Machinal (Scenic Designer, 2014)
First Place National Award for Excellence in Scenic Design, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival- 2015
Director: Sharon Ott
Mondanaro Theatre, Savannah, Ga.
 
Synopsis: Machinal is an American-Expressionist play written by Sophie Treadwell in 1928. The plot involves Helen Jones, a woman who murders her husband. She is ordinary, struggling to fit in a harsh and mechanized world. Only in an illicit love affair does she find any meaning for her life. When she loses this, the desperate effort to feel free again is her undoing.

Concept: The scenic design revolves around a turn-of-the-century factory environment as the central metaphor for a harsh mechanical society. Psychological themes surrounding female fragility and suffocation in an oppressive world are explored through a rigid imposing set with distorted shapes, including a large skewed window and canted-in sidewalls. Factory-styled influences throughout the design also align visually with the working-class characters in the play, and metaphorically with the time worn traditions being challenged within the narrative.

Process: This design was communicated through preliminary pencil sketches and digital color renderings, a digital 3D model, drafted plans with sections, elevations and shift plots followed by a 1/2″ scale full color model, paint elevations and hand-generated paint samples. Computer images were created in AutoCAD, Google Sketchup and Photoshop.