Client: Mister and Mischief
Timeline: Spring 2022 - Fall 2023
Immersive theatre
40 Watts from nowhere
One of the most fun projects I’ve freelanced on has been 40 Watts from Nowhere, an immersive production by Mister and Mischief (aka Andy and Jeff Crocker). They brought me in as a drafter to make sense of the quirky, ad hoc venues that hosted three iterations of the production.
From the project page on their site:
“It's 1998. You’ve got an illegal 40-watt transmitter in your bedroom and a copper pipe antenna on your roof. You’ve been running a pirate radio station out of your closet for two and a half years. If the government ever catches you, you’re on the hook for $100,000 in FCC fines and ten years in prison.
A steep price to pay because you hate the Spice Girls.
40 WATTS FROM NOWHERE puts you in the shoes of 90s counterculture icon Sue Carpenter who found herself leading a double life: magazine writer by day, pirate radio host by night. With her illegal station KBLT, Sue captured the attention of misfit music lovers from every walk of life … and the authorities.”
Round 1: La Jolla
The show was still in its infancy when I came on board, so for the first iteration, I played a larger role in how we’d use space, period, and pitched ideas such as directing the audience to grip the (otherwise rather inconvenient) ramp handrail to viscerally connect them to Sue’s panicked run up flight after flight of stairs and eventual confrontation with FCC agents.
Round 2: Silverlake
After remarkable success at the Without Walls Festival, Andy and Jeff wanted to bring the show home to Silverlake. We ended up in a quirky bachelor apartment just a few blocks from the original home of KBLT, and since it was local, I joined Jeff and we took all measurements of the space ourselves. My partner and I had a fantastic time experiencing this version of the show live!
Round 3: Denver
Challenge mode! The column of images on the right is the only information anyone had on our venue (a conference/storage room at the back of a bookstore - with no dimensions whatsoever noted for the bookshelves), and I was tasked with translating this dossier into an accurate ground plan. After a few days of detective work, I finally pieced it together, adding dimensions to establish missing pieces and drawing in the bookcases, and really improved my linework this time around.
40 Watts remains in the Mister & Mischief catalog, so if another production materializes, I’ll be just a phone call away. Long live KBLT!
“Rarely are audiences afforded the opportunity to step into a person’s shoes like Andy and Jeff have done with Sue Carpenter. 40 Watts From Nowhere is electric, powerful, and utterly joyful.”
“Defies simple classification and manages to be both joyous and deeply, deeply human. It’s a triumph.”
Self-Study
AutoCAD
I constantly seek opportunities to sharpen my skills in various CAD programs, including AutoCAD, Rhino, 3DS Max, FormIt, Sketchup, and Revit. The plan and elevation drawings are from a course I took on Architectural Drafting.
In addition to the drawings shown here, I’ve worked professionally as a drafter and scenic designer for large and small projects. I’m happy to share additional drafting samples (including completed Show Set sheets) upon request.
