The Seagull

by Anton Chekov
Yale School of Drama Iseman Theater December 12 – 18 2014
Director: Jessica Holt. Sets: Jean Kim. Lighting: Elizabeth Mak.
Sound: Kate Marvin. Costumes: Asa Benally. Photography: T. Charles Erickson.

For The Seagull, Jessica talked with me about how she wanted the space to evolve. We begin in Act 1, with our characters mired in their deeply held nostalgic fantasies and their romantic beliefs about the way the world works. Set against a lake and a beautiful moon, there is no better landscape for delusion than Chekov's Russian countryside.

However, with the end of an era comes the decaying of dreams, and in the face of a cold, grounded world, Nina finds endurance in the face of ceaseless entropy. I encountered challenges dealing with the 22' wide x 66' wide end stage deck, as well as with how to make a glossy black laminate deck disappear when we wanted a lake and appear when we wanted the interior of a house.