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The 2018 UCCS Theatre Company's Main Stage Production is a devised work based on Henrik Ibsen's famous play Peer Gynt. Our intent is to create a work of spectacle, with puppetry, masks, avatars and silhouettes. There will be dancers, musicians, and actors bringing the world of Ibsen to life. The design process is at once collaborative and exploratory, terrifying, and exhilarating.

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The initial research for the show has been different than for other projects. The student actors have been working with Manual Cinema (in residence at UCCS) learning the art of puppetry, so I've been studying the students' work done in workshop to better understand their interpretations of their characters.

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That isn't to say the director, set designer, lighting designer, and I have avoided imposing artistic limitations.  We have established a specific aesthetic, color palette, and world by which to contain the creative passions of the play. Yet, the devised nature of the work begs for flexibility; it needs the design elements to remain supple and mobile to provide room for spontaneous discovery.

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I haven't been this excited about designing a show in a very long time.  And that is saying something considering how much I love the shows I do. There is an artistic freedom in designing a show so huge, so utterly canonical, in such an organic fashion. I dream of the possibilities of Peer Gynt.  Soon there will be images here to show some of the progress in the design, as well as production photos of the finished work.

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Wish us well.