A Midsummer Nights Dream Specialty Props

"A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most renowned plays steeped in a world of dreams and magic and will be the second show in DU Departments of Theatre’s winter quarter season. After the Covid-19 pandemic, live theatre felt a heavy effect in loss of attendance. Even now, it is still very difficult to fill productions to full capacity. This show has the goal of bringing in college audiences that have not had the full experience of witnessing live theatre, and who may have previous, negative notions about Shakespearean plays. The goal was to transform our audience for the two hours they witnessed this play into people that can enter a world of magic, try something new, appreciate it, challenge their own thinking, and revitalize an art that took a heavy blow in recent years.

In order to achieve this fantastical reality onstage, I worked closely with the costume designer (Janice Lacek) and director (Sabin Epstein) to research, design, prototype, and fabricate specialty props and costumes to create the multiple distinct worlds present in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. One of the distinct worlds was created with a black and white newspaper theme to tie those characters together and create a handmade look but with an extremely durable structure that had the ability to last three and a half weeks of dress rehearsals and performances. By the end of the project, I designed, prototyped, and fabricated 5 large scale specialty props sporting at least 50 separate pieces each using advanced painting and texturing methods, LEDs lights and wiring techniques, foam molding, paper mache, and wig making techniques. We were successful in creating a fantastical world for about 700 people and allowed them to experience the magic of live theatre as we move out of the Covid-19 era."