Designing Wilson’s Worlds

Breaking Character: In 2007, I was the production manager for American Stage Theater Company. The Artistic Director at that time, Todd Olson, included Gem of the Ocean in the season and it would be the first time I had worked on an August Wilson play. I had seen them, read them, studied them but never actually worked on them. I was also the Properties Designer for the play and found the challenges quite rewarding. The text was so full of imagery and poetic thought that I thought, “What a great play to design. Real and not real at the same time. A designer’s dream.”