Defying Gravity
Director: Andrea Boswell
Scenic Design: Stephanie M. Jorandby
Projection Design: Bri Fuller
Lighting Design: Sarah Rupp
Costume Design: Anna Kempf
Technical Direction: Hunter Andrews
Sound Design: Sara Williamson
Jane Anderson's Defying Gravity pays tribute to teacher and astronaut Christa McAulliffe and the rest of the 1986 NASA Challenger crew who perished shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986. Her story is explored through the lens of Teacher and her young daughter Elizabeth as Elizabeth struggles with her mother's fame and ultimately the loss of her life. The impact of this tragic historic event is told using bits of fantasy and imagination interwoven with the perspectives of real people's experiences with the event.
The director's vision specified the need for modular scenery which would be easy to move as the play transitioned through many locations. Rather than traditional acting cubes, I designed modular hexagonal "space boxes", inspired by storage areas on NASA spacecraft. Nothing has 90 degree corners in space! As playwright Jane Anderson uses Claude Monet's work, particularly his "Cathedral at Rouen", I used the color scheme and line style from this image as inspiration for the color story on the hexagonal boxes. The boxes were used as bar stools, tables, sofas, car seats, and more throughout the play.
In order to support the frequent shifts in realistic and symbolic location, we used three separate projection surfaces. A rear-projection screen was used as an upstage-center backdrop. This clear images provided realistic backdrops for the scenes grounded in reality. We also employed two 20-foot scrim-net curtain drops stage left and stage right which were used for atmospheric lighting and front-projection effects.
Scenic Design: Stephanie M. Jorandby
Projection Design: Bri Fuller
Lighting Design: Sarah Rupp
Costume Design: Anna Kempf
Technical Direction: Hunter Andrews
Sound Design: Sara Williamson
Jane Anderson's Defying Gravity pays tribute to teacher and astronaut Christa McAulliffe and the rest of the 1986 NASA Challenger crew who perished shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986. Her story is explored through the lens of Teacher and her young daughter Elizabeth as Elizabeth struggles with her mother's fame and ultimately the loss of her life. The impact of this tragic historic event is told using bits of fantasy and imagination interwoven with the perspectives of real people's experiences with the event.
The director's vision specified the need for modular scenery which would be easy to move as the play transitioned through many locations. Rather than traditional acting cubes, I designed modular hexagonal "space boxes", inspired by storage areas on NASA spacecraft. Nothing has 90 degree corners in space! As playwright Jane Anderson uses Claude Monet's work, particularly his "Cathedral at Rouen", I used the color scheme and line style from this image as inspiration for the color story on the hexagonal boxes. The boxes were used as bar stools, tables, sofas, car seats, and more throughout the play.
In order to support the frequent shifts in realistic and symbolic location, we used three separate projection surfaces. A rear-projection screen was used as an upstage-center backdrop. This clear images provided realistic backdrops for the scenes grounded in reality. We also employed two 20-foot scrim-net curtain drops stage left and stage right which were used for atmospheric lighting and front-projection effects.
