Thesis Project
HEAD OVER HEELS
As part of the university and department requirements for the MFA program, I was assigned a production that would exemplify a cumulation of my education and skills during my time in the program. I was the Scenic Designer and Charge Artist for Temple University's production of Head Over Heels - an energetic feel good musical about love, acceptance, and growth set to the tune of songs by The Go-Go's.
Due to Covid 19 precautions, the production build time was delayed for three weeks, so the team ended up having to abbreviate their designs. For me, that meant cutting at least half of the scenic elements that were originally designed and anticipated. We cut the passerelle, false proscenium, and upstage legs. Another feature that we had to alter was the traveling of the upstage and downstage legs. The downstage legs became a stationary scenic element.
Projections were always a part of the design. The concept was to really play into the fact that the script notes several locations, some of them just being variations of one location. The design concept was something not hyper realistic, but also not too simple. We landed on the look of big shapes/areas with a few details sprinkled in just to give the projection images some depth.
We were able to pull boxes from another show and reshape them to fit the design for the "rubble boxes" used in the show. These units functioned as the bed in the end of Act I and the bier at the end of Act II in addition to their design aesthetic purpose. We also pulled two stair units that were built for a previous show but have been used in several shows due to their versatility and the air castor feature that allows for quick and easy braking during transitions.
