Scenic Class Projects
A selection of scenic designs completed as part of my current MFA coursework at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Romeo & Juliet
In this reimagined setting for the opera, I drew on the infamous family feuds rife in the American frontier during the hey days of the "Wild West". With this fanciful setting and plenty of grand moving pieces to the set, my goal for this concept was to lean into the comedy that can be found in the early half of the story, and convince the audience to let their knowledge of the well-known ending slip from their minds, allowing the tragedy of the tale to hit afresh and in higher contrast.
Main set, with gravedigger's wagon serving as tomb for the lovers
Inside Friar Lawrence's quarters
Juliet's room inside the Capulet's home
Detail of Capulet building interior
Detail of Saloon exterior, with hand-built shutters
The Trojan Women
The prompt for this project was to take this classic Greek play and set it in a different historic conflict of our choosing. I set my version in a US Army camp during the Vietnam War, due to the heavy parallels between the Greek's treatment of the Trojan women in the play, and the treatment of civilians by the US military, in particular the My Lai massacre and similar events.
Kata Kabanova
Designed for the University's large proscenium theatre, Kata Kabanova is an opera about a woman who finds herself trapped in an unhappy home life and longs to fly away and be free. Shown here is the final model with the various scene configurations.
Tales of Hoffman
The opera tells the story of the writer Hoffman's three great loves. For class we designed Act 1: Olympia, about the doll so lifelike that Hoffman mistakes her for real and falls in love with her. The image progression of the model shows how the set would progress through the act, with more and more of the dollmaker's fantastical workshop revealed.
The Madman and the Nun
Set in an early mental institution run by the church, this absurdist play examines madness and religion, and in the case of the titular characters, the grey area in between. The assignment was set in the University's black box theatre, and included the requirement that we create our own seating concept to tie into our design.
