ROUNDABOUT BLOG

Rachel Hauck/Set Design

Amy and the Orphans is full of design challenges. For starters, it is a road trip play. Lindsey Ferrentino has written a play that has 18 scenes in 13 locations and in which there is no home base. Every location she describes is transient and impersonal, and most of the scenes take place in public locations. As a designer, the question becomes why?

Before Scott Ellis, the director, and I could answer that, the technical needs of the play had to be addressed. We needed to find a way to bring the audience into multiple locations quickly and efficiently and, I hope, wittily. Lindsey’s writing has a generous, comic, open heart, which would be easy to squash with cumbersome moving scenery. Finding a visual vocabulary that allows for speedy and efficient changes of location is essential. Ken Posner and John Gromada, who are designing the lights and sound respectively, are remarkable partners in this endeavor. How best can we keep the action moving forward while still embracing the emotional needs of the play? With this play, the design had to start with the car. As with almost any play that involves a car, the aesthetic of the car defines the aesthetic of the production. This car has enormous and complex needs. We considered every version of a car we could think of, from using four chairs and a steering wheel to putting a full car on a turntable. Ultimately, what is essential is the accessibility of the actors’ physicality. If the audience can’t see the actors’ body language as well as being able to hear their dialogue, we wouldn’t get the full emotional impact of these scenes. That was step one. Beyond that, with a play that is constantly moving, what became important was discovering where and why the characters find stillness. No spoilers, but… the answer turns out to be in response to the unasked question of why Amy loves the color red.

John Gromada/Music and Sound Design

The music and sound design for Amy and the Orphans is about facilitating the transitions from location to location in a seamless way, propelling the action and imbuing the many scene changes with energy – all the while helping tell the story. Because there are so many locations that are sketched in with just a few scenic details, it is up to sound to flesh out each place we travel to -- be it an airport terminal, a Chinese restaurant, or the inside of a car. Sound is able to spur the audience’s imagination by filling in the details and by providing aural cues that are recognizable.  It is my job to carry the energy from one scene to the next, providing a frame for the entire production and occasionally giving the audience a brief rest from the action. In Amy and the Orphans, the challenge is to do that in a way that is compelling and tasteful, not maudlin or cloying, remaining upbeat while dealing with some intense subject matter. For this show, I am establishing a musical theme and vocabulary at the outset of the show with a “mother piece,” and then I will compose several variations on it for transitions. I will explore various permutations of the instruments used in the opening as the play progresses and introduce a few thematic ideas using rhythm and melody. I am working towards a suite of compositions that ideally add up to a cohesive whole and give shape, form, and color to the entire production.

Alejo Vietti/Costume Design

Amy and the Orphans is a great challenge for me as a costume designer. With a contemporary, naturalistic play – when both the performers and the audience members are very familiar with contemporary dressing – it is important not to resort to clichés. The focus is on conveying, in a truthful and realistic way, the intentions of the playwright as well as the spirit of each character. My job is to reflect their true essence through the way they look and dress. Before any of the actors speak, the audience should have a great deal of information about each one of them just from the way they present themselves onstage. While my work is to support the director’s and the author’s vision, I also collaborate with the actors and with my fellow designers in order to create a visually cohesive world.

For this particular project, I had to find practical solutions to the very specific demands of the script. For Jacob, I had to figure out how to create comfortable and credible braces; For Kathy, a realistic pregnancy belly and “papaya” tattoo. All these elements should look as real as possible. If at any moment any of these elements look phony or get in the way of the performers, the audience might be distracted away from the story. It's up to me to figure out the logistics of how these pieces come together, how they are designed, applied and how they will last for the run of the show.

Kenneth Posner/Lighting Design

Amy and the Orphans speaks to me because of the challenges that people with Down syndrome face, especially regarding their fight for independence. There are many misconceptions about people with Down syndrome when it comes to their ability to thrive and persevere on their own. We meet the title character Amy as an adult and learn her story. She has successfully built a life for herself. The play takes place in both past and present. To reflect this, the lighting design will define the past by using severe angles of light and muted colors, and for the scenes that take place in the present, there will be softer, crisper light. The architecture of Rachel Hauck’s blue paneled design will reconfigure to become the many locations required in the play, and the quality of light I design will help define those spaces and inform the play’s landscape.

Amy and the Orphans began performances at the Laura Pels Theatre on February 1, 2018. For tickets and information, please visit our website.