice or or ones that we will be doing at the school later this year. I did this because it combines two of my favorite things, art and theatre! I am also creating art that will be used as reference for the theatre departments winter production of Much Ado About Nothing. I will also be using those designs for Oregon’s State Thespian Competition, as a technical entry.”

Visual art experience is also something unique Butler brings to the table in her theater performances. She says of drama and visual art, “ My whole concentration this year is a combination of the two, and really the two go together very well. Theatre is a combination of so many different art forms, whether that be performing or visual arts. I think that I bring a different perspective to theatre being that I am not a performing arts student, but a visual arts student.”

Butler’s interest in costuming has spurred her to look into jobs that involve making clothing. “ I really want to explore career opportunities. I would really like to continue creating costume designs as a career, but I think looking at future goals for my art is something I want to explore,” she comments.

Butler took advanced art her junior year but her concentration this year is very different. Her art 4 concentration was Pacific Northwest themed; Butler is an avid hiker and she says her love for nature inspired her earlier art, “ In the past, I used it a lot for backgrounds and color schemes. This year it’s a little harder to take those types of influences. My art still stylistically looks similar to my old stuff, but it I think my style has become even more individual to me.”

Butler recently finished a World War 1 nurses costume for the play Much Ado About Nothing and plans to continue to design costumes for the play which the school will perform this winter.