Description: This production was performed on our mainstage in Ethington Theatre at Grand Canyon University. Our scenic budget for the show was around $5,000. While scenic designing for this show, I attended production meetings, conducted research, collaborated with the director, choreographer, and other designers, created a mood board, drew multiple sketches, renderings, and ground plans, created technical drawings, virtual models, and assisted in the construction of a set that was designed to disappear.

Concept: The concept for Romeo and Juliet began with the idea of a type of inexorable inevitability where everyone saw the death of these individuals coming, and either contributed to, or just sat and watched, the crumbling which led to the lover's painful outcome. Because of this, the director set the show in a mausoleum during the regency era. There was a catafalque present on stage during most of the show and utilized in different ways throughout the production to symbolize the impending doom of death. The all-black set, mostly covered in a light-absorbent felt fabric, was designed to represent a black hole, an unstoppable force destroying everything in its path that we are left to either watch or push things into. The black felt on the set also slightly obscured the audience’s depth perception, symbolizing how the depth perception of life of many of the characters was also faulty. They struggled not only to see what was right in front of them, but also to see the impact of their actions into the future. Almost all entrances on the set lead the actors down, into the space from above. This further symbolized the pit Romeo and Juliet had dug themselves into, while no one is willing to help them out of. The many levels and stairs on the set aid in this story telling, but also provide the director with unique playing spaces for fight scenes, similar to that of an obstacles course.