Not many rooms can accommodate 10 paintings, each one measuring about 8 feet by 9 feet. But since the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis' paint shop used to be an indoor skating rink, they barely take up a corner.

They are something to see, though, lying side by side in varying stages of maturity. Some are still "nude," the off-white color of fabric. But others are already a pale shade of coral, an effect achieved with a liquid mixture of tinted cornstarch applied with a broom and a bug sprayer. That 'seals" the cloth so color can't drip through it, and creates a smooth surface for more paint.

As for the others ...

They're dark paintings, stormy shades of red and black arranged in fuzzy rectangles. As they seem to draw you into their deep hearts of color, they might remind you of something you've seen before.

Maybe at a museum.

Maybe you noticed the artist's name: Mark Rothko.

A modern master known best for huge color paintings in a style called abstract expressionism, Rothko (1903-1970) is the central figure in John Logan's drama "Red." This week it opens the 2011-12 season at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, under the direction of Steven Woolf.

The drama, which won the 2010 Tony Award for best play, finds Rothko at the height of his fame. It's 1958, and he has been commissioned to create a series of murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York's new Seagram Building, another modern masterpiece.

Working on the commission with the help of his new apprentice (played here by Matthew Carlson), Rothko (Brian Dykstra) struggles with the meaning of success and the nature of his own art and life. The men spend the entire play in Rothko's big, decrepit studio — where the paintings are.

So, yes, the paintings on the floor do indeed look like Rothkos.

But they aren't Rothkos.

"We're putting on a play," explained Scott Loebl. "We're not trying to make forgeries."

Loebl, 49, is the charge (head) scenic artist at the Rep; he also teaches at Webster University's Conservatory of Theatre Arts. For "Red," he and his team are doing many of the things that they do for other plays: painting a "brick" wall, adding a "window."

These painters — all of them part of the skilled St. Louis local of the United Scenic Artists union, men and women who apprenticed at the Muny — aren't generally asked to create great art.

Well, the illusion of great art.

Rothko's process "was so elaborate, we would have had to have studied for years" to re-create it, Loebl said. On top of that, he was secretive about his methods. But examination with an electron microscope has revealed that some paintings involved 40 separate thin layers of colored washes. Sometimes he included other materials, such as "egg yolk or an Elmer's-type glue," Loebl said. "He did that to separate his colors, to keep one layer from sinking into the one below.

"We're using standard latex house paint."

Set designer Michael Ganio studied Rothko's work, then came up with 10 paintings of his own very much in the Rothko style (but not copies). Hand-painted onto small boards, called "elevations," these are the images that Loebl and the others turn into the stage-worthy paintings.

These, too are painted in layers, to achieve "what Rothko was going for — shimmering layers of color," Loebl explained. "But he used at least 15 or 20 colors. We basically use three: bright red, dark red and black. Then we add the glaze."

These paints can stain, as the painters' work clothes prove. Designer Dorothy Marshall Englis took photos of them to figure out how and where to stain the costumes. (On stage, the actors paint with tempera, which washes out.) They do try to minimize staining — not to mention back strain and time spent — by using equipment that looks like it came from the garage instead of the atelier.

"They say Mark Rothko dipped in just the top of the bristles on his paintbrush," Loebl said, standing over the painting he's finishing. That would be a slow, painstaking process. But Loebl doesn't even have to bend over to apply color, thanks to his wide, long-handled brush. "This is why we can do a painting a day. And it will dry overnight."

Still, just the possibility that these stage works might go on to a further life as some kind of ersatz Rothko is enough to make the artist's estate insist on proof that the paintings are destroyed after the final curtain. (After its St. Louis run, "Red" moves onto the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.)

Loebl doesn't feel bad about that. The former rink includes a number of pieces from old productions — everything from towering Greek columns that are bound to be useful again to an image of a dancing sailor that Loebl considers a stellar example of a long-gone style of stage art. But most things are taken apart or discarded, and these paintings are no different.

Still, working on such an usual project has been "a holiday," he said. "We have our skills, but Mark Rothko was a great artist. I love the idea that he hoped the sons of bitches eating expensive meals at the Four Seasons would lose their appetites when they saw his work."

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'Red'

Who Repertory Theatre of St. Louis • When Previews at 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; opening 8 p.m. Friday and running through Oct. 2 • Where Browning Mainstage at the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts, 130 Edgar Road • How much $16-$72 • More info 314-968-4925; repstl.org