Costume and Set Design
Extremities, Surface Underground Theatre
Toronto, ON
The hardware store during construction.
The final set, a quaint country cottage.
The Project: Peter Pasyk, a fellow Ryerson Alumni, called me up one day and presented this very bold idea he'd been working on for his theatre company, Surface Underground. A friend of his had bought a 60 year-old hardware store and was planning to turn it into an art gallery. However, before the major renovation, he had convinced her to turn it into a theatre and put on a production. This was where I came in. My mission, if I had the guts to accept it, was to convert this unconventional space into a theatre, with a functioning set and seating for 60 guests. I intern responded: "Sounds like a great challenge to me!"
The Play: Extremities by William Mastrosimone, focuses around three young women that live together in a quaint country house, converted from a old barn. While home alone, Marjorie is attacked by Raul, a rapist who'd been stalking her for years, but manages to escape and lock him in the fireplace. Her roommates come home and discover a distraught Marjorie and Raul bound in the fireplace. Through the course of the play Raul manipulates the three women to turn against each other, in order to escape his prison.
The Problems and The Plan: Due to the narrowness of the space, I decided to place the audience on either side of the stage. The play has an intimacy and realism that can be incredibly uncomfortable for the audience. For this reason I wanted the audience to be as close to the space and the actors as possible. As if they are there in the living room, seeing what's happening, but unable to act or help the victims. The fireplace, Raul's prison, is an instrumental piece to the play. The positioning of the audience on either side meant that the fireplace had to be as 3D as possible for the actor to be seen inside. By adding the metal grates and positioning the bike in a vertical manor, the actor was able to move more freely in his cell and be seen through the bars at multiple angles. AND when Raul banged on his metal cage, screaming away, it was pretty scary!
