Twelfth Night

by William Shakespeare

Indiana University
Bloomington, IN

UPCOMING 2025

Creative Team
Jenny McKnight & Grant Goodman, Co-Directors
Reuben Lucas, Scenic Designer
Linda Pisano, Costume Designer
Ashley Christensen, Lighting Designer
Bri Stoneburner, Sound Designer
Jieun Ok, Composer
Spencer Fields, Dramaturg
Jeff Baldwin, Technical Director
K’Nyia Bumpers, Assistant Technical Director
Wendy Wu, Assistant Scenic Designer
Abby Bilson, Scenic Charge Artist
Ash Cossey, Prop Manager

Anything Goes

by Cole Porter, Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse

Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre
Logan, UT

Creative Team
Michael Jenkinson, Director & Choreographer
Rick Robinson, Director
Alyssa Weathersby, Choreographer
Reuben Lucas, Scenic Designer
Dennis Hassan, Costume Designer
John Mitchell, Lighting Designer
Eileen Smitheimer, Sound Designer

Cats

by Andrew Lloyd Webber
based on the Poetry of T.S. Eliot

Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre
Logan, UT

Creative Team
Lauren Haughton Gillis, Director & Choreographer
Reuben Lucas, Scenic Designer
Yao Chen, Costume Designer
John Mitchell, Lighting Designer
Eileen Smitheimer, Sound Designer

Dial M for Murder

by Jeffrey Hatcher from the original by Frederick Knott

Indiana University Summer Theatre
Bloomington, IN

Creative Team
Jenny McKnight, Director
Reuben Lucas, Scenic Designer
Katelyn Lopez, Costume Designer
Russell Long, Lighting Designer
Andrew Hopson, Sound Designer
Nick Boisvert, Assistant Scenic Designer & Scenic Charge Artist
Ash Cossey, Prop Manager

Forever Plaid

by Stuart Ross

Indiana University Summer Theatre
Bloomington, IN

Creative Team
Ansley Valentine, Director
DJ Gray, Choreographer
Brandon Magid, Musical Director
Reuben Lucas, Scenic Designer
Cee-Cee Swalling, Costume Designer
Russell Long, Lighting Designer
Andrew Hopson, Sound Designer
Nick Boisvert, Assistant Scenic Designer & Scenic Charge Artist
Ash Cossey, Prop Manager

The Winter's Tale

by William Shakespeare
Edited by Sam White

Indiana University - Bloomington, IN

Creative Team
Sam White, Director
Reuben Lucas, Scenic Designer
Camille Deering, Costume Designer
Corey Goulden-Naitove, Lighting Designer
Valeriya Nedviga, Sound Designer
Lexi Silva, Dramaturg
Eli Carnell, Technical Director
Maggie Jackson, Assistant Scenic Designer & Scenic Charge Artist
Spencer Donovan Gjerde, Prop Manager
Jeff Baldwin, Stage Automation Specialist

Selected for inclusion in the USITT Design Expo 2023 catalogue and published in the spring 2023 issue of Theatre Design & Technology Magazine, page 38

DESIGN STATEMENT

Crafting the scenic environment for “The Winter’s Tale” began with various prompts from the director and discussions with the creative team; those prompts included the harm and hope of imagination, a sense of “Alice in Wonderland”, and a physical manifestation of the character Time. Additionally, it was critical that the scenic world visually represent the duality of tones at work in the play; a dark and ominous first half (Sicilia) and a second half (Bohemia) filled with peace, calm, and redemption.

The foundation of the world is a Victorian inspired place with decaying iron buttressing evoking Leontes’ descent into jealousy and madness contrasted with elegant sheer gold curtains to provide layering, softening, and the grandeur expected of a royal palace. A multi-level platform with numerous entrances, steps, railings, and a ramped upstage entrance allows for varied staging and imaginative use location to location. Furthermore, multiple oversized clocks (representing Time) and a forced perspective checkered tiled floor adds allusions to “Alice in Wonderland” and the whimsy encountered in Bohemia.

The multiple locations of the play are achieved scenically with furniture and prop additions enhanced with other significant movements of scenic elements such as the automated tracking buttressing and a hand-gripped gold sheer curtain just upstage of the proscenium. Combined these elements allow for choreographed a-vista scenic shifts that gracefully modify the world into the various places in Sicilia; and, following the tonal shift to Bohemia, a pastoral inspired environment established by sheep fleeces, burlap, rustic furniture, and a wide-open sky on the cyc.

As the story nears its conclusion in a chapel, Hermione is seen as a statue upon a dais framed by the buttresses with ethereal gold sheer curtains on either side of the central gothic arch; a suitable place for magic, redemption, hope, and beauty to occur.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963

based on the book by Christopher Paul Curtis
adapted by Cheryl L. West

Indiana Repertory Theatre

Creative Team
Mikael Burke, Director
Reuben Lucas, Scenic & Projection Designer
Alexis Chaney, Costume Designer
Xavier Pierce, Lighting Designer
Tom Horan, Sound Designer

The Originalist

by John Strand

Indiana Repertory Theatre

Creative Team
James Still, Director
Reuben Lucas, Scenic Designer
Betsy Cooprider-Bernstein, Lighting Designer
Guy Clark, Costume Designer
Jason Tuttle, Sound Designer

Every Brilliant Thing

by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe

Indiana Repertory Theatre

Creative Team
Tim Ocel, Director
Reuben Lucas, Scenic Designer
Allen Hahn, Lighting Designer
Guy Clark, Costume Designer
Todd Mack Reischman, Sound Designer

Ada and the Engine

by Lauren M. Gunderson

Cardinal Stage

Creative Team
Kate Galvin, Director
Reuben Lucas, Scenic Designer
Allen Hahn, Lighting Designer
Becky Underwood, Costume Designer
Stefanie Senior, Sound Designer
Tom Slater, Choreographer

Big Fish

Book by John August
Music and Lyric by Andrew Lippa

Indiana University

Creative Team
Richard Roland, Director
Reuben Lucas, Scenic & Projection Designer
Elizabeth Davis, Costume Designer
Naomi Gold, Lighting Designer
Grace Leckey, Sound Designer
Ray Fellman, Musical Director
DJ Gray, Choreographer

Little Shop of Horrors

Book and Lyrics by Howard Ashman
Music by Alan Menken

Indiana University Summer Theatre

Creative Team
Richard Roland, Director
Reuben Lucas, Scenic Designer
Rachel Saylor, Costume Designer
Betsy Cooprider-Bernstein, Lighting Designer
Jared O’Brien, Sound Designer
Terry LaBolt, Musical Director
DJ Gray, Choreographer

Little Women

Adapted by Marisha Chamberlain
from the Novel by Louisa May Alcott

Indiana University Summer Theatre

Creative Team
Jenny McKnight, Director
Reuben Lucas, Scenic & Projection Designer
Betsy Cooprider-Bernstein, Lighting Designer
Katie Cowen Sickmeier, Costume Designer
Jared O’Brien, Sound Designer

Haus of Mirth

A new play by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin

Indiana University

Creative Team
Joseph D’Ambrosi, Director
Reuben Lucas, Scenic & Projection Designer
Mac Van Tassel, Lighting Designer
Elizabeth Davis, Costume Designer
Joseph Moran, Sound Designer

Closer Than Ever

Music by David Shire
Lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr.

Indiana University Summer Theatre

Creative Team
DJ Gray, Director & Choreographer
Terry LaBolt, Musical Director
Reuben Lucas, Scenic & Projection Designer
Lee Anne Meeks, Lighting Designer
Brittany Staudacher, Costume Designer
Macy Kloville, Sound Designer

A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder

Music by Steven Lutvak
Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak
Book by Robert L. Freedman