Story & vision

Fefu an absurdist, immersive, feminist play about a group of women pushing society’s strict expectations and facing uncanny retribution, set in 1935.

We brought it to life with five different sets in a historic theatre, and by their involvement and tacit acceptance, implicated the audience for their role in oppression and hegemony - and the deadly consequences.

Design Process

After sketching concepts and working with the director and producer, I used Photoshop to create concept art for each space in the show. These images were used in conversation with the other artists on the team, including the lighting and costume designers, and were critical in our marketing and fundraising campaigns. Finally, they served as great reference images during schematic design, construction, and installation, preserving my creative intent.

On the right are highlights from my AutoCAD drafting package; they served as the cornerstone of our construction process, which I led through four weekends of build and a week of installation (tag-teaming techincal direction with the producer).

Selected Credits

Producer Jonathan Gelb

Director Morgan Rielly

Lighting Designer Benji Solomon

Photographer Justin Barbin

Project NU is a student-written show developed from interviews with students which addresses the often unsung pain and complexities of life at Northwestern: constant failure to meet impossible expections, rejection, discrimination, loneliness, identity crises…

2017’s iteration is set in our library, where very different students are forced to band together during an active shooter threat. I created a fully immersive alley set (featuring the real reading room furniture and signage) which walked the audience inside through the library facsimile and then trapped them with not just our characters, but their fellow students; they physically coudn’t watch the play without looking at the other half of the audience and seeing themeselves reflected back.

This phenomonal, avant-garde play explores race, power, and whose stories are buried in the great hole of history. The main character is black gravedigger who bears a striking resemblance to Abraham Lincoln and, again and again and again, plays Lincoln to strangers’ Booth. In my design, the structure forms an uncanny bastion of patriotism - but who is it for?

In Act 2, the world has fallen away and the stage has fallen deeper and deeper into the Great Hole of History. After the main character of Act 1 never returns, his wife and son come looking for him and discover what fades away, what remains, and what continues to haunt us, as individuals and as a deeply flawed society.