25th Annual Putnam
County Spelling Bee

The Ohio State University, Spring 2023
Directed by Mandy Fox

Spelling Bee presented itself as a unique opportunity to reimagine the familiar production in a completely new setting. How would the show differ if the spelling bee rented out the new OSU facilities and our very own theatre to put on the event?

A lot of questions are brought up with this new direction. RonaLisa, the real estate agent who hosts the event is putting it on, so is she doing so to loudly promote her business? What is her budget? Is it out of pocket or from a community budget? Does she have decent taste? All these and more had to be sussed out from the director over the course of this design.

Presentation 6

Presentation 7

The Secret Garden -

Lake Country Playhouse, Spring 2023

This show was a beautiful cocooned idea that had to be tucked away amidst the beginning of the pandemic, and the Hartland community was buzzing with excitement when it was brought back to life. It was beautiful how it reflected the themes of the show itself.

Luckily enough, I had the privilege to design for it this time around, and it proved to be a unique challenge in that the stage was tiny, there was basically no backstage, and there would often be 20+ people moving about. The set had to accommodate transitions without going to black. We decided to make the platform a wheeled unit that could be pulled out and covered with a quilt for the indoor scenes. Also, the iconic garden door was put on a track and wheeled behind our false proscenium to magically appear.

Mary’s Indian Colonial Dollhouse

In the first scene, Mary plays with a dollhouse in her Indian home, with the house representing her childhood before the tragedy. To achieve this with the dollhouse on hand, I added basswood sheets and created a more elaborate era-specific Imperialist Indian exterior.

This house needs to be set “on fire” every show, and to achieve that, we will have red and yellow bits of fabric and tissue blown from inside the house to look like fire is escaping through the windows.

Stacks of Books & Blocks

Helping with the show, “Matilda” has been a wonderful experience reconnecting with my high school theater program. I was given the project of figuring out how to make a set of four twelve-foot towers to stand in front of each of the legs onstage. How can I design it to be stable, yet light, tall and precarious looking, yet not going to tip onto the actors.

I started off by making a scale model to think out the ideas physically. We then soon realized the lower half of the stack could be much more solid to support the more precarious top. We utilized 3’ theater cubes for letter blocks, as well as 3’ wood frames with cardboard stapled to the front to represent book spines. To complete the illusion, we made 18x24” frames, covered in cardboard and given the texture of pages bu stacking thin strips of corrugated plastic yard signs so they could read from a distance on stage.

The top section is made from document boxes that have been cut in half, stacked and threaded onto a PVC pipe we attached to the base. To add whimsicality and a Roald Daul look, we added large marker doodles to the towers and attached some found items a little girl might have in her playroom.

BIGGEST CHALLENGES

The fun and scary part of volunteering on Saturdays at a high school is you never know what you’re going to find when you come back a week later. Some of the craftsmanship was not up to my standards, but as long as the students were learning, engaged, and creating a structurally sound piece of the set, I was happy to hand over the plans during the week.

 A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Malt House Haylofters -Summer 2022

Summer of 2022 I realized my true passion. And no, I’m not referring to murder. This was the first time I dipped my toes back into theater since high school and was a wonderful way of combining my many passions within a new setting. Through this experience I was able to utilize my knowledge of working with various building materials gained from previous jobs in signage and exhibit fabrication, my graphic design and logo background, and my passion for storytelling through the physical space.

I was given carte blanche to design the set and posters for “A Gentleman’s Guide” and learned so much about not only what is required to make a show a success, but the time management, communication and collaboration involved within community theater that are essential for a quality production.

Dysquith Family CrEst

My biggest challenge in this production was the creation of the 7 foot Dysquith family crest that hangs above the stage. In the final scene the piece needs to break open and reveal one of the characters, and the final joke of the show.

For this set piece to succeed it needed to be pliable and break easily every show without fail, while still appearing solid for 99% of the show. I treated the middle like shutters and the banner at the bottom like swinging panels. Using plywood, purple insulation foam and 1/4” craft foam for the details. Something I didn’t plan for was the way spray paint ate away at the foam and made it look antique and eye-catching. A happy accident!

Planning Set Design Elements

The aesthetic choices I made for this show were informed by the greed and sliminess of the characters as well as the name Dysquith. To me, Dysquith sounds like a squid and I elaborated on that with the use of gold and green and a sea creature theme.

Wallpaper Designs

Welcome & Artist Statement 

Invitation

Detective Booklet