Winter ~ 2024 at Silver Sun 

Production Designer & Author Paul Eads

As a Theatrical Set Designer, Art Director and Production Designer Paul created the look of numerous theater, film, and television productions over a span of forty-five years. In the late 1970s he designed the world-premiere off-Broadway production of Dennis McIntyre’s Modigliani, at the Colonnades Theater, as well as Othello, and Coriolanus, at the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Delacorte Theater in Central Park. In the early 1980s he was the Art Directorfor several New York based feature films including: The Fan, So Fine, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Wise Guys, and The Muppets Take Manhattan.

In 1985 he relocated to Los Angeles with his wife Mindy Roffman where they often worked together on projects. Paul received Emmy awards for his design of NYPD Blue and Murder One, for Stephen Bochco, and Boston Public for David E Kelley. He also received an Art Director’s Guild award for his design of the Bochco series, Brooklyn South. His LA- based, feature film work as Production Designer includes the movies Frequency, Untraceable,
Fracture, and Save the Last Dance. A full list of his Motion Picture and Television credits can be found online at IMDb.com

In retirement for the last three years, Paul has spent much of his time working on a narrative non- fiction manuscript—something he researched on and off (between gigs) for the last 45 years. “THE RIDDLE OF THE SECRET NAME : Decoding the Cryptographic Mystery of Alchemy” tells the story of his search for the origin and meaning of the alchemists #39; meticulously hidden ‘Hermetic Art’, what they called their ’Secret of Secrets’ and ‘Art of Arts’. Having its origins in 1st c. BC Stoic philosophy, the Hermetic Art was based on a hitherto-unrecognized cryptonym or ‘secret name’ of Hermes, a hieroglyphic moniker devised to appear far older than it really was. The story of this carefully-concealed mystery takes the form of an archaeological dig into the historical literature and art of Alchemy, Greek philosophy, and Mediterranean religions, seeking evidence of a common missing piece: the Stoic secret Name, and its cryptographic Art. Regarded as true and ancient doctrine for over seventeen-hundred years, the secret Name and Hermetic Art of the Stoics had a stealthy yet powerful impact not only on the rise of alchemy, but on a variety of cultures and religions: Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Judaic, Christian, and Islamic. THE RIDDLE OF THE SECRET NAME details the broad contours of this long-hidden name and thoroughly-misconstrued cosmographic art, demonstrating its astonishing influence on culture, religion, and the history of ideas.

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Designer & Artist Mindy Roffman

Mindy was born and raised in NYC where she began her creative journey as a theatrical set designer. After earning her MFA from the Yale School of Drama, she spent a year working as an assistant to her esteemed professor, Ming Cho Lee. It was under his mentorship that  she refined her skills, drafting and model building on both regional theater productions as well as the striking Broadway production of “K2″.  Her first position was an Art Department Production Assistant for Production Designer Paul Eads on the film “Turk 182”. Several months later he hired her on his next project, this time as an Assistant Art Director on the film “Brighton Beach Memoirs”.  As a Period film taking place in 1937, it was both an architectural challenge and a life changing experience, one where the Art Department was tasked with turning back time on a six-block radius business district in Brooklyn. Historical accuracy required that every piece of the existing architecture; molding, doorways, windows signage etc. would have to be measured with great precision and drafted for any additions to the existing architecture to fit into place. This new approach to production design was very different from the open-minded fantasy world of the theater, and presented a unique challenge to reproduce reality with renewed creativity.

She and Paul worked well together, and eventually that partnership blossomed into a romance. In 1985 they decided to relocate to Los Angeles, where the bulk of film work was happening at the time. For the next three decades they not only collected five Emmy awards between them, but also raised two wonderful boys who grew up to be artists and musicians themselves. Fine art had always been her first passion, and it was her ability to draw that she believes earned her admission to Yale as a designer, so when work was slow periodically throughout the years, she began taking classical oil painting classes at the Kline Academy of Art. Now many years later and recently retired, Mindy is thrilled to have a home studio where she enjoys the freedom to focus on her own art as well as other creative endeavors. Grateful to have been able to take part in what many consider to be ‘the golden age of television,’ she is now equally excited to be able to explore learning new techniques and expressing herself through writing, music and most importantly making art that speaks to her heart.