The Objectives:

At its heart, I have always found Into the Woods to be a story about stories. What stories we tell, why we tell them, and who we tell them to. The score and script alike are alive with the traditions and rituals that have shaped the fairy tales and fables from which Sondheim and Lapine drew inspiration from, and with equal vibrance they break free from those traditions. Extra layers of moral complexity, questions about actions and their consequences, parents and their children, generational cycles, and beyond bring new found depth to these stories many of us have held in our hearts since we were children ourselves. When thinking about the world of this production, that idea of tradition and ritual led me to images of Gothic architecture and cathedrals. Massive, grandiose, sweeping structures in which people gather from all over to reflect, make meaning, and often engage in acts of ritual; this is not entirely dissimilar from the experience our cast of characters have in The Woods. The physical set takes the wild untamed nature of the forest and chains it within the rigid yet imposing structures of Gothic convention, inviting us in for the ritual of storytelling into a space that can be anything we imagine and which extends beyond what our eye can see. Following suit from Sondheim and Lapine, we then break from these traditions, injecting something new into the world. Projection Mapping effects create living magic in space, making its way through the cracks in the trees to create the world of our characters without ever allowing them to truly leave The Woods.

The Processes:

My design for this production began roughly a year out from performances, starting with discussions with the director and other designers about our shared vision for the world of the play and our goals for each technical element, especially how lighting and projections would interact with one another. From there, I began to develop my concept of a gothic forest filled with strange magics and gathering imagery that would demonstrate it. This resonated with the rest of team, so I began constructing models of the set in Maya until arriving at a final design that was developed into VectorWorks drafting through the assistance of Gion DeFrancesco. I created projections content through a variety of programs including modeling and animating in Maya, Adobe AfterEffects, and editing in PremierePro. I made a number of the final edits, effects, and compositing in TouchDesigner before sending the content alongside my cue sheet to media engineer Davis Cowper who programmed the content in Pixera. I also created a special sequence for the number “Hello, Little Girl” by editing Kinect Motion Capture footage of the number to create a magic shadow of the Big Bad Wolf on stage I designed content to be mapped across five different surfaces, the bases and tops of massive cathedral esque trees on stage left and right as well as the top of a center tree. In order to create a sense of mystery and a variety of possible surprising entrances for actors I created levels in the set using a walkable bridge through the center tree as well as trio of revolving doors that could be opened and shut to conceal cast and crew entering and exiting.