Scenic Design
Client
Garden Theatre
Winter Garden, FL
Winter Garden, FL
Collaborators
Directed by: Rob Anderson
Technical Direction: Jim Zervas
Lighting Design: Jason Reed
Costume Design: AJ Garcia
Sound Design: Jack Audet
A winking nod at the cult favorite film Xanadu: The Musical was a blast to design.
We immersed ourselves in funky 80’s culture to design a flexible space that would, most importantly, allow for the roller skating characters. I designed large windows that could be backlit to give a variety of looks. The upstage wall was painted in a street art inspired mural that blended classical characters with a west coast vibe.
Initial Renders
One of the overall conceits of the design was that the entire play took place within the decrepit Xanadu club. Because of this we had various false prosceniums with the Xanadu name. At one point, we were considering a large false proscenium. The lower portions would actually revolve to act as an performer entrance.
These models reveal another concept for the false proscenium as well as demonstrating the moveable archways in the set.
Establishing Design
A white model with the Pan Pacific Auditorium inspired motif. Ultimately this was cut for both sightlines and budget.
This model shows a new idea for false legs to clad the auditorium. The idea was that the muses would push open the legs to create a brick archway as if they were entering through the wall itself.
Refining The Look
I used the post-modern resurgence of art deco forms (that were themselves a riff on classical forms) to set the architecture firmly in the 80’s. I designed a large muse statue to be overlayed on a piece of graffiti depicting a palm tree studded sky.
Even the painted portion backlit fairly well, but I wanted to leave some of the upstage window translucent to blend it with the other elements.
The script references other muses that are not onstage. We decided to nod to them by painting light boxes based on Greek pottery. However, I designed each with a contemporary instrument
Another fun moment to design was Kira riding Pegasus back to Mount Olympus. In the original production, she literally flies over the stage on a winged horse. Unfortunately, that was out of our budget and structural capabilities of the theatre. I designed Pegasus to instead be a bicycle that would allow Kira to sing her song as if she were pedaling along the boardwalk.
