Shipwrecked! an entertainment

Author: Donald Marguiles

Director
Oil Lamp Theater
2021

Director’s Note

This was the most ambitious production in Oil Lamp’s history, presented outdoors in the midst of the Covid crisis. Three actors portray dozens of characters while performing their own live Foley sound, while pulling all the prop and costume pieces from the set itself. This play showcased several of my strengths: planning for detailed onstage execution, creating an onstage playground for actors to express joy, and sparking the audience’s active imagination through intentional theatrical suggestion.

This production received 2022 Broadway World Chicago Awards for “Best Director” and “Best Production (in-person)”.

three stories up

Author: Mack Gordon

Director & Showcaller
A Theater in the Dark
2019

Director’s Note:

A show you couldn’t see! This was one of my favorite creative experiences of all time: a 90-minute 2-person neo-noir played entirely in 100% pitch black conditions. Like, “you literally can’t see your hand in front of your face” dark. Along with two actors playing about a dozen characters each, I executed a soundscape of live Foley effects and pre-recorded sound cues alongside them, calling the show entirely blind while moving about the space in 360 degrees around the audience. We had car crashes, chase scenes, and bad guys beaten to a bloody pulp. The audience was (willingly) blindfolded before entering the performance space.

the crucible

Author: Arthur Miller

Director
University of Southern Mississippi
M.F.A. Thesis Project, 2017

Director’s Note:

Our costume designer coined this visual aesthetic “not your Momma’s Crucible”. Rather than aim for 100% historical accuracy, I was interested in creating a cast reflective of our deep-South audience, and our colorblind casting allowed for a Brechtian distancing that complemented the casts’ commitment to their characters. However, our makeup and costume choices revealed the true nature of complex character relationships as a central image of the individual against authoritarianism.

Scenically, we created a “crucible from pressure”: the high wooden planks towering over the audience lowered, so slowly you felt it before you saw it, with the audience tightly packed around the Tatum Theater’s unusual thrust-against-a-proscenium seating—giving the audience an ‘in-the-round’ feeling while benefiting from a beautiful wooden background, signifying the dangers lurking just beyond Salem Village.

Visually, I incorporated swaths of Rodin-style rapturous physicality, blending the line between physical and spiritual, in a world where tradition and community were hallmarks.

ASSISTANT DIRECTING