Erin Hunter

I had a second chance to design this beautiful, thought-provoking show with some old friends from Interlochen and some new friends at Lean Ensemble Theater.

This play takes place in a new megachurch. That provided a lot of imagery to work with, and the director and I agreed that this congregation was a megachurch, but they are still somewhat traditional, so that should be reflected in the architecture of their church. This led to a large statement cross center stage. We wanted to use some traditional elements, such as a statement altar, stained glass, and a large cross, and this is the modern version of that. I created the balance of new and old with the minimalism and white of the cross and light boxes versus the warm wood grain of the floor. The lighting design is very modern, but it wasn’t meant to be a laser show like some large churches have.

One of the biggest things that the director wanted to achieve was making the whole space feel like a church, rather than just a church on stage. I achieved this with the light boxes pictured. There were two on stage and two in the house that really brought the whole design together by tying to the concept of the cross light box.

He also wanted to disarm the audience by further making them feel like they were at a church service by projecting the words of the songs the choir sang. This caused some people to sing along, some to question whether or not they should, and some to just be uncomfortable.

In the end, this production felt like attending a church service, which is what we intended. Each of the smaller private moments played out on stage in a public manner. The lighting design was really successful in isolating these smaller moments and progressing throughout the show into something darker. The final look was the cross lit red and the pastor and his wife standing on opposite sides of the stage with everyone else having already left.

For my second summer at Interlochen Center for the Arts, the two shows in repertory were Brigadoon and Julius Caesar. The creative team decided on a unit set that would work for both.

Brigadoon, set in Scotland in the 1700s, was a magical tale of a town appearing out of the mountain mist every 100 years. Julius Caesar, on the other hand, was to take place in a prep school. I used this to my advantage, and by using key architectural elements and motifs, I was able to accommodate both shows carefully. The gothic arches that would have been found in 18th century Scottish religious architecture paired favorably with old institution prep school architecture in America in the present day. By using a well-known figure and silhouette of gothic architecture, I was able to imply the institution without building out a full set. I used “vines” to suggest walls, angled the set in on itself to create a central space to help with the idea of a “town square”, and levels in the set to provide plenty of vertical playing space and some hierarchy to the set. By elevating the central arch, that became the focal point and was used for very important moments, like the death of Caesar in Julius Caesar and the wedding in Brigadoon. By merely implying a time and place with this set, I was able to make strategic decisions that were beneficial to both shows.

Photo credit:  Interlochen Center for the Arts (where indicated)

For my second summer at Interlochen Center for the Arts, the two shows in repertory were Brigadoon and Julius Caesar. The creative team decided on a unit set that would work for both.

Brigadoon, set in Scotland in the 1700s, was a magical tale of a town appearing out of the mountain mist every 100 years. Julius Caesar, on the other hand, was to take place in a prep school. I used this to my advantage, and by using key architectural elements and motifs, I was able to accommodate both shows carefully. The gothic arches that would have been found in 18th century Scottish religious architecture paired favorably with old institution prep school architecture in America in the present day. By using a well-known figure and silhouette of gothic architecture, I was able to imply the institution without building out a full set. I used “vines” to suggest walls, angled the set in on itself to create a central space to help with the idea of a “town square”, and levels in the set to provide plenty of vertical playing space and some hierarchy to the set. By elevating the central arch, that became the focal point and was used for very important moments, like the death of Caesar in Julius Caesar and the wedding in Brigadoon. By merely implying a time and place with this set, I was able to make strategic decisions that were beneficial to both shows. In this adaptation, Julius Caesar meets Gossip Girl in a prep school environment.

Photo credit:  Interlochen Center for the Arts (where indicated)

"Sunday in the Park with George" was one of two shows in the Intermediate Series at Interlochen Center for the Arts Summer Camp during summer 2017.  It was in repertory with "The Snow", and the shows had many design elements that overlapped due to a short changeover time.  

The challenge with a show as visually specific as "Sunday in the Park with George" was to prescribe to the stage and visual direction in the script enough to tell the story, while also fitting it into the black box space at Interlochen (when this show is traditionally done in a proscenium) as well as creating a versatile set that could be made into a variety of places.  Adding the challenge of being in repertory with another show, especially a show as different to this one as "The Snow", made for an interesting process.  

I agreed with the director early on that projections would be our way to incorporate the painting by George Seurat, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", so the challenge was to create a projection surface that could be something else entirely when the painting was not needed and for the other show.  We also used projections to tell the rest of the story, including images of the follies, images of George Seurat sketches, and process images from the painting on which this show is based.  

My design solution to the challenge of these two shows was to create moving white panels.  For "Sunday in the Park with George", the panels were intended to be the painting behind the action.  I included some mid-ground trees from the painting on the panels to ground it in space, and I created a border that hung on the panels to create a picture frame.  In the "home" position, the panels were lined up next to each other and the painting was projected from steep angle projector hung from the grid.  Otherwise, the panels could move freely to create various scenes, including the follies, the museum scene, and the Chromolume demonstration.

Photo credit:  Interlochen Center for the Arts (where indicated)

"The Snow" was one of two shows in the Intermediate Series at Interlochen Center for the Arts Summer Camp during summer 2017.  It was in repertory with "Sunday in the Park with George", and the shows had many design elements that overlapped due to a short changeover time.  

The challenge with "The Snow" lay mainly in creating a world that the characters could adventure through, including a canyon, a forest, a mountain of snow, and an imposing darkness.  With so many locations to create, the solution was a minimal look of a forest, supplemented by movable tree stumps and wooden crates.  By using different configurations of the set pieces to imply different locations, I was able to create believable locations with quick transitions.  The added challenge was to make this all work with "Sunday in the Park with George."  These shows have very different color palettes, tones, and methods of visualization.   

My design solution to the challenge of these two shows was to create moving white panels.  For "The Snow", the panels were intended to populate the forest in which the journey in the story mostly takes place.  The white background implied the snow that had buried the village, and the trees from the painting in "Sunday in the Park with George" served as the forest.  Each panel had a different border with a folksy pattern on it.  This imagery came from the early research stage and was used in both scenery and costume design.  The panels could move freely to create various scenes, including the canyon, the cabinets in the basement, the forest, and Mama Kishka's cottage, among others.  

Photo credit:  Interlochen Center for the Arts (where indicated)

Written by Jack Gallagher, a comedian local to the Sacramento area, this world premiere one-man play takes the audience through the time when Jack got hit by a car while riding his bike in Sacramento, CA and suffered a "traumatic brain injury."  His prescription was "cognitive rest" or spending four days in a dark room with no mental stimulation of any kind (no music, screens, books, lights, etc.).

Jack explores the themes of getting older, valuing time spent with family and friends, and above all, how words have been such a big part of his life and his fear that he may not be able to use them in the ways he has before after the accident.

I took the themes of Jack's act and portrayed them on stage using gears and bike parts to make the large clock statement piece with the cracked windshield imagery that drives home the powerful message that Jack has taken from the effect of his injury on his life and career:  that time is precious and to spend it wisely.  

This set was a challenge to design because I was a co-designer with my supervisor, Samantha Reno, who has a very different design style than I do.  I took a very architectural and modern approach, while Sam incorporated more traditional elements.  The geometry I used ended up serving both ideas, and we combined our first attempts into a more cohesive and well-rounded design.  We both were drawn to the drama and hierarchy of megachurch architecture, and we tried to achieve the feel of a production front or talk show that most megachurches seem to have.  (second hand rendering credit:  Samantha Reno)

As my first professional scenic design credit, A Christmas Carol adapted by Buck Busfield presented a number of challenges.  The space was one of the smallest I had ever seen with even less room backstage for props and furniture.  The thrust stage was a challenge, having never worked with one before. 

The adaptation plays on gags that required very specific set pieces, including a bed and dresser that ghosts pop out of throughout the play.  The basic function of the set was to create the exterior of a London street that could transform into the interior of each location by adding furniture pieces.  The biggest gag in the show required multiple doors for the myriad of characters to pop out of to participate in an intervention for Scrooge.  It was funny because there were only four actors playing all these characters, and the faster it fell apart with them changing in and out of their multiple costumes, the funnier it was.  The set served this function well with 4 doors onstage and 2 house right to provide plenty of opportunity for the gag to fall apart.

American Idiot! was my Honors Thesis Project.  As an architecture student interested in theatre and set design, I was able to bring my knowledge and training into the mix to create a functional, graphic, and exciting set.  I was able to isolate basic typologies of buildings common in cities and pick apart the elements that they all have in common.  From there, I took those elements, such as fire escapes and scaffolding, and used them to create a version of a place or "sense of place" without creating a specific place.  Fire escapes and scaffolding are so common in cities that they blend into the landscape, just like the characters in American Idiot!  I try to bring this level of deep thought and rationality, as well as my uncommon perspective and conceptual design thinking to any project I tackle.

During the course of this project, I served as the Scenic Designer, as well as contributing significantly in scenic construction, welding, scenic painting, and props.

Photo credit: Michael Riha

This is a small collection of other theatre productions I have worked on, as well as miscellaneous painting projects.  

Rome Studio was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.  As part of the curriculum for the University of Arkansas Architecture program, we are required to study abroad.  My classmates and I spent the semester studying, living, and learning in Rome, Italy.  This was a valuable, irreplaceable, and enlightening experience that taught me so much about other cultures, design in urban environments, and historic preservation. 

Out of all the incredible historical monuments in the ancient city, the Aurelian Wall is one of the most fascinating.  We learned the history of the wall, studied it, walked along it, and ultimately were asked to design something to improve upon it and bring it into the modern world.  After extensive research and site analysis, my project focused on creating a new Metro stop above ground, negotiating the terrain next to the wall, and providing an exposed portion of the wall to be a centerpiece of a new public gathering space.  My design incorporated the new third line of the metro with a section of the wall near San Giovanni di Laterno, or St. John the Lateran, one of the 7 major basilicas in the city.  I used the drastic grade change to my advantage and designed the exit of the metro around an open and visible section of the wall.  The idea was to preserve it and highlight it without damaging or compromising it in any way.  Romans are surrounded by history every day, and this was another way of highlighting the unique heritage the city holds.

At the Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design, Comprehensive Studio is the big one.  The Little Rock Magnet Arts High School project was part of a larger design initiative for the Little Rock Creative Corridor in downtown Little Rock, AR.  The challenge was to incorporate the appropriate arts program into a vertical configuration within the downtown site.  Along with the complicated program, this project provided an opportunity to explore my knowledge of systems in a building and a chance to research and implement experimental environmental building systems.  My final proposal highlighted my extensive model building skills, my understanding of environmental systems, and my ability to carry out an idea from concept to realization.

During the second half of third year, our class traveled to Seattle to visit our abnormally narrow site on First Hill.  We studied the history of books, how they evolved over time, and how the role of books was buffeted by history.  We tackled the idea of merging medias of our time, the notion of books vs. digital media, and the way these ideas fit into an urban environment.  My project started as an abstraction of a tree, symbolizing the source of knowledge, life, and books (literally), and transformed into a stagger-leveled, winding vertical space with places for privacy along the edges, duplicating the density of an actual tree.

FIRE STATION STUDIO, PART 1

Third year challenged us to create not one, but two fire stations on two different sites in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The first was on an abnormal triangular site that split a major connecting street.  My strategy with this program was to separate administration, living, and equipment into three individual buildings connected by an organizational datum.  The datum served as the main concourse of the building, and provided opportunities to create intimate outdoor spaces between units.  

FIRE STATION STUDIO, PART 2

The second fire station project was on a site adjacent to the University of Arkansas campus on an open lot next to a mixed-use parking garage and the campus bookstore. The site was challenging because it was not very large, and therefore the turning radius of a fire truck became important in the organization of the ground floor program. My multi-level proposal separated program similarly to my first fire station project (administration, living, equipment), but in a vertical orientation. The cantilevered areas provided similar outdoor spaces to the first proposal as well, but also in a vertical orientation in this proposal. The datum in this proposal was the fire poles, which ran vertically throughout the building’s core. The two projects became studies of the same organizational strategy being used in multiple dimensions.

For our first introduction into urban design, we were given a site in South Chicago that used to be an industrial steel mill and we were tasked with designing on a large scale in a group dynamic. The goal was to create a "city within a city" that could function independently of other areas. One of the most distinguished features of my group’s final proposal was a typical city grid that slowly transitioned into snake-like buildings to provide a release in density, more open space, and therefore a more residential feel while maintaining a common rise with the buildings in the denser parts of the city. To do this, we created sight lines on axes through the snake buildings to important landmarks of the new city that would be important in any city, including museums, the opera house site, schools, and the lake.

Drawing on our city design projects, we were given a choice of site on the same land on which to design an opera house for the Chicago Lyric Opera.  I used the geometry of the snake-like buildings of the city plan, and manipulated the shapes to create the final form of the building.  The form provided ample space for backstage areas and rehearsal spaces, as well as an impressive multi-story entrance hall and lobby.  The hall inside was modeled after the Seattle Opera House.

SPACE FROM MASS

In my first semester of Architecture school, we learned about different ways of organizing and making space.  Our project required us to use a series of components to make a variety of spaces.  I learned how to create purposeful, hierarchical space to generate the ideas of movement, stasis, and destination through use of mass and void. The final project was to use the same components to create two different spaces, playing on opposites.

2D TO 3D STUDIO

This project was a way to exercise and learn a certain design process. We each started with a module, made a drawing based on the module, and then extracted space from the drawing. Being able to see space in 2 dimensions is a very important ability as a designer. I used the module in the x, y, and z axes to create space. The module became surface, form, and layers of the spatial sequence.