Behind the Scenes at Lorton's Television Scenery Associates

This fall, the eyes of the world will be glued to television screens to see President Barack Obama debate his Republican opponent. Mike Foley, the owner of Lorton's , will attend each debate, but he won't be focused on the conversations.

Foley and his staff of scenic designers have been making the sets for every presidential and vice presidential debate since 1988.

"It's pretty high profile — 90 million people tune in to watch it," he told Patch, adding that the 1992 debates were his favorite.

"The three candidates made it very interesting. We basically start out with an empty basketball court. We put in everything - the carpeting, the stage, the walls, the lighting. The background is relatively muted and there's a lot of stuff you don't think about. We devote six months to the project every four years."

From Vision to Reality - All the Time

Foley, who lives in Arlington with his wife, founded TSA in Lorton in 1981. The company employs up to a dozen full and part-time employees and builds sets for nearly every major theater in the area. TSA has done nearly 50 shows at the Kennedy Center alone. The staff is currently building "1776" for Ford's Theatre.

The work is accomplished in the 10,000 square foot TSA warehouse off Telegraph Road. "It generally takes about a month to prepare the set for a show," said Foley. 

TSA's list of television clients is tough to match: ABC news, Al Jazeera, BBC, BET, CBS, CNBC, C-Span, ESPN, Fox News, Golf Channel, HBO, MSNBC, MTV, NBC and PBS.

Christine Ward has been with TSA since the beginning. "Everybody's got a studio in this area," she said. "My favorite event? I'm the scenic designer for the Kennedy Center Honors, which means I get to hang out with lots of stars and tell them not to step there because the paint is wet."

So, how's business? 

"Things are good. The biggest thing for us in the recession was to stay busy. So we just took on as much work as we could handle," Foley said. "The downside is that we haven't been able to raise our prices, but we work hard and we stay busy. It's still a complicated business and people are always trying to squeeze as much value as they can. But once we sign on we commit to delivering a project on the given hour of the given day — and not a minute later."