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As part of Theater and Dance 41, Scene Design, I designed a set for Sam Shepard's Angel City. This play, which takes place in the film industry of Los Angeles, focuses on a screenwriter/shaman who is brought in by a pair of producers looking for him to save their film by creating a spectacular disaster scene. The play is structured as a series of tangentially related moments, with each character undergoing numerous transformations. As the screenwriter works with two assistants, the secretary and a man who plays jazz drums, the world becomes more threatening. One of the producers even starts turning into a lizard.
I chose to stage the play in a storage warehouse that had been temporarily transformed into an office space for the production team.
The producers' office hangs above the space as a constant presence. Wooden shipping pallets provide acting spaces that can become isolated worlds
when set off by light.
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My key research item was this image of a television props storage warehouse in Hawaii. This image led to the major design elements of the set.
Other relevant research images included:
