2017 - 13andit as the Lead Designer of Escape Artistry's The Railcar
A decade of experience in Chicago's storefront scene has taught me a lot about how to be flexible and resourceful in designing the most engaging environments for a myriad of venues and projects.
My work at Escape Artistry pushed the limits of what I thought was possible; juggling scenic, audio, lighting, low voltage, and puzzling designs with historical fiction, character work, & the side effects of time travel.
I think a lot about how the design of a space dictates how people move through that space. I also think a lot about how things break. Escape rooms taught me a lot about that; and museum exhibits; if I thought actors were rough on my early work, past me had no idea how much more damage the general public, especially when drunk or under the age of 5, can really damage a prop or set piece.
I also think a lot about what happens to something after it's installed. I watched entirely too many sets get tossed in the dumpster after a play, that's why this career launching train was built largely of scrap foraged from old theatre sets.
Escape Artistry:
The Railcar (2015)
The Time Gallery:
Operation GRANIE (2016)
The Dollhouse (2016)
Detective vs Dillinger (2016)
Duck and Cover Classroom (2017)
Roaring Dan's Pirate Dungeon (2017)
Season Pass:
Choose your own adventure in four interactive story-rides,
from the depths of the ocean to all of space and time...and beyond!
In 2014, when I was deep in Chicago's storefront trenches, working with The Plagiarists I was given the opportunity to build my first full scale time machine. It also transformed into a space ship, a submarine, and a ship that got shrunk down and injected into a human body. Think Be Kind Rewind crossed with Star Tours crossed with Choose Your Own Adventure crossed with a childhood spent watching too many cartoons. We had so much fun the first time we decided to do it again in 2019. Junk yard sci fi at it's finest.
The audience was seated inside the ship with the actors, where characters would play at the controls, in the aisles, and most importantly, outside the front window of the ship, puppeting asteroids, red blood cells, fish, and even a dinosaur. The set transformed via different cardboard skins that sit on varying arrangements of milk crates.
BODY: Season Pass 2014 - Sound, Scenic, Properties Design (Photo by Joe Mazza - BraveLux.com)
SEA: Season Pass: Deux Over 2019 - Scenic, Puppets, Properties Design (Photo by Joe Mazza - BraveLux.com)
TIME: Season Pass: Deux Over 2019 - Scenic, Puppets, Properties Design (Photo by Joe Mazza - BraveLux.com)
TIME: Season Pass 2014 - Sound, Scenic, Properties Design (Photo by Joe Mazza - BraveLux.com)
TIME: Season Pass 2014 - Sound, Scenic, Properties Design
SPACE: Season Pass 2014 - Sound, Scenic, Properties Design
BODY: Season Pass 2014 - Sound, Scenic, Properties Design
SEA: Season Pass 2014 - Sound, Scenic, Properties Design
SPACE: Season Pass: Deux Over 2019 - Scenic, Puppets, Properties Design (Photo by Joe Mazza - BraveLux.com)
Me! Season Pass: Deux Over 2019 - Scenic, Puppets, Properties Design (Photo by Joe Mazza - BraveLux.com)
One of my favorite gags: beaded curtain to show 'static' in the viewfinder. BODY: Season Pass: Deux Over 2019 - Scenic, Puppets, Properties Design (Photo by Joe Mazza - BraveLux.com)
pixel 13andit says, "down with the fourth wall!"