I have a couple of projects on the horizon that I am quite excited about.

Girls vs. Boys is happening very soon!  Its my second chance to hang out at the House this season, after the exciting Wilson Wants It All (still playing, closes this weekend!) I was proud to be a collaborator on the workshop production of GvB with the American Musical Theatre Project at Northwestern this past summer, and I cannot wait to get back at it in the Chopin!

Suicide, Inc. at the Gift Theatre is my first chance to team up with director Jonathan Berry since the lovely On the Shore of the Wide World with Griffin Theatre in 2008.

Scorched at Silk Road Theatre Project is my first mainstage project with the company. I have been a fan since seeing the incredible Durango in 2008, and was able to work with Silk Road on Jen Shook’s staging of Gilgamesh at the MCA last year.

I also have another project in the future with many of the same collaborators from the gorgeous Mariette in Ecstasy at Lifeline Theatre last year…but that one has not been officially announced yet, so that is all I can say about that!

by Brian Friel
Seanachai Theatre (Irish American Heritage Center)
February 2010
Directed by Elise Kauzlaric
Set design by Alan Donahue
Costume design by Aly Greaves
Sound design by Joe Court

Production photos

Research collages
For this production of Brian Friel’s popular Irish memory play, director Elise Kauzlaric was drawn to images of Ireland that were dusty, brown, and dilapidated.  Production design needed to be able support the truth of the scenes in the home of the sisters, but be able to move fluidly into the moments of Michael’s narration from a different time.  We also wanted to connect, visually and aurally, the pagan rituals described by Uncle Jack with the outburst of dance by the sisters.
The lighting design idea pulled color and texture inspiration from early 20th century Irish landscape painting.  Photographs of ritual dance across several cultures inspired the severe angle shift used to highlight the pagan dances.
The set developed as a place with realistic furniture but no walls or solid lines to delineate indoor from outdoor, garden from kitchen, framed by rocky portals against a sky.  Warm color choices accented the dusty brown coloring of the set.  Coloring the sky with light became a tool to navigate the story; mixing blues and ambers lent depth to more realistic scenes, while playing the amber alone served as a backdrop for the ritual dance, and using only the blue created another distinct picture for Michael’s memory recall.  A recurring theme in the play was the creation of a series of snapshots of the family, a collaboration of tableau staging and the abrupt sound and light of a camera flash.

Two shows that I had the pleasure of working on are up and running and Jeff Recommended!

Dancing at Lughnasa
by Brian Friel
Seanachai Theatre at the Irish American Heritage Center

Wilson Wants It All
by Michael Rohd and Phillip C. Klapperich
The House Theatre of Chicago at the Chopin Theatre

by Michael Rohd and Phillip C. Klapperich
The House Theatre of Chicago (Chopin Theatre)
February 2010
Directed by Michael Rohd
Set design by Collette Pollard
Projections design by Lucas Merino
Costume design by Ana Kuzmanic
Sound design by Michael Griggs
Music by Kevin O’Donnell

Production photos

Process collage