a new play by Cayenne Douglass
SCENIC DESIGNER
performed at Boston Playwrights’ Theater . April 2022
director: Kelly Galvin | lighting designer: Allison Strandberg | costume designer: Cortnie Beatty | sound designer: Nicholas Y. Chen | properties designer: Andie Dudziak
Monoprints from solar plate etchings, eighteen plate print, quilted.
size of image: approx. 22 x 24 in.
Boston University School of Theatre: MFA Thesis Project
This thesis project proposes a mobile theatre that can easily move from one refugee camp to another. According to the UNHCR there are an estimated 26.3 million refugees worldwide, of which a third are children. The traveling theatre would allow children in these areas to access the performing arts and help them create stories relating to their own lives. It is a means of contributing to the oral story-telling traditions of these populations which is being lost because of their displacement. Storytelling through the performance arts is also a means for children and youth to communicate their own stories.
The design of the mobile theatre adapts to different site situations and different theatrical genres bringing theatrical performance to displaced communities. Through a spatial and physical poetry it will open up avenues of imaginative exploration and bring a sense of hope and joy.
an opera by Benjamin Britten
paper project at Glimmerglass Opera House
The forests are burning and the spirits of nature are confused by the changes brought on by the changing climate. The concern for the environment and man’s place in it inform the approach to this version of the opera. The interconnectedness thinking behind Transcendentalism and Deep Ecology is reflected in the forest which is itself an intricate network of communicating systems. What happens when this network is severed?
This artist book brings together writing, photographs, and place “samples” (in the form of pebbles, sand, and salt) accumulated during the journey along the northern Adriatic coast with the Stories from the Edge project. The writing is a reflection of the musings and experiences collected in these travels.
The multiple images superimposed on the postcards do not necessarily reflect the places named on the card. Historically, the territory around the Gulf of Trieste has constantly shifted hands and the peoples have moved across borders and non-borders for centuries, exchanging cultures, food, and language. This intertwining of identities is mirrored in the images and text of the postcards.
What does each place actually mean—how does it get recorded in each individual’s memory? As people move and shift across tangible and intangible borders, what memories, impressions, and souvenirs do they take with them? What defines the authenticity of “place”?
Book board, cardstock, inkjet prints, postage stamps, glass vials, pebbles, sand, salt
size of postcards: 5.75 x 4.25 in.
size of box: 6.5 x 7.75 x 1 in.
by José Rivera
paper project in Studio ONE at Boston University
The world is not what it seems and figures emerge from the shadows and out of the crevices in the pavement. A distorted and fractured world that reflects, glows, and confuses perception.
This postcard collection is a result of the journey taken with the Stories from the Edge project. The images are an amalgamation of the visual documentation of the journey, whereas the text is comprised of the commentary provided by the locals visiting the itinerant “osmizza” (a simple eating place for social interaction).
Historically, this territory around the Gulf of Trieste has been overlaid with different peoples and cultures – the Illyrians, the Veneti, the ancient Romans, the Slavs, the Venetians, the Austrians, the French. The lands have constantly shifted hands and the peoples have moved across borders and non-borders for centuries, exchanging cultures, food and language.
The sending of postcards reflects and physically maps this movement of people across the land and the sea. They are tangible objects which pass through many hands to arrive at a destination. These objects are manipulated by the maker, the sender and the deliverer (the mail system). The postcards are icons of a quintessential touristic activity.
Cardstock, inkjet prints, transfer prints, postage stamps
size of postcards: 5.75 x 4.25 in.
by Timberlake Wertenbaker
SCENIC DESIGNER
Studio ONE at Boston University . February 2019
director: Judy Braha | lighting designer: Kat C. Zhou | costume designer: Zane Kealey | sound designer: Feitong Wang
The virgin continent of Australia is contaminated by British officers and convicts. The materials off the ships – canvas, rope, and timber – become the building materials for a new colony battling the wild infiltration of the natural world and the dehumanization of people.
Monotype
size of image: 10 x 16 in.
music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Arthur Laurents
SCENIC DESIGNER
Booth Theatre at Boston University . April 2020 (postponed due to pandemic)
director: Clay Hopper | musical director: Matthew Stern | choreographer: Larry Sousa | costume designer: Kevin Hutchins | lighting designer: Zachary Sager | sound designer: Jonathan Beals
Middle America, the suburban home, and the American Dream are torn asunder as political divisions and labels, corruption, and dishonesty pull a town apart.
