Rubble and debris helped second-year graduate student J.J. Wickham win the prestigious Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival regional award for scenic design.
The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. hosts its 42nd annual American College Theater Festival this year.
Eight regional contestants were selected to go on to the national competition. Their designs will be displayed for five industry experts that will judge the design and presentation.
Wickham’s award winning design for the play “Trojan Women,” depicts Troy the morning after the Greeks attack.
Her design features very realistic elements tied in with a factor of recognition to bring the set to life.
“We wanted to make the space incredibly realistic, a familiar place to the audience but not specifically where it was,” Wickham said. “It was very gritty and real.”
Some elements Wickham incorporated into her set design included real dust, fog machines, very textured structures, large projected atmospheric scenes on a backdrop and one ramp which was the only way on and off the stage—symbolizing the difficulties of access where the actors were stuck in the rubble. Viewers were engaged as they could even smell the dirt.
The spatial design was also an integral part of the set Wickham explained.
“It was challenging to create realistic space as you got close to the actors, we wanted to leave the space exposed and we ended up having the audience on stage looking out,” Wickham said.
To draw inspiration for the set Wickham looked to history books, specifically wars from the last one hundred years.
She viewed images from these wars and consulted a dynamic team of SMU faculty, the director Michael Connolly and the costume designer Lydia Gracoski-Vauerwill. Wickham also mentioned that she looked particularly at the Palestinian/Israeli war for images.
Her comment parallels Mr. Gregg Henry’s, the artistic director of the Kennedy Center Theater Festival
Henry “noticed a general trend of students writing about wars…and members returning from home, and the challenges of reentry into society.”
In addition, Mr. Henry commented about the SMU program, “the design program at SMU is an extraordinary flagship nationally, there is very high skill level and they keep the bar level high which is good for other students to see this high skill level.”
The presentational skills at SMU are also very high.
Winners of the national award receive an honorarium of $500 and an all expenses paid trip to New York City for the National Design Portfolio Review at Lincoln Center, as well as a professional development residency, to be determined according with the recipient’s discipline.
In addition, regional finalists will be eligible for design fellowships to the O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights’ Conference and the Shakespeare Theater Company Costume Internship, according to the Kennedy Center.
Currently, Wickham is preparing for the national competition that takes place April 13-15 in New York City.
