The essential idea of the scenery is to create a spiritual and emotional world in which the whole event take place. For the design, I have looked into the landscape of Wyoming – the endless layers of mountains and the big open spaces. This feature also fits very well into the lyric aspect of the music.
In contrast to the elegant and curvy hills that on the up stage where represents the world faraway at the skyline, the “arms” which are twolevels on stage left and stage right, represents the cold and harsh world that Matthew and the LGBTQ+ community experience. This contrast is a refection of the story itself, the change of music style in the opera and the realistic world we live in.
In the show there is a sense of wind, so I designed the golden grass pieces, they added a clear tendency to the set – where does the air flow and where does the power go. They also reflect lights, giving more living feature to thewhole image.The golden string was considered as a scenic element at the beginning – it can be light beams through the cloud, can be the fence and barrier. But in the end, we decided to let them become a prop to collaborate with the actors’ gesture and dance. It gives more possibilities and adds more changes and shifts to the set.
Show Pictures
Rendering Pictures
During the production of this show, I was able to explain my feeling of the scene to the director and the lighting designer through storyboarding with Blender. I used texture node in blender lighting to add gobo effect to spot lights, it has given me more precise control to the content and atmosphere of the storyboard.
Drafting
Creative Team:
Director: Seamus Ricci / Assistant Director: Catherine Howland / Conductor: Tyson Deaton / Scenic Designer: Yafei Hu / Lighting Designer: Allison McSwain / Costume Designer: Jillian Warner / Sound Designer: Kristian Tchetchko / Stage Manager: Virginia Tipps / Dramaturg: Liggera Edmonds-Allen
Cast:
Abby Cuningham / Brianna Dulock / Bridget Johnson / Bryan Bennett / Daniella Brancato / Emma Rogers / Harrison Caplin / Henry Wright / Isabel Valasek / Madeline Saldana / Melissa Medina Valencia / MJ Lintern / Morgan Dodds / Ricky Owens / Sarah Austin / Solomon Onyukwu / Thomas Fong / Zoe Chessa
Production:
Production Manager: Melanie Holcomb / Project Manager: Vanessa Mills / Job Lead: Owen Sahnow / Props Coordinator: Jon Ward / Lighting Manager Zhengdao (Ernest) Wan
Assistant Director: Catherine Howland / Asst. Production Manager Gabby Harper / Assistant Stage Manager: Kaisa Lee / Asst. Dramaturg: Zachary Everett-Lane / Asst. Scenic Designer: Cecilia Shin / Asst. Lighting Designer: Ariel Bernhard / Asst. Costume Designer: Evan Riley
