Bio

 Mark David Prouse was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM. He earned his undergraduate degree at The University of New Mexico. While studying art, art history and theatrical design, Prouse worked in the university’s AV Dept. as a sign maker, typesetter, printer, and photographer. Attendance at locally produced plays led to a switch in his studies at UNM from fine art to theater arts. Highlights during this period were designing costumes for college productions of The Shadow Box and Aladdin. Prouse also assisted UNM’s visiting costume designer, Deborah Dryden, painting and dying costumes for a production of Aristophanes’ The Clouds.

After graduating from UNM in 1979, Prouse continued to keep his hand in the theater arts, designing costumes for an Albuquerque Civic Light Opera production of the musical, Sugar, and painted sets for other local productions. Prouse then went on to serve for three years in the Albuquerque Public Schools’ Library/Media services, working with teachers and administrators to produce graphics and printing for classroom and office applications. Using press-type and primitive typesetting equipment, Prouse created posters, fliers, certificates of achievement, invitations and signage. These years included the advent of computers and color copiers, and Prouse received extensive, on-the-job training in these new technologies. As a method creating print media, “Cut-and-paste” was rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  

In 1983 Prouse moved to Dallas, Texas, where he designed costumes for a play called Full Hook-Up, at The New Arts Theater. Soon after this, he was accepted with an Assistantship to study Stage Design (specializing in Costume), at Southern Methodist University, under the tutelage of Broadway designers William and Jean Eckart. Studies included courses in set design, lighting, theatre and costume history, and costume construction. Prouse graduated with an MFA in 1986. 

After serving briefly as Costume Designer and Assistant Costume Designer at the Berkshire Theater Festival in Stockbridge, MA, and Actor’s Theater of Louisville, KY, respectively, Prouse moved to Arizona to deal with a family crisis. He moved back to Albuquerque in 1987, where his work included a four-year stint as an artist for a unique silk-screening company that produced “sand paintings.”  

In 1998 an opportunity to work at Scenic Art Studios, located then in Cornwall, NY, as a Scenic Artist, subsequently lead to his relocation to New York in 1999. He joined USA Local 829 shortly thereafter, as a Scenic Artist. But after taking some computer graphics classes at Skidmore College of Continuing Education in White Plains, he was quickly offered a full-time job as a Digital Artist in the offices of Christopher Radko, world-famous designer of Christmas ornaments and other holiday collectibles. There he became well versed in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, serving as a digital colorist, assisting staff designers in converting black and white sketches to fully realized artists’ renderings, for use by ornament and ceramics fabricators overseas. As well, Prouse designed numerous vintage-styled boxes and labels for the Shiny-Brite line of holiday decorations, and created some original designs for ceramics, snow globes and Christmas tree ornaments.  

Growing from his experience at Christopher Radko, Prouse added the Computer Artist card to his professional Union status, returning to USA Local 829 work in 2005. This began with several small movies and stage productions before being hired at the CBS Broadcast Center, where he was employed from 2006 through 2016. In 2011, Prouse took over full-time as Charge Scenic Artist, overseeing the painting of sets and graphics production for many programs, including CBS This Morning, with Charlie Rose & Gayle King, Survivor (the show’s spring season finales, staged each year at the Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan), CBS Sports, WCBS-2 News, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, The Talk New York, and The CBS Evening News. The CBS Broadcast Center’s large studio spaces served as home to several non-CBS shows; most had sets constructed and painted by the CBS Scenic Shops, including Nate Berkus, Anderson Live, and Bethenny, all syndicated programs, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), Inside the NFL (Showtime), Teen Mom (MTV), Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS), HARRY (Harry Connick Jr. show; NBC Universal), and Good Morning Football (NFL Network). Sets built and painted in the CBS Scenic Shop, but located in other facilities, included Meredith Vieira (NBC Universal) and The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (Comedy Central). Ongoing maintenance and occasional restoration was performed on 106 & Park (BET), and CBS Sunday Morning, as well as the virtual “green screen” studio housing Inside Edition. Prouse also managed the CBS Scenic Shop’s connecting printing facility, working with staff to produce large format prints for both CBS shows (signage, posters, adhesive-backed vinyl wallpaper and other printed backgrounds, and backlit media), and for movies, often fine art prints on canvas, as seen in the 2016 DreamWorks Picture, The Girl on the Train. 

Mr. Prouse is currently pursuing independent studies in photography, music history and writing, while continuing to draw and paint. He is available for part-time work, per diem or long-term assignments.