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Stew confronts his younger self, played by Daniel Breaker, amid
musicians on pods in semi-lowered positions. The pods function as
“individual orchestra pits,” notes David Korins, stage designer.
“Kevin started with a color palette,” says
Korins. “We actually started the show in Berkeley,
Calif., and at first we actually had a lot of
colors on the wall that we wound up taking
off almost immediately. There were a lot more
purples and a lot more greens, and it felt a little
candy store, so we wound up really trying to
more clearly define the color palette for each
location. We knew that Amsterdam was going
to be saturated with oranges and yellows, and
we knew the Berlin was going to be a lot of
white light, and we then started to pare away
all the stuff that we didn’t need color- wise.”
The set designer notes that Passing
Strange’s light wall layout is asymmetrical
within a symmetrical framework. The wall
and the space are completely symmetrical,
with a vertical green line and horizontal blue
line that section off the wall into quarters. But
within that framework there is an asymmetrical
layout. Korins adds that the directive for
the lighting and set design partially stemmed
from a comment made to him by director and
collaborator Annie Dorsen.
“She said to me, ‘This design needs to feel
completely inevitable and yet surprising’,” he
says. “So when you walk into the space and
see those band platforms up, you think that
the band isn’t going to stay up like that. There’s
someone right downstage in front of an audience
member; how are we possibly going to be
seeing the show like that? So it’s inevitable that
that thing is going to move, but it’s still surprising
and rewarding when it lowers down into
the ground. It’s the same thing with the wall.
You walk in and see a curtain and think that
the curtain is not going to be there. It has some
kinetic or potential energy. You think it’s going
to move, and it does. It’s completely inevitable,
and yet when it moves it’s completely surprising.”
Illuminating the Text
Having done the show off-Broadway at the
Public Theater, the production team salvaged
much of the original light wall and brought
in motors that ran three out of the four pods.
However, “the whole rig and the mechanism
had to be rebuilt,” Korins says. Once everything
else got put into place at the Belasco, they
were off and rockin’ once again.”
Korins says that he learned a lot about collaboration
on Passing Strange, particularly as
someone who likes to “stay off the stage” as a
designer and who tries to serve the piece and
illuminate the text. “Part of it was about this
light wall and breaking new ground in the way
that lighting and set designers collaborate,”
he says, “and also what it was like to collaborate
with people who had never made theatre
ever. Stew, Heidi, and the band have never
made theatre. How do you make it feel right as
a theatrical piece, but how do you also break
new ground? I think that was the thing that
I learned and that was also the biggest challenge.
How do you play well with others who
don’t even know the rules of the game?”
Does he think that the experience was
fulfilling for the band? “I know it was,” replies
Korins. “I know that they had a great time with
IT
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2008 SEPTEMBER PLSN
27