THEATRE

LIVES OF THE SAINTS

Lives of the Saints is Seinfeld meets a seven act live action cartoon play. In the spirit of All in the Timing, the play is composed of seven unrelated acts in completely different time periods and locations, all tying into the important questions in life. Why are we here? Is there a God? Why can't I marry my washing machine?

The set is the point at which every world within the play meets. It is the magic box at the intersection of multiple realities and characters from each of those realities stumble into that box in their search for answers. All set pieces and characters emerge from the collage of doors to enter the playing space, turning the set into a constantly shifting puzzle box.

Directed by Gregory Lehane

Costumes by Madeline Mikkelson & Mary Lepiane

Lighting by Charles Dabezies

Photoshop storyboard from physical model.

Photoshop storyboard from physical model.

Photoshop storyboard from physical model.

Two construction workers contemplate the nature of existence after being contracted to build the Tower of Babel.

A woman visits a therapist to discuss her recent feelings of duality. At the same time her doppelgänger pays a visit to her therapist's doppelgänger to discuss the same issue.

All the characters from the previous scenes gather together for a last supper moment to close out the play, bringing each of the stories to a close.

A parody of Masterpiece Theatre murder mysteries.

The Maytag Repairman dedicates his life to his beloved washing machine, forsaking family and friends for the love of his life.

The Repairman's wife is a washing machine with a woman living inside. This was accomplished with a hollow bottom washer over a trapdoor. When the washer was moved, the bottom would be discretely sealed so the actress could remain inside.

A 1960's couple channel surfs through their brand new TV set, played by two actors is static style tweed.

Two women prepare lunch for their church via pantomime, accompanied by foley sounds. The sliding glass doors upstage become transparent to reveal the foley artists.

To establish a church basement for this scene, an automated staircase emerged through an upstage door with the top level opening up as an entrance for the actors.

PLEASE TAKE CARE OF ME

Please Take Care of Me is based on the work of Japanese surrealist author Haruki Murakami. It is about the search for a sense of completeness in life, and the idea that the search itself can provide one with a sense of purpose.

The set is an adaptation of the Japanese Hanamichi stage which would change position to establish different locations within the story. The stage was also surrounded top to bottom with black thread, giving the stage a feeling of suspension in space and giving the actors a barrier to interact with.

Written and directed by Tegan McDuffie

Costumes by Erik Anderson

Lighting by Sarah Kael Gillam

Lighting and shifts in the hanamichi position would establish different locations.

The minimalist nature of the set allowed us to establish multiple locations at once using only lighting and props. Delineation of space in this manner is inspired by Japanese writing and theatre.

Our protagonist and his companion, May, find a portal to another world at the bottom of a well.

The well was achieved by removing a section of the hanamichi and adding lighting effects, as there was no access to a pit in the black box stage.

When in the other world, lighting changes would establish the shift in reality. During these sequences the hanamichi would remain mobile to shift the environment constantly.

After the battle in the other world, the heroine emerges victorious. The framework of black thread extended through the grid to give us lighting and shadow play.

THE PILLOWMAN - PAPER PROCESS

The Pillowman is about a writer, Katurian, who is imprisoned and interrogated by two detectives after a series of grisly child murders take place in their town, all of which suspiciously resemble Katurian's dark fairy tales. Several times in the play these stories are acted out onstage, leading to the discovery that Katurian's own brother has been acting out the stories all along. Katurian kills his brother out of mercy just before he is executed by the two detective. His only accomplishment is saving his stories from being burned.

Katurian is held in an interrogation room for questioning. A series of child murders have happened across town that suspiciously correspond with his own short stories...

Katurian tells us a contrived version of his own childhood. He was raised with love and adoration by his writer parents while his brother was tortured in the next room, all in the effort to turn one of the children into the writer of a generation.

Katurian's simpleton brother, Michal, is being held in the cell next door as leverage against him. Here Michal confesses he committed all of the murders out of adoration for his brother's work.

THREEPENNY OPERA - PAPER PROCESS

The Threepenny Opera is about the notorious criminal Mack the Knife and his fiance Polly Peachum. Mack and Polly are to be wed on the same day as the Queen's coronation, but Polly's parents will stop at nothing to see Mack behind bars and their daughter safe.

Threepenny has a grotesque irreverence about it. Corruption extends infects the poor, the rich, the starving, and the powerful and creates a hierarchy wherever it surfaces. The homeless have established a beggar's union, the thieves are having a wedding feast, the whores are reading and making pottery, and the cops are helping Mack get away with his crimes.

The set embraces the existing structure of the theater but highlights it with politically charged street art and peeling concert posters. The world of the play is a run down theater that a lo-fi rock band is performing in for the night. There are groupies and roadies all over the place and the action of the play is constantly supported and underscored by the band. The ongoing theme for this production is subverting the audience's expectations of the action.