UC San Diego

In my work as a scenographer I develop a visual and tactile landscape that frames a performance. I use "scenographer" rather than "designer" because my work includes more than a single area of focus, and emphasizes the dramaturgy of the physical world. I am most interested in live performance that prizes storytelling and includes the audience in the imaginative journey. I seek moments of theatricality that create space for a viewer to make an imaginative leap and understand images, objects, and spaces in unexpected ways. This transferred inspiration activates audiences, who make the connections themselves while watching the piece unfold.

Scenography creates visual parallels between a text or other source material and the vision of a director. This work is both generative and dramaturgical - it reaches beyond the most obvious metaphors to locate connections between medium and story, and interrogates assumptions made by those closest to the work by taking on the perspective of a viewer. By defining and supporting the rules of the performance space, scenography illuminates meanings that may not otherwise be evident. Once the core of the piece is located, my work shifts to the more practical modes of design and execution, prioritizing resources to communicate those critical ideas within the physical and budgetary constraints of each individual process. In this work, I am a craftsperson, one who must understand the material world and shape it for use by the performer and communication to the viewer.