 Good afternoon everybody Good afternoon We're having a good morning. Good. I'll take that as a yes. I've got a couple announcements in the place of Scott and Kevin here, so They wanted me to let you know that the play slam Submissions are ready to be taken. The basket is downstairs by the registration desk and So they're looking for as many as possible. So the more we get the more we get to see of course Please put your place slam submissions face down in the basket so that nobody can start thumbing through and reading them Please keep them face down Neighborhood tapestries south Omaha is indoors tonight Down at the south Omaha site. So you will be what's the name of that Steve? Yes, South High School, but is there a name to the theater? South High School Theater. So you are indoors The last announcement I have we want to have one more after me but the buses From element and building 13 will be leaving at 645 Not at 630 Again buses leaving element and building 13 leaving at 645 not 630 Okay, the Come on up. We have another announcement that they asked This young gent to go ahead and tell everybody. Hey, how's it going? I'm our Costello One of the great tragedies of the conference is the even the most diligent attendees sees about one-third of the shows So what I'm going to be trying to do is get together like a share drive that anybody wants to contribute can we can upload our work? We can share it we can critique If you're interested just find me so I can write down your email address and invite you to the share drive If that interests you if not, no pressure Great, I will welcome up our panel and everybody enjoyed the discussion today. Thank you Oh Good afternoon everyone Welcome to the design panel titled design and the all-important collaboration of Our threatened species the dreams and anguish of a new generation Before anybody a mistake Kevin Lawler's genius for my own mediocrity These are Kevin Kevin and and the the conference staffs titles and Notions, so I'm just I'm just a moderator No, no, I mean these are fabulous titles so but I am in as much of a discovery as all of you so Anyway with that caveat or whatever. Let's begin Because we have our streamers and dreamers on the HowlRound website I'll be reading the biographies of our panelists once again Here to my left is Justin Townsend. He is the design wing Coordinator if you're not familiar with Justin's work, you should Google him also, he's the assistant professor of stage Brooklyn College in New York City, and he's leading the design wing then we have Christopher counsel Pomales Christopher is a designer and performer from Puerto Rico based in Brooklyn, New York and he is Pursuing his MFA in design and technical theater at Brooklyn College right now Then we have Katie Kate Fry a costume designer who Recently got her MFA in costume at Cal Arts Born at the intersection of Scandinavian style in New York, Hutzpah Her work seeks to explore clothing as poetry so welcome Kate and then we have another Kate Although her last name is different from Kate Fry. Her last name is Saint John Kate is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill With a degree in Classics and Art History and Now she is becoming a designer and going to the Bay Area to be a Properties Fellow at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and Lastly over there Colin. I haven't actually met you yet. I'm Eliza. Pleasure. Nice to meet you Colin recently moved to New York City after having spent a year as the lighting designer for the Associate company of Playhouse on the square in Memphis, Tennessee And so while he was there he did a number of productions and in New York He designed the lighting for the US premiere of Blackbird So welcome Colin So here we are talking about design and and just a bit about me. I'm no designer But I have an appreciation for aesthetics. I know where my place is. I'm just a writer So I have great reverence and respect for design I Think kind of the underlying question of this panel and Justin and I were talking a little bit about this before the panel but it's I guess it's kind of why what kind of bunch of Early career emerging designers offer to a group of playwrights in this big room here that's That's the question. I'm asking so I wonder anyone would like to take a stab at that I'll jump So I've had this conversation I think probably with a few of you scattered around and certainly with a few of our peers but a Reason that we feel that it's very important for us to have a presence here at this playwriting conference is that there's often kind of this chasm between playwright and Designer and a lot of that is just practical limitation of you know The the playwright publishes the play and then the play goes anywhere in the world and anybody can pick it up Try and produce it clearly playwright can't fly around following them but I feel like as artists and People that are taught to think very critically about plays and kind of dissect them and then turn that into something visual Being a resource to the playwright Here and and kind of giving the playwright an insight into what we're thinking when we're actually going into Producing something and the visuals that their writing is Is giving us I think is kind of an invaluable resource so as far as young playwrights being here I'm sorry young designers being here. I think that's a nice insight that we're able to offer And I think where we come together is words and that we engage in dramaturgy As kind of the grounding point of design and so it's really important that for us Our work might manifest visually But it really starts at the same place that your work does and I think that we can feed each other And so it's a really important dialogue to engage in and encourage because I think both works Really expand when that conversation is engaged Yeah, I was just thinking in this couple of days how we're we're doing theater and theater is all about human contact and and When Justin send us all the the main stage readings we had to read them and and do a reaction of them and and it felt like a very it always feels like a very Personal and and generic process But it changed so much when you got a face of who did this? I mean When I saw some of the of the playwrights I it wasn't the face that I got in my head when I read the play was totally different and and a switch Change in my mind. There was another motivation we had a chance of actually spending some time with the the main stage playwrights and The creative motivation is is is different. I can't explain why it's just having a face and knowing The person is it gives another perspective? I think something that was brought up yesterday. It is the culture of collaboration um We're finding that more and more people of our age and later artists are coming in to the mix without the formal training or with diverse experiences and so I think having a Diverse group of people here as collaborators will open doors for what the system looks like in the future and and we talked about hierarchy of People yesterday sometimes in in the theater system, but it's also kind of a hierarchy of looking at the current hierarchy of Visual poetic lyrical and we're seeing in new performance movements All across the world that there are ways you can push the bounds of the medium and there are ways that There's a fluctuation between when the visual is most important and when the text is most important And I think to articulate that here and have people see us and how we think about plays in a different way You know opens up that dialogue and I mean we designers replays different than a director reads a play different than an actor reads The play in different than a playwright writes a play And I think I'm getting in on the ground floor and seeing where those how those decisions are made what those Getting a little insight into that thought process is really valuable for all of us because I'm certainly learning a lot From being with not just designers, you know in a dark room drawing something But I'm really enjoying the experience can I jump off there on the collaboration and kind of what we talked well the panel was yesterday about Collaboration and approaching things where they were talking about everyone getting in a room and You know the playwright saying I want to put this sound in and breaking from that I think at least personally I I just wrote this down have a fatigue with the process from a very formal Theater upbringing, you know, you have a formal theater upbringing. I feel that way. Okay. Yes You know where I Started in high school And it was this is how you build the flat and you put the toggle here and you do this and then you do this and you use these Platform sizes because this is how our wood comes and then you go through college and well This is the process and you do this research and you do this and at a certain point It's just it gets very repetitive And I'm finding that at least the the other young people that I'm meeting and Since I just moved to New York and in Memphis is everyone's really interested in breaking out of that and doing different things and interacting with the playwright and building off of each other's ideas and that I know that practicality is a big reason but I Do think it's a shame that there's this expectation where you write the play and then you rehearse it with the actors And then you know in the last week or two you add all the tech and then you expect them to Apply all this stuff and get used to these props and the lighting designer You know can't really do anything until their lights are up And then they can only fool around enough because suddenly it's preview and you have to open and there's critics And there's just no time in that process for the play to react to what we're doing your Your statement reminds me of um, I was at the TCG conference a year ago and Howard shall wits the Artistic director of woolly mammoth theater. I believe made a point about the sort of Production line or the assembly line of theater and that it starts with the play and the plays written in a little vacuum And then then you maybe then you bring in the designers and then maybe at the end you kind of bring in the actors and there This notion of the traditional way that things go and and the Essentiality of bringing more people together at the start of a process Could you guys talk about the different ways in which you have collaborated in the past? Have you ever been a lead artist on a project for example? I Have done a lot of generative work in in college because there wasn't exactly a venue for Student work or there wasn't a venue in the department to fund work So students kind of made their own company and sure undergrad theater can be I mean we did some terrible theater, but but We worked and built stuff from the ground up and looked at Looked at kind of what was new The piece I remember most and it was thinking about it yesterday when Sybil was talking and David Um is I did a production of under construction by Chuck me and it was the most self-indulgent two and a half hours that I'm maybe other people have put that much on stage, but it was I thought it was the most self-indulgent thing And I look at it in retrospect and think about about that But we started in the room and there was an ensemble of 13 and we went scene by scene and we all just Flesh out. What are we gonna do for this scene? I mean we've got a we've got a stage direction that says you could do this or or you don't have to you know And so we really kind of built that up and and that was the moment that I you know Really started thinking that I could do theater and and that was a system that I liked It's again, it's not as practical and I'm aware of that that I had that opportunity in a college bubble, but To me it was it was the experience that informed what I would hope to do In the future and now I Think a recent experience. I had in terms of collaboration that was really interesting was working on this multimedia opera and so a composer had Created this set of music that had a very John Cage quality with a 35 piece orchestra And there was an animator a video designer. There were dancers a choreographer And then theater artists like myself and a scenic designer And what was so interesting was that we all had really different takes on this music But the way we worked in our different disciplines not just within theater But the way musicians worked and the way dancers worked it was really amazing to kind of see to Demystify and because I think we all have a respect for each other's art And I think within a theater process you can say I really respect the words this playwright has created So I don't want to step on any toes and it was it can be great. I think to just get in a room a kind of Relish in the the structure that we had is a great thing that really helped the process But then also to kind of say all right. Well, they might not show up right at this time and we're gonna roll with it So it was kind of a get-and-take Yeah, I've been for for the past five years. I've been working with this company in Puerto Rico that is called Casa Cruz de la Luna and and the the dynamic of the of the group is is Practically collaboration. There's a couple of members. We are like five or six and and we change Through time and move through places But pretty much the way that the company works is like everybody does everything and and We have we have the the director usually does the playwrights and and and but we we We get immersed in in the process and and actually the direction becomes a Collaboration between all the members at some point one one of the members will Propose something and and it works in a very organic way the way that we work we use a lot of Media projections in which we we the text becomes part of the visual aspect of the play of the play and And you know, I I feel a lot of satisfaction in that kind of work. I This is a personal quest that I have is to become as complete as an artist as I can and and Is only in in in those opportunities of getting into unknown terrains of the theater that I can actually find out How to grow in what I know, I know that I can build things I know that I I I can design stuff I know that I can perform But I don't know I didn't knew that I could go into other other terrains and actually use those tools To improve the the things that I already have And what terrains did you go into like it with this particular group? Yeah, I mean It's really where I started to to to expand more into into What I could do at design I really I started with this company as a performer mainly But then with with the work with them is is is what I started to actually move to design It is something that I'm actually starting to do right now. It's not something that I've been doing for a long time Only only when I when I got those opportunities and and that experience is what really moved me into that And I don't think I'm gonna be a designer for life. I think I'm gonna be many things and and and that's the way that it should work um So as a collaborative experience recently the U.S. Premier of Blackbird that I did So with a bunch of very young people much like myself and we're all kind of coming at it from a different angle But one of the most interesting things was our producer is actually a performance artist But she decided to get on board to help us publicize and things like that But boy she made me fight for every decision and it was actually it not in a bad way in the Okay, so we do have a reason to do this And she's coming from a background where you're just thinking of I Guess probably a lot more specificity and the meaning of every little action that happens that I think sometimes where we have the structure of a play and also probably a lot more time to fill that Small things kind of get away is just natural So that was really great to learn from her as well as also her concept of the entirety of the experience as Part of the design space We didn't have a theater to work in we were actually fortunate enough that a woman allowed us to use an empty art gallery Completely for free so there are still people out there that support young people and give you free things So they're out there look for them They are I swear crazy But her she was always pushing us to you know, not just design a box within the museum space. It's like Love the fact that you're in a museum use that don't ignore it. Don't shut it out and we ended up with a really interesting play and We filled it all with cork and people were invited to just kind of walk around and lay in it and a lot of that I think came from her background and the way that you you're allowed to watch a performance art piece that we don't necessarily assume is allowed when we do theater I'm curious if you could all speak a bit about your different backgrounds Kate st. John you have a degree in classics and art history Christopher you mentioned how you were coming at design a bit from like a performers perspective Kate you're making clothing as poetry. Could you talk a bit about these different influences and how you feel? Your different backgrounds affect your approaches as designers I Yeah, so I said earlier that I feel like I have a very formal theater background Started in high school Doing plays as a technician building flats and whatnot But I think that since then While there's the formality of my training. I've been fortunate enough to I grew up in Latin America kind of traveling around the world with my mother and my father's a Photographer a fine art photographer. I guess he'd prefer me to say So I was fortunate enough that when I'm with him we go and see art and we That that's been part of what's opened me up. I believe and kind of helped me Kind of shake loose the the four by eight So I designed two sets before I knew what four by eight meant So I didn't have the background. I started doing theater two years ago in college Didn't have a venue to do it in high school I always wanted to be in academia. I thought I'm gonna teach Greek and Latin and You know pretty swanky institution somewhere someday. I'm gonna get a PhD. I'm gonna spend 12 years 12 more years in school And and I and I said modern contemporary History, so I got really involved with installation. I worked for a student gallery As a curator and a director So the curation part was fun directing was the part where you find the free spaces and I think the kind of fortunate thing about About what we can do is that we're used to We're used to fighting for spaces because we started or at least I started doing art when the funding start stopped coming and There's these we've toured the beam is center yesterday I'm and I'm just so impressed by how much how much local support there is for the art people who do want to give money to see you And as the director put it If you fail for three months, then great. You're you're learning and that's that's what you should do So I it's funny because The fact that I didn't have a theater degree and many was often brought up in in interviews and in discussions I've had with people so I think I just I think it's great that there's a kind of diversity of backgrounds For people working. I'd certainly have a different approach I've read tragedies in Greek Which I is is fun. It's cool. I think So That's that's what I did and I got here and I don't know where I'm gonna go But I hope that I just build experiences in different areas and become well-rounded or something Well, I I just earned my MFA at Cal Arts. So I now officially have a degree But I entered it without really the formal theater training or background I I think I mean my love of clothes started before I like knew how what, you know I would dress myself at age three and always loved garments and thought kind of fashion would be something for me and and Then I went to United Nations school and studied anthropology when I was younger and in College I studied French and you know, I I really pursued Academia as a place for me to just learn things. I couldn't really teach myself And then kind of found costume by working in the costume shop I'd always stoned and that was something my grandmother taught me and And there I really realized there was this place where I couldn't kind of marry my interests of creative writing and fashion and history and anthropology and psychology and that Dramaturgy became this really exciting thing for me So that's really where where my love of costume design started and I think The visual arts at large is something I'm interested in be it theater or film or performance art and Really getting to then finally work in costume design It was the interaction and the engagement with performance and the body and really the relationship with the actor and bringing things to life Is where you know things went from the page to this really great exciting interactive space That that was fun and really intellectually engaging. I Wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid Until I got to college There wasn't a theater program where I was studying so I end up graduating of sociology which completely changed the way that I saw everything and But I did theater all through college in a very small group and again, we have to do everything we have not a lot of money and I've worked Constructing TV studios and theater. I've worked as as a technician in a theater. I I Have done a lot of things that that have I think They gave me a different way of looking At the theater even the performing part I mean being inside of the space and looking at things and also being outside and looking at things you it gives you Perspective that that's that's the thing and and all these opportunities all these Experiences that have brought me to what where I'm right now. I don't know why I'm in this table talking, but He has just been instrumental I don't think that that that I would be what I am today with without Without all those things that I've done. I Want to open this up to the to the group, but I know Justin mentioned You know thinking about thinking about us here, and we were talking about collaboration yesterday and and I Question that I continue to chase and I'm curious to hear your thinking on this is Unless you were bringing up the the machination that the Henry Ford teaches a great lesson that if we all work on our individual part As it moves down the assembly line. We create a better faster automobile And as we look at playmaking You know, we talked yesterday about that if we all sit in the same room for three years eventually someone's gonna want to play made Where where is the sweet spot and it might be on the it might be on either side of that But but for you all Where is the sweet spot of working in a in a process and obviously it changes every time and we know that different things Need different people but but but but where do you like to be where where do you find that if only it could be like this I Had a recent experience with a really nice model that I liked We started by meeting monthly we knew it was gonna be a devised piece We got permission from Kate Valk to to explore the Worcester style and So we met once a month, so we were doing other work, you know It wasn't on our minds, but we kind of pulled the pieces together. We get a new cut of scenes every Every monthly meeting from the curator of the piece and I'm I'm so sorry. I'm not quite following this tail Sorry, and I'm nervous that other people who it was a fashion model and where were you getting text from I? Said model and then I giggle to myself because I realized that you could have interpreted fashion model But I meant the system model like So the model of working Okay, like a rubric or a structure. Yeah, we were gonna create a piece There was one man who was going to kind of pull text from which we were gonna draw Stuff and he we called him the curator, but we met once a month for about seven months and Then we launched into rehearsal for a month before the show So we had this time to kind of cultivate ideas and and have an open dialogue But it wasn't It was more practical because it wasn't burdensome and it wasn't being in the room for three years And I kind of enjoyed that model and I would like to try that again Oh For me something that actually kind of puts me at odds with my desire is that I desperately need a deadline Which a hard deadline because otherwise I I don't think I'd ever finish anything so I Like things to stew and I like to take a break from stuff and come back at it But I also like that moment where It's okay. Now we've got to make decisions and start throwing things up there So I do I do think that there's a balance that it can't Always be three years, but I think there's some things that may need that But for me, I think that that last month is always gonna be the make-or-break period for whatever is Gonna happen in the end I Don't think that any of my designs are mine I mean not even the best ideas always the best idea comes from somebody else from the director from from from an actor from another fellow designer so I don't think that I will be successful being in a in a traditional kind of Work and I will go crazy because I would like to give my ideas to to the other parts of the process I To me though the only way that I will be able to work is if there's Equal collaboration and feedback from the other parts. I Think also a big part of process is that we're always taking on these new projects with new people and So much of what we do is interpersonal And so there's like finding that that sweet spot for me is that mojo for the way you can communicate with your group and Sometimes even the most arduous processes can create something really amazing but I think That's not ideal, but I think that what I found that I really love is that the You have your own personal practice And where you kind of get those Eureka moments and can bring them to the table and really then share it But I think it's really interesting how You really do have to have a modular idea of process to really get to serve the piece in the end of the day Questions from the group Hi So the I write a lot of pieces that really make the design elements The design elements are a key player a key character in my pieces and I'm curious about I tend to put on the page a Suggestion of a mood look or feel but I don't want to ever be too prescriptive because I really want to invite the designers to fully Explode with their ideas and I just wonder from your perspective Is there a sweet spot of what is on the page that helps you get what you need to? Dive into your creative zone without being too much that it's boxes you in I think that everyone has a different style and I mean if We all follow the original intent. I mean we'd all still be doing Shakespeare in the globe I Think with new plays Justin and Elena have made me very aware of how to treat a first play is to see What what the playwright intended and that's not something I'd really thought of because the kind of original work I had worked was always kind of generative and not and it didn't start with a source text usually So I think I think each script provides an opportunity and I don't I wouldn't say that I prefer one of the other I Hope that I ask when I change your stage directions. I mean that's that's That's the best I can say at this point But I Equally find challenges and find it interesting when you are limited by those prescriptions how you how you Find a loophole I can probably answer you exactly what I do and maybe that'll be the answer Which is often I will actually black out any direction whatsoever and then read the entire play I Feel like I feel like that's one of the like most horribly offensive thing I've ever seen to play right but then usually I Go back and then compare that to the notes that were put in there by the playwright or by whoever it is that put the notes in that version and compare that to what I felt and sometimes interesting things can come out of where we were at odds and often time I'll See. Oh, yeah, we're yeah, totally. That's exactly what happened But I want to make sure that what's happening is not it's coming from the text And I'm sure that can apply to everything but that's usually what I do The way I feel is like I mean when I read something I just want to have The necessary information and what's necessary is it's so ambiguous. It could be anything But it's either the necessary or just go crazy and invent something that that just blows my mind and Then I have to deal with that Yeah, I Guess I'll I mean I think it can be tricky, but it can be engaging So I think it's important to go with your gut instinct because in the end of the day if you don't put it on the page It's something you're going to want to talk about So maybe it's just considering how you write it on the page And then how you engage in conversation after that Yeah, I have a question Hi, it's amazing how varied your backgrounds are especially some of you coming from performance perspectives and other types of art forms and Then I'm really curious about this language about now How is it that designers think differently about plays and all of the rest of us? And so it seems like we come we celebrate our varied backgrounds And then yet we want to celebrate our singularity that somehow we do something different than all the rest So I'm interested to know how is it that you read plays and and how do you read it differently? Or how do you think you read it differently than us? And should you be reading it differently or should we all be trying to read? As good dramaturgs as good first-time readers as good children. I don't know but how do you how should you and Should we cross out the stage directions? Yeah, that's terrifying I actually don't think it's terrifying because I do think sometimes This is going to offend everybody else who Colin didn't offend If the play is bad, then yes, sometimes it's good to cross out the stage directions But we're hoping that we're all working towards something great and I do feel like the intent of the playwright helps So in some respects, I'm not totally offended but another but now I've offended everybody else So anyway, how do you think differently? Think differently and how should should designers be thinking differently and should all of the different compartmentalized mediums that we work in be different I I think I want to keep a note on the last question and bring it into this one, which is Something that I was fumbling for that didn't get to when I was actually responding was Sometimes for me, it's not the stage direction and this is the case in any any prescription in any form in the theater world It's about what the intended effect is if If I have a technical director who wants to if my I'm over budget and I he says we have to cut this I want him to have to understand why I wanted that element what it was doing So then he can provide an alternative So I think It's not always about following the the stage directions But it's being in the spirit of them and I think that's with anyone's anyone's role in theater in Terms of reading the plays differently. I mean I Think of I mean I lay it out spatially when should I guess anyone does I mean we've been taught to do it Since we were kids reading stories So there's there's practical but I Don't know you you really challenged me on that one because now I'm trying to figure out how we're special And I'm not I I think there might be a moment here I want to like tear down the curtain and tell you all a secret you can all read plays like designers, too I think it's it's not It's not that we're special in that how we read it. I think it's special in that we Our job is to read it with the intent to make something visual out of it But anybody can do that I can read a play like a director as well. I know right So I absolutely see your point I think that's a really great one to bring up which is that and anyone can read it and then for me it's when I'm reading the words literally visions are forming in my head and As I go through I'm usually writing those down like what images come up like sometime I was reading one of the main stage plays and I just saw like this illuminated cross like up light and very stark and It doesn't necessarily make it into the final Literal visual, but it's it's things like that that pop up They're just thinking of and I think everybody does that we just get to then you know make something Justin was making a strong facial expression at one moment. Sorry I well special that that is upsetting to me that idea that That's where we're gonna all be special and then the word special is not useful. So then let's not use that word So I I'm only aware of how I can perceive the word world right but and and I know my job at hand is to is to Visualize is to create a play on stage. So certainly there's overlap As I work with directors and performers A Bainbridge was it last night who said I can play this part And and and even he can't help but perceive the the smallness of the largeness and and I and I think that We're that's where directors are good at keeping us all in check In terms of understanding the wholeness of the play as we all get lost in our individual interests Perhaps so for me I Relish in that conversation In and that perhaps I'm agile at making a light cue or agile at understanding spatial relationship It's something I'm adept at it might not be something that one should use of my skills In fact and maybe ignore them sometimes because the play doesn't need that But I but I but I'm aware of that skill set and I bring it to the table and perhaps it's useful this time around And just as brain bridge brings his well We'll leave it to that to the table and and he can he can have that and sometimes we need that for goodness sake And and it's the director I propose and and it's that lovely that lovely Exchange with them the dance that we that sort of flushes out that it's a production entirety that it's not just the play Itself that comes to life that it's the guidance and the sort of movement again the Ouija board the the assembly of that That that makes me excited. So so I for me. I wouldn't propose it's a different point of view. It's the only point of view I have That I bring bring it and so somehow I'm sitting at this table because of that because of that bolt So keep dancing Bye We're done No