chicago!

i have spent the last week and a half working on a show in chicago with my dear friends jenny and kira from bu! i designed their most recent project, "cta: coming to america", which opened this weekend. it has been the most amazing experience. the ensemble style work, the wonderful people, the amazing city, and the whirlwind process have made this the most incredible trip ever!



the show went up in theatre building chicago, on belmont avenue. it's got three theatres in it and the staff there was incredibly helpful and nice. we went on a weekend retreat in michigan before load in, which was super helpful in terms of clarifying the work and getting us all ready for the tech process.



the show itself is really cool: its stories of immigrants (all living) who came to chicago from over 6 different countries. jenny and kira have spent the last year doing interviews and have created a really cool theatre piece that connects them all together. it was wonderful to watch the ensemble work together to create an hour and a half of non-stop physical engagement with the text. it is beautiful!

from places unknown

another adventure with 11:11 has come to a close....and i have more pictures! the final show of the season was this saturday at 8 pm--and it played to a sold-out house! once again, working with 11:11 was a fantastic experience...everyone should get a season pass to next year and come visit the factory!

blood wedding

last week, i opened Lorca's "Blood Wedding" in the Fuller Building, 808 Commonwealth Avenue as part of the BU S.T.A.M.P 2010 festival. it was an incredibly fun project with a fantastic cast/production team. the group made their own translation and transformed the space in an incredible way!



the space used to be an automotive shop. currently, it is random stuff storage and a parking deck. the challenge of taking that huge, dirty (and i mean YEARS of automotive grease and dirt) space and making it into the surreal world of Lorca's play was a HUGE one, but in my opinion wildly successful! getting power to the space was the biggest hurdle, but the actual finding and placing of the right fixtures for the aethestic and the lighting needs was one of the most creative and fun projects I have worked on this year.

perhaps my favorite part of the show is the entrance of Moon in Act III. i found a frosted globe and created a glowing mini moon that the actress carries around with her. the movement that she has found with the prop is so beautiful and the image of the moon rising in the dark forest is really exciting!

also, creating sense of intimacy throughout the play was a fun challenge for such a deep space (100+ feet). The group did a fantastic job with the scenic elements and it was a joy to create tight little spaces for the various scenes, especially in Act I.

some fun opera photos

lovely lovely opera photos! (courtesy of my fabulous assistant, who took them!)





i have been really lucky to have an assistant and lots of friends who take wonderful pictures--otherwise i would be out of luck when it came down to getting good pictures of my shows. it is really hard to take one's own pictures bc if you have time you want to be using it to work.