The Greek Tale of Madea is a powerful piece that demonstrates what humans are capable of, not only the plays' header Madea, but her husband Jason, and the Kings; leaving us the spectator with a jaw-dropping perspective of the human condition. Themes of love (or lack of), exile, womanhood, and revenge speak loudly to me when I read the script, Love lost and love found as Jason leaves Madea for Glauce, daughter of King Creon and as Madea chooses to kill her own children to spite her husband; exile as Madea has been banished from not only her country, Corinth but also her marriage and home with Jason. Womanhood, in the sense that we hear her pain and the hurt that Euripides purposefully crafted to give Madea the strength to seek revenge once her life is pulled out from under her like a rug.

The Greek Tale of Madea is a powerful piece that demonstrates what humans are capable of, not only the plays' header Madea, but her husband Jason, and the Kings; leaving us the spectator with a jaw-dropping perspective of the human condition. Themes of love (or lack of), exile, womanhood, and revenge speak loudly to me when I read the script, Love lost and love found as Jason leaves Madea for Glauce, daughter of King Creon and as Madea chooses to kill her own children to spite her husband; exile as Madea has been banished from not only her country, Corinth but also her marriage and home with Jason. Womanhood, in the sense that we hear her pain and the hurt that Euripides purposefully crafted to give Madea the strength to seek revenge once her life is pulled out from under her like a rug.

When trying to decide which musical to direct for the 2019-2020 season, I was drawn to The Addams Family. This stage production brings to life the classic Addams characters originated by Charles Addams’ darkly humorous and macabre cartoons. Being a 90’s kid, I grew up with the movies and animated television series. Growing up, I fell in love with how the family managed to get through every adventure together, with passion, and being their authentic selves. It is this that truly makes the family so timeless, lovable, and a cult classic.

This production was chosen to travel and be performed at the annual Texas Thespian Festival as a main stage performance. I felt secure in the power of this script to challenge our actors in many ways. This script is set so that each scene is a different monologue from one of Santas reindeer, explaining their experiences with Santa and his less than jolly behavior and working conditions.

While reading this play in 2015, I was instantly creating the world I was reading about, even if it didn't match the description "suggested" in the script. I began imagining each scene in a hyper exaggerated futuristic world that had many hints of the modern world we are living in. Very sharp, robotic, the characters with iPads, iPhones, connecting to social media, tagging, and checking in. I wanted to explore a world where Big Brother was really always watching, collecting data, and around the corner waiting for you to get out of line. The citizens of Oceania were almost matching the citizens of today, glued to their devices, checking in, tagging, and collecting the data for Big Brother. Industries who have the power to use that information to create Algorithms that keep you working and posting to their subscriptions.

Working on a One Act Play for competition always excites me, I find it inspiring to figure out how to create a set that follows the guidelines but pushes the expectations. This production in particular had amazing set pieces that were needed in order for the “Farce” feeling of the script and plot to read clearly.

Working on a One Act Play for competition always excites me, I find it inspiring to figure out how to create a set that follows the guidelines but pushes the expectations. This production in particular had amazing set pieces that were needed in order for the “Farce” feeling of the script and plot to read clearly.

Creating a 1940’s radio studio for this production allowed me to play with color and patterns to create a realistic environment for our black box performances. I tried to create an environment that served a purpose not only to the script but to our performance space as I had to create a space for 14 cast members to be on stage the entire production sharing a 14x 25-foot stage.

After a year a Klein Forest HS, I realized that our student had not performed an actual production in a Black Box theatre space. I wanted to give them that experience and the tools they needed to be a story teller in a much more intimate space. Creating the world for this production of “The Giver“ was honestly a lot of fun, I ran wild while reading the script.

The action of this production takes place mostly in two different homes, and the script revolves around these two families that look very different on the outside but are similar on the inside and the human experiences they share.

Producing the technical elements for “Once on This Island” was a blast of creativity and an exploration of what we could really bring construction-wise. I wanted many levels and areas where the characters could use the space not only to create beautiful pictures but express the choreography on all spaces of the set.

Creating the cigar factory for this production was my opportunity to display what I could bring to technical elements as it was my first production with Klein Forest HS. After falling in love with the play and seeing the characters start to mirror the characters in the novel, I wanted to take the setting and alter the realism. I wanted the actors to be surrounded by this novel and that was the literal concept for my set design.

After reading the script, I envisioned Angels’ apartment but wanted there to be a bigger theme being conveyed by the set. I wanted to create columns that we could light with our wireless LEDs. In doing so, I sketched out an Art Deco-inspired pattern and routed it onto luan sheets that hung on each bi and tri-fold you see pictured below. Inside is the LED that created a stunning full stage picture as the show opened, closed, and shifted scenes.

Setting this production in its original location, Athens, gave me room to stylize the elements to fit this regal and “sculpted“ look. I was instantly thinking about the tree and what I was going to have it look like, I had this image of the tree shifting into place as the scene changes, with the farries magic spinning this tree around to revel puck inside it.

Choreographing “In the Heights” was such a labor of love; the music, its references, play on culture, the urban feel, all opened up endless possibilities for how I was going to portray emotions through the movement and dance. When we held auditions we were blown away by the response and it was equally matched with talent and drive. We ended up casting the show with just under 50 members and 31 of them being in the ensemble, this amazing number of storytellers was the driving force for establishing the same community feeling of the production.