Theatrical Design
Projection design for live theater requires an identity. The other various disciplines, scenic, lighting, costumes, sound— they all have traditional identities that a designer can fall back on if everything else doesn’t work out. Projections doesn’t have a traditional identity. They can actually serve as lighting, scenery, even costumes if your blocking is repeatable enough.
Given this lack of pre-established identity, projection designers and their teams have to pick what they want the projections to do, specifically. Below are some specific examples where I think the respective creative teams and I really succeeded in establishing that identity and enhancing the overall story telling.
I received an award for this design. Projections were used as the visual entry point to the main character’s headspace. As a result they were abstract and closely tied to his perception of the world.
A play set in the time immediately following Queen Elizabeth II’s death with a focus on how Charles would adapt to actually being the monarch after his entire life as a prince. The projections represented the pressure on the monarchy from within and without.