Scenic Design
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. Being on the production team for the show was exhilarating and at times somber. Being the 20th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death meant that we had a very important job on our hands. The show calls for very little in terms of scenery. It is essentially a show of monologues that rarely refers to specific places. The script also called for projections.
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My goal with the design was to emulate the landscape of Wyoming. Descriptions of the land and environment were one part of the script that struck me. Our directer 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 the play placed in). 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 disappear 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 of the fence. There was a desire to not put the actual fence on stage (for its connection to the violent event). The chairs were all different selections of wooden chairs we had available. It was partly because of a lack of completely matching chairs, but it became a really interesting way to also play on the many different characters and scenes in the show.
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Click through the slideshow below to see research pictures. The second slideshow exhibits the results.
PDF of the ground plan for The Laramie Project
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.
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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.
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In addition to this, I also made two desk signs that signalled the change at the end of the musical as well. One was a logo I designed for the UGC company, and the other was the new logo for Hope taking over. These got interchanged in moments on the set. I also added graffiti to the set as well, in various places.
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Above are some research images and some digital drafts/drawings of the wall
Below are images of the results
Appropriate
Below is my scene painting contribution to the show Appropriate, for which I was the assistant scenic designer. The inspiration was wallpaper/paintings of landscapes that were common in old plantation homes. The first slideshow is the pdf of the wall plans with my source photos edited on top. The next two slideshows are photos of the results.
Scenic Painting Class
Scenic Painting- Scene painting class UWL
Above a recreation project that was based off of the source photo on the right. Below is a source photo for a stone texture, and the brick/stone project that was made with it.
Scenic Painting- Scene painting class UWL
Above is the source photo for a photorealistic painting I did in my scenic painting class. Below is the result. The canvas is a three foot by six foot frame with muslin stretched over it.
Above and below is some content for a scenic design project. My assignment was to make a scenic design for Subterranean Homesick Blues Again by Dennis J Reardon. Above is a white model and a preliminary sketch and below is the ground plan.