Simon Rebeck as Raskolnikov, Camilla Trudell as Porfiry, (photo credit – Kevin Fowler) 
Simon Rebeck as Raskolnikov, Camilla Trudell as Porfiry, (photo credit – Kevin Fowler) 
Simon Rebeck as Raskolnikov (photo credit – Kevin Fowler) 
Simon Rebeck as Raskolnikov, Will Milstein as Sonia, (photo credit – Kevin Fowler) 
Digital Scenic Color Rendering (produced in Vectorworks) 
Ground Plan (produced in Vectorworks) 
Sections and Front View (produced in Vectorworks) 
1 of 2 Custom GOBOs created for the murder scene – Original art by Thalia Lara 
2 of 2 Custom GOBOs created for the murder scene – Original art by Thalia Lara
Scenic Designer & Scenic Charge Artist – Thalia Lara
Written by Marilyn Campbell
Presented by Lansing Community College
Directed by Andy Callis
February 21-March 1, 2025
The Black Box Theatre at LCC
Lansing, Michigan
Lighting Design by Steve Vangel
Costume Design by Chelle Peterson
Props Design by Carlisle Shelson
This project offered the design team an opportunity to construct an abstract psychological world for Raskolnikov. Director Andy Callis envisioned a set that could exist both everywhere and nowhere – a liminal space reflecting the character’s fractured state of mind. As Scenic Designer and Charge Artist, I drew inspiration from Russian film noir poster aesthetics, developing a visual language of looming steeples and shadowed tenement streets suggestive of St. Petersburg.
The design embraced a recurring motif of three – three levels, three doors, and three chairs – reinforcing themes of repetition, fate, and psychological entrapment. For the murder scene, we leaned into abstraction through shadow and sound, keeping the violence obscured behind closed doors. To support this approach, I created custom artwork for the lighting designer to translate into gobos, enhancing the layered, expressionistic environment.
The design evolved directly from key phrases in the director’s early notes, including: “dark basement,” “full of spiders,” “thriller,” “suspense,” “film noir,” “shadows and mystery,” and “imprisoned in the mind.” These concepts became the foundation for a space that is both atmospheric and deeply internal, reflecting the tension between external reality and psychological experience.