A Year with Frog & Toad

Scale played a critical role in reinforcing the characters’ perspective as small creatures within a vast natural world. Oversized flowers, towering cattails, expansive lily pads, and large leaves transformed the space into a tactile, storybook landscape… one that performers could inhabit fully. Additional sensory elements, including subtle environmental scents integrated throughout the space and into select props, deepened the immersive experience. … … Open Project…A Year with Frog & Toad

Crime & Punishment

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. … … Open Project…Crime & Punishment

Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni was conceived as a highly abstract, contemporary opera rooted in psychological and symbolic imagery. Director Melanie Helton envisioned Don Giovanni as a man trapped within his own cyclical hellscape; his damnation not imposed from the outside, but generated from within his own “black heart.” In this interpretation, his fate is to continually indulge his depravity, spiraling deeper into darkness. … … Open Project…Don Giovanni

CLUE

Scenic Design by Thalia Lara* Based on the screenplay by Jonathan LynnWritten by Sandy RustinPresented by Michigan State University Department of TheatreDirected by Ryan WelshOctober 6 – 15, 2023The Pasant

… Open Project…CLUE

For The Love Of

(or the roller derby play) by Gina Femia City Pulse Review Sound Design by Thalia Lara presented by Michigan State UniversityDepartment of TheatreDirected by Alexis BlackOctober 6 – 15, 2023The

… Open Project…For The Love Of