Theatre Portfolio
Show pictures
References and Inspiration
The Laramie Project
For my senior capstone at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, I was the scenic designer for our production of The Laramie Project. This emotional and somber show is about the tragic death of Matthew Shepard at the hands of homophobic hate turned violent.
My goal with the design was to emulate the landscape of Wyoming. Descriptions of the land and environment were essential to the script and storytelling. Our director grew up in Wyoming, and I also felt it important to emulate the world he knew, as opposed to the stereotyped cowboy/western tropes he had seen in other renditions of the play. One of the things that most described Wyoming according to him was "spread out" yet always surrounded by mountains.
I was very interested in playing with levels, because I felt that a lack of dynamism in location could become confusing and monotonous without it. This is where the platforms and apron came into play. I also wanted to utilize this sense of being surrounded in some way by creating mountains that curved around the back of the stage, as if they disappeared around the audience. The expansive sky is mentioned multiple times in the script, and this was part of my thought with surrounding the audience; I wanted to be able to emulate the sky as large as it is, so I decided on the whole cyc for our projection designer and lighting designer. Lastly, tables and chairs were some of the only components of the show that indicated a change of location or character. My decision to use stained wood for the tables was an homage to the raw wood fence that was key to the central, and violent, event of the story. There was a desire not to put the actual fence on stage for its connection to the violence associated with it.
Appropriate
As the Assistant Scenic Designer for "Appropriate", my primary role was to design and paint the walls of the set. The play is centered around a white family reckoning with their racist heritage. A central component of the story is the old house that had been passed down throughout generations. Coinciding with the major catharsis of the plot, the house literally falls apart at the end of the show.
The inspiration was wallpaper and paintings of landscapes that were common in old plantation homes. I edited early American art on top of the plans for each section of the wall. Those plans, as well as examples of the results are shown in the slideshows.
Our
Story
Urinetown
As the Assistant Scenic Designer for Urinetown, I had a few very specific tasks for the set. The first, was to design the center wall of the main set. It was one of the main locations as "public ammenity number 9". Being the cheapest ammenity, in the poorest part of Urinetown, it had been a store front- turned utility with only the slightest bit of effort. Like the rest of Urinetown, it had seen its fair share of trauma and abuse (probably passing hands in its ownership many times as well). I painted and affected most of the wall myself.
The wall also had to transform into the pretttier, happier version at the end of the musical when Hope Cladwell takes over her father's business. The ammenity was donated in memory of the protagonist, Bobby Strong. In only moments, the whole set is transformed from a world of despair, to a world of hope. I designed, built, and painted the sign so that it looks like a piece of wood nailed onto the ammenity, but unfolds in seconds to reveal the dedicated new look.
Additionally, I assisted the Scenic Designer with painting other parts of the set, including texture and graffiti on the walls. The slideshows have examples of my work and the inspiration I used for the design.
Props
Our
Story
As the Props Designer for Silent Sky, the production was very research-heavy, as I had to not only learn about turn-of-the-century digital hearing aids, but also pick two separate models appropriate for the time period that would demonstrate time passing in the play.
One slideshow contains examples of props I created for the show, including the hearing aids, notebooks and "fly spankers"(a scientific measuring device to find the brightness of stars) The other slideshow contains examples and resources I used in my research to recreate the props
The materials I used were found objects like a magnifying glass handle, headbands, and string. Heat-activated plastic, paint, tape, and wire are also materials used in these props. Being that the show was in a smaller black box theatre, proximity to the audience was considered in making sure the props looked good at a close distance.
Silent Sky
Props list for Silent Sky
Props Research
The Arsonists
I have two slide shows of the process for two fabricated props I created for The Arsonists. The first is a fake goose with a removable leg so an actor could pretend to eat it. It was made out of pink insulating foam. It was cut, then covered in FlexBond, painted, and sealed. The second prop is a puff cigar. I made sleeves that they could be put into to create the more cartoonish look I desired. I molded plastic around the shape of the puff cigar, wrapped it in cord, then again in two layers of tape. The puff cigars could then be replaced as needed.
Below is the props list for the show, for which I served as both the Props Designer and the Dramaturg