Lighting design for Uncanny, a music and movement concert conceived by Anna Brenner, Hannah Wasileski and myself in collaboration with the performers: Virginia Logan, John Riddleberger, James Sargent, Jess K. Smith, and the musicians: Andrea Jakobowski and Daniel Sefik. Inspired by Arvo Pärt’s composition Spiegel im Spiegel. Anna directed it, Hannah designed and performed live overhead projections, and Jess arranged and performed songs. It happened at Littlefield in Gowanus, Brooklyn in June 2010.

Lighting design for Presentation, choreographed by Colleen Megley. Part of Connecticut College’s 2010 Senior Concert in New London, CT.

Lighting design for Vagabound, choreographed by Lily Ockwell. Part of Connecticut College’s 2010 Senior Concert in New London, CT.

Lighting design for Flutter, choreographed by Lisa Race. Part of Connecticut College’s 2010 Senior Concert in New London, CT.

Lighting design for Othello, edited from the original Shakespeare by Michael McQuilken and Tanya Dean and directed by Michael McQuilken. Othello was a Yale School of Drama Repertory Shakespeare Project production, at the Iseman Theatre in New Haven. The set was designed by Yoon Choi with an Elizabethan unit by Ming Cho Lee, the clothes were by Ying Song, and the sound was by Katherine Buechner. Yoon Choi also did the photography. It happened in March 2010.

Lighting design for Nijinsky’s Last Dance by Norman Allen, directed by Charlotte Braithwaite and starring Danny Binstock, at the Yale Cabaret. The sound is designed by Chad Raines, the set by Chien-Yu Peng, and the clothes by Leon Dobkowski.

Lighting design for Performance Thanatology’s The 50 Greatest Ladies and Gentlemen at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater. Running through August 1.

In this installment of Performance Thanatology’s ongoing research in death and performance, a solitary figure performs all his old songs and dances despite the loss of his partner, the loss of his dancing shoes, and the loss of his teeth. Somewhere between Krapp’s Last Tape and Artaud’s Spurt of Blood, this is what really became of vaudeville.

A concise lighting rig allows for quick and shocking transformations from confessional monologue to vaudeville to rock’n’roll concert during this 35-minute show that stubbornly stays one step ahead of the audience’s perception. The 16 moments of the show are as rich and internally complete as the transitions are swift and non sequitur. Though the piece as a whole resists dramatic structure, the lighting attempts to introduce clear, palpable ideas and emotions by creating contrast between moments while sticking to a small and specific palette of colors, angles and timing.

It’s been a blast working with everyone on this (Ric and Lucas: thanks for trusting me with your work). This is also my long-overdue Ontological debut, which caps an incredible 2 years in New York as I move to New Haven to pursue my MFA in lighting design.

Lighting design for Hoi Polloi’s festival production of Winter Journey, written and directed by Alec Duffy, presented by the undergroundzero festival at Performance Space 122.

With the help of a pianist and singer, Duffy explores the songs of the work and strives to unlock the mystery of why the piece held his father, and so many others, in thrall.  Deeply personal but also highly entertaining, Winter Journey offers a fresh take on the tradition of the ‘confessional monologue,’ with Duffy leading the audience down lush and unexpected pathways.

A living room bound by hanging boxes of miniature trees is filled with warm golden light, as the Narrator, the Pianist and the Wanderer lecture and demonstrate to the audience. The Narrator’s deeply personal story takes over once and again, as the cool winter night outside intrudes into the interior in the form of shafts of clear blue light shooting through the trees, painting the ceiling blue in the process. The story of the Narrator walking through the woods in the Vienna winter night closes the piece, as the three characters exit the living room and form a gentle final tableau.

Lighting design for Anna Brenner’s contemporary staging of Molière’s Misanthrope in the Tony Harrison translation, presented by the undergroundzero festival at Performance Space 122, July 16–19. Set by Nicolas Benacerraf, clothes by Ásta Hostetter.

This production is an ensemble-created contemporary explosion of Moliere’s classic social comedy inspired in equal part by Ingmar Bergman, indie rock, and the New York rental market, it explores the nature of desire in our generation. The world is both familiar and strange—set in present day New York among a group of artists and intellectuals, The Misanthrope looks at how we form and destroy our social communities. Feelings of love, desire, jealously and insecurity are masked and unmasked throughout the play in comedic and dramatic fashion with music, movement, and verse.

The lighting supports the deadpan realism of the intimate scenes between lovers and friends by evoking a cinematic bedroom, only to interrupt these attempts at communication with the more colorful and low-angle fluorescent-lit world of a housewarming party during the public scenes. Celimène, moved into the empty theater at the beginning (lit by a single bright work light), finds herself there alone at the end, as her peers move out their stuff. Six shaded bedroom lamps evoke both the intimate settings of the bedroom, and the hopeful attempts at community-building, only to be left extinguished in the end.

Lighting design for Eliza Bent’s She of the Voice, adapted from Hari Kunzru’s short story Magda Mandela, and directed by José Zayas. It was presented by the undergroundzero festival at Performance Space 122. Music by Greg Portz, choreography by Rebecca Marzalek-Kelly, music direction by DJ Thacker, clothes and sets by Ásta Hostetter & Meredith Ries, video (not well represented in photos) by Keith Skretch, sound by Matt Tennie.

A Greek chorus of urbanites dwell alongside the larger-than-life Magda (a disembodied voice over the loudspeakers) whose constant preaching and outrageous, vigilante antics provide a wealth of gossip—and headaches—for her fellow citizens. Magda may parade around in a lime green thong, offer up endless aphorisms, and declare herself kin to Nelson Mandela. Yet her calls to arms—though observed—for the most part, remain ignored. Is Magda a wise fool or crazy neighbor? In a fractured, apathetic world, can community exist if no one listens? Though comedic in tone, at the heart of She of the Voice is an exploration of human fellowship.

Low-angled chartreuse-green fluorescent light creates a limbo world where Magda’s neighbors tell us about living with Magda in hyper-theatrical group formations. Abrupt transitions to very colorful worlds of song and dance punctuate the anecdotes, and perhaps offer commentary on the neighbors’ storytelling. The frequent use of audience blinders adds an element of abrasion and drags the reluctant audience into a messy world. The show culminates in a colorless yet dazzling dance after Magda’s arrest, where her voice and spirit shine through, literally blinding the audience in a final moment and forces it to listen.

Thanks to the festival and my dear PS122 for the opportunity to play. Thanks to Eliza and José for the fun ride.